W. Richardson
Captain
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2011
- Location
- Mt. Gilead, North Carolina
All of those weeks since the firing on Fort Sumter the public, press, and crowd-catering politicians were yelling: “On to Richmond!” In June, Lincoln’s Secretary of the Interior, Smith, had sent word home to Indiana: “Matters are approaching a crisis & we will very probably soon have a fight.”. . .
McDowell brought his plan to General Scott. The two pondered it. On June 29 they discussed it with Lincoln, the Cabinet, and the senior generals. The President favored an immediate advance, although Scott pleaded for another plan. But the aged Chief of Staff yielded when he saw how anxious Lincoln was for a quick drive on Manassas. McDowell pleaded for more time in which to organize, drill, and discipline his army. Lincoln answered McDowell: “You are green, it is true; but they [the Confederates] are green, also; you are green alike.”. . .
Lincoln, on the night following Bull Run, did not sleep. “The President,” noted his secretaries, “did not go to bed that night; morning found him still in the executive office, hearing repetitions of those recitals [about the battle] and making memoranda of his own conclusions.”. . .
The loyal-state populations, from Maine to Minnesota, from Maryland to Missouri, even over the plains and mountains to remote and rather indifferent California and Oregon, fell into despair. They sought to blame someone for Bull Run, particularly the President. Doubts about him as a leader were angrily voiced. Inadequacy, weakness, even “imbecility,” were attributed to him.
Elderly and infirm General Scott, even though he had agreed reluctantly to the advance on Manassas against his own better judgment, quixotically took responsibility for the disaster on himself, in the presence of the President, Cabinet members, and members of Congress at an Executive Mansion conference held on July 23. . . the aged Chief of Staff insisted that he alone was to blame. He told the President and those present: “I am the greatest coward in America. I have fought this battle, sir, against my judgement; as God is my judge, after my superiors had determined to fight it, I did all in my power to make the Army efficient. I deserve removal because I did not stand up when my Army was not in condition for fighting, and resist it to the last.”
Lincoln replied to Scott: “Your conversation seems to imply that I forced you to fight this battle.”
Source: The Real Abraham Lincoln: A Complete One-Volume History of His Life and Times, By Reinhard H. Luthin, pp. 289-290, 291-293.
Respectfully,
William
McDowell brought his plan to General Scott. The two pondered it. On June 29 they discussed it with Lincoln, the Cabinet, and the senior generals. The President favored an immediate advance, although Scott pleaded for another plan. But the aged Chief of Staff yielded when he saw how anxious Lincoln was for a quick drive on Manassas. McDowell pleaded for more time in which to organize, drill, and discipline his army. Lincoln answered McDowell: “You are green, it is true; but they [the Confederates] are green, also; you are green alike.”. . .
Lincoln, on the night following Bull Run, did not sleep. “The President,” noted his secretaries, “did not go to bed that night; morning found him still in the executive office, hearing repetitions of those recitals [about the battle] and making memoranda of his own conclusions.”. . .
The loyal-state populations, from Maine to Minnesota, from Maryland to Missouri, even over the plains and mountains to remote and rather indifferent California and Oregon, fell into despair. They sought to blame someone for Bull Run, particularly the President. Doubts about him as a leader were angrily voiced. Inadequacy, weakness, even “imbecility,” were attributed to him.
Elderly and infirm General Scott, even though he had agreed reluctantly to the advance on Manassas against his own better judgment, quixotically took responsibility for the disaster on himself, in the presence of the President, Cabinet members, and members of Congress at an Executive Mansion conference held on July 23. . . the aged Chief of Staff insisted that he alone was to blame. He told the President and those present: “I am the greatest coward in America. I have fought this battle, sir, against my judgement; as God is my judge, after my superiors had determined to fight it, I did all in my power to make the Army efficient. I deserve removal because I did not stand up when my Army was not in condition for fighting, and resist it to the last.”
Lincoln replied to Scott: “Your conversation seems to imply that I forced you to fight this battle.”
Source: The Real Abraham Lincoln: A Complete One-Volume History of His Life and Times, By Reinhard H. Luthin, pp. 289-290, 291-293.
Respectfully,
William