Why was mcclellan fired during the civil war?

Answer 1

He was fired after the Battle of Antietam. Lincoln decided McClellan was too slow to attack the enemy and he let General Lee slip away after the big battle. McClellan did prove to be a great organizer of the army and established some good principal on training.

Answer 2

Because McClellan kept refusing to move until everything was ready - which was a licence for endless delays.

Also, he greatly overstimated enemy numbers, and this slowed him down even more.

Finally, after he'd defeated Lee at Antietam, he missed his opportunity to destroy that army on its way back to Virginia.

Eventually, Lincoln simply lost patience. He said "If General McClellan does not want to use the army, perhaps I may borrow it for a while."

Answer 3

President Lincoln had some general reasons and later some specific reasons for not being pleased with his choice of General George B. McClellan to lead the Union's Army of the Potomac.

However, this was not an immediate problem.

McClellan was a top graduate of West Point. His "military mind" was never challenged until after the early month's of the War.

After the fiasco of the first Battle of Bull Run, McClellan was charged, by Lincoln, with the task successfully organizing the Army of the Potomac into a well disciplined fighting force.

As a strategist, McClellan believed in taking precautions before engaging in battle. His success with organizing the Army of the Potomac,however, helped him overcome his natural tendency of caution and encouraged him to be more offensive minded, but to a degree.

Here, many historians cite Lincoln as the first one to endanger the primary goal of capturing Richmond. McClellan's army of 150,000 was reduced to 105,000 because Lincoln insisted on retaining 37,000 troops to form the Army of Virginia to defend Washington DC.

McClellan at the prodding of Lincoln, began his own well conceived plan to capture Richmond. The so-called Peninsula Campaign was a failure.

This emboldened Confederate General Robert E. Lee to invade the Northern US State of Maryland.

The ensuing battle of Antietam resulted in Lee's retreat back to Virginia. McClellan failed to take advantage of the situation and his delays allowed Lee to cross the Potomac River. The proper thing to be done was to pursue Lee before he was able to escape back to Virginia.

Lincoln arrived at McClellan's camp and was critical of McClellan's failure to pursue Lee and allow him to escape.

Critics of McClellan cite his failures to take advantage of his ability to destroy Lee's army and McClellan's over cautiousness.

Antietam was the end for McClellan.

On November 3rd 1862, Lincoln replced McClellan with General Ambrose E. Burnside.

Answer 4

General McClellan was fired following the Battle of Antietam, which is considered to be the bloodiest battle of the entire American Civil War. President Lincoln was unhappy with how McClellan didn’t pursue fleeing General Lee despite winning. Lincoln felt like he was not the right general to lead the Potomac Army.

Answer 5

he was fired because of the very slow progress McClellan was making

Answer 6

Lincoln was afraid that McClellan was too slow and too cautious to advance in the war Lincoln was afraid that McClellan was too slow and too cautious to advance in the war

Answer 7

Because he thought that the generals he had been hiring weren't good enough for the job.

Answer 8

he didn't follow the souths retreat.

Answer 9

yes