Persifer F. Smith, in his report of all the actions at Churubusco and Contreras, says: "Lieutenant G. W. Smith, in command of the engineer company, and Lieutenant McClellan, his subaltern, distinguished themselves throughout the whole of the three actions. Nothing seemed to them too bold to be undertaken, or too difficult to be executed, and their services as engineers were as valuable as those they rendered in battle at the head of their gallant men." For "gallant and meritorious conduct in the battles of Contreras and Churubusco," McClellan was breveted first-lieutenant; and for "gallant and meritorious conduct in the battle of Molino del Rey," captain; but the latter brevet, through some delicacy towardothers, he declined to accept. In the battle of Chepultepec he was one of "five lieutenants of engineers" who, in the words of Lieutenant-General Scott, "won the admiration of all about them;" and for his services on that day he was breveted captain. He was thus "on duty with the engineer company from its organization at West Point, in the siege of Vera Cruz, and in all the battles of General Scott's march to the city of Mexico."

Captain McClellan returned with his company, which reached West Point in June, 1847. In the next year he became its commander, and remained with it until 1851. During this time he translated from the French the manual of bayonet exercise, which has since become the text-book of the service. He superintended the construction of Fort Delaware in the fall of 1851, and in the spring of 1852 was assigned to duty in the expedition that explored Red River, and also served as an engineer upon some explorations in Texas.

Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, in 1853, committed to Captain McClellan an important and difficult survey of the Cascade range of mountains on the Pacific, with a view to the construction of the Pacific railroad. In his report the secretary says: "The examination of the approaches and passes, made by Captain McClellan of the corps of engineers, presents a reconnoissance of great value, and, though performed under adverse circumstances, exhibits all the information necessary to determine the practicability of this portion of the route, and reflects the highest credit on the capacity and resource of that officer." Besides the reports descriptive of the region surveyed, Captain McClellan also furnished a valuable collection of "Memoranda on Railways," the result of examinations made into the working of various railroads, to assist in determining the practicability of roads over the various routes.

In 1855, McClellan received a captaincy in the first United States cavalry, and in the same year was chosen as one of three officers to be sent on a military commission to Europe. He sailed, in company with Majors Delafield and Mordecai, in April, 1855, and proceeded to the Crimea and to northern Russia, to observe the war then in progress between Russia, England, and France; and subsequently visited every military establishment of interest on the continent and in

England. After an absence of two years, the commission returned, and the results of Captain McClellan's observations were embodied in a report to the secretary of war, published in 1857, "On the Organization of European Armies, and the Operations of the War"-a work which established the reputation of the young officer as a scientific soldier.

Upon receiving the offer of an important civil employment, that of vicepresident and director of the Illinois Central Railroad, Captain McClellan resigned his position in the army, January 16th, 1857. His position on the Illinois Central Railroad he held for three years, when he was offered and accepted the presidency of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad. This position he held when the war broke out.

When the state of Ohio began to marshal its forces in response to the President's call, McClellan was immediately chosen as the citizen of that state most fit to organize the volunteer regiments into an army. That patriotic state has therefore the honor of having brought to the front the man of the time; though Pennsylvania, through her governor, had also called upon the young captain, but vainly, to head her stout thousands as they were mustered for the war. Ohio's volunteers, thanks to the efficiency of the man chosen to lead them, became at once an army, and were ready to win battles, while those of some not less patriotic states were still raw recruits. On the 14th of May, General McClellan was appointed by the President a major-general in the United States army, and assigned to the command of the then newly created department of the Ohio, formed of the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, with his head-quarters at Cincinnati. Here he was still busy in the organization and equipment of the forces mustered in the various parts of his district, when the rebel forces from Eastern Virginia began offensive movements against the Western Virginians, who were faithful to the Union. Confederate troops occupied Philippi and Grafton, and began to burn bridges; and on May 25th, General McClellan ordered an advance against them of the first Virginia regiment, stationed at Wheeling, and of the fourteenth and sixteenth Ohio regiments, which crossed the Ohio respectively at Marietta and Bellaire. On the 26th, at night, the rebels fled precipitately from Grafton, and it was occupied by Colonel Kelly of the first Virginia, with his own regiment and the sixteenth Ohio, May 30th. Colonel Steedman, of the fourteenth Ohio, occupied Parkersburgh.

