Rise to Greatness

by David Von Drehle

  “I will not permit Col. Mason”: Sherman to Philemon B. Ewing, May 16, 1862.

  “Halleck says … ‘Sherman saved’”: Thomas Ewing, Jr., to Thomas Ewing, Sr., April 21, 1862, Ewing Family Papers, Box 67, Library of Congress Manuscript Division.

  “the best fighting general”: Thomas Ewing, Sr., to Thomas Ewing, Jr., April 21, 1862, Ewing Family Papers, Box 67, Library of Congress Manuscript Division.

  “shockingly abused”: Grant to Julia Dent Grant, May 11, 1862.

  an investigation: The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, Vol. 5, pp. 50–51n.

  The story soon spread: RW, pp. 92–93.

  “grit of a bulldog”: ibid., p. 86.

  “He fights”: ibid., p. 315.

  “almost … called gigantic”: McClellan to Lincoln, April 23, 1862.

  “best troops of the Confederacy”: Dahlgren diary, April 13, 1862.

  “only a foolish egotist”: Bates diary, April 22, 1862.

  Lincoln took a field trip: Dahlgren diary, April 19, 1862.

  “There it is!”: RW, p. 87; Dahlgren diary, April 19, 1862. It isn’t clear from the Dahlgren diary whether this particular joke was told on this occasion, but Lincoln did tell it more than once in slightly varying forms.

  Early the next morning: Dahlgren diary, April 19, 1862.

  Generals were beginning to complain: Sherman to John Sherman, May 12, 1862.

  “There’s the political trouble”: quoted in Dahlgren diary, April 19, 1862.

  “an outcry”: Ibid.

  visit to Richmond by … Mercier: Foreman, A World on Fire, pp. 247–48.

  Mercier’s ears: Owsley, King Cotton Diplomacy, pp. 302–3.

  The ranking admiral: Dahlgren diary, April 24, 1862.

  the time had come to recognize: Owsley, King Cotton Diplomacy, pp. 302–3.

  “‘caught napping’”: Dahlgren diary, April 24, 1862.

  He decided to warn: ibid.

  preparing a sneak attack: The Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan, p. 249n.

  When Orville Browning visited: Browning diary, April 25, 1862.

  a compendium of broken windows: cf. The Selected Poems of Thomas Hood, p. 361.

  “buzzing … like bees”: Browning diary, April 25, 1862.

  Not long past midnight: The story of Farragut’s victory at the forts below New Orleans is well told in Hearn, The Capture of New Orleans, 1862, pp. 209–36.

  “a grander spectacle”: ibid., pp. 217–18.

  “Don’t flinch!”: ibid., pp. 226–27.

  last hopes of New Orleans: ibid., pp. 239–40.

  “the great catastrophe”: Davis, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Vol. 2, p. 193.

  “New Orleans gone—”: Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, p. 333.

  “general incredulity”: Adams to Seward, May 15, 1862.

  Thouvenel … angrily jabbed: Dayton to Seward, May 22, 1862.

  6: MAY

  George McClellan’s works: McClellan to Lincoln, April 23, 1862; Warren Lee Goss, “Yorktown and Williamsburg,” in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. 2, pp. 193–94.

  “Your call for Parrott guns”: CW, Vol. 5, p. 203.

  “All is being done”: Ibid., p. 203n.

  “seems not to value time”: quoted in Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 5, p. 178.

  “In five minutes”: McClellan to Ambrose Burnside, May 21, 1862.

  “utter stupidity & worthlessness”: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, May 6, 1862.

  “very proud of Yorktown”: McClellan to Ambrose Burnside, May 21, 1862.

  “McClellan’s strategy seems”: Dahlgren diary, May 5, 1862.

  McClellan’s theory of the war: The origins and substance of McClellan’s military strategy are thoroughly examined in Rafuse, McClellan’s War.

  “I really thought that you would appreciate”: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, May 8, 1862.

  “pamper one or two pets”: CW, Vol. 5, pp. 208–9.

  “There has arisen a desire”: Long, The Civil War Day by Day, May 16, 1862.

  “The rebels have been guilty”: McClellan to Stanton, May 4, 1862.

  “The glasses tumbled”: Chase to Janet Chase, May 7–8, 1862. Chase is the source of many of the best details of Lincoln and the capture of Norfolk.

  “The guiding ropes”: ibid.

  By far the wealthiest man: cf. Klepper and Gunther, The Wealthy 100: From Benjamin Franklin to Bill Gates—A Ranking of the Richest Americans, Past and Present; CW, Vol. 5, p. 332.

  The modified ship: Chase to Janet Chase, May 7–8, 1862.

  “The rebel terror”: ibid.

  The nearsighted Chase: ibid.

  “I have only one reproach”: RW, p. 294.

