Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/500

468 McClellan the Federal General-in-Chief. [isei demeanour toward his illustrious chief, General Scott, quickly ran from indifference to neglect, and from neglect to defiance of his military authority and the ignoring of his orders. In his private correspondence he spoke contemptuously of the President, called the Cabinet "geese," and avowed that he was " disgusted with this Administration perfectly sick of it." He represented himself as " called upon to save the country,"" and announced, " I would cheerfully take the dictatorship and agree to lay down my life when the country is saved." He regarded the Army of the Potomac as his own, claiming for it all the best troops, the most experienced officers, and the newest arms. The favours he could bestow quickly gathered about him a circle of flatterers; and he became the idol alike of the Potomac camps and the Washington drawing-rooms, while newspaper correspondents fulsomely dubbed him the Young Napoleon. This undercurrent of colossal vanity and these dictatorial dreams were unsuspected at the moment. They only came fully to light in his autobiography and letters, published after his death, and serve to explain at once the melancholy weakness of his character, and the source of his military failure. The deplorable change did not escape the keen obser- vation of the President ; but the General's assumptions were tolerated, and even his whims indulged, in the hope that his brilliant professional accomplishments might be turned to the public service. On November 1 General Scott, at his own request, was relieved, and McClellan put in his place as General-in-Chief. This gave him control of all the forces of the Union, with an army of nearly 125,000 effectives under his immediate personal command, organised, drilled, armed and supplied with a thoroughness of detail, a quality of material, and an average ability of subordinate command only excelled in the most advanced military nations. Opposed to the Unionist army there lay around the battle-field of Bull Run the Confederate army under Johnston, with an effective force of less than 50,000 men. Its officers and the Richmond authorities had during the autumn planned several offensive movements, only however to postpone or reject them for want of what they considered adequate force, which with all their revolutionary enterprise they could not bring together without too much exposing other points. President Lincoln had long hoped for some effective movement against the Confederacy from the army under McClellan's command; and that officer frequently hinted at the great things he intended to do with it. At first he gave the Administration to understand that General Scott was in his way; and, after his retirement, answered the President's suggestions with an alternation of promises and excuses. With a superiority of three to one over the enemy in his immediate front, he allowed the propitious season to wear away. Towards the end of October, he ordered a reconnaissance on the upper Potomac, which