Tuesday, July 17, 2012

July 13, 1862

July 13, 1862:  Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac---still bottled up at Harrison’s Landing on the James Peninsula of Virginia---is beginning to assess the damage not only to the army but also to his own career.  McClellan had suspected Sec. of War Edwin M. Stanton of being the main force against him in Washington, and sent a letter of accusation---after which, Stanton wrote a letter protesting that “No man had ever a truer friend than I have been to you and shall continue to be.”  McClellan withdrew his letter.  However, the General continues to harbor suspicions.  In a letter to his wife Ellen, he empties both barrels at Stanton's character:
So, you want to know how I feel about Stanton?  I will tell you with the most perfect frankness. I think that he is the most unmitigated scoundrel I ever knew, heard, or read of; I think that (and I do not wish to be irreverent) had he lived in the time of the Saviour, Judas Iscariot would have remained a respected member of the fraternity of the Apostles, and that the magnificent treachery and rascality of E.M. Stanton would have caused Judas to have raised his arms in holy horror and unaffected wonder – he would certainly have claimed and exercised the right to have been been the Betrayer of his Lord and Master, by virtue of the same merit that raised Satan to his “bad eminence.” I may do the man injustice – God grant that I may be wrong – for I hate to think that humanity can sink so low – but my opinion is just as I have told you.
---Pres. Lincoln, having visited the seat of war and the Army of the Potomac in recent days, mulls over the figures given him by Gen. McClellan.  Note that Lincoln is gently trying to jog McClellan’s veracity a bit---as we see in the toned-down irony of the fourth sentence of the letter.  Thus, he has exposed the looseness with numbers in McClellan’s reports:


EXECUTIVE MANSION.
Washington, July 13, 1862
Major-General McCLELLAN:
    MY DEAR SIR: I am told that over 160,000 men have gone into your army on the Peninsula. When I was with you the other day we made out 86,500 remaining, leaving 73,500 to be accounted for. I believe 23,500 will cover all the killed, wounded, and missing in all your battles and skirmishers, leaving 50,000 who have left otherwise. Not more than 5,000 of these have died, leaving 45,000 of your army still alive and not with it. I believe half or two-thirds of them are fit for duty to-day. Have you any more perfect knowledge of this than I have? If I am right, and you had these men with you, you could go into Richmond in the next three days. How can they be got to you, and how can they be prevented from getting away in such numbers for the future?

A. LINCOLN.
--- Gen. Pope’s Federal army is spread from Falmouth in Stafford County to Warrenton to Sperryville, near the Blue Ridge in the west, where the bulk of his army was---the divisions under Gen. Banks and Gen. Sigel.  A Union cavalry contingent has advanced and taken Culpepper Court House, farther south along the line of the Orange and Alexandria RR, which runs north-south.  Pope orders Brig. Gen. John Hatch, who commands a small mounted division of 3,000, to establish Culpepper as his HQ, and to send out pickets 20 miles to the south and southeast.

---Gen. Lee gives Stonewall Jackson orders to take his own division and that of Gen. Ewell, about 11,000 men, and to move northward to challenge the new operations of Gen. Pope and the new Federal Army of Virginia, who is now threatening a number of railroads, including the Virginia Central, Richmond’s main link with the Shenandoah Valley.  As soon as Jackson receives the orders on this date, he moves.  By sundown he and his 11,000 troops are out of camp and on the road.  Jackson’s march follows the line of the Virginia Central Railroad, with the intention of occupying Gordonsville, astride Pope’s proposed path of advance.
 

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