Major General George B. McClellan
Portrayed by David Strawn
"Little Mac"
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Impressionist Dave Strawn portrays Major General George B. McClellan. General McClellan is most famously known for being an extremely capable organizer who completely missed several opportunities to destroy the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War. Cautious in battle and personally arrogant, The “Young Napoleon” was, according to Ulysses S. Grant, “One of the mysteries of the War.” When the Civil War began, “Little Mac” became the commanding general of the department of Ohio. When he assumed command, he wrote to Ohio’s governor that there was only one safe rule in war: “to decide what is the very worst thing that can happen to you, and prepare to meet it.”
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Lincoln and McClellan meet near Sharpsburg Maryland on October 4, 1862.
Eric Richardson as Lincoln and Dave Strawn as McClellan recreate the scene at the Robert Fulton Birthplace event in 2022.
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“General McClellan is
indeed a striking figure, in spite of his shortness. He is the impersonation of health and strength, and he is
in the prime of early manhood. His uniform is faultless and his stars are
brilliant, especially the middle one on each strap. His face is full of
intelligence, of will-power, of self-assertion, and he, too, is in some
respects a born leader of men. He has been admirably educated for such duties
as are now upon him, and he has studied the science and art of war among
European camps and forts and armies and battle-fields. He has vast stores of
technical knowledge never to be acquired by any man among the backwoods, or on
the prairies, or in law courts, or in political conventions. He can hardly
conceal the clearness of his conviction that he ought not be trammeled by any
authority in human form that is by him supposed to be destitute of the
essential training which he himself so fully possesses.” -- Lincoln aide William O. Stoddard.
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