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50 chapter three Political Realignment During the three years McClellan spent at West Point after the Mexican War, he found great pleasure in the company of a clique of junior of¤cers stationed at the academy that included future Civil War notables William B. Franklin, Dabney H. Maury, Fitz John Porter, and Edmund Kirby Smith. McClellan was also able to indulge his interest in military history at West Point, both through private study and as a member of the Napoleon Club, an informal organization composed of of¤cers stationed at the academy, presided over by Professor Mahan, that studied the great Corsican’s campaigns. McClellan presented lengthy papers to the group on the Wagram Campaign of 1809 and the Russian Campaign of 1812. On his own, McClellan carefully studied the writings of the eighteenth-century French marshal Maurice, Comte de Saxe, the “quintessential” practitioner of limited war during the Age of Reason, whose operational methods during the War of the Austrian Succession almost exactly anticipated McClellan’s in the Civil War. In his campaigns in Flanders and the Low Countries in 1745–1747, Saxe advanced cautiously and methodically along rivers to ensure secure logistics for his army, preferred to maneuver for position rather than seek battle, avoided rash attacks and fought defensively behind forti¤cations whenever possible to spare soldiers’ lives, and relied on siege operations to overcome enemy positions when maneuver was not possible. Saxe also endeavored to spare civilians the hardships of war in order to avoid stirring up popular passions, and to preserve a political and cultural environment that would allow professional of¤cers to conduct military affairs purely on the basis of “scienti¤c” principles.1 The years at West Point were primarily ones of frustration for McClellan, however. In June 1850, McClellan became commanding of¤cer of the Engineer political realignment 51 Company when Swift’s replacement, Captain George Cullum, fell ill and Smith went on extended leave. Although his men liked and respected him, garrison duty was dull and insuf¤cient to satisfy McClellan’s ambition. Thus, he persistently petitioned the War Department, his family, and Senator John Clayton for assistance in obtaining more exciting and professionally rewarding assignments . “You can’t imagine,” he told his sister less than ¤ve months after returning from Mexico, “how dull the monotony of a garrison life is after a year or two in campaign.” In an April 1851 letter begging for reassignment, McClellan proclaimed, “I am sick and tired of West Point.” His discontent was somewhat muted by “the pleasant set of young of¤cers who are now here,” which he proclaimed the “only one redeeming feature about the place,” but did manifest itself in undigni¤ed squabbles with his superiors.2 To his great relief, McClellan’s service at West Point ended in June 1851 when he received orders to report to the Pea Patch, an island in the Delaware River south of Philadelphia, to assist in the construction of Fort Delaware. McClellan was at that post for only a few months before he was ordered to Washington to keep an eye on affairs for the Corps of Engineers and prepare a bayonet manual he had drafted at West Point for publication. Although he ¤nished the manual by mid-December, he remained in the capital the entire winter of 1851–1852 and spent his time pressing for an assignment in the West. Finally, in March 1852 he received orders to report for duty as second-in-command in the force Captain Randolph B. Marcy was organizing at Fort Smith, Arkansas, for an expedition to explore the sources of the Red River.3 While in Washington, McClellan also spent his time sightseeing. He attended receptions at the White House, where he encountered a number of “quaint” but “digni¤ed” Indian chiefs. McClellan’s experiences in the capital also reinforced his contempt for politicians. He found little hope that anything positive would be done for the army or Corps of Engineers, as Congress seemed to lack “the slightest intention of doing anything, save arranging matters for the next election.” Senator John J. Crittenden, McClellan complained, was “the only ‘great man’” he could see in the entire Senate, although he was impressed by the physical appearance of Sam Houston and Pierre Soulé, and found Stephen A. Douglas to be “a small, quick person, with a large head & a quick, bright eye.” Lewis Cass, who had unsuccessfully run as the Democratic nominee for the presidency in 1848, seemed to McClellan to...

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