CHAPTER VI

EMANCIPATION PROPOSED AND POSTPONED

MILITARY

1862.

ILITARY events underwent great fluctua- CHAP. VI. tions in the first half of the year 1862. During the first three months Union victories followed each other with a rapidity and decisiveness which inspired the most sanguine hopes for the early and complete suppression of the Rebellion. Cheering news of important successes came from all quarters -Mill Springs in Kentucky, Roanoke Island in North Carolina, Forts Henry and Donelson in Tennessee, Pea Ridge in Arkansas, Shiloh in Tennessee, Island No. 10 in the Mississippi River, the reduction of Forts Jackson and St. Philip on the lower Mississippi, the capture of New Orleans in Louisiana, and finally, what seemed the beginning of a victorious advance by McClellan's army upon Richmond. In the month of May, however, this tide of success began to change. Stonewall Jackson's raid initiated a series of discouraging Union reverses, and McClellan's formidable advance gradually changed into an unnecessary retreat.

No one noted this blighting of a longed-for fruition with a keener watchfulness and more sensitive suffering than did President Lincoln. As the military interest and expectancy gradually lessened at

1862.

CHAP. VI. the circumference and slowly centerea itself upon the fatal circles around the rebel capital, his thoughts by day and anxiety by night fed upon the intelligence which the telegraph brought from the Union camps on the Chickahominy and the James. It is safe to say that no general in the army studied his maps and scanned his telegrams with half the industry-and, it may be added, with half the intelligence-which Mr. Lincoln gave to his. It is not surprising, therefore, that before the catastrophe finally came the President was already convinced of the substantial failure of McClellan's campaign as first projected, though he still framed his letters and telegrams in the most hopeful and encouraging language that the situation would admit. But aware of the impending danger, he took steps to secure such a reënforcement of the army, and provide for such a readjustment of the campaign, as might yet secure the final and complete victory which had lain so temptingly within McClellan's grasp. A part of this programme was the consolidation of an army under Pope. The culmination of disaster doubtless came sooner than he thought possible. McClellan himself did not seem apprehensive of sudden danger when on June 26 he telegraphed: "The case is perhaps a difficult one, but I shall resort to desperate measures, and will do my best to outmanœuver, outwit, and outfight the enemy. Do not believe reports of disaster, and do not be discouraged if you learn McClellan that my communications are cut off, and even June 26, Yorktown in possession of the enemy. Hope for the best, and I will not deceive the hopes you forPP. 51, 52. merly placed in me."

to Stanton,

1862, 12 M.
W. R.

Vol. XI.,
Part I.,

This was the language of a man still possessing CHAP. VI. courage and faith, but the events of the two days following robbed him of both. Early on the morning of the 28th he sent the Secretary of War his memorable telegram already quoted, which was a mere blind cry of despair and insubordination: "I have not a man in reserve, and shall be glad to cover my retreat and save the material and personnel of the army. If I save this army now, I to Stanton, tell you plainly that I owe no thanks to you or to any other persons in Washington. You have done your best to sacrifice this army."

The kind and patient words with which President Lincoln replied to this unsoldierly and unmanly petulance, and the vigorous exertions put forth by the War Department to mitigate the danger with all available supplies and reënforcements, have been related. The incident is repeated here to show that the President and Cabinet promptly put into execution a measure which had probably been already debated during the preceding days. The needs of the hour, and Lincoln's plan to provide for them, cannot be more briefly stated than in the two letters which follow, the first of which, written on this 28th day of June, he addressed to his Secretary of State. It was evidently written in a moment of profound emotion produced by McClellan's telegram, for nowhere in all his utterances is there to be found a stronger announcement of his determination to persevere unfalteringly in the public and patriotic task before him:

My view of the present condition of the war is about as follows: The evacuation of Corinth and our delay by the flood in the Chickahominy have enabled the enemy to

McClellan

June 28, 1862, 12:20 A. M. W. R. Vol. XI.,

Part I.,

p. 61.