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Details
LINCOLN, Abraham. Autograph letter signed ("A. Lincoln"), as President, to Gen. George B. McClellan, Washington, D. C., 7 October 1862. 1 page, 8vo, likely trimmed from a larger sheet, slight remnants of mounting along edges on verso.
IN THE WAKE OF ANTIETAM, LINCOLN NEARS HIS LAST STRAW WITH MCCLELLAN
Three weeks after Antietam, five days after Lincoln visited him in the field to urge action, and just one day after sending him a written order to move, McClellan has the gall to request a furlough. Lincoln does not want to be hard-hearted, but sends a subtle reproach as well: "You wish to see your wife, and I wish to oblige you. It might be left to your own discretion--certainly so if Mrs. M. could meet you here at Washington."
Stick to your post, stick to the campaign, the President is saying; let your wife come to you instead of you going to her. Now is not the time to depart from your Army. But Lincoln was starting to realize that, yes, maybe that's exactly what should happen. He had already relieved McClellan earlier that year for his sluggish movements during the Peninsular Campaign. His replacement, John Pope, made even more of a mess of things than McClellan had managed to do. Pope not only failed to crush Lee, but fractured the unity and cohesion of the Army. McClellan came back to command at Antietam (see previous lot), and the old sluggishness and fear of fighting was in full bloom again. There were odd political rumblings coming out of McClellan as well in the aftermath of the Emancipation Proclamation. Issuing a statement to his troops informing them of the decree, McClellan added the gratuitous insight: "The remedy for political errors, if any are committed, is to be found only in...the polls." But McClellan himself was an error that Lincoln could correct at a stroke. He realized that Little Mac's case of "the slows" was incurable, and there was nothing subtle about the rebuke he sent him a week after this letter, on 13 October, when he said: "Are you not overcautious when you assume you cannot do what the enemy is constantly doing?...I say 'try'; if we never try, we shall never succeed" (Basler, 5:460). McClellan promised to move by 1 November only to start complaining again about lack of cavalry and the poor condition of his horses. Sarcasm is now the dominant tone in Lincolns' replies: "I have just read your despatch about sore tongued and fatigued horses," he says on 24 October. "Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that fatigues anything?" (Basler, 5:474). On 7 November he sacked him once and for all. Published in Basler, 5:452.
IN THE WAKE OF ANTIETAM, LINCOLN NEARS HIS LAST STRAW WITH MCCLELLAN
Three weeks after Antietam, five days after Lincoln visited him in the field to urge action, and just one day after sending him a written order to move, McClellan has the gall to request a furlough. Lincoln does not want to be hard-hearted, but sends a subtle reproach as well: "You wish to see your wife, and I wish to oblige you. It might be left to your own discretion--certainly so if Mrs. M. could meet you here at Washington."
Stick to your post, stick to the campaign, the President is saying; let your wife come to you instead of you going to her. Now is not the time to depart from your Army. But Lincoln was starting to realize that, yes, maybe that's exactly what should happen. He had already relieved McClellan earlier that year for his sluggish movements during the Peninsular Campaign. His replacement, John Pope, made even more of a mess of things than McClellan had managed to do. Pope not only failed to crush Lee, but fractured the unity and cohesion of the Army. McClellan came back to command at Antietam (see previous lot), and the old sluggishness and fear of fighting was in full bloom again. There were odd political rumblings coming out of McClellan as well in the aftermath of the Emancipation Proclamation. Issuing a statement to his troops informing them of the decree, McClellan added the gratuitous insight: "The remedy for political errors, if any are committed, is to be found only in...the polls." But McClellan himself was an error that Lincoln could correct at a stroke. He realized that Little Mac's case of "the slows" was incurable, and there was nothing subtle about the rebuke he sent him a week after this letter, on 13 October, when he said: "Are you not overcautious when you assume you cannot do what the enemy is constantly doing?...I say 'try'; if we never try, we shall never succeed" (Basler, 5:460). McClellan promised to move by 1 November only to start complaining again about lack of cavalry and the poor condition of his horses. Sarcasm is now the dominant tone in Lincolns' replies: "I have just read your despatch about sore tongued and fatigued horses," he says on 24 October. "Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that fatigues anything?" (Basler, 5:474). On 7 November he sacked him once and for all. Published in Basler, 5:452.