August 22, 1862

August 22, 1862: Pres. Abraham Lincoln, in one of the most influential and historically significant documents he ever wrote, answers Editor Horace Greeley’s editorial of Aug. 20, just two days ago, "The Prayer of Twenty Millions," with this letter, (which Greeley later publishes). In it, notice Lincoln’s tact and tone, as well as his insistence upon restricting his reach of power within its Constitutional limits:

EXECUTIVE MANSION,
Washington, August 22, 1862.

Honorable HORACE GREELEY:

　　　 DEAR SIR: I have just read yours of the 19th addressed to myself through the New York Tribune.* If there be in it any statements or assumptions of fact which I may know to be erroneous, I do not, now and here, controvert them. If there be in it any inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not now and here, argue against them. If there be perceptible in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend, whose heart I have always supposed to be right.

　　　As to the policy I 'seem to be pursuing," as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt.
I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the National authority can be restored, the nearer the Union will be "the Union as it was." If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by feeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when they are shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.

　　　 I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free.

　　　Yours,

　　A. LINCOLN.
—Gen. Benjamin Butler, commandant of Union troops in New Orleans, swears into Federal service the First Regiment of Louisiana Native Guards, a regiment of free blacks that had been organized and offered to the Confederacy at first, but turned down. Since Gen. Hunter in South Carolina has been instructed to disband his black regiments, the Louisiana Native Guards now stands as the first de facto black regiment in the Union Army.

　

—Northern Virginia: Gen. Pope’s army is now all behind the Rappahannock River. He is worried about his left flank: if the Rebels were to turn that flank, they could cut him off from Washington and McClellan’s reinforcements. However, Gen. Lee determines to let Pope stew about his left flank, and to march by the Union right flank, instead. Jackson and Longstreet begin sidestepping to the West, in an effort to shield their movement behind the Bull Run Mountains, a string of low, ragged hills parallel with the higher Blue Ridge farther west. Gen. Stuart, with Lee’s cavalry, precedes the infantry, looking for a good ford across the Rappahannock. Raid on Catlett’s Station: Gen. Stuart, finding no one to oppose him in the Federal right rear, rides to Catlett’s Station on the railroad, and bags the 100 Pennsylvania troops there who are guarding Pope’s supplies and the railroad. Stuart’s cavalry capture much of the supplies and destroy as much as they can, but heavy rains prevent them from burning the railroad bridge there. Stuart raids Pope’s headquarters, taking his papers, maps, and dress uniform with overcoat. (Some days previous, Stuart lost his signature plumed hat to a surprise Yankee raid, and he writes to Pope, suggesting an "exchange of prisoners." Pope does not respond.)

　
First Battle of Rappahannock Station - This is often the given name for a rolling series of heavy skirmishes along the Rappahannock River that take shape starting today, and lasting for three days: actions including Waterloo Bridge, Lee Springs, Freeman's Ford, and Sulphur Springs, result in fairly heavy casualties on both sides. The Confederates are probing for a point to cross the Rappahannock River; the Federals are probing to see what Lee is up to. At one point, Gen. Sigel orders Gen. Carl Schurz across the river with a brigade, where he carries on a see-saw firefight with Rebel troops, who will not yield to allow any Yankee reconnaisance of their operations.

—George Michael Neese, of the Confederate Horse Artillery, writes in his journal of a cannon duel between his battery and a Yankee battery near the Rappahannock River. Then his battery is ordered to limber up and follow with Stuart’s cavalry up around the Federal army to Catlett’s Station for the raid. But the lightning storm breaks upon them along with a torrential rain, and we have Neese’s vivid and picturesque description of the storm:

Soon after nightfall it commenced raining again, and shower after shower of the heaviest sort from the blackest clouds I ever saw kept pouring down till nearly midnight, while blinding flashes of lightning leaped in quick succession from the inky-hued clouds overhead and shot their fiery streams like burning rivers through the thick gloomy darkness that draped the chamber of night. At one moment the lightning’s dazzling glare rent the curtain of night and flashed its brilliant glow over the landscape, making the woods, fields, and hills appear as though they were basking in the full glory of a midday sun; the next moment the black tide of night rushed over the scene and blotted everything into nothingness. On account of the darkness, rain and deep mud we made slow progress in marching for a raid. The cavalry were all way ahead of us. We did not see or hear a sign of them anywhere, consequently toward midnight we halted in the road where the water and mud was just half knee deep. I was wet all over, and through. Cold, chilly, hungry, and sleepy all at the same time, I put myself in as small a package as I could and sat on the limber chest for three long weary hours, with wakeful dreamy visions of a good, warm, dry bed chasing one another all over me. . . . About midnight, or a little after, General Stuart through rain, storm, and darkness charged into the enemy’s encampment at Catlett’s, surprised the Yanks and drove them from their tents scatteringly into the darkness, captured some prisoners and about one hundred horses, and destroyed eighty wagons. General Pope has his headquarters at Catlett’s, and I heard that General Stuart captured his uniform coat and his code of signals to-night. If General Pope wants to save his shirt he better keep his headquarters in the saddle or else he will see something of the Rebels some of these fine nights besides their backs.
　
—Tennessee and Kentucky: Gen. Edmund Kirby-Smith moves against the Federal base at Cumberland Gap, (where Gen. George Morgan has nearly 10,000 Federal troops there, whereas Kirby-Smith has just over 6,000) but he marches past Cumberland Gap to Barbourville, Kentucky. While there, he is joined by Gen. Henry Heth from Virginia with more troops, bringing Kirby-Smith’s force to about 10,000. Kirby-Smith then decides to strike out on his own and head north, instead of linking up with Bragg, who is beginning to move north, also. Gen. Buell, in the meantime, with the Federal Army of the Ohio, has no idea where the Rebels are or where they are moving.

　

—There is heavy skirmishing today at Crab Orchard, Kentucky, between Union and Confederate cavalry regiments, with the Southern men being defeated and driven off.