Wimps: Cowards of History

Wimp #1: John “Jack” McCall — Shot James “Wild Bill” Hickok (a famous lawman of the American West) in the back of the head after Hickok offered him money to buy breakfast with after McCall lost money in a poker game. McCall then fled to Wyoming and bragged about how the owned Hickok in a fair gunfight. [1]

McCall was eventually caught and hung.

Wimp #2: Joseph Bruce Ismay — Chairman and director of White Star Line of steamships, which most famously produced the Titanic. Ismay was on the maiden voyage of the Titanic. As the ship was sinking, he fled for his life into the lifeboat Collapsible C without regard for the ship’s policy of “women and children first”. In fact, he abandoned his own wife and children to save his own butt! [2]

For his enormous cowardice, Ismay was ostracized by society and the press. He remained out of the public eye until his death in 1937.

Wimp #3: Adolf Eichmann — “architect of the Holocaust”, Eichmann was the wimp responsible for all of the trains sending Jews to death camps in Poland. Later in the War, he sent 430,000 Hungarians to gas chambers. Now, killing immense numbers of innocent people in a policy of genocide is already incomprehensibly cowardly, but things don’t stop there. Even after official orders were given to stop the Final Solution and eradicate all evidence, Eichmann continued his extermination in Hungary to avoid combat duty.

Eichmann escaped to Argentina after the War where he worked numerous odd jobs. He was eventually captured by the Israeli Secret Services and executed in civil trial in Israel. [3]

Wimp #4: General George B. McClellan — Union general of the Army of The Potomac who was woefully incompetent due to his indecision and flat out refusals to engage in battle even when he had the clear advantage. He was overly cautious and consistently overestimated the Confederate strength. For example, during the Seven Days Battles, he thought the Confederates had 200,000 men, when in reality they only had 85,000. [4]

At one point, McClellan’s army was within 4 miles of Richmond, the Confederate capital. With a much larger army, McClellan had General Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army pinned against an impassable, rain-swollen Chickahominy River. Instead of attacking, which were also the orders of Lincoln, McClellan spent the next three weeks stalling all the while, Lee was strengthening his defenses of Richmond.

General McClellan was generally absent from the field of battle such as at Glendale and Malvern Hills during Lee’s offensive. In fact, during the battle at Malvern Hills, McClellan was safely chilling on a Union gunboat 10 miles away from the field of battle (way too far to observe the battle or give command).

Lincoln eventually dismissed McClellan as General. The Union eventually won the war under Grant.

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References:

[1] “Jack McCall.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. Web. 2 Jul. 2010.
[2] “J. Bruce Ismay.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. Web. 2 Jul. 2010.
[3] “Adolf Eichmann.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. Web. 2 Jul. 2010.
[4] “George B. McClellan.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. Web. 2 Jul. 2010.