President Abraham Lincoln reluctantly restores Union General
George B. McClellan to full command after General John Pope's
disaster at the Second Battle of Bull Run, Virginia, on August
29 and 30. McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac, saw
much of his army transferred to Pope's Army of Virginia after
his failure to capture Richmond, Virginia, during the Seven
Days' Battles in June 1862. Pope, who had one chance to prove
his leadership at Second Bull Run against Confederate General
Robert E. Lee, failed miserably and retreated to Washington,
D.C. He had not received any help from McClellan, who sat nearby
in Alexandria, Virginia, and refused to go to Pope's aid. After
a summer of defeats, the Union forces in the east were now in
desperate need of a boost in morale. Even though McClellan was,
in part, the architect of those losses, Lincoln felt he was the
best available general to raise the sagging spirits of the men
in blue. The president recognized McClellan's talent for
preparing an army to fight,