George Brinton McClellan was born on December 3, 1826 in Philadelphia, PA.

When George was six-teen years old he started studying law at the University of Pennsylvania for two years. When he was young George decided to abandon law so he can go into the military. His father used those connections to earn George an appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. McClellan finished second out of fifty-nine students in 1846. His parents are Dr. George McClellan and Elizabeth Steinmetz Brinton. His father, George McClellan, worked as a distinguished ophthalmologist, a specialist in medical and surgical eye problems, who had founded Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia in 1824. Also, he has good connections with the Whig party.

January 1858 George was promoted to vice president of chief engineering of the Illinois Central railroad and on that same year he let his West Point friend, Ambrose E. Burnside, use his Chicago home because Ambrose had been left destitute by a business failure. George arranged a job for him with the railroads.

McClellan designed a saddle and he got the inspiration to make one from a popular Russian model used in the Crimean War. the U.S. War department adopted the "McClellan Saddle" and remained standard equipment for the Calvary until it was disbanded in World War 2.

Even though McClellan was against the outright abolitionist slavery, he was equally committed to preservation of the Union. at the eruption of the the civil war in 1861, he accepted command of the volunteer army of the state of Ohio. He trained the Ohio volunteers and it won him a favor in Washington, he got promoted the rank of the general in the regular army. McClellan won a series of small wars in the west Virginia and he gained the nickname, "The young Napoleon."

George McClellan impacted history today because he fought a lot of major battles and he was the commander of the union side. George McClellan won the battle of Antietam and that gave the union side a chance to win more battles after that.

I admire how George because he fought many courageous battles and he would do anything to win a battle even if he had many challenges and even though he wasn't against slavery he still ready to fight with the union and to end slavery.