Major General George B. McClellan was the second ranking officer in the Army after the retiring general-in-chief Winfield Scott and was duly appointed as his successor.  Scott had requested retirement the day before for health reasons after fifty-three years of service, twenty of them in the Army's highest post.  McClellan was charged with the training, planning, and offensive operations of the Union Army but met with only limited success.  President Lincoln replaced him after a single year in November 1862.  (By John Osborne)  

 Former Whig presidential candidate General Winfield Scott had joined the Army in 1808, was a veteran of the War of 1812, victor in the Mexican-American War, and had served as general-in-chief of the Army for twenty years. Aged seventy-four, grossly overweight, and beset by medical problems, he requested retirement. He was replaced the next day with Major General George B. McClellan. Scott saw the Union's victory before he died at West Point in May 1866. (By John Osborne)

Complaints appeared in New York newspapers about the condition of hundreds of Confederate prisoners of war held at Governor's Island.  A letter to the editor of the New York Times noted "however misguided they may have been, they are our countrymen ... our hearts should not be utterly closed against them."  Henry Bellows, head of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, visited Castle William later and pronounced the conditions satisfactory.  (By John Osborne)