Abraham Lincoln and His Presidency (Volume 2) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. 1862. .Army of the Potomac ? McClellan Moves against Richmond ? Yorktown ? Williamsburg ? Fair Oaks. The great Union army on which the country chiefly relied was yet far from Richmond when New Orleans fell. Months before Lincoln had said: " I would like to borrow the Army of the Potomac for a while, if I only knew how to use it." On his part there had been no lack of persistent endeavor to get something done. A memorandum in Lincoln's handwriting, indorsed " Without date, but before the 1st of December," (copied by permission in 1864,) contains certain questions submitted to the General-in-chief, and the latter's replies filled into the blanks left for the purpose, showing an attempt to draw him into the collaboration of a plan for disposing of Joe Johnston's army. " How long would it require to get in motion?" was answered: " If bridges and trains ready ? by December 15 ? probably 25th." The number of troops which " could join the movement " in total was given as 104,000 ? "from southwest of the river," 71,000; "from northeast of it," 33,000. The President proposed that part of the troops across the river (blank filled with " 50,000 " by McClellan) should " menace the enemy at Centreville, and theremainder move rapidly by the Richmond road from Alexandria to the Occoquan, to be there met by the whole movable force" from the Washington side of the river (33,000), having " landed from the Potomac just below the mouth of the Occoquan," ? and so forth. Beyond answering questions in the briefest way, the General was not inclined to collaboration. " Information received recently," he wrote, " leads me to believe that the enemy could meet us in front with equal forces nearly ? and I have now my mind actively turned towards another plan of campaign that I do not think...