USA HISTORY

AMERICAN CIVIL WAR(1861 1865)

THE FIRST BATTLE OF BULL RUN

[SOURCES]
Who will replace McDowell in command?

(A) Jefferson Davis

(B) Abraham Lincoln

(C) William T. Sherman

(D) ** George B. McClellan

EXPLANATIONS BELOW

Concept note-1: -McDowell knew his men were not really ready for combat; but he also knew many of the men enlisted for only ninety days and would be going home soon, so it was now or never. As already noted, it did not go well. On July 27th, Abraham Lincoln replaced McDowell with General George B. McClellan.

Concept note-2: -Irvin McDowell, the commander of the Union Army of Northeastern Virginia, was relieved and replaced by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, who set about reorganizing and training what would become the Army of the Potomac.

Concept note-3: -Convinced that McClellan could never defeat Lee, Lincoln notified the general on November 5 of his removal. A few days later, Lincoln named General Ambrose Burnside to be the commander of the Army of the Potomac.

Concept note-4: -In 1862, McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign unraveled after the Seven Days Battles, and he also failed to decisively defeat Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army at the Battle of Antietam. Frustrated by McClellan’s cautious tactics, Lincoln removed him from command.

Concept note-5: -Following his retirement from the army, General McDowell exercised his fondness for landscape gardening, serving as Park Commissioner of San Francisco, California until his death from heart attack on May 4, 1885.