During the Civil War, McClelland served as a First Class Fireman aboard the steamship USS Richmond.

The enemy guns inflicted severe damage on the Union flotilla, forcing most of the ships to turn back.

During the battle, the Richmond's fireroom, which housed its boilers, was damaged by an enemy shell and began to fill with hot steam.

Acting courageously in this crisis, McClelland persisted in penetrating the steam-filled room in order to haul the hot fires of the furnaces and continued this gallant action until the gravity of the situation had lessened.

[1][2] McClelland died of pulmonary catarrh and irritation of the heart, and his remains were initially stored at the vault of Lafayette Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on February 4, 1883.

; employees of League Island Navy Yard, are respectfully invited to attend the funeral, on Sunday afternoon, at 2 o'clock, from his late residence, No.

To proceed to Lafayette Cemetery.In 2006, the Medal of Honor Historical Society of the United States incorrectly assumed that McClelland's body had been moved from Lafayette Cemetery in Philadelphia to Evergreen Memorial Park in Bensalem, Pennsylvania during the mass reinterment in 1947.