Rise to Greatness, page 53
remaining squabbles over patronage: Chase diary, Aug. 31, 1862.
“singularly defiant tone”: Hay diary, Sept. 1, 1862.
“McClellan ought to be shot”: Welles diary, Sept. 1, 1862.
Welles was surprised: ibid.
“Mr. Hay, what is the use”: Hay diary, undated.
“he broke down”: RW, p. 224.
“I beg of you”: Halleck to McClellan, Aug. 31, 1862, 10:07 P.M.
Making matters worse: Marszalek, Commander of All Lincoln’s Armies, pp. 146–53.
“Pope should have been sustained”: RW, p. 472.
Lincoln began the meeting: Welles diary, Sept. 2, 1862.
“a good engineer”: ibid.; also Chase diary, Sept. 2, 1862.
Never … so “disturbed”: Welles diary, Sept. 2, 1862.
“giving Washington to the rebels”: Chase diary, Sept. 2, 1862.
“the confidence of the army”: Welles diary, Sept. 2, 1862.
“There has been a design”: ibid., Sept. 7, 1862.
“Who shall save it?”: Dahlgren diary, Sept. 2, 1862.
10: SEPTEMBER
“it is to be my lot”: RW, p. 373.
“What is to be”: quoted in Carwardine, Lincoln, p. 39.
“the weightiest question of his life”: Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 6, pp. 341–42.
“The will of God prevails”: CW, Vol. 5, pp. 403–4.
jabbed with such velocity: An image of the document was examined at http://dl.lib.brown.edu/catalog/.
Second Inaugural Address: CW, Vol. 8, pp. 333–34.
Slavery … was like a tumor: CW, Vol. 5, p. 327.
“We have no carbines”: Halleck to Thomas Ewing, Sr., Aug. 14, 1862, Ewing Family Papers, Box 14, No. 5098, Library of Congress Manuscript Division.
“exciting, vague, and absurd”: Welles diary, Sept. 3, 1862.
“There are McClellan parties”: Gustavus V. Fox to James Grimes, Sept. 6, 1862, in Confidential Correspondence of Gustavus Vasa Fox, Vol. 2, p. 369.
“I want to consult you”: RW, p. 440.
“Our late campaign … has failed”: Seward to Adams, Sept. 8, 1862.
“wise or not”: Welles diary, Sept. 5, 1862.
“like shoveling fleas”: Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 6, p. 142.
“permitted themselves to be captured”: Welles diary, Sept. 5, 1862.
“He went out, as of old”: Chase diary, Sept. 3, 1862.
“a manifesto, a narrative”: Welles diary, Sept. 4, 1862.
“Kentuckians!”: Quoted in McPherson, Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam, the Battle That Changed the Course of the Civil War, p. 77.
Bragg entered the state: Foote, The Civil War, Vol. 1, p. 584; Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 6, pp. 273–76.
Lee had significant concerns: Lee to Jefferson Davis, Sept. 3, 1862, Papers of Jefferson Davis, Rice University, available online at http://jeffersondavis.rice.edu/Content.aspx?id=111.
“throwing off … yoke”: McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 536.
Lee … banned enlisted men: The War of the Rebellion, Series 1, Vol. 19, Part 2, pp. 603–4.
Lee was able to scrape up: ibid., pp. 605, 602.
Whittier composed a ballad: Whittier, The Complete Poetical Works of Whittier, pp. 342–43.
Davis would later explain: Davis, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Vol. 2, pp. 276–77.
“these discordant elements”: RW, p. 441.
he would “inflict injury”: Lee to Davis, Sept. 8, 1862, in The Wartime Papers of Robert E. Lee, p. 301.
Palmerston and Russell agreed: Crook, Diplomacy During the American Civil War, pp. 86–88.
“perhaps his finest hour”: McPherson, Crossroads of Freedom, pp. 87–88.
“There was design”: Welles diary, Sept. 6, 1862.
“reckless and untameable”: ibid., Sept. 8 and 10, 1862.
Chase was furious at Welles: ibid., Sept. 7, 1862.
Welles suspected Stanton: ibid., Sept. 11, 1862.
Smith … turned on Seward: ibid., Sept. 10, 1862.
Blair set on Stanton: ibid., Sept. 12, 1862.
“you want … Seward out”: Chase diary, Sept. 10, 1862.
“humiliating submissiveness”: ibid., Sept. 12, 1862.
As usual: Sears, George B. McClellan, pp. 273–78.
credence to mistaken reports: CW, Vol. 5, p. 409.
“consist of their oldest regiments”: McClellan to Halleck, Sept. 11 [Sept. 10], 1862.