  “And, father cardinal”: Shakespeare, King John, Act 3, Scene IV.

  “Do you ever dream”: RW, p. 78.

  “Well, mister”: Chase to Janet Chase, May 7–8, 1862.

  “Thank God”: RW, pp. 452–53.

  “wouldn’t go through my hair”: Ibid., p. 78.

  he spotted an ax: ibid., pp. 452–53.

  5,000 men moved inland: New York Times, May 12, 1862.

  Flinging his hat: Joseph B. Carr, “Operations of 1861 About Fort Monroe,” in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. 2, p. 152.

  Wool and Chase … advanced: Chase to Janet Chase, May 11, 1862.

  It was nearing midnight: RW, p. 85.

  “Norfolk is ours!”: quoted in Carpenter, The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln, p. 105.

  “You can imagine his delight”: Chase to Janet Chase, May 11, 1862.

  “Look out, Mars!”: RW, p. 78.

  “I suppose he will be home”: Nicolay to Therena Bates, May 9, 1862.

  Lincoln was proud: Browning diary, May 14, 1862. Lincoln boasted of having “devised and caused to be executed” the entire plan, having “himself … explored the Coast and found a landing site for the troops.”

  “a brilliant week’s campaign”: Chase to Janet Chase, May 11, 1862.

  “the drooping cause”: quoted in Hattaway and Jones, How the North Won, p. 178.

  danger of assassination: David Hunter to Lincoln, Oct. 20, 1860, at http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage.

  Hunter’s military experience: Brad Arnold, “David Hunter,” in Heidler and Heidler, eds., Encyclopedia of the American Civil War, pp. 1019–20.

  Port Royal: cf. Pierce, “The Freedmen at Port Royal,” p. 299.

  “red flannel suits”: Chase diary, May 1, 1862.

  “rebellion and slavery were intertwined”: Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 6, pp. 90–91.

  “both … Halleck and Grant”: Sherman, Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman, p. 285.

  “do it, not say it”: RW, pp. 392–93.

  “the usual acrimonious comments”: Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 6, p. 94.

  New York Herald: CW, Vol. 5, pp. 225–26n.

  man without a party: Carl Schurz to Lincoln, May 19, 1862: “You told me a week ago in the course of our confidential conversation, that you expected to be left without support at the next congressional elections by the Republican party as well as the democratic; by the latter, because you were too radical and by the former, because you were not radical enough.” Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress Manuscript Division, available online at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/alhtml/malhome.html.

  lacked … “the moral courage”: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, May 23, 1862.

  Robert Smalls: Dorothy L. Drinkard, “Robert Smalls,” in Heidler and Heidler, eds., Encyclopedia of the American Civil War, pp. 1804–6.

  “No commanding general”: quoted in Warden, An Account of the Private Life and Public Services of Salmon Portland Chase, p. 434.

  Lincoln was reading a treatise: RW, p. 88.

  Whiting argued: Whiting, The War Powers of the President, and the Legislative Powers of Congress in Relation to Rebellion, Treason and Slavery, pp. 3, 66–67.

  Lincoln rescinded Hunter’s order: CW, Vol. 5, pp.
222–23.

  “signs of the times”: ibid.

  the Fugitive Slave Act: ibid., p. 224.

  Seward’s essay: Seward to Adams, May 28, 1862.

  “Give us emancipation”: Sumner to Orestes Brownson, May 25, 1862.

  “Stanton told me”: Sumner to John Andrew, May 28, 1862.

  “always a nuisance”: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, May 15, 1862; Bates diary, May 13, 1862.

  The secretaries sparred: Dahlgren diary, May 17, 18, 19, and 21, 1862.

  a forward-thinking businessman: A. J. Isacks to Thomas Ewing, Jr., April 25 and May 1, 1862, Ewing Family Papers, Box 67, Library of Congress Manuscript Division.

  “ideal of a great man”: cf. CW, Vol. 1, pp. 121–32.

  “a deadly vampyre”: Prentice, Biography of Henry Clay, p. 266.

  American Colonization Society: Ibid., p. 267.

  “What next?”: CW, Vol. 2, pp. 248–83.

  “sustain no reverse”: ibid., Vol. 5, p. 210.

  “siege from start to close”: Grant, Memoirs and Selected Letters, pp. 250–51.

  “little more than an observer”: Sherman, Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman, p. 271.

  “high feather”: ibid., pp. 275–76; Sherman to Thomas Ewing, Sr., May 3, 1862; Ellen Ewing Sherman to Hugh Ewing, May 23, 1862, Ewing Family Papers, Box 67, Library of Congress Manuscript Division.

  Grant saw the opportunities: Sherman to Ewing, Sr., May 3, 1862; Grant, Memoirs and Selected Letters, pp. 256–57.