Simultaneously with his entrance into Virginia, General McClellan, in a proclamation to the people of Western Virginia, said: "The general government has long endured the machinations of a few factious rebels in your midst. Armed traitors have in vain endeavored to deter you from expressing your loyalty at the polls; having failed in this infamous attempt to deprive you of the exercise of your dearest rights, they now seek to inaugurate a reign of terror, and thus force

you to yield to their schemes, and submit to the yoke of their traitorous conspiracy. . . . . Government has heretofore carefully abstained from sending troops across the Ohio, or even from posting them along its banks, although frequently urged by many of your prominent citizens to do so. It determined to await the result of the late election, desirous that no one might be able to say that the slightest effort had been made from this side to influence the free expression of your opinion. . . . . I have ordered troops to cross the river. They come as your friends and your brothers—as enemies only to the armed rebels who are preying upon you.. All your rights shall be religiously respected." To his soldiers he said: "I place under the safeguard of your honor the persons and property of the Virginians. I know that you will respect their feelings and all their rights. Preserve the strictest discipline: remember that each one of you holds in his keeping the honor of Ohio and of the Union."

....

On June 2d, the Union troops at Grafton went forward to Philippi, on the Monongahela, twenty miles south of Grafton, which they reached at daylight on the next day, and attacked and drove out a body of rebels under Colonel Porterfield. Here they were joined, June 20th, by General McClellan, who on that day assumed command in person of the national forces in Western Virginia, and began more extensive operations against the enemy. Meantime the rebels made active preparations to resist. Henry A. Wise, formerly governor of Virginia, but appointed a general in the rebel army, took the field in the Kanawha region of Western Virginia, and, with the usual affectation of patriotism, called upon the people to "come to the defence of the commonwealth invaded and insulted by a ruthless and unnatural enemy;" while General Garnett, formerly of the United States army, occupied Laurel Hill and Rich Mountain, spurs of the Alleghany range, with ten thousand men.

General Cox was sent against Wise, and General McClellan advanced in person against Garnett. Beverly, in Randolph county, Virginia, is approached on the north by a road from Philippi, and on the west by a road from Buckhannon. Laurel Hill is upon the former road, and Rich Mountain upon the latter; and both roads, at the point where they cross the hills, were obstructed by Garnett's intrenchments. Garnett himself, with six thousand men, was at Laurel Hill, supposing doubtless that, as that point was nearest to Philippi, the attack would be made there. But General McClellan marched from Clarksburg, on the North-western Virginia Railroad, advanced directly toward Beverly by the Buckhannon road, and thus came upon the position at Rich Mountain. Colonel Pegram, Garnett's subordinate, held that place with four thousand men. At the foot of the hill, on the western slope, was a very strong work built of trees felled from the hill-side, filled in with earth, and furnished with artillery. Dense woods encircled it for a mile in every direction, and it could not have been

carried from the front without great loss. On the top of the mountain was a smaller work, with two six-pounders. A sharp skirmish took place in front of the lower fort, July 10th; and on the 11th, at daylight, General Rosecrans, with four regiments, was sent around the southern slope of the mountain, to carry the small work above, and take the larger one in the rear. After an arduous march of eight miles, he reached the summit and carried the work, with but small loss. Meanwhile, General McClellan below had cut a road through the wood which surrounded the rebel battery, and had arranged a position for twelve guns, with which to participate in the attack to be made from above; but as soon as the rebels in the lower fort learned that the fort on the hill-top was taken, they abandoned their work, and fled in every direction. By this action the rebels lost six brass cannon, two hundred tents, sixty wagons, one hundred and fifty men in killed and wounded, and one hundred prisoners. Only six hundred men of the enemy retained any organization, and with these Colonel Pegram retreated toward Laurel Hill. General McClellan, by a rapid march, occupied Beverly.

