George McClellan Hello, my name is George McClellan. Today I am writing to explain my background in history and to answer a question that I have been asked many times, “Was the American Civil War justified?” My role in the American Civil War was to serve as the U.S. general officer during the war. The American Civil War started in 1861 and lasted until 1865, and I later died in 1885. I believe that the American Civil War was justified because I was very much against slavery, and I feel like if the American Civil War never happened then there would still be slavery in the United States today. I, George Brinton McClellan, was born on December 3, 1826 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I was born into an elite family where my father was a surgeon.…show more content… The American civil war is known for, “The war that resolved two fundamental questions left unresolved by the revolution: whether the United States was to be a dissolvable confederation of sovereign states or an indivisible nation with a sovereign national government; and whether this nation, born of a declaration that all men were created with an equal right to liberty, would continue to exist as the largest slaveholding country in the world” (McPherson, A Brief Overview of the American Civil War). Many wars are normally not justified but the American Civil War was justified because the war was a result to the social and economic divide in the Northern and Southern United States. I started out as just being the General for the Ohio Volunteers Army, but then I impressed people as being the General so I was appointed the Major General in the regular army (McPherson, George B. McClellan). The American Civil war resulted in the Northern United States beating the Southern United States. My army was very successful and because of us being so successful this is what happened, “Northern victory in the war preserved the United States as one nations and ended the institution of slavery that had divided the country from its beginning. But these achievements came at the cost of 625,000 lives—nearly as…show more content… The one thing that President Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, said that I actually agreed with was during his presidency speech when he said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved – I do not expect the house to fall – but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other” (Northouse, 211). Lincoln was all about bringing together a nation that was very divided between the North United States and South United States. To me the civil war was justified because after the American Civil War ended the North and South was no longer divided, we were and still are one united country. Also because of the American Civil War, slavery was permanently abolished in the United States of America. The American Civil War was one of the only wars that is justified because it happened as a result of the division between the North United States and South United States and the Outcome of the American Civil War was what need to happen for the United States to become United together as one and for slavery to be permanently