Editing George B. McClellan (section)

===Western Virginia===
Governor Dennison encouraged and pressured McClellan to conduct offensive operations in Northwestern Virginia, where unionist sentiment was strong and West Virginians were clamoring for secession from east Virginia. Dennison's office was barraged by many letters from northwestern Virginians requesting military occupation of Northwestern Virginia to protect from potential reprisals from secessionists. McClellan's first military operations were to occupy the area of western Virginia that wanted to remain in the Union and subsequently became the state of [[West Virginia]]. He had received intelligence reports on May 26 that the critical [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]] bridges in that portion of the state were being burned. He quickly implemented plans to invade the region. Confederate general [[George A. Porterfield]] was in charge of defending western Virginia with most of the rebel forces based at [[Grafton, West Virginia|Grafton]]. McClellan triggered his first serious political controversy by proclaiming to the citizens there that his forces had no intentions of interfering with personal property—including slaves. "Notwithstanding all that has been said by the traitors to induce you to believe that our advent among you will be signalized by interference with your slaves, understand one thing clearly—not only will we abstain from all such interference but we will on the contrary with an iron hand, crush any attempted insurrection on their part." He quickly realized that he had overstepped his bounds and apologized by letter to President Lincoln. The controversy was not that his proclamation was diametrically opposed to the administration's policy at the time, but that he was so bold in stepping beyond his strictly military role.<ref name="73OsU" />

As his forces moved rapidly into West Virginia across the Beverly-Fairmont turnpike towards [[Grafton, West Virginia|Grafton]], Confederate forces under the command of General Porterfield retreated quickly before McClellan's superior forces towards [[Philippi, West Virginia|Philippi]], where Porterfield ordered his forces into a momentary rest before continuing the retreat. McClellan planned to encircle Porterfield's command at Philippi through a complex plan that required coordination between three separate forces. This coordination failed, and the bombardment of the village commenced with a false signal. [[Battle of Philippi (1861)|The Confederates at Philippi were completely routed]], but they did not retreat towards a prepared line of Union troops as the plan originally envisioned. This was the first land conflict of the war. McClellan then split his forces up, one column went under the command of general [[Thomas A. Morris]], marched to the Beverly-Fairmont turnpike to attack Confederate troops defending Laurel Mountain, who were under command of Confederate general [[Robert S. Garnett]], and secure the northern road leading to the valley east of the mountains. This force beset the rebels at Laurel Mountain on July 7. His first personal command in [[Battle of Rich Mountain|battle was at Rich Mountain]], where McClellan was plagued by hesitation and his erroneous idea that he was facing a sizeable Confederate force. McClellan wished to flank the strong Confederate position at Rich Mountain but found no avenue to do so, and ordered his forces into a preliminary siege. A young boy from the Hart family, whose house was on Rich Mountain, behind the Confederate position, a family with unionist sympathies, walked into McClellan's camp and offered to show the Union troops a route through the woods around the Confederate left, this small trail would eventually turn north and link up with the Buckhannon-Beverly pike that cut through Rich Mountain eastwards to the valley, and then to Cheat River. McClellan was pleased and ordered his subordinate, Colonel [[William Rosecrans|William S. Rosecrans]], to lead a contingent of troops, flank the Confederates and take them by surprise. Due to intense rain, a movement that was originally estimated to take an hour or two at most, took more than seven hours. 

After a long time without receiving news from Rosecrans, McClellan grew nervous and dispatched an order to call off this attack, but the orders never reached Rosecrans. Finally, after an exhausting march, Rosecrans took up positions south of the Hart home and launched a vigorous attack up the hill to the Hart farm. Confederate troops, who were under the overall command of general [[John Pegram (general)|John Pegram]], attempted a defense and moved two guns to the road to repulse this attack, which was well east of the main Confederate position on Rich Mountain. Another regiment was ordered out of Beverly to link up with the Confederate position at Rich Mountain, this regiment had arrived too late and found the Union troops had overrun the road, captured a Confederate cannon and were holding the road between Beverly and the Confederate troops west of their position on Rich Mountain (behind the rebel defensive line). McClellan heard the sounds of battle from his headquarters but being unsure and nervous, ordered no attack on the mountain. The next day the demoralized Confederate troops retreated from Rich Mountain through trails that took them northwards and then attempted to move eastwards back to Beverly on the Tygart valley. A harrowing pursuit caused several hundred, including Pegram, to surrender next day, and the battle of Rich Mountain ended in a decisive Union victory. Confederate troops 15&nbsp;km north-west, defending Laurel Mountain on the Beverely-Fairmont turnpike, retreated in great disorder after hearing of the rebel defeat on Rich Mountain. McClellan in his later report severely criticized Morris for his purported late pursuit of the Confederates after their retreat from there, even though he had extensively instructed Morris earlier to be very cautious and wary in his advance against enemy forces. Rosecrans bitterly complained that his attack on Rich Mountain was not reinforced as McClellan had agreed.<ref name="sMJ3X" /> 

McClellan was obliged to absorb all credit for the victory at Rich Mountain, and lent no credit to Rosecrans' performance during the battle. These victories propelled McClellan to the status of national hero.<ref name="fSfGg" /> The ''[[New York Herald]]'' entitled an article about him "Gen. McClellan, the Napoleon of the Present War".<ref name="Z7uIL" /> After the defeat of Confederate forces at Rich Mountain and Laurel Mountain, Union troops sharply pursued them eastwards across the [[Tygart Valley River|Tygart Valley]] all the way to [[Cheat River]] & [[Cheat Mountain]]. Confederate general Garnett was [[Battle of Corrick's Ford|killed in a rearguard action on Cheat River at Corrick's ford by Morris' force]], and thus Confederate presence had been completely ejected from West Virginia, although Confederate troops were still present in [[Kanawha County, West Virginia|Kanawha]] under the command of [[Henry A. Wise]] and [[John B. Floyd|John Floyd]]. McClellan proceeded to bombastically proclaim that secessionist presence in West Virginia has been completely crushed. McClellan organized a defensive network of the region spanning Cheat Mountain, [[Allegheny Mountains|Allegheny Mountain]] all the way to [[Gauley Bridge, West Virginia|Gauley Bridge]] in Kanawha. McClellan chose Rosecrans as his successor and briefed him on the situation before departing for Washington upon being summoned to reorganize the routed Union Army of Northeastern Virginia after the [[First Battle of Bull Run|defeat at Bull Run]].