Gen. G. B.
McClellan, who has the reputation of being the ablest officer in the
Federal Army, is a native of
Philadelphia, and still comparatively a young man, having been born on the 3d of December, 1826, and graduated at
West Point with the class of 1846.
He served with distinction in the war with
Mexico, and in 1855 was appointed a member of the Commission which went to the seat of war in the Crimea and in
Northern Russia.
The other members of the Commission were
Col. Richard Delafield, now an officer of the Confederate Army, and
Major Alfred Mordecal, of
North Carolina, who some time ago resigned the Superintendency of the Troy Arsenal.
A report, embodying the result of his observations in the Crimea, was made by
McClellan, which added to his reputation as a scientific soldier.
In January, 1857, he resigned his position in the army to become
Vice-President and Engineer of the Illinois Central Railroad, which post he held for three years, when he accepted the Presidency of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, with the shug salary of $12,000 per annum.
On the 14th of May last,
Lincoln appointed him
Major General, and he accepted the appointment upon the condition that his salary as
President of the Railroad should not be stopped.
Having made this judicious provision for Number One, he was placed in command of the Department of Ohio, which includes besides
Illinois,
Indiana and
Ohio, that part of
Virginia lying North of the Great Kanawha River and the
Maryland line, with so much of
Pennsylvania as lies West of a line drawn from the
Maryland line to the
Northwest corner of
McKean county.
Such are the principal interesting points of
McClellan's history, as we condense them from an article in the Petersburg
Express.--He is probably the ablest military man in the
Northern Army.
We know nothing of his character as a man that can raise him in public estimation.
His bloodthirsty proclamation threatening to hang Southern guerillas, and the wilful lying of which he was convicted in his correspondence with
Gen. Buckner, of
Kentucky, proves that he is not a gentleman.
His late success, gained by tremendous odds, and the villainy of the traitors in the
West, will not add much to his laurels.
We predict that when he emerges from that treacherous soil in
Northwestern Virginia, which gives way beneath the footsteps of an honest man, and comes out upon true
Virginia ground face to face, with a force of half his own number, the conceit will be taken out of him in the most summary manner.
