(Private.) "EXECUTIVE MANSION, "WASHINGTON, D.C. Jan. 26, 1863. "MAJOR-GENERAL HOOKER : "General:- I have placed you at the head of the Army of the Potomac. Of course I have done this upon what appears to me sufficient reasons; and yet I think it best for you to know that there are some things in regard to which I am not quite satisfied with you. "I believe you to be a brave and skilful soldier, which of course I like. I also believe you do not mix politics with your profession, in which you are right. You have confidence in yourself, which is a valuable, if not indispensable, quality. You are ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds, does good rather than harm. But I think that during General Burnside's command of the army you have taken counsel of your ambition solely, and thwarted him as much as you could; in which you did a great wrong to the country and to a most meritorious and honorable brother officer. I have heard, in such a way as to believe it, of your saying that both the country and the army needed a dictator. Of course it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only those generals who gain success can set themselves up as dictators. What I ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship. The government will support you to the utmost of its ability, which is neither more nor less than it has done and will do for all its commanders. "I much fear that the spirit which you have aided to infuse into the army, of criticising their commander and withholding confidence from him, will now turn upon you; and I shall assist you as far as I can to put it down. Neither you nor Napoleon, if he were alive again, could get any good out of an army while such a spirit prevails in it. "And now, beware of rashness, but with energy and sleepless vigilance go forward and give us victories. "Yours very truly, "A. LINCOLN." Secretary Welles tells us that the President once went so far in conversation as to say this: "There has been a design, a purpose, in breaking down Pope, without regard to the consequences to the country, which is atrocious. It is shocking to see and know this, but there is no remedy at present. McClellan has the army with him." So he recalled McClellan. Now there was a slightly similar situation. He believed Burnside had been injured by jealousies, yet he called to the command one of the guilty generals and told him to do his best. He urged on him especially the importance of an early and energetic movement of the Army of the Potomac, for its political effect at home and abroad. Hooker proved efficient in getting the demoralized army into form, but slow to act. Finally the able Southerners saw their opportunity. Stonewall Jackson, on May 2, won the victory which cost his life, and the next two days General Lee inflicted on Hooker the heavy defeat of Chancellorsville, won by superior generalship. One of Hooker's errors was failing to use all of his men, a mistake against which Lincoln had emphatically warned him. The President was learning a good deal about the kind of mistakes to expect from his generals. Lee now made his great error by deciding to invade the North. Hooker wished to attack the Confederate rear at Fredericksburg, but Lincoln, who was afraid of this plan, made a famous comment: "If he should leave a rear force at Fredericksburg, tempting you to fall upon it, it would fight in intrenchments and have you at disadvantage, and so, man for man, worst you at that point, while his main force would in some way be getting an advantage of you northward. In one word, I would not take any risk of being entangled upon the river, like an ox jumped half over a fence and liable to be torn by dogs front and rear without a fair chance to gore one way or kick the other." A few days later he said, in answer to Hooker's scheme of advancing upon Richmond: — "If left to me, I would not go south of the Rappahannock upon Lee's moving north of it. If you had Richmond invested to-day, you would not be able to take it in twenty days; meanwhile your communications, and with them your army, would be ruined. think Lee's army, and not Richmond, is your true objective point. If he comes toward the upper Potomac, follow on his flank and on his inside track, shortening your lines while he lengthens his. Fight him, too, when opportunity offers. If he stays where he is, fret him and fret him." Hooker was slow, and Lincoln telegraphed : "So far as we can make out here, the enemy have Milroy surrounded at Winchester, and Tyler at Martinsburg. If they could hold out a few days, could you help them? If the head of Lee's army is at Martinsburg and the tail of it on the plank road between Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, the animal must be very slim somewhere. Could you not break him?" The Confederates under Ewell entered Pennsylvania June 22. Now there was more bickering among the Federal generals, and Lincoln told Hooker he would have to submit to Halleck. Halleck was hostile and annoying and Hooker on June 27 asked to be relieved. General Meade was straightway appointed, for which, among other reasons, the following have been given. 1. He was a good soldier, if not a brilliant one. 2. He was a native of Pennsylvania, the present battle-ground. |