Union Generals

@ National Portrait Gallery

Description

Hopes for a short war had already waned months before President Lincoln’s new commander, General George B. McClellan, posed for this photograph. Shown with ten of his senior generals at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, in the spring of 1862, prior to the start of the Peninsula Campaign, McClellan stands beside and to the left of his predecessor, General Irvin McDowell. McClellan was called the “young Napoleon” for the self-confidence he exuded following his minor victories of the previous summer in western Virginia. Although a brilliant organizer of the Union army in northern Virginia, he was proving to be slow at engaging the enemy, and he would soon demonstrate a proclivity for retreating. In the fall of 1862, Lincoln would sack him for not pursuing General Robert E. Lee’s army after the Battle of Antietam.

Type:

Image

Format:

Albumen Silver Print

Rights:

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

View Original At:

http://collections.si.edu/search/results.htm?q=record_ID=npg_NPG.81.27&repo=DPLA