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.
We are in a civil war. In such cases there always is a main question, but
in this case that question is a perplexing compound--Union and slavery.
It thus becomes a question not of two sides merely, but of at least four
sides, even among those who are for the Union, saying nothing of those who
are against it. Thus, those who are for the Union with, but not without
slavery; those for it without, but not with; those for it with or without,
but prefer it with; and those for it with or without, but prefer it
without.
Among these, again, is a subdivision of those who are for gradual, but
not for immediate, and those who are for immediate, but not for gradual
extinction of slavery.
It is easy to conceive that all these shades of opinion, and even more,
may be sincerely entertained by honest and truthful men. Yet, all being
for the Union, by reason of these differences each will prefer a different
way of sustaining the Union. At once, sincerity is questioned, and motives
are assailed. Actual war comming, blood grows hot and blood is spilled.
Thought is forced from old channels into confusion. Deception breeds and
thrives. Confidence dies, and universal suspicion reigns. Each man feels
an impulse to kill his neighbor, lest he be killed by him. Revenge and
retaliation follow. And all this, as before said, may be among honest men
only. But this is not all. Every foul bird comes abroad, and every dirty
reptile rises up. These add crime to confusion. Strong measures
deemed indispensable, but harsh at best, such men make worse by
maladministration. Murders for old grudges, and murders for self, proceed
under any cloak that will best serve for the occasion.
These causes amply account for what has occurred in Missouri, without
ascribing it to the weakness or wickedness of any general. The newspaper
files, those chroniclers of current events, will show that the evils now
complained of were quite as prevalent under Fremont, Hunter, Halleck, and
Curtis, as under Schofield. If the former had greater force opposed
to them, they also had greater force with which to meet it. When the
organized rebel army left the State, the main Federal force had to go
also, leaving the department commander at home relatively no stronger
than before. Without disparaging any, I affirm with confidence that no
commander of that department has, in proportion to his means, done better
than General Schofield.
The first specific charge against General Schofield is, that the enrolled
militia was placed under his command, whereas it had not been placed under
the command of General Curtis. The fact is, I believe, true; but you do
not point out, nor can I conceive, how that did, or could, injure loyal
men or the Union cause.
You charge that, General Curtis being superseded by General Schofield,
Franklin A. Dick was superseded by James O. Broadhead as Provost-Marshal
General. No very specific showing is made as to how this did or could
injure the Union cause. It recalls, however, the condition of things, as
presented to me, which led to a change of commander of that department.
To restrain contraband intelligence and trade, a system of searches,
seizures, permits, and passes, had been introduced, I think, by General
Fremont. When General Halleck came, he found and continued the system, and
added an order, applicable to some parts of the State, to levy and
collect contributions from noted rebels, to compensate losses and relieve
destitution caused by the rebellion. The action of General Fremont and
General Halleck, as stated, constituted a sort of system which General
Curtis found in full operation when he took command of the department.
That there was a necessity for something of the sort was clear; but that
it could only be justified by stern necessity, and that it was liable to
great abuse in administration, was equally clear. Agents to execute it,
contrary to the great prayer, were led into temptation. Some might, while
others would not, resist that temptation. It was not possible to hold
any to a very strict accountability; and those yielding to the temptation
would sell permits and passes to those who would pay most and most readily
for them, and would seize property and collect levies in the aptest way
to fill their own pockets. Money being the object, the man having money,
whether loyal or disloyal, would be a victim. This practice doubtless
existed to some extent, and it was, a real additional evil that it could
be, and was, plausibly charged to exist in greater extent than it did.