your views and those of the government as to whether he shall advance upon
the enemy. I am not prepared to order, or even advise, an advance in this
case, wherein I know so little of particulars, and wherein he, in the
field, thinks the risk is so great and the promise of advantage so small.
And yet the case presents matter for very serious consideration in
another aspect. These two armies confront each other across a small river,
substantially midway between the two capitals, each defending its own
capital, and menacing the other. General Meade estimates the enemy's
infantry in front of him at not less than 40,000. Suppose we add fifty per
cent. to this for cavalry, artillery, and extra-duty men stretching as far
as Richmond, making the whole force of the enemy 60,000.
General Meade, as shown by the returns, has with him, and between him and
Washington, of the same classes, of well men, over 90,000. Neither can
bring the whole of his men into a battle; but each can bring as large a
percentage in as the other. For a battle, then, General Meade has three
men to General Lee's two. Yet, it having been determined that choosing
ground and standing on the defensive gives so great advantage that the
three cannot safely attack the two, the three are left simply standing on
the defensive also.
If the enemy's 60,000 are sufficient to keep our 90,000 away from
Richmond, why, by the same rule, may not 40,000 of ours keep their 60,000
away from Washington, leaving us 50,000 to put to some other use? Having
practically come to the mere defensive, it seems to be no economy at all
to employ twice as many men for that object as are needed. With no object,
certainly, to mislead myself, I can perceive no fault in this statement,
unless we admit we are not the equal of the enemy, man for man. I hope you
will consider it.
To avoid misunderstanding, let me say that to attempt to fight the enemy
slowly back into his entrenchments at Richmond, and then to capture him,
is an idea I have been trying to repudiate for quite a year.
My judgment is so clear against it that I would scarcely allow the attempt
to be made if the general in command should desire to make it. My last
attempt upon Richmond was to get McClellan, when he was nearer there
than the enemy was, to run in ahead of him. Since then I have constantly
desired the Army of the Potomac to make Lee's army, and not Richmond, its
objective point. If our army cannot fall upon the enemy and hurt him where
he is, it is plain to me it can gain nothing by attempting to follow him
over a succession of intrenched lines into a fortified city.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO MRS. LINCOLN.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., September 20, 1863.
MRS. A. LINCOLN, New York:
I neither see nor hear anything of sickness here now, though there may
be much without my knowing it. I wish you to stay or come just as is most
agreeable to yourself.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO MRS. LINCOLN.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C, September 21, 1863.
MRS. A. LINCOLN. Fifth Avenue Hotel. New York:
The air is so clear and cool and apparently healthy that I would be glad
for you to come. Nothing very particular, but I would be glad to see you
and Tad.
A. LINCOLN.
TO GENERAL H. W. HALLECK.
EXECUTIVE MANSION WASHINGTON, D. C., September 21, 1863.
MAJOR-GENERAL HALLECK:
I think it very important for General Rosecrans to hold his position at
or about Chattanooga, because if held from that place to Cleveland, both
inclusive, it keeps all Tennessee clear of the enemy, and also breaks one
of his most important railroad lines. To prevent these consequences is so
vital to his cause that he cannot give up the effort to dislodge us from
the position, thus bringing him to us and saving us the labor, expense,
and hazard of going farther to find him, and also giving us the advantage
of choosing our own ground and preparing it to fight him upon. The details
must, of course, be left to General Rosecrans, while we must furnish him
the means to the utmost of our ability. If you concur, I think he would
better be informed that we are not pushing him beyond this position; and
that, in fact, our judgment is rather against his going beyond it. If he
can only maintain this position, without more, this rebellion can only eke
out a short and feeble existence, as an animal sometimes may with a thorn
in its vitals.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL A. E. BURNSIDE
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D.C., September 21, 1863.
GENERAL BURNSIDE, Greenville, Tenn.:
If you are to do any good to Rosecrans it will not do to waste time with
Jonesboro. It is already too late to do the most good that might have been
done, but I hope it will still do some good. Please do not lose a moment.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL A. E. BURNSIDE
WAR DEPARTMENT, September 21, 1863. 11 A.M.
GENERAL BURNSIDE, Knoxville, Tenn.:
Go to Rosecrans with your force without a moment's delay.
A. LINCOLN,
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS
WASHINGTON, September 21, 1863. 12.55 PM.
MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Chattanooga:
Be of good cheer. We have unabated confidence in you, and in your soldiers
and officers. In the main you must be the judge as to what is to be
done. If I were to suggest, I would say, save your army by taking strong
positions until Burnside joins you, when, I hope, you can turn the tide. I
think you had better send a courier to Burnside to hurry him up. We
cannot reach him by telegraph. We suppose some force is going to you from
Corinth, but for want of communication we do not know how they are
getting along. We shall do our utmost to assist you. Send us your present
positions.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS.
