Excerpt from The Peninsular Campaign and Its Antecedents: As Developed by the Report of Maj. Gen. Geo; B. McClellan, and Other Published Documents
After rehearsing instructions given in November, as General-in-Chief, to various Commanding Generals, Gen. McClellan remarks, (p. 42,) "The plan indicated in the above letters comprehended in its scope the operations of all the armies of the Union, the Army of the Potomac as well. It was my intention, for reasons easy to be seen, that its various parts should be carried out simultaneously, or nearly so, and in cooperation along the whole line. If this plan was wise - and events have failed to prove that it was not - then it is unnecessary to defend any delay which would have enabled the Army of the Potomac to perform its share in the execution of the whole work."
We cannot regard this as other than an afterthought and we think that the character of many other portions of the report, and its laboriously apologetic spirit, render this conclusion not uncharitable. There never was that concert of action, and never could be, between the forces in the different sections of the extended theatre of war, which would justify the Army of the Potomac in waiting a day for movements elsewhere. Moreover, the unnecessary inaction of the Army of the Potomac extends back, as we have shown, to a period prior to Gen. McClellan"s assuming the functions of Commander-in-Chief.
In his apology to the President and exposition of his pet scheme of "changing his base" of operations to the lower Chesapeake, he says:
"When I was placed in command of the armies of the United States, I immediately turned my attention to the whole field of operations, regarding the Army of the Potomac as only one, while the most important, of the masses under my command.
"I confess that I did not then appreciate the total absence of a general plan which had before existed, nor did I know that utter disorganization and want of preparation pervaded the western armies.
"I took it for granted that they were nearly, if not quite, in condition to move towards the fulfilment of my plans. I acknowledge that I made a great mistake.
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