Saphroneth
Lt. Colonel
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2017
I've run into them before, but I thought I'd make a unified thread for it. The goal here is to collect not just the quips and comments Lincoln made about McClellan (e.g. "Stationary Engine", "Shovelling Fleas" and "bodyguard") but to examine the context in which they were made. This means specifically looking at the timing of each comment, because sometimes they're put all over the timeline.
For example:
A curious thing happened early on the morning of October 3 as Lincoln was walking through army camps accompanied by one of his traveling companions, Ozias Hatch. The two men reached a commanding hill overlooking the panorama of “a great tented city,” as Hatch described it. Lincoln waved his hand and asked, “Hatch, Hatch, what is all of this?” Dumbfounded, Hatch replied, “Why, Mr. Lincoln, this is the Army of the Potomac.” Lincoln thought for a moment and replied, “No Hatch, no. This is McClellan’s bodyguard.”
Stotelmyer, Steven R.. Too Useful to Sacrifice (p. 236). Savas Beatie. Kindle Edition.
Took place at a time when McClellan was not recieving necessary supplies either of food or clothing. In fact, the previous day - October 2 - Lincoln had borne witness to an outright food riot among the 9th New York (the Hawkins Zouaves), and it would later transpire that much of the supplies intended for McClellan's army were in fact going to the outskirts of Washington and no further (rather than to McClellan's actual army) - a situation which continued for weeks after Lincoln's visit.
Another one is "a stationary engine" - which I can't currently source to a specific time (it's shown up for 'the Quaker Gun affair' and also in context of November 1862). Anyone able to do so?
For example:
A curious thing happened early on the morning of October 3 as Lincoln was walking through army camps accompanied by one of his traveling companions, Ozias Hatch. The two men reached a commanding hill overlooking the panorama of “a great tented city,” as Hatch described it. Lincoln waved his hand and asked, “Hatch, Hatch, what is all of this?” Dumbfounded, Hatch replied, “Why, Mr. Lincoln, this is the Army of the Potomac.” Lincoln thought for a moment and replied, “No Hatch, no. This is McClellan’s bodyguard.”
Stotelmyer, Steven R.. Too Useful to Sacrifice (p. 236). Savas Beatie. Kindle Edition.
Took place at a time when McClellan was not recieving necessary supplies either of food or clothing. In fact, the previous day - October 2 - Lincoln had borne witness to an outright food riot among the 9th New York (the Hawkins Zouaves), and it would later transpire that much of the supplies intended for McClellan's army were in fact going to the outskirts of Washington and no further (rather than to McClellan's actual army) - a situation which continued for weeks after Lincoln's visit.
Another one is "a stationary engine" - which I can't currently source to a specific time (it's shown up for 'the Quaker Gun affair' and also in context of November 1862). Anyone able to do so?
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