Glory consists of whatever a person thinks it does, Rapaire. For different people there are different views on that. Your view of it strikes me as a pretty good one, though. ;-)

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Regarding McLellan, I doubt that he was a physical coward, but he lacked the aggressive, risk-taking nature (in terms of command decisions) that characterizes most really successful battlefield generals. My bet is that he tended to overthink everything to the point that he couldn't come to a final decision. Such people tend to have decisions thrust upon them. They end up reacting to events rather than shaping events.

He was overcautious in the extreme, and he kept overestimating the strength of the Southern forces.

On the other hand, he did a superb job of organizing and training the Union Army, honed it into a fine fighting machine despite his indecision on the battlefield, and was tremendously popular with the rank and file of the soldiers in the Army of the Potomac. It was said by some at the time that had McLellan decided to stage a coup, depose Lincoln, and take over the government in Washington, the troops would have backed him....he was that popular.

Kind of ironical, because the man was so bad at fighting battles...