“How does it look now?”: CW, Vol. 5, p. 418.
“fall into the hands”: Chase diary, Sept. 12, 1862.
“a long and free discussion”: Welles diary, Sept. 12, 1862.
“There was bluster”: ibid.
Weed … called on Chase: Chase diary, Sept. 15, 1862.
“Seward was supple”: Welles diary, Sept. 17, 1862.
“freeing all the apprentices”: Chase diary, Sept. 12, 1862.
“Alas, poor country”: Sumner to Francis Lieber, Sept. 16, 1862.
Nast sketched the … scene: Harper’s Weekly 6, no. 301 (Oct. 4, 1862), p. 1.
“I was nearly overwhelmed”: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, Sept. 14, 1862.
Tubs of lemonade: Sears, Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam, pp. 108–11.
beauty of the countryside: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, Sept. 12, 1862.
“Please do not let him get off”: CW, Vol. 5, p. 418.
latest estimate was ludicrously high: Chase diary, Sept. 13, 1862.
“I shall follow”: McClellan to Halleck, Sept. 12, 1862, 5:30 P.M.
a twist so unlikely: Sears, Landscape Turned Red, pp. 112–13.
“Now I know”: ibid.
debate with … Chicago ministers: CW, Vol. 5, pp. 420–25.
eventually debunked: William P. Rigge, “The Pope and the Comet,” Popular Astronomy 16 (October 1908), pp. 481–83.
“I have not decided”: CW, Vol. 5, pp. 420–25.
“I will do it”: ibid.
“study the plain physical facts”: ibid.
“Here is a paper”: Gibbon, Personal Recollections of the Civil War, p. 73.
“hope for a great success”: McClellan to Lincoln, Sept. 13, 1862.
“so dark, so obscure”: quoted in McPherson, Crossroads of Freedom, p. 117.
the same “strange dream”: RW, p. 486.
“No tongue can tell”: quoted in Hattaway and Jones, How the North Won, p. 243.
planned to renew the battle: McClellan to Halleck, Sept. 18, 1862, 8 A.M.; McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, Sept. 18, 1862, 8 A.M.
“I am aware of the fact”: McClellan, Report of Major-General George B. McClellan, pp. 149–50.
stunned and partially decapitated: ibid.
“Few and foggy dispatches”: Welles diary, Sept. 18, 1862.
“Antietam was fought Wednesday”: Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 6, pp. 164–65.
president “could not but feel”: ibid., p. 146.
“When Lee came over”: RW, p. 38.
too busy writing: Chase diary, Sept. 21, 1862.
“I let them have it”: Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 6, pp. 164–65.
“there was some general talk”: Chase diary, Sept. 22, 1862.
“High-handed Outrage”: Artemus Ward: His Book, pp. 34–35.
“The ‘neigh’ of a horse”: Carpenter, The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln, pp. 150–51.
“Why don’t you laugh?”: RW, p. 417.
the president grew serious: Chase diary, Sept. 22, 1862.
he “had made a vow”: Welles diary, Sept. 22, 1862.
Lincoln hesitated: Chase diary, Sept. 22, 1862.
“God had decided this question”: Welles diary, Sept. 22, 1862.
“I am here”: Chase diary, Sept. 22, 1862.
This revised version: Guelzo, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, pp. 172–73.
Seward … offered a proposal: Chase diary, Sept. 22, 1862.
Welles was impressed: Welles diary, Sept. 22, 1862.
Chase spoke next: Chase diary, Sept. 22, 1862.
Welles also endorsed: Welles diary, Sept. 22, 1862.
Blair now spoke up: Chase diary, Sept. 22, 1862.
hand the Democrats “a club”: Welles diary, Sept. 22, 1862.
“in great doubt myself”: RW, p. 314.
Sumner … Douglass … Hamlin: quoted in Guelzo, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, pp. 157–62.
“Hoop de-dooden-do”: ibid.
he “knew more”: Hay diary, Sept. 24, 1862.
“our harpoon”: Carpenter, The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln, p. 75.
“environed with difficulties”: CW, Vol. 5, p. 438.
“The stocks have declined”: ibid., p. 444.
a second … dangerous decree: ibid., pp. 436–37.
“such an accursed doctrine”: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, Sept. 25, 1862.
later told Lincoln: Hay diary, Sept. 25, 1864.
“That is not the game”: Welles diary, Sept. 24, 1862.
He cashiered Key: CW, Vol. 5, pp. 442–43.
11: OCTOBER
“Dr. Zacharie has operated”: CW, Vol. 5, p. 436.
