"[Lee] thought McClellan was the best general he faced"

[veji1]

Guys, remember that moving in the ACW, on distances bigger than in Europe and on land far poorer in terms of infrastructure, foraging possibilities, depots, etc was just hard ! There had to be many many longish operational pauses in the war, and after a series of moves it took a long time for an army to be in proper campaigning shape again.

[Toro12]

This is a good point. When we consider that Holland and Belgium together are about 1/2 the size of Ohio, the sheer spacial volume of the theaters in question, and distances between cities, left armies widely scattered and requiring time to rebuild cohesiveness. Sitting on hands would be necessary just to reassemble an army after a move.