GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN The Young Napoleon<i> by Stephen W. Sears (Ticknor & Fields: $24.95) </i>

This biography is as much mystery as it is military history, for Gen. George B. McClellan was a most unlikely candidate to command all of the Northern forces during the Civil War and to challenge President Lincoln as the 1864 Democratic candidate for President. McClellan, for one, bungled his most important military operations, failing to capture Richmond, Va., from the Confederates during the Peninsular Campaign because of his excessive caution and assaulting Harper’s Ferry in the Battle of Antietam when the enemy was well-poised for a counterattack. Civil War historian Stephen Sears adds to this list, arguing that McClellan was cowardly in combat, a man “possessed by demons and delusions” who would withdraw forces under the guise of preserving his army to fight the next time on another and better day.

As a politician, McClellan fared no better. He is perhaps best known as the Civil War general who kept President Lincoln and his secretary of state waiting in his parlor for an hour while he attended an officer’s wedding. When he returned, he ignored the President (whom he privately called “The Gorilla”) and went upstairs to his room. Half an hour later the President sent a messenger, who found that McClellan had gone to sleep. To avoid being biased by the many partisan accounts of the general’s life, Sears has relied almost exclusively on original sources. And yet while Sears is a responsible, unusually thorough historian, his conviction that McClellan was the worst strategist the Army of the Potomac had ever seen does color this text at times. Where other historians posit that McClellan served with distinction in the Mexican War, for instance, Sears stresses that McClellan’s leadership role was minor. Consequently, why McClellan became such a success remains somewhat of a mystery throughout this book.

Sears does suggest, by way of explanation, that McClellan’s troops perceived him as an inspiring, powerful leader. Avoiding the central, divisive issues of his day, notably slavery, McClellan focused his attention on being seen often by his men and on delivering flamboyant speeches: “Soldiers! I fear now but one thing--that you will not find foeman worthy of your steel. I know that I can rely on you.” “George McClellan: The Young Napoleon” is a careful inquiry, the early parts of which will be too detailed to interest non-specialists (Sears goes into considerable detail about McClellan’s studying habits at West Point, for instance). Sears’ intimate focus succeeds, though, in illuminating the reasons for some Union military failures during the war and in providing the telling detail one finds in a good novel.