“put his foot down firmly”: ibid., p. 436n.
helped to muffle: ibid., p. 225.
“pestilent sheet”: William Goodell to Lincoln, July 9, 1862, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress Manuscript Division.
“I do very believe”: James Gordon Bennett to Lincoln, Aug. 11, 1862, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress Manuscript Division.
“accept this proclamation”: Fermer, James Gordon Bennett and the New York Herald: A Study of Editorial Opinion in the Civil War Era, 1854–1867, pp. 221–25.
“your kind note”: Mary Lincoln to James Gordon Bennett, Oct. 4, 1862.
“satisfy himself personally”: “Conversation with Hon. O. M. Hatch, Springfield, June 1875,” in An Oral History of Abraham Lincoln, p. 16.
“Compel the enemy”: McClellan to Halleck, Oct. 1, 1862; McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, Oct. 2, 1862.
“His ostensible purpose”: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, Oct. 2, 1862.
Gardner … “brought bodies”: New York Times, Oct. 20, 1862.
“very kind personally”: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, Oct. 5, 1862.
at least four letters: “Conversation with Hon. O. M. Hatch, Springfield, June 1875,” p. 16.
Lincoln … “regarded his position”: RW, pp. 275–76.
Hatch recalled the encounter: quoted in Browne, The Every-Day Life of Abraham Lincoln: A Narrative and Descriptive Biography with Pen-Pictures and Personal Recollections by Those Who Knew Him, pp. 529–30.
“Sing one of your sad … songs”: Lamon, Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, 1847–1865, pp. 145–48.
“he would be a ruined man”: RW, p. 132.
disappointed a cheering crowd: CW, Vol. 5, p. 450.
“I will back General McClellan”: RW, p. 425.
“most desperately contested”: Foote, The Civil War, Vol. 1, pp. 726–38.
the effects of Bragg’s retreat: Duke, Reminiscences of General Basil W. Duke, p. 333.
“overwhelmed with the crowd”: Nicolay to Therena Bates, Oct. 9, 1862.
his monthly paycheck: Miers, Lincoln Day by Day, Vol. 3, Oct. 6, 1862.
“The President directs”: CW, Vol. 5, p. 452n.
“disgust, discontent … disloyalty”: Sears, George B. McClellan, p. 325.
“a fatal error”: ibid., pp. 326–27.
transportation magnate William Aspinwall: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, Oct. 5, 1862.
“remedy for political error”: Williams, Lincoln and His Generals, p. 171.
“hope the indignant people”: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, Sept. 29, 1862; see also McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, Sept. 25, 1862.
lacked “shoes, tents, blankets”: Rafuse, McClellan’s War, pp. 353, 358.
“quiet & pleasant time”: McClellan to Samuel Barlow, Oct. 17, 1862.
“It is humiliating”: Welles diary, Oct. 13, 1862.
“Three times round and out”: RW, p. 256.
“effect upon the popular mind”: Adams to Seward, Oct. 3, 1862.
“full of difficulty”: Foreman, A World on Fire, pp. 319–20.
“they have made a nation!”: Crook, Diplomacy During the American Civil War, pp. 87–92.
Adams was angry: Adams to Seward, Oct. 10, 1862.
“merely … lookers-on”: Crook, Diplomacy During the American Civil War, p. 98.
Now was the moment: Owsley, King Cotton Diplomacy, pp. 331–33.
Napoleon took this letter: ibid.
take the plunge: ibid.
“Nothing,” he replied: Dayton to Seward, Nov. 5, 1862.
Lincoln took up pen: CW, Vol. 5, pp. 460–61.
he would fire McClellan now: Sears, George B. McClellan, p. 335.
cavalry was no match: McClellan to Halleck, Oct. 14, 1862; Lincoln’s reaction is found in Halleck to McClellan, The War of the Rebellion, Series 1, Vol. 19, Part 2, p. 421.
“take things so leisurely!”: Nicolay to Therena Bates, Oct. 16, 1862.
“He does not understand”: Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 6, p. 280.
“all blue here”: Nicolay to Therena Bates, Oct. 16, 1862.
“twice our usual majority”: J. W. Grimes to G. V. Fox, Oct. 24, 1862, in Confidential Correspondence of Gustavus Vasa Fox, Vol. 2, pp. 410–11.
“a little gun”: CW, Vol. 5, p. 463.
“butcher-day”: Herndon and Weik, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 2, p. 245.
sparing three lives: CW, Vol. 5, pp. 475–76.
“No man but he”: Herndon and Weik, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 2, pp. 212–15.
a combination of considerations: Donald, “We Are Lincoln Men,” pp. 122–27.
