He had termed 65-year-old Edwin Sumner “even a greater fool than I had supposed,” and regarded William Franklin as slow and lacking in energy. Of his six corps commanders, he displayed confidence in only two, Fitz John Porter and Joseph Hooker. The testing of battle uncovered another McClellan failing – his management of his own generals. Every decision he made that September 17 was dominated by his fear of counterattack by phantom Confederate battalions. On the eve of Antietam, McClellan would tell Washington he faced a gigantic Rebel army “amounting to not less than 120,000 men,” outnumbering his own army “by at least twenty-five per cent.” So it was that George McClellan imagined three Rebel soldiers for every one he faced on the Antietam battlefield. Later he was abetted by Allan Pinkerton, his inept intelligence chief, but even Pinkerton could not keep pace with McClellan’s imagination. In August 1861, taking command of the Army of the Potomac, he began entirely on his own to over-count the enemy’s forces. This delusion dominated his military character. General McClellan’s most grievous error was hugely overestimating Confederate numbers. Colonel Ezra Carman, who survived that bloody field and later wrote the most detailed tactical study of the fighting there, had it right when he observed that on September 17, 1862, “more errors were committed by the Union commander than in any other battle of the war.” Antietam, then, must serve as the measure of his generalship. In all his months as army commander, Major General George Brinton McClellan fought just one battle, Antietam, from start to finish. Saved Land Browse Interactive Map View active campaigns.Stop the Largest Rezoning in Orange County History.Send Students on School Field Trips to Battlefields – Your Gift Tripled!.Phase Three of Gaines’ Mill-Cold Harbor Saved Forever Campaign.Save 42 Historic Acres at the Battle of Chancellorsville.Save 343 Acres at FIVE Battlefields in FOUR Western Theater States.Help Save 820 Acres at Five Virginia Battlefields.Help Acquire 20 Sacred Acres at Antietam.Help Us Save Hallowed Ground in Tennessee and Kentucky.Virtual Tours View All See Antietam now!.National Teacher Institute July 13 - 16, 2023 Learn More.USS Constitution In 4 Minutes Watch Video.African Americans During the Revolutionary War.The First American President: Setting the Precedent.
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