George B. McClellan

This 1888 portrait of George B. McClellan by Julian Scott hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC.

"After the Union army's defeat at the First Battle of Manassas on July 21, 1861, President lincoln appointed thirty-four-year-old General George B. McClellan to command federal operations in Virginia. Within weeks, 'little Mac' transformed the remnants of a demoralized volunteer army into a disciplined fighting machine and christened it the Army of the Potomac. But achieving victory required engaging the enemy in battle, and in this McClellan procrastinated, much to Lincoln's exasperation. When he did lead his troops into battle, he was slow to advance and quick to retreat. Finally, after McClellan failed to pursue Robert E. Lee's army following the Union's victory at the Battle of Antietam in September 1862, Lincoln relieved him of his command. McClellan emerged briefly in national politics in 1864 as the Democratic Party's unsuccessful presidential candidate." -- National Portrait Gallery

This youthful sketch of George B. McClellan appeared in Appleton's Cyclopaedia. 

It appears to have been copied from an 1846 daguerreotype, taken as George was heading off to the Mexican War.

 

(From a daguerreotype taken in 1846, just before leaving for the front)

Lieut. McClellan, His Father and His Brother Arthur.

{the frontispiece of McClellan's Mexican War Diary.}

An engraving after a painting by Alonzo Church appears in Evert Duyckinck's National Portrait Gallery, 1862, "Likeness from a recent photograph from life."

The horse standing  behind  McClellan in Duyckinck's engraving is  McClellan's famous horse, Daniel Webster, "Handsome Dan." Dan was highly praised in an October 1861 article in Scientific American. 

The 1887 newspaper cut below appeared in the Burlington Vermont Weekly Free Press.  

Dan Webster.

And here's General McClellan riding Handsome Dan on a  package of smoking tobacco.

LOC

The Photographic History of the Civil War, 1911, discussed Gen. McClellan's Horses, including "That Devil Dan," as did Boatner's Civil War Dictionary.

Another image from the Burlington Vermont Weekly Free Press reminds us that McClellan is often spelled M'Clellan.

M'Clellan.

Indeed, the little c is not apparent in McClellan's signature:

(Biographical Dictionary)

The  Library of Congress has this campaign button from McClellan's run for president in 1864. Of course, he lost that election to Abraham Lincoln. 

Martin W. Siebert outlined the stakes in an 1864 broadside, "Union and Liberty and Union and Slavery:"

Union and Liberty!

...Lincoln shakes the hand of a bearded man wearing a square paper labor cap, while black and white school children issue from a schoolhouse flying the American flag in the background. -- LOC

Union and Slavery! 

...McClellan, in military uniform, shakes the hand of Confederate president Jefferson Davis, as a slave auction takes place behind them. -- LOC

This wood carving of George B. McClellan can also be found in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.

 "This wood carving was reputedly removed from the stern of a ship built in Thomaston, Maine."-- National Portrait Gallery