By the time that photo was taken, in early October, a couple of weeks after the Battle of Antietam with George McClellan still in Maryland, both men knew they were antagonists. McClellan's dismissal by Lincoln a month later can hardly have come as a surprise. He had declined to renew the battle on Sept. 18, despite his superior numbers, or to mount a very vigorous pursuit when Lee finally did withdraw the Army of Northern Virginia. But the US Army did take casualties on that pursuit -- about 150 when they ran up against A.P. Hill's division across the Potomac. That was a tiny number compared to the dead and wounded at Antietam, but McClellan hated to take unnecessary losses. His men appreciated that, and fought well for him and their country.
Lincoln had ample reason to fire him. McClellan had gotten way over his head in politics, personally insulted the president, relied on bad Pinkerton intelligence to consistently overestimate Confederate numbers, and was no match for Lee as a battlefield tactician. McClellan probably recognized that last point, which reinforced his caution. When Lincoln did replace him with Ambrose Burnside, the result was fruitless and costly defeat at Fredericksburg. Burnside's replacement, Joe Hooker, did little better the next spring at Chancellorsville. And when George Meade's Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg, like McClellan's at South Mountain and Antietam, defeated the invading Army of Northern Virginia, he too was criticized by Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton for failing to pursue and destroy it.
It would take Grant a year of high-casualty campaigning to capture the Army of Northern Virginia, when the Confederacy was much weaker (partly due to Grant's western campaigns) than it was in 1862. Neutralizing Lee's army was easier demanded -- by civilians -- than done.
Still, Lincoln was a great war president, especially compared to his Confederate counterpart.
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