George mcclellan accomplishments
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George B. McClellan: Early Life
George Brinton McClellan was born on December 3, 1826, into an affluent family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
A studious child, McClellan made the decision to enter military service at age 15 and was accepted to West Point despite being several months shy of the age requirement of 16. McClellan ranked second in his class upon graduation from West Point in 1846.
Army Corps of Engineers
McClellan was commissioned as a brevet second lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers, and played an active part in the Mexican-American War. As an engineering officer, McClellan frequently saw combat and was promoted to the rank of captain for showing gallantry under fire.
He returned to West Point after the war and continued to serve as an engineer for three years before being transferred to the western frontier. McClellan’s intelligence and ambition caught the eye of the future president of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis—then the U.S. secretary of war—who in 1855 secured him an appointment to travel to Europe to study military tactics
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Early Years
George Brinton McClellan was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on December 3, 1826, to Dr. George McClellan and Elizabeth Steinmetz Brinton. He studied law at the University of Pennsylvania for two years, beginning when he was just thirteen years old. His father, a distinguished ophthalmologist who had founded Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia in 1824, had good connections in the Whig Party. When young McClellan decided to abandon the law for the military, his father used those connections to earn his son an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. In 1846, McClellan finished second in a class of fifty-nine that included future Confederate generals Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson (who finished seventeenth) and George E. Pickett (who finished last).
During the Mexican War (1846–1848), McClellan was posted to the staff of General Winfield Scott—a Whig Party friend of his father’s—and he served alongside Robert E. Lee and Pierre G. T. Beauregard. After the war, he commanded an engineering company at West Poin
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About
George B. McClellan was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on December 3, 1826. His education was attained at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated in 1846. His military career started during the Mexican War. He rose to the rank of captain, and earned distinction for his courageous service in several key battles. He also served in the Civil War, commanding the Ohio militia, and later serving as a general in the Union Army. After leaving the military, McClellan established a career in the railroad industry. He started working as an engineer, and eventually became the chief engineer of the Illinois Central Railroad, as well as serving as division president of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad. He first entered politics in 1864, as an unsuccessful Democratic presidential candidate, losing to Abraham Lincoln. McClellan next secured the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, and was elected governor by a popular vote on November 9, 1877. During his tenure, the state militia was restructured; schools that focused on industrial training were founded; and a spec
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