Civil War Union Brigadier General, and Major General of the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps

George Archibald McCall was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York and graduated 26th out of 40 cadets in the Class of 1822. Commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry, he served first with the 1st Regiment and soon thereafter the 4th Regiment, U.S. Infantry.

Following his promotion to first lieutenant in 1829, McCall served for a time as aide-de-camp to Brigadier General Edmund Gaines, and was present during the Second Seminole War in Florida, in action at Camp Izard during February and March 1836. In September 1836, McCall was promoted to the rank of captain and transferred north to the Canadian border during a period of civil unrest, and later to the western frontier in then-Indian Territory, before returning once more with his regiment to the campaign in Florida in 1841.

Upon the outbreak of the Mexican-American War, Captain McCall was already stationed in Texas with his regiment. He was accordingly attached to General Zachary Taylor's Army of Occupation, engaged at the Battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma in May 1846, for which he was awarded brevet promotions to the rank of major and lieutenant colonel respectively for gallant and meritorious conduct in action. Following a period of staff duty stateside, McCall returned to the war as a divisional chief of staff during the Siege of Vera Cruz in 1847.

McCall was promoted to the Regular Army rank of major with the 3rd U.S. Infantry in December 1847, on duty in Santa Fe, New Mexico until his promotion to the rank of colonel on the staff of the U.S. Army Inspector-General in 1850.

McCall retired from the U.S. Army in 1853 after 31 years of service and returned to his native Pennsylvania, where he farmed and devoted himself to the study of natural history and ornithology.

Upon the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, the governor of Pennsylvania formed the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps, a state-raised and controlled volunteer infantry division, and appointed then-retired George McCall as its leader. He was commissioned a major general of the state of Pennsylvania, followed soon thereafter with a Federal commission as a brigadier general of United States Volunteers. McCall assumed command of the Pennsylvania Reserves and deployed to the defenses of Washington, D.C. in July 1861.

In March 1862, McCall's division was incorporated into Major General George McClellan's Union Army of the Potomac as it embarked upon the Peninsula Campaign undertaken against the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. Initially designated the Second Division of Major General Irvin McDowell's Union I Corps, the division was reorganized as the Second Division of the newly-formed Union V Corps under Brigadier General Fitz John Porter in June 1862.

McCall's three brigade commanders would far surpass his own fame, as they were Brigadier General John F. Reynolds (KIA at Gettysburg), Brigadier General George G. Meade (Union Army commander at Gettysburg), and Brigadier General Truman Seymour (of Fort Sumter and Olustee fame).

When the Army of the Potomac closed upon Richmond, newly-appointed Confederate field commander Robert E. Lee gambled that if he struck the divided Union force (then straddling the Chickahominy River) hard and fast enough, he could send it into flight. With the isolated Union V Corps, McCall's division was engaged in the heavy fighting which ensued north of the Chickahominy River during the Seven Days Battles of June 1862, in action at the battles of Mechanicsville (June 26) and Gaines' Mill (June 27) before the corps retired south of the river and retreated across the peninsula toward the perceived safety of Malvern Hill on the James River.

Although McCall's Pennsylvanians sustained disproportionately heavy casualties in the two previous engagements, his division was inexplicably placed on the western vanguard near the crossroad community of Glendale, Virginia, charged with the prevention of any sudden Confederate flanking maneuver made against the vulnerable Army of the Potomac in transit toward Malvern Hill. Correspondingly, it was struck hard by Lee's Army of Northern Virginia on June 30, 1862 as the Confederate force indeed attempted to bisect the Union Army spread out thinly north-to-south.

After several hours of intense fighting at Glendale, McCall's division managed to generally hold the Confederates back until dark, in concert with supporting Union divisions to his right and left, though his Pennsylvanians arguably absorbed the worst of the rebel thrust made by Confederate Generals Longstreet and A.P. Hill. In the end, Lee's force failed to break up the Army of the Potomac, but McCall's force was resultingly shattered by nightfall: in his battle report following the close of the campaign, he reported a total of 3,180 men killed, wounded, or captured in the three battles of June 26-30, 1862 out of the approximately 7,000 who were present at the commencement. Among the lost were Brigadier General Reynolds (captured at Gaines' Mill), Brigadier General Meade (severely wounded at Glendale), Colonel Seneca Simmons (Reynolds' replacement, killed at Glendale), and McCall himself, captured around dusk when he unintentionally rode into a Confederate picket line and was seized by vigilant infantrymen.

As a prisoner of war, McCall was transported to Richmond's Libby Prison where he remained until August 1862 before he was returned north via prisoner exchange. At the age of 60, already in a weakened condition due to the rigors of campaign, he never fully regained his health, nor returned to divisional command: on a sick leave of absence from the Army until his eventual retirement in March 1863, the command of the Pennsylvania Reserves was passed to Brigadier General Seymour (himself wounded at Glendale) until Meade recovered from his own Glendale wounds.

McCall returned once more to his home state, and he spent the final years of his life on his quiet Pennsylvania farm until his death in 1868 at the age of 65.