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In 1838, McDowell graduated from West Point, 23rd in a class of 45. He was an instructor of tactics at his alma mater from 1841 to 1845. During the Mexican War, he served on the staff of Brig. Gen. John E. Wool and was brevetted captain. He was a staff officer in the adjutant general's office in Washington until the outbreak of the Civil War.
Elevated to brigadier general of volunteers on May 14, 1861, McDowell had the misfortune of leading the ill-prepared Union army against Brig. Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard's Confederates at Manassas Junction in July 1861. The pressures of the moment, the "on to Richmond" mentality, and Pres. Abraham Lincoln's perception of a need for action forced McDowell's hand. His plan of attack, described as "good on paper," required staff work and field leadership beyond Union resources. The equally ill-prepared Confederates, on the other hand, were able to maintain a defense, inexperienced as they were. The ensuing "battle of amateurs" saw the Union forces terribly scattered, forcing a humiliating retreat back to Washington.
McDowell was replaced by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, and was assigned a corps. However, he was promoted to major general in March 1862. Against McClellan's wishes, McDowell's corps was detached to protect the capital while McClellan embarked on his ill-fated Peninsula Campaign of 1862. Had McDowell advanced on Richmond from the north and joined McClellan, he might have effected a decisive move against the Confederates. As it was, he was drawn away by Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's foray into the Shenandoah Valley, seen as a threat to Washington by a nervous Lincoln administration.
This missed opportunity, not McDowell's fault, was compounded with the Union defeat under Maj. Gen. John Pope at Second Bull Run. McDowell was forced to share the blame with Pope for this debacle and filled no field command for the remainder of the war. In 1864, he was posted to the Department of the Pacific, and later commanded departments in the South and West. McDowell retired in 1882, dying in San Francisco on May 4, 1885.
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