Feb. 3, 1862

Feb. 3, 1862: Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, with 15,000 aboard transports, departs Cairo, Illinois to steam upriver (south) to Paducah, accompanied by Flag Officer Foote’s gunboats, and then up the Tennessee to attack Ft. Henry.

–John Beauchamp Jones, a clerk in the Confederate War Department in Richmond, notes in his diary: "FEBRUARY 3D. —We have intelligence of the sailing of an expedition from Cairo for the reduction of Fort Henry on the Tennessee River." Apparently, the Rebels have an excellent intelligence network.

–In an effort to prod Gen. McClellan into action, Pres. Lincoln engages in a war of orders, opinions, and rival campaign plans with the general. Lincoln wants an approach overland to Richmond; McClellan resists, finally submitting a plan to put his army on ships and land them on the Virginia Tidewater coast, and march them by a shorter route to Richmond. Little Mac replies that the President’s plan will fail, and will lead to a long, drawn-out campaign of attrition. Lincoln sends the general this rather pointed and tersely-worded letter:

To George B. McClellan
Executive Mansion,
Major General McClellan Washington, Feb. 3, 1862.

My dear Sir: You and I have distinct, and different plans for a movement of the Army of the Potomac---yours to be down the Chesapeake, up the Rappahannock to Urbana, and across land to the terminus of the Railroad on the York River---, mine to move directly to a point on the Railroad South West of Manassas.

If you will give me satisfactory answers to the following questions, I shall gladly yield my plan to yours.

1st. Does not your plan involve a greatly larger expenditure of time, and money than mine?

2nd. Wherein is a victory more certain by your plan than mine?

3rd. Wherein is a victory more valuable by your plan than mine?

4th. In fact, would it not be less valuable, in this, that it would break no great line of the enemie's communications, while mine would?

5th. In case of disaster, would not a safe retreat be more difficult by your plan than by mine?
Yours truly

A. LINCOLN

The President alludes to the question everyone who has seen the plan is asking:  How would the Army be able to guard Washington? McClellan insists on his plan, and in a twenty-two page paper, details how a victory on the Virginia Peninsula is the key to victory for the entire war. Lincoln accedes.

–Gen. Burnside issues orders to his troops as they prepare to approach the Confederate fortifications on Roanoke Island by sea that they should "remember that they are here to support the Constitution and the laws, to put down rebellion, and to protect the persons and property of the loyal and peaceable citizens of the State. In the march of the army, all necessary injuries to houses, barns, fences, and other property will be carefully avoided, and in all cases the rules of civilized warfare will be carefully observed."