  “be relieved entirely”: Grant to Halleck, May 11, 1862.

  “guns that’ll carry further”: RW, p. 426.

  “My entire force”: McClellan to Stanton, May 5, 1862.

  “If I win”: McClellan to Ambrose Burnside, May 21, 1862.

  Stonewall Jackson: James I. Robertson, Jr., “Thomas Jonathan Jackson,” in Heidler and Heidler, eds., Encyclopedia of the American Civil War, pp. 1058–65.

  “He seems to be cut off”: quoted in Foote, The Civil War, Vol. 1, p. 429.

  “Always mystify”: quoted in Robertson, “Thomas Jonathan Jackson,” in Heidler and Heidler, eds., Encyclopedia of the American Civil War, pp. 1058–65.

  “bound for Richmond”: Foote, The Civil War, Vol. 1, p. 427.

  “the enemy were concentrating”: CW, Vol. 5, p. 216n.

  Halleck faced a great mass: ibid., p. 231.

  secret order: ibid., pp. 219–20.

  “worried about Mary”: RW, p. 234.

  “Our home is very beautiful”: Mary Lincoln to Julia Ann Sprigg, May 29, 1862.

  “our especial desire”: quoted in Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 2, p. 260.

  “I want the crape”: Mary Lincoln to Ruth Harris, May 17, 1862.

  counting the days: Mary Lincoln to Julia Ann Sprigg, May 29, 1862.

  “one of the best”: CW, Vol. 5, p. 326; Boyden, Echoes from Hospital and White House, pp. 93–94.

  at the hospital: Boyden, Echoes from Hospital and White House, pp. 95–98.

  “It will not be long”: ibid.

  “He left so privately”: Dahlgren diary, May 22, 1862.

  “Let us walk over”: ibid.

  “Take a good ready”: RW, p. 202.

  “trying to do my duty”: ibid., p. 324.

  “decline and fall”: ibid., p. 167.

  Mercier … also in camp: Dahlgren diary, May 23, 1862.

  up again at five A.M.: ibid., May 24 and 25, 1862.

  urgent message to McClellan: CW, Vol. 5, pp. 231–32.

  “Apprehension of something”: ibid., pp. 236–37.

  she buttonholed Nicolay: Nicolay to Therena Bates, May 25, 1862.

  “fall of Richmond”: Foote, The Civil War, Vol. 1, p. 437.

  “Another Bull Run”: RW, p. 434.

  For all he knew: Browning diary, May 25, 1862: “President entertained fears that [Banks] was destroyed.”

  “a general and concerted one”: CW, Vol. 5, pp. 235–36.

  “the utmost speed”: ibid., p. 231.

  “the time is near”: ibid., pp. 235–36.

  “This is a crushing blow”: ibid., p. 233n.

  McClellan’s scorn: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, May 25, 1862.

  McClellan tried to persuade: McClellan to Lincoln, May 25, 1862.

  “mere occupation of places”: Grant, Memoirs and Selected Letters, p. 255.

  Napoleon Bonaparte had called: Foote, The Civil War, Vol. 1, p. 436.

  Frémont, ordered east: CW, Vol. 5, p. 243.

  The skies opened: Foote, The Civil War, Vol. 1, pp. 432–33.

  McDowell’s scouts: CW, Vol. 5, pp. 246–48.

  A railroad accident: ibid., p. 248n.

  “much disabled”: ibid., p. 247n.

  a pass for … Lamon: ibid., p. 247.

  “The game is before you”: ibid., pp. 250–51.

  “a precious lot of fools”: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, May 26, 1862.

  7: JUNE

  fingers at one another: Joseph E. Johnston, “Manassas to Seven Pines,” in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. 2, pp. 202–19; Gustavus W. Smith, “Two Days of Battle at Seven Pines (Fair Oaks),” in Battle and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. 2, pp. 220–63.

  “what I had to sleep on”: Dahlgren diary, June 1, 1862.

  optimism prevailed: Nicolay to Therena Bates, June 2, 1862.

  Robert E. Lee: Gary W. Gallagher, “Robert E. Lee,” in Heidler and Heidler, eds., Encyclopedia of the American Civil War, pp. 1154–55.

  Lee was “too cautious”: McClellan to Lincoln, April 20, 1862.

  “a constabulary basis”: Catton, Grant Moves South, pp. 280–81.

  “repair of the railroad”: ibid.

  ordered Grant … to Memphis: Smith, Grant, pp. 213–15.

  One exchange of telegrams: CW, Vol. 5, p. 258.

  “possessed all the qualities”: quoted in Richardson, William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism, p. 385.

  “Jackson’s game”: CW, Vol. 5, pp. 270–72, 273–74.

  “How glad I will be”: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, June 9, 1862.

