July 6, 1863

July 6, 1863

---Siege of Port Hudson, Day 40

---Lincoln writes to Gen. Henry W. Halleck about Meade’s intentions to pursue or even destroy Lee as the Rebels move west and east toward the crossing across the Potomac, in a tone that is scarcely restrained in its irony and sarcasm:

Soldiers' Home,

[Washington,] July 6, 1863--- 7 p.m.

Major-General Halleck: I left the telegraph office a good deal dissatisfied. You know I did not like the phrase, in Orders, No. 68, I believe, ``Drive the invaders from our soil.'' Since that, I see a dispatch from General French, saying the enemy is crossing his wounded over the river in flats, without saying why he does not stop it, or even intimating a thought that it ought to be stopped. Still later, another dispatch from General Pleasonton, by direction of General Meade, to General French, stating that the main army is halted because it is believed the rebels are concentrating ``on the road toward Hagerstown, beyond Fairfield,'' and is not to move until it is ascertained that the rebels intend to evacuate Cumberland Valley.

These things all appear to me to be connected with a purpose to cover Baltimore and Washington, and to get the enemy across the river again without a further collision, and they do not appear connected with a purpose to prevent his crossing and to destroy him. I do fear the former purpose is acted upon and the latter is rejected.

If you are satisfied the latter purpose is entertained and is judiciously pursued, I am content. If you are not so satisfied, please look to it. Yours, truly, A. LINCOLN.

---Gen. Wm. T. Sherman, under Grant’s orders, launches a pursuit of Joseph Johnston’s Confederate troops, as the Rebels fall back toward Jackson, the state capital.  As they withdraw, Johnston orders all wells to be fouled, so as to deprive Sherman’s men of any water.  This infuriates the Yankees, and Sherman wreaks havoc on farms and property along the way.

---In Maryland, Gen. John Buford’s cavalry division encounter Confederate troops in Hagerstown, and also in Boonsboro.  The fight escalates when Judson Kilpatrick and his Federal cavalry division arrives, and Stuart’s cavalry gets more involved.  The Federals are finally driven off, but Buford retains control of the gap through the mountain at Boonsboro.