“I am not wedded”: McClellan to Lincoln, Oct. 17, 1862.
“the question of time”: CW, Vol. 5, p. 460.
“Your Excellency”: McClellan to Lincoln, Oct. 17, 1862.
“fear that he was playing false”: Hay diary, Sept. 25, 1864.
“fine dry weather”: Nicolay to Therena Bates, Oct. 20, 1862.
“pardon me for asking”: CW, Vol. 5, p. 474.
“dirty little flings”: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, Oct. 26, 1862.
“so rejoiced” … “wretched innuendo”: CW, Vol. 5, p. 477; McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, Oct. 29, 1862.
“never was a truer epithet”: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, Oct. 29, 1862.
“holding a prayer-meeting”: Nicolay to Therena Bates, Oct. 26, 1862.
“a fiery trial”: CW, Vol. 5, p. 478.
“last grain of sand”: RW, pp. 380–81.
12: NOVEMBER
first snow: Bates diary, Nov. 7, 1862.
passed the camp twice a day: Pinsker, Lincoln’s Sanctuary, pp. 66–68.
twenty-five refugees a week: Joseph P. Reidy, “‘Coming from the Shadow of the Past’: The Transition from Slavery to Freedom at Freedmen’s Village, 1863–1900,” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 95, no. 4 (October 1987), pp. 403–28.
“The cause of humanity”: Mary Todd Lincoln to Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 3, 1862.
Grant … was forced to think: Grant, Memoirs and Selected Letters, pp. 284–85.
news so startling: CW, Vol. 5, p. 487.
The president drafted a reply: ibid., pp. 502–3.
“the life of the nation”: ibid., pp. 512–13.
“men absent on furlough”: ibid., p. 484.
“hard desperate fighting”: ibid.
“A deeper gloom”: Livermore, My Story of the War: Four Years Personal Experience in The Sanitary Service of the Rebellion, pp. 555–61.
“hanging from the post”: Donald, Lincoln, p. 384.
“see clearly and persist”: Shenk, Lincoln’s Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness, p. 189.
“indulge in no delusions”: Schurz to Lincoln, Nov. 20, 1862, in Schurz, Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl Schurz, pp. 213–19.
“I ought to be blamed”: CW, Vol. 5, pp. 509–11.
“You are re-elected”: ibid., p. 487.
“no next presidency”: RW, p. 400.
Lincoln would not resist: Barnes, The Life of Thurlow Weed, Vol. 2, p. 428.
Under Governor Seymour: Mitchell, Horatio Seymour of New York, pp. 318–19.
“The heavens were red”: Anonymous, Chronicle of the Union League of Philadelphia: 1862–1902, pp. 45–50.
“worse … than the bloodiest”: Sumner to Lincoln, Nov. 8, 1862.
far from disastrous: McPherson, Crossroads of Freedom, pp. 153–54.
shift of this magnitude: For purposes of comparison, the party composition of each U.S. Congress can be accessed at http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/index.aspx.
“Halleck would be an indifferent”: Welles diary, Nov. 4, 1862.
“The President’s patience”: Nicolay to Therena Bates, Nov. 5, 1862.
Montgomery Blair rode out: Pinsker, Lincoln’s Sanctuary, pp. 87–88.
No ordinary courier: Sears, George B. McClellan, p. 340.
Rectortown with McClellan’s replacement: Rafuse, McClellan’s War, p. 376.
“Another interruption”: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, Nov. 7, 1862.
“a dreadful mistake”: ibid.
“Gray-haired men”: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, Nov. 10, 1862.
“the romance of war”: quoted in Catton, Mr. Lincoln’s Army, pp. 329–30.
“we always understood each other”: James Longstreet, “The Battle of Fredericksburg,” in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. 3, p. 70.
Grant … let Halleck know: The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, Vol. 6, pp. 199–201.
intended to clear the Rebels: ibid., p. 243.
“unvexed to the sea”: CW, Vol. 6, p. 410.
out of Grand Junction: Grant, Memoirs and Selected Letters, p. 284.
John McClernand: Christopher C. Meyers, “John Alexander McClernand,” in Heidler and Heidler, eds., Encyclopedia of the American Civil War, pp. 1277–79.
the orders he coveted: CW, Vol. 5, pp. 468–69.
“Two commanders”: Grant, Memoirs and Selected Letters, p. 285.
“Am I to … lay still”: The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, Vol. 6, p. 288.
“You have command”: ibid.
Grant promptly sent his cavalry: Grant, Memoirs and Selected Letters, p. 286.
trying to thwart McClernand: ibid., p. 288.
