President Lincoln's Visit to the Camps at Antietam, October 8, 1862.
Yearning for the speedy termination of the war, Lincoln came to view the
Army of the Potomac, as he had done at Harrison's Landing. Puzzled to
understand how Lee could have circumvented a superior force on the
Peninsula, he was now anxious to learn why a crushing blow had not been
struck. Lincoln (after Gettysburg) expressed the same thought: "Our army
held the war in the hollow of their hand and they would not close it!" On
Lincoln's right stands Allan Pinkerton, the famous detective and organizer
of the Secret Service of the army. At the President's left is General John
A. McClernand, soon to be entrusted by Lincoln with reorganizing military
operations in the West.