[Cipher.]
WAR DEPARTMENT, September 22, 1863.8.30 A.M.
MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Chattanooga, Tenn.:
We have not a word here as to the whereabouts or condition of your army up
to a later hour than sunset, Sunday, the 20th. Your despatches to me of 9
A.M., and to General Halleck of 2 P. M., yesterday, tell us nothing
later on those points. Please relieve my anxiety as to the position and
condition of your army up to the latest moment.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO O. M. HATCH AND J. K. DUBOIS.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON. September 22, 1863.
HON. O. M. HATCH, HON. J. K. DUBOIS, Springfield, Ill.:
Your letter is just received. The particular form of my despatch was
jocular, which I supposed you gentlemen knew me well enough to understand.
General Allen is considered here as a very faithful and capable officer,
and one who would be at least thought of for quartermaster-general if that
office were vacant.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO MRS. LINCOLN.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 22, 1863.
MRS. A. LINCOLN, Fifth Avenue House, New York:--Did you receive my
despatch of yesterday? Mrs. Cuthbert did not correctly understand me. I
directed her to tell you to use your own pleasure whether to stay or come,
and I did not say it is sickly and that you should on no account come.
So far as I see or know, it was never healthier, and I really wish to see
you. Answer this on receipt.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS.
WASHINGTON, September 23,1863. 9.13 A.M.
MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Chattanooga, Tenn:
Below is Bragg's despatch as found in the Richmond papers. You see he
does not claim so many prisoners or captured guns as you were inclined
to concede. He also confesses to heavy loss. An exchanged general of ours
leaving Richmond yesterday says two of Longstreet's divisions and his
entire artillery and two of Pickett's brigades and Wise's legion have gone
to Tennessee. He mentions no other.
"CHICAMAUGA RIVER, SEPTEMBER 20.
"GENERAL COOPER, Adjutant-General:
"After two days' hard fighting we have
driven the enemy, after a desperate resistance, from several positions,
and now hold the field; but he still confronts us. The loses are heavy on
both sides, especially in our officers....
"BRAXTON BRAGG"
A. LINCOLN
PROCLAMATION OPENING THE PORT OF ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA,
SEPTEMBER 24, 1863.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A Proclamation.
Whereas, in my proclamation of the twenty-seventh of April, 1861, the
ports of the States of Virginia and North Carolina were, for reasons
therein set forth, placed under blockade; and whereas the port of
Alexandria, Virginia, has since been blockaded, but as the blockade of
said port may now be safely relaxed with advantage to the interests of
commerce:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the
United Sates, pursuant to the authority in me vested by the fifth section
of the act of Congress, approved on the 13th of July, 1861, entitled "An
act further to provide for the collection of duties on imports, and for
other purposes," do hereby declare that the blockade of the said port of
Alexandria shall so far cease and determine, from and after this date,
that commercial intercourse with said port, except as to persons, things,
and information contraband of war, may from this date be carried on,
subject to the laws of the United States, and to the limitations and in
pursuance of the regulations which are prescribed by the Secretary of the
Treasury in his order which is appended to my proclamation of the 12th of
May, 1862.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this twenty-fourth day of September in the
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the
independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
A. LINCOLN.
By the President WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
Secretary of State.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS.
WAR DEPARTMENT, September 24, 1863. 10 A.M.
MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Chattanooga, Term.:
Last night we received the rebel accounts, through Richmond papers, of
your late battle. They give Major-General Hood as mortally wounded, and
Brigadiers Preston Smith, Wofford, Walthall, Helm of Kentucky, and
DesMer killed, and Major-Generals Preston, Cleburne, and Gregg, and
Brigadier-Generals Benning, Adams, Burm, Brown, and John [B. H.] Helm
wounded. By confusion the two Helms may be the same man, and Bunn and
Brown may be the same man. With Burnside, Sherman, and from elsewhere we
shall get to you from forty to sixty thousand additional men.
A. LINCOLN
MRS. LINCOLN'S REBEL BROTHER-IN-LAW KILLED
TELEGRAM TO MRS. LINCOLN.
