In my book Visions of America, I showed how Lincoln established that Liberty and Union are one and inseparable, now and forever,by overcoming three men with different visions of America: Stephen Douglas, George McClellan, and Robert E. Lee.

—Stephen Douglas was willing to sacrifice the liberty of people of color to maintain the Union.

—George McClellan was willing to sacrifice the liberty of people of color to maintain the Union; and

—Robert E. Lee was willing to sacrifice the Union in order to maintain the liberty of white people.

At first, Abraham Lincoln was willing to sacrifice the liberty of people of color in order to maintain the Union. But eventually, he realized that the only way to save liberty or the Union, was to establish bothliberty and the Union.

Therefore, Lincoln had to overcome Douglas, McClellan and Lee.

In my previous blog “The Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln: Overcoming Stephen Douglas”, I show how Lincoln overcame Stephen Douglas.

In this blog, I show how Lincoln overcame George McClellan. As I wrote in my book Visions of America, at pages 83-90:

It took two years of bloody fighting before Abraham Lincoln realized that he could not save the Union without granting liberty to the slaves—that Liberty and Union truly were one and inseparable, then and forever. . . .

[T]o organize the defense of Washington and to train the Army of the Potomac that defended it, Lincoln chose General George B. McClellan. This short, well-dressed, incredibly talented man (the same characteristics that described Lincoln’s old nemesis, Stephen Douglas) quickly showed the military flair of a new Napoleon.

At first, everyone sang his praises. Then doubts began to arise. McClellan kept training and planning instead of fighting. He was far better at making excuses than at making war. . . .

The main problem seems to have been McClellan’s personality. He was a brilliant staff officer. No one was better at training, fortifying and planning. But he was not a man of action. He was a planner, not a doer.

McClellan was also a Democrat. And in those days, when treason and rebellion were rampant, many Republicans suspected McClellan himself of treason.

A fairer appraisal is that McClellan hoped, as did Democrats and many others across the North, that the Union could be saved without causing upheavals such as the freeing of the slaves. The hope . . . was that one great victory in battle would end the rebellion. Then life could go on as it had before the rebels fired on Fort Sumter. . . .

McClellan advanced cautiously towards [the Confederate capital,] Richmond, constantly making excuses for his tardiness. . . .

Nevertheless, by the end of June, McClellan and his Army reached the outskirts of Richmond. They were so close they could even hear Richmond’s church bells ringing.

McClellan sensed that victory was near. But then came one of those twists of fate that change history forever.

In the fighting outside Richmond, the top Confederate general was seriously wounded. [The Confederate President] Jefferson Davis had to find a replacement. He turned to a general who hadn’t performed very well in the early days of the war and so had been assigned to a “desk job” doing staff work. The general’s name was Robert E. Lee.

In a series of lightning-swift battles, Lee whipped McClellan. The Union army barely escaped destruction in this Battle of the Seven Days. When it was over, the Union army huddled behind its powerful artillery at its base near the coast—cowed and demoralized.

The Union armies in the East were now divided between the forces with McClellan and the forces defending Washington. Lee struck north, hoping to win the South’s independence by annihilating the Union armies defending Washington before McClellan could reinforce them.

Leaving a small screening force to contain the timid McClellan, Lee joined forces with the Confederate forces menacing Washington. In the Second Battle of Bull Run, Lee routed the Union Army.

In two months, Lee had driven the Yankees from the gates of Richmond to the gates of Washington. No wonder the South worshipped Lee as their greatest hero! . . .

“The state of the Union . . . was critical in the extreme.” The “demoralized and badly whipped” Union troops were “retiring toward Washington in disorder, with thousands of stragglers clogging the roads.” No one was in control.

“Fearing that Lee would descend upon the capital, Lincoln . . . felt little confidence that [he] could save the distracted city.” In this crisis, there was only one man to whom Lincoln could turn—McClellan.

No one else had the skill to meet the need. No one else could inspire the Army of the Potomac, except this man who they adored—McClellan.

