In November of 2024 I photographed George McClellan’s grave at Riverview Cemetery in Trenton, N.J. While there, I found out that another Civil War general rests nearby. You may not have heard his name, but you know their relationship. Brigadier General Randolph B. Marcy’s grave is just a short walk towards the Delaware River from McClellan’s grave. Marcy served as McClellan’s chief-of-staff, but, more importantly, he was McClellan’s father-in-law. His grave is a more respectable size than his son-in-law’s massive monument.
Marcy was born in 1812 in Greenwich, Massachusetts. He graduated from West Point in 1832. He served in the Black Hawk War and in the late 1840s he was promoted to captain during the Mexican War. After the war, he served in the Southwest and he won distinction for his leadership of men during the Mormon Campaign in 1857. He wrote a guidebook for western travelers that was published in 1857, and he was known for his knowledge of the western trails. Before the Civil War he was posted to the Pacific Northwest and was promoted to major. After the Civil War started, he returned to the East where he served under his son-in-law.
Marcy’s grave has a monument identifying him as a major general. He was brevetted a major general of volunteers at the end of the Civil War. He was promoted to the regular army rank of brigadier general in 1878. He served as inspector general for the Army at that rank. In 1881, he retired from the army after serving nearly half a century. He died in 1887 in West Orange New Jersey. He outlived his son-in-law by two years.
In 1854, George McClellan met Mary Ellen Marcy. she was eighteen years old and he was twenty-seven. At the time, she was interested in marrying A.P. Hill, the future Confederate general. When Mary told her father that she wanted to marry Hill, he responded as follows: “I cannot tell what my feelings toward you will become. I fear that my ardent affections will turn to hate…”. He did not want his daughter to marry an officer, fearing that she would be separated from her husband and have to live on his poor pay. He encouraged her to pursue McClellan because he was going to resign his commission and devote himself to civilian work. She was not easily convinced and McClellan offered to marry her nine times before she accepted when she was 25.
They were devoted to each other during their marriage and had two children. Her son, George McClellan II was elected mayor of New York City.
During his year in charge of the Army of the Potomac, McClellan turned to Randolph Marcy and his daughter for support and counsel. McClellan felt free to criticize the civilians who controlled the army to the two of them. Next to the general is his own wife.
After McClellan fell from power in November of 1862, Marcy’s fortunes took a dive, but he was not finished yet, nor would he be finished with army life for the next twenty years.
Ellen Mary Marcy McClellan outlived her father and her husband and survived until 1915.