WAR DEPARTMENT, SEPTEMBER 24, 1863
MRS. A. LINCOLN, Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York:
We now have a tolerably accurate summing up of the late battle between
Rosecrans and Braag. The result is that we are worsted, if at all, only
in the fact that we, after the main fighting was over, yielded the ground,
thus leaving considerable of our artillery and wounded to fall into the
enemy's hands., for which we got nothing in turn. We lost in general
officers one killed and three or four wounded, all brigadiers, while,
according to the rebel accounts which we have, they lost six killed
and eight wounded: of the killed one major-general and five brigadiers
including your brother-in-law, Helm; and of the wounded three
major-generals and five brigadiers. This list may be reduced two in number
by corrections of confusion in names. At 11.40 A.M. yesterday General
Rosecrans telegraphed from Chattanooga: "We hold this point, and I cannot
be dislodged except by very superior numbers and after a great battle." A
despatch leaving there after night yesterday says, "No fight to-day."
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL McCALLUM.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., September 25, 1863.
GENERAL McCALLUM, Alexandria, Va.:
I have sent to General Meade, by telegraph, to suspend the execution of
Daniel Sullivan of Company F, Thirteenth Massachusetts, which was to be
to-day, but understanding there is an interruption on the line, may I beg
you to send this to him by the quickest mode in your power?
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., September 25, 1863.
MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac:
Owing to the press in behalf of Daniel Sullivan, Company E, Thirteenth
Massachusetts, and the doubt; though small, which you express of his
guilty intention, I have concluded to say let his execution be suspended
till further order, and copy of record sent me.
A. LINCOLN.
TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 25, 1863.
MY DEAR GENERAL ROSECRANS:
We are sending you two small corps, one under General Howard and one under
General Slocum, and the whole under General Hooker.
Unfortunately the relations between Generals Hooker and Slocum are not
such as to promise good, if their present relative positions remain.
Therefore, let me beg--almost enjoin upon you--that on their reaching you,
you will make a transposition by which General Slocum with his Corps, may
pass from under the command of General Hooker, and General Hooker, in
turn receive some other equal force. It is important for this to be done,
though we could not well arrange it here. Please do it.
Yours very truly,
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS.
WAR DEPARTMENT, September 28, 1863. 8 A.M.
MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Chattanooga., Tenn.:
You can perhaps communicate with General Burnside more rapidly by sending
telegrams directly to him at Knoxville. Think of it. I send a like
despatch to him.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SCHOFIELD.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C, September 30, 1863.
GENERAL SCHOFIELD, Saint Louis, Mo.:
Following despatch just received:
"Union Men Driven out of Missouri."
"Leavenworth, September 29, 1863.
"Governor Gamble having authorized Colonel Moss, of Liberty, Missouri,
to arm the men in Platte and Clinton Counties, he has armed mostly the
returned rebel soldiers and men wider bonds. Moss's men are now driving
the Union men out of Missouri. Over one hundred families crossed the river
to-day. Many of the wives of our Union soldiers have been compelled to
leave. Four or five Union men have been murdered by Colonel Moss's men."
Please look to this and, if true, in main or part, put a stop to it.
A. LINCOLN
TELEGRAM TO F. S. CORKRAN.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 30, 1863.
HON. FRANCIS S. CORKRAN, Baltimore, Md.: MRS. L. is now at home and would
be pleased to see you any time. If the grape time has not passed away, she
would be pleased to join in the enterprise you mention.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL TYLER
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D.C., October 1, 1863.
GENERAL TYLER, Baltimore:
Take care of colored troops in your charge, but do nothing further about
that branch of affairs until further orders. Particularly do nothing about
General Vickers of Kent County.
A. LINCOLN.
Send a copy to Colonel Birney. A. L.
TO GENERAL SCHOFIELD.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON,
OCTOBER 1, 1863
GENERAL JOHN M. SCHOFIELD:
There is no organized military force in avowed opposition to the General
Government now in Missouri, and if any shall reappear, your duty in regard
to it will be too plain to require any special instruction. Still, the
condition of things, both there and elsewhere, is such as to render
it indispensable to maintain, for a time, the United States military
establishment in that State, as well as to rely upon it for a fair
contribution of support to that establishment generally. Your immediate
duty in regard to Missouri now is to advance the efficiency of that
establishment, and to so use it, as far as practicable, to compel the
excited people there to let one another alone.
Under your recent order, which I have approved, you will only arrest
individuals, and suppress assemblies or newspapers, when they may be
working palpable injury to the military in your charge; and in no other
case will you interfere with the expression of opinion in any form, or
allow it to be interfered with violently by others. In this you have a
discretion to exercise with great caution, calmness, and forbearance.
With the matter of removing the inhabitants of certain counties en masse,
and of removing certain individuals from time to time, who are supposed
to be mischievous, I am not now interfering, but am leaving to your own
discretion.
Nor am I interfering with what may still seem to you to be necessary
restrictions upon trade and intercourse. I think proper, however, to
enjoin upon you the following: Allow no part of the military under your
command to be engaged in either returning fugitive slaves or in forcing or
enticing slaves from their homes; and, so far as practicable, enforce the
same forbearance upon the people.
