DEC 3: Little Mac is Born

On Dec. 3, 1826, George Brinton McClellan is born in Philadelphia, Penn.

George B. McClellan. (Credit: Library of Congress)

He entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1842 at age 15, a year younger than the required minimum, with a waiver granted due to his father's influence. McClellan graduated in 1846, second in his class, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant.

McClellan resigned his military commission in 1857 to become chief engineer of the Illinois Central Railroad, and later was president of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad in 1860.

He was Commanding General of the United States Army from November 1861 to March 1862. He was known as “Little Mac” and “Young Napoleon” by admirers, and “Tardy George” by detractors who bristled at his reluctance to move the army forward at times. George A. Custer served under him as an aide-de-camp during the Peninsula Campaign of 1862 and revered McClellan.

McClellan won the Democratic nomination for President in 1864 and ran against incumbent Abraham Lincoln with an anti-war and anti-Lincoln platform. Lincoln won soundly with 55 percent of the popular vote and more than 90 percent of votes cast in the Electoral College.

He served as the 24th governor of New Jersey from 1878-1881, and died on Oct. 29, 1885, in West Orange, N.J., at the age of 58.