Garnett, as soon as he learned of Pegram's rout at Rich Mountain, abandoned his intrenchments at Laurel Hill, and retreated toward Beverly; but the rapid occupation of that place by General McClellan cut off his retreat in that direction, and in great confusion he turned back and retreated toward St. George, in Tucker county, to the north-east of Laurel Hill. Thus ten thousand rebel troops from Eastern Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina, were driven out of their intrenchments, with a loss to the Union forces of only eleven men killed and thirty-five wounded. On the 13th, Colonel Pegram surrendered what was left of his command (six hundred officers and men) prisoners, unconditionally.

Immediately upon the retreat of Garnett toward St. George, General Morris was ordered to follow him, and General Hill was ordered forward from Rawlesburg to intercept his retreat. General Garnett, finding himself pressed very closely by the brigade of General Morris, made a stand in an advantageous position at Carrick's Ford, on the Cheat River, eight miles south of St. George. There he was handsomely beaten by the seventh and ninth Indiana and the fourteenth Ohio regiments. General Garnett was killed, his army disorganized, and its whole baggage taken. Thus, by a series of brilliant movements, and in only twenty-four days after General McClellan had assumed the command, this portion of Western Virginia was freed, and the army that lately held it became a demoralized band of fugitives. In recognition of this first considerable success of the war, both houses of Congress, on June 16th, passed a joint resolution of thanks to General McClellan and the officers and soldiers under his command.

In an address to the "Soldiers of the Army of the West," dated subsequently to these battles, General McClellan said: "You have annihilated two

armies, commanded by educated and experienced soldiers, intrenched in mountain fastnesses, and fortified at their leisure. You have taken five guns, twelve colors, fifteen hundred stand of arms, and one thousand prisoners, including more than forty officers. One of the second commanders of the rebels is a prisoner, the other lost his life on the field of battle. You have killed more than two hundred and fifty of the enemy, who has lost all his baggage and camp-equipage. All this has been accomplished with the loss of twenty brave men killed and sixty wounded on your part. You have proved that Union men, fighting for the preservation of our government, are more than a match for our misguided brothers. Soldiers! I have confidence in you, and I trust that you have learned to confide in me. Remember that discipline and subordination are qualities of equal value with courage."

Three days after the above order was issued, the national army that had been organized near Washington, under the eye of the veteran commander-inchief, was defeated in the disastrous battle at Bull Run, and returned to the bank of the Potomac in a wild, disordered rout. Startled by this blow, the government first awoke to the great labor to be accomplished in putting down the rebellion. Regiments before refused, and all now offered, were immediately accepted, and it was determined to add at least one hundred thousand men to the Potomac army. General McClellan was ordered to Washington, to take command of this new force, and of the departments of Washington and Northeastern Virginia. He left Beverly June 23d, and arrived at the capital July 25th. His first order to the army was dated July 30th. In that he described the first practice he had observed "eminently prejudicial to good order and military discipline," and plainly declared that "it must be discontinued." Officers and soldiers were therefore strictly forbidden to leave their camps and quarters, except on important public business, and then not without written permission from the commander of the brigade to which they belonged. Washington was thus cleared of an army of loungers; and officers and soldiers, confined to their camps, found time to learn their respective duties.

On August 3d, General McClellan's appointment as a major-general in the United States army was confirmed by the Senate; and on August 20th, by general order, he assumed command of the army of the Potomac, and announced the officers of his staff. Lieutenant-General Scott was retired from active service November 1st, 1861, and on the same day General McClellan was appointed to succeed him as commander-in-chief of the armies of the United States. Both before and after this accession of authority, he labored without intermission, and with noble earnestness and simple purpose, to prepare for a proper discharge of its duties to the great army called out by the government. His many judicious orders in regulation of the actions of officers and soldiers, and the system of