Existing comment:
June 1862:
Changing the Guard:
In the third week of June 1862, Lincoln made a trip to West Point, where he consulted with the retired Winfield Scott. On Scott's word, the president selected a new General-in-Chief. Henry Halleck -- nicknamed "Old Brains" -- was a skilled administrator and former West Point professor. But he lacked imagination and shied away from difficult decisions.
Whipped Again!
The President re-organized Union forces in Virginia, entrusting a new army there to a western general named John Pope. At the end of August, Pope faced Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson on the same Bull Run field where Union troops had been humiliated a year before.
History repeated itself. "Well, John, we are whipped again, I am afraid," Lincoln told his secretary John Hay at the end of a three-day bloodletting. Reluctantly, Lincoln recalled McClellan to command the shattered army.
September 1862:
What Might Have Been:
At the start of September 1862, an anguished Lincoln told his Cabinet he felt almost ready to hang himself. Following his victory at Second Bull Run, Lee pressed his army north, crossing into Maryland and threatening Pennsylvania. McClellan regarded his subsequent victory over Lee at Antietam as "a masterpiece of [military] art." To Lincoln, it was yet another missed opportunity to destroy the rebel forces and end the war.
General McClellan's Bodyguard:
On October 1, Lincoln visited McClellan's camp. To a Springfield friend who had accompanied him, the president asked, "Hatch, what is all this?"
"Why, Mr. Lincoln, this is the Army of the Potomac."
"No, Hatch, no. This is General McClellan's bodyguard."
When the general claimed he couldn't advance because his cavalry horses were fatigued, the president shot back, "Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that fatigues anything?"
Clearly, McClellan's days were numbered. |