And so came another one of those twists of fate that change history forever. The matchless prose of the Civil War historian, Bruce Catton, best captures the drama of that historic moment:

It became a legend . . . how this one time McClellan rose to a great challenge and met it fully. He was a small man, and he missed many chances . . ., but for one evening of his life he was great . . . McClellan rode out from Alexandria on his great black war horse, a jaunty little man with a yellow sash around his waist, every pose and gesture perfect. He cantered down the dusty roads and he met the heads of the retreating columns, and he cried words of encouragement and swung his little cap, and he gave beaten men what no other man alive could have given them—enthusiasm, hope, confidence, an exultant and unreasoning feeling that the time of troubles was over and that everything would be all right now. And it went into the legend—truthfully, for many men have testified to it—that down mile after mile of Virginia roads the stumbling columns came alive, and threw caps and knapsacks into the air, and yelled until they could yell no more, and went on doing it until the sun went down; and after dark, exhausted men who lay in the dust sprang to their feet and cried aloud because they saw this dapper little rider outlined against the purple starlight.

Within a few days, McClellan beat Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Antietam—the most brutal slugfest of the entire war. About 20,000 men were killed or wounded in a single day.

McClellan saved the Union. But he did not save himself from being fired a few months later

What happened?

McClellan was fired because he wasted this golden opportunity to win the Civil War.

On the day of battle, McClellan did not commit his last reserves to the fray—he held back fresh troops who would surely have overwhelmed the out-gunned and exhausted Confederate troops. Instead, McClellan gave Lee the chance he needed to pull his battered army together.

The next day, McClellan failed to attack Lee’s badly mauled army as it lay prostrate before him with its back to Antietam Creek, giving Lee the chance he needed to retreat south that night.

Then, McClellan failed to pursue Lee south, dogging his every step . . . the way that Ulysses S. Grant would relentlessly pursue Lee two years later . . . until Lee surrendered. Instead, true to McClellan’s cautious, procrastinating nature, he rested, and trained his army.

Lincoln could not believe it! . . .

Lincoln could not endure it! And Lincoln did not tolerate it.

After waiting in vain until after the elections in November for McClellan to attack Lee, Lincoln fired him. McClellan never commanded an army again. The cautious general had saved the Union. But it would never be the same Union.

Because—unlike McClellan, but like George Washington when he crossed the Delaware—Abraham Lincoln made bold moves to win wars. Therefore, after the emotional lift from the Union victory at Antietam, Lincoln announced his decision to free the slaves.

Because—unlike McClellan, but like Christopher Columbus—Abraham Lincoln took great risks to win great gains. Lincoln took the risk that the support of bold visionaries (such as Harriett Beecher Stowe and Frederick Douglass) would outweigh the complaining of cautious fence-sitters (such as McClellan). He also gambled that freeing the slaves would keep Britain from intervening in the war. . . .

[O]nce the American Civil War became a war to free the slaves, no British government could intervene to help the slaveholders of the South. Under Queen Victoria, Christian England could not bear such a blight on its conscience.

Therefore, Lincoln decided by July of 1862 that he must free the slaves. He even drafted an Emancipation Proclamation.

But he knew that he could not take this bold step when the Union armies were in disarray and the Confederates were triumphant. It would look too much like an act of desperation. So, until the Union could win a battle, Lincoln put away the piece of paper that would free the slaves.

At this darkest moment of supreme crisis, McClellan won the battle of Antietam. Lincoln was now able to free the slaves and save the Union.

But the Union that was saved by Abraham Lincoln would never be the same as the Union that existed before the Civil War—that hypocritical Union that achieved unity by compromising liberty—by refusing to see, hear, and understand the evils of human slavery.

The Union that was saved by the bloodshed of the Civil War became a Union whose purpose was to guarantee liberty for all people—even for the long-enslaved descendants of Africans.

Thanks, ironically, to George McClellan, the Union that was saved by Abraham Lincoln became inseparable from winning liberty for all people—liberty for all Humanity—both then and forevermore.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

Are people today refusing to see, hear, and understand the evils of human slavery? How? Why?

Are people today refusing to see, hear, and understand the evils of racism? How? Why?

READ MORE

For related ideas, please read my blogs “The 500-Year Marathon To Overcome Racism”, “Racism Is America Gone Astray”, and “Nationalism Is Patriotism Gone Astray”.