President Lincoln’s relations with no other person have been so much discussed as those with General McClellan.  Volumes have been written on this subject; many heated and intemperate words have been uttered and wrong conclusions reached.  Whatever defects may have marked McClellan’s qualities as a soldier, he must remain historically one of the most conspicuous figures of the war.  He organized the largest and most important of the Union armies, and was its first commander in the field.  He was one of the two out of the five commanders of the Army of the Potomac, before Grant, who led that army to victory; the other three having led it only to disastrous defeat.  Great things were expected of him; and when he failed to realize the extravagant expectations of those who thought the war should be ended within a year, he received equally extravagant condemnation.  It is noticeable that this condemnation came chiefly from civilians—­from politicians, from Congress, from the press:  not the best judges of military affairs.  His own army—­the men who were with him on the battlefield and risked their lives and their cause under his leadership—­never lost faith in him.  Of all the commanders of the Army of the Potomac, he was the one most believed in by his troops.  Even after his removal, at a grand review of the army by the President, after the battle of Fredericksburg, it was not for the new commander, Burnside, but the old commander, McClellan, that the troops gave their heartiest cheers.  It is worth remembering also that the war was not ended until two and a half years after McClellan’s retirement, and until trial after trial had been made and failure after failure had been met in the effort to find a successful leader for our armies.  The initial task of organization, of creating a great army in the field, fell upon him—­a task so well performed that General Meade, his first efficient successor, said, “Had there been no McClellan there could have been no Grant, for the army [organization] made no essential improvements under any of his successors.”  And Grant, the last and finally victorious of these successors—­who was at one time criticized as being “as great a discouragement as McClellan”—­recorded in his Memoirs the conviction (already quoted in these pages) that the conditions under which McClellan worked were fatal to success, and that he himself could not have succeeded in his place under those conditions.

It is not in the province of the present narrative to enter into a consideration of the merits or demerits of McClellan as a soldier, but to treat of his personal relations with President Lincoln.  Between the two men, notwithstanding many sharp differences of opinion and of policy, there seems to have been a feeling of warm personal friendship and sincere respect.  Now that both have passed beyond the reach of earthly praise or blame, we may well honor their memory and credit each with having done the best he could to serve his country.