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78 edward hagerman The Professionalization of George b. McClellan and early Civil War Field Command an institutional Perspective edward Hagerman This essay is an analysis of the field command of General George b. McClellan in the context of an emerging professionalism in the United states army as it coped with the origins of modern warfare. by the 1820’s professional subcultures , including the officers corps of the U.s. army, had begun to exchange preindustrial community traditions of interdependent social roles for specialized and functional definitions of place as society organized increasingly around science, technology, and industrial development. McClellan, who was a graduate of West Point, the son of a famous surgeon and teacher who was also the physician at West Point, and for a time an industrial manager as vice president of a railroad, matured in a cross-section of these groups. born in 1826 and graduated from the academy in 1846, McClellan grew up and received his higher education within the growing professional awareness that produced and sustained the army reforms of 1821. designed to prevent a repetition of the unpreparedness exposed in the War of 1812, the 1821 reforms acknowledged the specialized nature of warfare to the extent of creating a permanentprofessionalcore in a militaryorganization still dominated bythe militia system. West Point was the training ground for the new professional officer.1 78 E Civil War History, Vol. XXI no. 2 © 1975 by The Kent state University Press 1. For the emergence of professionalism in the period that shaped McClellan’s milieu see William b. skelton’s excellent study, “The United states army, 1821–1837: an Institutional History” the professionalization of mcclellan 79 (Ph.d. dissertation, northwestern University, 1968). For a brief survey of professionalism to the Civil War see russel F. Weigley, The american way of war:a history of United states strategy and Policy (new York, 1973). For the medical profession in the United states army see Percy M. asbum, a history of the Medical Department of the United states army (boston, 1929). For the broader context of professionalism in the practice of medicine see the important case study in daniel H. Calhoun, Professional lives in america: structure and aspiration, 1750–1850 (Cambridge, Mass., 1960). For the civiliancontextof theconflictwithin the professionalism of the officercorps, particularlywithin the elite corps of engineers, between identification as a professional military officer and identification with the civilian profession of civil engineering, see daniel H. Calhoun, The american Civil Engineer: origins and Conflict (Cambridge, Mass., 1960). For the civilian atmosphere that might persuade a professional officer to opt for a civilian identification, see Charles robert Kemble, The image of the army officer in america: Background for Current views (Westport, Conn., 1973). To understand that militaryprofessionalismwaspartof ageneralemergenceof professionalismamongmanygroups,see the remaining studies in Calhoun, Professional lives in america: structure and aspirations, 1750–1850; lynn Marshall,“strange still birth of theWhig Party,”american historical review, lXII (Jan., 1967); Michael Wallace, “Changing Concepts of Party in the United states: new York 1815–1878,” american historical review, lXXIV (dec. 1968); richard Hofstadter, The idea of a Party system: The rise of legitimate opposition in the United states, 1780–1840 (berkeley and los angeles, 1969); sidney H. aronson, status and Kinship in the higher Civil service; standards and selection in the administration of John adams, Thomas Jefferson and andrew Jackson (Cambridge, Mass., 1964). McClellan’s education and his early experience as a professional officer contained contradictions that shaped his definition of military reality for the remainder of his career. From the standpoint of field command the military problem is to achieve and sustain tactical and strategic mobility;the purpose of the military system to develop and to integrate theory, doctrine, organizational procedures and operational planning to mobilize, move, maneuver, fight and maintain an army in the field. McClellan’s military education and pre–Civil War service occurred in a professional officers corps, which succumbed to the prestige of French militarythoughtin the aftermathof the napoleonicWars.The West Point curriculum, and theory and doctrine developed by the professional officers corps, defined tactics and strategy primarily as static applications of the eighteenthcenturymechanistic principles of warfare revived bythe empire and restoration generation of French military thinkers. The dominance of the corps of engineers as the elite of the new army accentuated this tendency toward mechanistic and technical definitions of strategy and tactics.The lasting influence of sylvanusThayer, the dominant figure in the creation of the newprofessional officers corpswhenWest Point superintendent, 1817–1833, equated militaryprofessionalismwith a masteryof applied scientific and mathematical...

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