Lincoln visits West Point

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President Lincoln briefly visited New York in late June 1862 when he visited General Winfield Scott at West Point to discuss the military strategy of General George B. McClellan. "The president sought his counsel on the important question of whether to risk weakening Washington's defenses to reinforce McClellan," wrote Scott biographer Timothy D. Johnson. "The general's opinion, as he reiterated later in writing, was that 'the defeat of the rebels, as Richmond, or their forced retreat, thence,…would be a virtual end of the rebellion."1
McClellan had failed to order sufficient forces to protect the capital when he left the Washington area for the Jamestown Peninsula in order to attack Richmond. When President Lincoln learned of the deception from General James Wadsworth, he ordered that the corps led by General Irvin McDowell held in the Washington area. On May 24, 1862, President Lincoln wired General McClellan: "In consequence of Gen. Banks' critical position I have been compelled to suspend Gen. McDowell's movement to join you. The enemy are making a desperate push upon Harper's Ferry, and we are trying to throw Fremont's force & part of McDowell's in their rear." McDowell's 40,000-man force was used in the campaign President Lincoln launched against Confederate General Stonewall Jackson — to little effect. McClellan, who always believed he was outnumbered by the enemy, was infuriated by President Lincoln's actions and believed it crippled his military plans. At West Point, President Lincoln talked to Scott of sending McDowell's force to McClellan's aid, and Scott endorsed the move.
continued: http://www.mrlincolnandnewyork.org/mr-lincolns-visits/visit-to-west-point/