This biography of the controversial Union general George B. McClellan examines the influences and political antecedents that shaped his behavior on the battlefield, behavior that so frustrated Lincoln and others in Washington that he was removed from his command soon after the Union loss at Antietam. Rather than take sides in the controversy, Ethan S. Rafuse finds in McClellan's politics and his desire to restore sectional harmony ample explanation for his actions. Rafuse sheds new light on the general who believed in the rule of reason and moderation, who sought a policy of conciliation with the South, and who wanted to manage the North's military resources in a way that would impose rational order on the battlefield. Ethan S. Rafuse is author of A Single Grand Victory: The First Campaign and Battle of Manassas and George Gordon Meade and the War in the East. He has taught history at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and the U.S. Military Academy and is an associate professor of military history at the U.S. Army's Command and General Staff College. He lives in Platte City, Missouri.