Page:Memoir of George McClellan MD.djvu/10

 families of New England, and have scattered the paternal name over the country, a name distinguished in the political and military world.

James McClellan, Esq., the father of Doctor McClellan, was born in Woodstock, Sept. 20th, 1773. He, also, was distinguished for energy and intelligence; and, as a very extensive wool-grower, was devoted to the manufacturing interests of our country. He married early in life into a family of English descent, by the name of Eldredge, many branches of which were settled throughout Connecticut, and took an active part in the war of Independence. The Doctor's mother lost, at the storming of Groton, near New London, eleven near relatives, immediately killed or mortally wounded. His maternal grandfather served throughout most of the war, as an officer of the Continental army. He was present at the battle on Long Island, and at the evacuation of New York. This ancestral statement shows that the McClellan spirit has been martial; and the fact, that Lieut. George McClellan, the son of the late Doctor McClellan, is now an officer of the Sappers and Miners, and, with his company, has been in all the actions in the valley of Mexico that preceded the armistice, and have since terminated in the capture of that city, demonstrates that the valiant spirit of the highland Scotch still continues to exist.

A humane rather than a martial spirit becomes the physician, yet oftentimes presence, boldness, and intrepidity are his essential requisitions. McClellan had much of these opposite qualities. Human character, it is true, results from education; and its excellence depends on that Power which constrains into the straight and narrow path of self-denial and obedience: nevertheless, the force, direction, and result of specific character depend upon physical organization, which, unsuppressed