Was McClellan capable of winning the American Civil War?

Its often fun to bash on good old George Brinton, and his failures in battle cannot be disputed, but is it possible that had Lincoln given him more time, that he actually could have won the war, or would he have in the end cost the USA a victory?

My gut feeling is no. Even with the massive advantage of having a copy of Lee's orders, MacCellan dawldeld until it was almost too late. If he stays in command, he will probabuly be outmanovered by Lee at some point and he'll lose command then.

Chris

How very true....

One more chance to do what? Screw up? No matter how many chances you would give the man he would screw it up in the end.

From what I remember, MacClellan's biggest problem was that he refused to budge until he had every last soldier, bullet, and bootstrap ready to go... and when he did budge, he was hesitant and tended to vastly overestimate the opposition. Did he ever have the chance to fight a purely defensive battle? He was pretty good at building defensive lines... if Lee decided he had to move to the north and for some reason attacked into Mac's defensive lines, the Union might have kicked butt and taken names. Still, Lee would be more likely to maneuver around the lines, I suppose....

I have read autobiographies and ACW historians on GB McClellan and the general conclusion is that George had this idea that he was going to manuever the confederate army into a position which would allow him to attack and suffer few casualties. Then before the Southerners lost to many men he would offer a truce, and before Lincoln knew he would end the civil war by bringing the south back into the union, with slavery protected. He was kind of a weasel, really full of himself. He was a very capable orginizer, he would have been excellent as Sec. of War. Im pretty sure Lincoln offered it to him but he refused for whatever reason. McClellan seems to have disliked the Republicans alot though he was staunchly unionsit and if he were elected he would not allow the south to go but would have continued the war.

Yeah, I fully hold with what you guys have stated, McClellan continuing to be in charge of the North's war effort would've been very detrimentral for the Union's war effort, given his almost pathological hesitation to forcefully engage the enemy and to dither away valuable time and opportunity until it was too late a la such campaigns as the Peninsular, 7 Days and Antietam.