18621776 Club
Lincoln, out of options, hands the beaten army back to McClellan
The general he sidelined months earlier is now the only man Washington trusts to hold the line.
Washington was in a panic: Confederate troops stood within marching distance of the capital. John Pope's army had just been broken at the Second Battle of Bull Run, and Confederate troops stood within marching distance of the capital. On September 2, 1862, Abraham Lincoln reluctantly restored George B. McClellan, the general he had removed from top command only weeks before, giving him charge of the city's defenses and the demoralized Union forces. The two men trusted each other very little, but Lincoln had run out of alternatives…