  McClellan’s “extreme caution”: Nicolay to Therena Bates, June 5, 1862.

  unsought advice: CW, Vol. 5, p. 257.

  volleyed back: ibid., p. 258n; also Stoddard, Inside the White House, p. 163: “I have inadvertently spoken of the President as ‘his Excellency’ … the use of which Mr. Lincoln always disapproved.”

  the crowded lobby of Willard’s: Bates diary, June 4, 1862.

  He encouraged Banks: CW, Vol. 5, p. 280.

  “terribly out of shape”: ibid., p. 272.

  “I … almost weep”: J. G. Barnard to Gustavus V. Fox, July 24, 1862, in Confidential Correspondence of Gustavus Vasa Fox, pp. 330–31.

  “The current reports”: Stoddard, Inside the White House, pp. 79–80.

  J. E. B. Stuart, had ridden: cf. W. T. Robins, “Stuart’s Ride Around McClellan,” in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. 2, pp. 271–75.

  “only a political raid”: RW, p. 183.

  “I will break it for him”: ibid.; also Donald, Lincoln, p. 359.

  “If we are so forbearing”: John Sherman to Thomas Ewing, Sr., June 5, 1862, Ewing Family Papers, Box 14, No. 5036, Library of Congress Manuscript Division.

  confusion over … runaways: Browning diary, June 11, 1862.

  “prejudice … against Labor”: quoted in Long, The Civil War Day by Day, June 11, 1862.

  Progressive Quakers: A brief history of the meeting is found at http://undergroundrr.kennett.net/lincolnvisit.html.

  “We are solemnly convinced”: CW, Vol. 5, pp. 278–79.

  softened his tone: ibid.

  “under divine guidance”: ibid.

  The obvious sincerity: New-York Tribune, June 21, 1862.

  “comes in every day at ten”: Nicolay to Therena Bates, June 15, 1862.

  In a coded telegram: CW, Vol. 5, p. 276.

  legions of Rebels: McClellan to Stanton, June 14, 1862.

  refused to b
e pinned down: McClellan to Lincoln, June 18, 1862.

  “I see hundreds”: RW, pp. 171, 349.

  “by daylight and moonlight”: quoted in Pinsker, Lincoln’s Sanctuary: Abraham Lincoln and the Soldiers’ Home, p. 50.

  Hamlin was delighted: Hamlin, The Life and Times of Hannibal Hamlin, Vol. 2, pp. 428–29.

  put ideas on paper: Guelzo, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, pp. 140–45.

  “My dear Sir”: Ridley, Lord Palmerston, p. 556.

  Benjamin Franklin Butler: Kathleen R. Zebley, “Benjamin Franklin Butler,” in Heidler and Heidler, eds., Encyclopedia of the American Civil War, pp. 329–31.

  “guilty in cold Blood”: Ridley, Lord Palmerston, p. 556.

  pay down Mexico’s debts: Seward to Adams, June 7, 1862; CW, Vol. 5, p. 281.

  “It is vain to hope”: Dayton to Seward, June 2, 1862.

  finer than the Oreto: Spencer C. Tucker, “CSS Alabama,” in Heidler and Heidler, eds., Encyclopedia of the American Civil War, pp. 22–23.

  “It strikes me”: quoted in Adams, Charles Francis Adams: An American Statesman, p. 257.

  the women of Delhi: Ridley, Lord Palmerston, p. 556; Dalrymple, The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi, 1857, p. 427.

  It would help: Adams, Charles Francis Adams, p. 257.

  “anomalous form of proceeding”: ibid., p. 258.

  “the progress of the war”: Adams to Seward, June 20, 1862.

  séance in the Red Room: Randall, Mary Lincoln, pp. 261–63.

  participant at … prayer meetings: Johnson, Abraham Lincoln the Christian, pp. 13–15.

  “A simple faith in God”: RW, p. 191.

  a collection of “memoranda”: Browning diary, June 22, 1862.

  riding off to his fate: Randall, Lincoln’s Sons, pp. 120–21.

  a private car: Miers, Lincoln Day by Day, Vol. 3, June 23, 1862.

  John Pope: John C. Fredriksen, “John Pope,” in Heidler and Heidler, eds., Encyclopedia of the American Civil War, pp. 1541–42.

  As Scott put it: CW, Vol. 5, p. 284n.

  the next objectives: ibid.

  “All he wanted”: RW, p. 179.

  in mind just the man: Eisenhower, Agent of Destiny: The Life and Times of General Winfield Scott, pp. 396–97, 403.

  broke up at noon: Miers, Lincoln Day by Day, Vol. 3, June 24, 1862.

  “a thousand rumors buzzing”: Nicolay to Therena Bates, June 27, 1862.

  “When birds and animals”: CW, Vol. 5, p. 284.