Report to me your opinion upon the availability for good of the enrolled
militia of the State. Allow no one to enlist colored troops, except upon
orders from you, or from here through you.
Allow no one to assume the functions of confiscating property, under the
law of Congress, or otherwise, except upon orders from here.
At elections see that those, and only those, are allowed to vote who are
entitled to do so by the laws of Missouri, including as of those laws
the restrictions laid by the Missouri convention upon those who may have
participated in the rebellion.
So far as practicable, you will, by means of your military force, expel
guerrillas, marauders, and murderers, and all who are known to harbor,
aid, or abet them. But in like manner you will repress assumptions of
unauthorized individuals to perform the same service, because under
pretense of doing this they become marauders and murderers themselves.
To now restore peace, let the military obey orders, and those not of the
military leave each other alone, thus not breaking the peace themselves.
In giving the above directions, it is not intended to restrain you in
other expedient and necessary matters not falling within their range.
Your obedient servant,
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL S. M. SCHOFIELD.
WASHINGTON, D.C. OCTOBER 2, 1863
MAJOR-GENERAL SCHOFIELD:
I have just seen your despatch to Halleck about Major-General Blunt. If
possible, you better allow me to get through with a certain matter
here, before adding to the difficulties of it. Meantime supply me the
particulars of Major-General Blunt's case.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO COLONEL BIRNEY. [Cipher.] WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D.C.,
October 3, 1863.
COLONEL BIRNEY, Baltimore, Md.:
Please give me, as near as you can, the number of slaves you have
recruited in Maryland. Of course the number is not to include the free
colored.
A. LINCOLN.
PROCLAMATION FOR THANKSGIVING, OCTOBER 3, 1863.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AMERICA:
A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close has been filled with the
blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which
are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from
which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a
nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which
is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity which has
sometimes seemed to invite and provoke the aggressions of foreign states;
peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the
laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere
except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been
greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. The
needful diversion of wealth and strength from the fields of peaceful
industry, to the national defense has not arrested the plough, the
shuttle, or the ship: The axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements,
and the mines, as well of, iron and coal as of the precious metals, have
yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily
increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp,
the siege, and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the
consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect a
continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these
great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while
dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be reverently,
solemnly, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and voice, by the
whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every
part of the United States, and also those who are at sea, and those
who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last
Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and prayer to our
beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them
that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such
singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence
for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care
all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the
lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently
implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of
the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with divine
purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and
union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the
independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
A. LINCOLN.
By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
Secretary of State
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL J. M. SCHOFIELD.
WASHINGTON D.C., OCTOBER 4, 1863
MAJOR-GENERAL SCHOFIELD, St. Louis, Mo.:
I think you will not have just cause to complain of my action.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS.
WAR DEPARTMENT, October 4, 1863. 11.30 A.M.
MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Chattanooga, Tenn.:
Yours of yesterday received. If we can hold Chattanooga and East
Tennessee, I think the rebellion must dwindle and die. I think you and
Burnside can do this, and hence doing so is your main object. Of course
to greatly damage or destroy the enemy in your front would be a greater
object, because it would include the former and more, but it is not so
certainly within your power. I understand the main body of the enemy is
very near you, so near that you could "board at home," so to speak, and
menace or attack him any day. Would not the doing of this be your best
mode of counteracting his raid on your communications? But this is not an
order. I intend doing something like what you suggest whenever the case
shall appear ripe enough to have it accepted in the true understanding
rather than as a confession of weakness and fear.
A. LINCOLN.
TO C. D. DRAKE AND OTHERS.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, October 5, 1863.
HON. CHARLES D. DRAKE AND OTHERS, Committee.
GENTLEMEN:-Your original address, presented on the 30th ult., and the
four supplementary ones presented on the 3d inst., have been carefully
considered. I hope you will regard the other duties claiming my attention,
together with the great length and importance of these documents, as
constituting a sufficient apology for not having responded sooner.
These papers, framed for a common object, consist of the things demanded
and the reasons for demanding them.
The things demanded are
First. That General Schofield shall be relieved, and General Butler be
appointed as Commander of the Military Department of Missouri.
Second. That the system of enrolled militia in Missouri may be broken up,
and national forces he substituted for it; and
Third. That at elections persons may not be allowed to vote who are not
entitled by law to do so.
Among the reasons given, enough of suffering and wrong to Union men is
certainly, and I suppose truly, stated. Yet the whole case, as presented,
fails to convince me that General Schofield, or the enrolled militia, is
responsible for that suffering and wrong. The whole can be explained on a
more charitable, and, as I think, a more rational hypothesis.