Genre:

Poetry, Drollery

Subjects:

War, Astronomy

    The title of this poem refers to George B McClellan, a general in the Union army in the American Civil War, and his recent march against Robert E Lee's army in Maryland. The poem compels the soldiers to 'run to turn another day' and to adopt a 'retrogression style' of advancing, and compares 'our course of wrath' to 'The fiery comet' which 'rolls, on path / Elliptic, through the sky', and to 'Blazing stars'.