 While McClellan 's reputation has suffered over time , especially over the last 75 years , there is a small but intense cadre of American Civil War historians who believe that the general has been poorly served on at least four levels . First , McClellan proponents say that because the general was a conservative Democrat with great personal charisma , radical Republicans fearing his political potential deliberately undermined his field operations . Second , that as the radical Republicans were the true winners coming out of the American Civil War , they were able to write its history , placing their principal political rival of the time , McClellan , in the worst possible light . Third , that historians eager to jump on the bandwagon of Lincoln as America 's greatest political icon worked to outdo one another in shifting blame for early military failures from Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton to McClellan . And fourth , that Lincoln and Stanton deliberately undermined McClellan because of his conciliatory stance towards the South , which might have resulted in a less destructive end to the war had Richmond fallen as a result of the Peninsula Campaign . Proponents of this school claim that McClellan is criticized more for his admittedly abrasive personality than for his actual field performance . 
