the beneficiary of this immediately was george b mcclellan. he is called to washington to head the armies of the potomac in the wake of the union defeat at manassas, first bull run. so george b mcclellan gets command of the union army of the having actually participated in combat in the civil war. rosecrans now becomes the union commander in that department of the war. he fights another battle in september 1861 in central west virginia. small battle, but important. then later in the fall he faces none other than robert e lee, in beijingrst military in -- engagement of the war. they faced each other across towns. these were raw armies, they didn't really know what they were doing. lee wanted rosecrans to attack so he would be able to destroy him. rosecrans realize that and he .ith drew, pulled back leave then pulls back, comes back here to richmond. that really into the campaign in west virginia in 1861. but a lot had been accomplished. because the entire western part of the state was occupied by the union army. people know that west virginia us

three days of august, when they convened on august 29th in chicago, they chose to nominate george b. mcclellan for president and george h. pendleton for vice president. george mcclellan was a very popular officer during the first part of the watr. the soldiers absolutely loved mckellan. he was a fairly moderate candidate, he was pro union and pro war, but he was also pro slavery. the vice presidential nominee was the more controversial one. george h. pendalton, who's also depicted in the spielburg movie, pendal pon is one of them. and pendleton was a congressman from ohio. he was ardently pro slavery and also anti-war. and what the democrats hoped they could do, was balance their ticket, we're going to have a pro war candidate for president, and an anti-war known as a copper head as a vice president and that way we can have a broad appeal to a lot of democratic voters. they made one huge miscalculation in their platform. if you read the platform, it's a huge indictment of the lincoln administration. in the fourth plank, they called the war a failure. now keep in mind again, the summer has been

. >> president theodore roosevelt dedicated -- of civil war general george b mcclellan. a generation has passed since the death of the engineer -- .r. cherished -- twice relieved of overall gommand by lincoln, the youn napoleon ran against lincoln in 1864. he lost the election, but mcclellan remained popular with his men. after his death in 1995, it was old soldiers who lobbied to put his soldier in washington's connecticut avenue. the creation of the sculpture, an american expatriate living in paris, was a protÉge of -- it is without a doubt one of the city's most -- men on horseback. a century of exposure to the elements, including air pollution and bird droppings, left the bronze warrior in need of repair. recently power wash and restored sitss original hue, he ramrod straight on his mount. september, 2014, mark the 200 ersary of the battle of lake champlain. british forces were defeated by the newly established american naval fleet. coming up next on american history tv, the cofounder of the lake champlain maritime museum. he explores how underwater archaeology revie

the civil war is familiar with the problems that president abraham lincoln had with general george b. mcclellan and who he described as the general who would not fight. less familiar except maybe here in the south and i'm sure about about that is the story of similar tensions between confederate general jefferson davis and -- johnson never ran for president the way mcclellan did against lincoln but the hostility between johnston and davis became more intense, lasted longer and perhaps had a more adverse impact on the confederate war effort than did the lincoln mcclellan conflict on the union war effort. dave is from mississippi and johnson from virginia were fellow cadets at west point in 1820s. they graduated one year apart. they knew each other they are but they were not close. the rumor later circulated that they had a fight over a girl but that story is almost certainly apocryphal. be that as it may when the war began and virginia seceded johnson resigned from united states army and davis appointed him as general commanding one of the two largest field armies in virginia. beauregard command

when they convened on august 29 in chicago, they chose to nominate george b mcclellan for president and george h pendleton for vice president. george mcclellan had been a very popular army officer in the first two years of the war and was loved by his soldiers. they absolutely adored him. the democrats hoped that they some of theer soldiers' votes that they nominated mcclellan to mcclellan was a fairly moderate candidate who was prounion and pro-war, but he was also proslavery. the vice presidential nominee was the more presidential one. george h pendleton, who is also depicted in the spielberg movie -- if you want to see one of the copperheads who opposed the 13th amendment, pendleton is one of them. he was a congressman from ohio. pendleton was ardently proslavery and also antiwar. what the democrats hoped that they could do was balance their ticket. we are going to have a pro-war candidate for president and an antiwar, known as a copperhead candidate, for vice president. and that way we can have a broad appeal to a lot of different democratic voters. the democrats then wrote the plat