Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1863-02-13

LETTER OF THE RRRssDENr TO
p, GENERAL nKcCLEB14AN. -
rnx n ksipfNrs ASxiFfYFoa FORWARD NOW
'"tt ,ta MEEf EAsr sfRfsd atiNS ti
The following letter, written BY The President
to General Mcclellan IN April last was pro-
duced in the Mcdowell Court Of Inquiry in
Washington, yesterday, aspstt Of the evidence
OF Gen. Hitchcock. f u stf rHa 3
WASHINGTON, April 9, 1862.
"75 1Eyorl 0oesdl 8feegclla,.- i.epe $50
~My Dear Sir: Your dispatches, complaining
that you are not properly sustained, while they
do not offend me, pain me very much. Blenk-
ors division was Withdrawn before you left here,
and you know the pressure under which did
II, and, as thought acquiesced 10 u, certainly
not without reluctance. After you leftl ascer-
tanned that less than twenty thousand unorgan-
lied men, without a field battery, were all you
designed should be LEFT for the defence Of Wash
inRton and Manassas Junction, and part Of this
even was to go to General Hooker's old position.
General Banks corps once designated for Man
assas Junction, was divided and tied up on the
line Of Winchester and Strasburg, and could
not leave that position without again exposing
the upper Potomac aud the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad.
"This presented, or would present, when Me-
Dowell and Sumner should be gone, great
temptations for the enemy TO turn back from tho
Rappahannock and sack Washington. My ex-
plicit directions that Washington, sustained by
The judgement Of all the commanders Of corps
should be left secure, had been entirely neglect
ed. II was precisely this that drove me to de-
tain Mcdowell. do not forget that was sat
ished with your arrangement to leave Banks at
Manassas Junction. But when that arrange-
ment wqs broken up, and nothing was substitu-
ted for it, Of course was not satisfied. ] was
constrained to substitute something for it my
self And now allow me to ask you, do you
really think could permit the line from Rich
mond via Manassas junction to this city TO be
entirely open, except what resistance could be
presented by less than twenty thousand unor-
ganized troops7 This is a question which the
country will not allow me 10 evade. sa a'
"There Isl curious mystery about the number
Of troops now with you. j telegMphed you on
the 9th, saying that you had over 100000 with
you. had just obtained from the Secretary Of
War a statement taken, as he said, from your
own returns, making 100000 then. with you
and on the way to you. You now say you will
have but $4,000 when all on the way to you
shall have reached you. How can this discrep-
ancy Of $4,000 be accounted for7 As to General
WOoPs command, 1 understand that it is doing
precisely what a like number of your own would
have to do If that command was away. | sup
pose the whole force which has gone forward to
you ~ With you OJ tnls Giu1eS ana III 50, thlnk
il is the precise time for you to strike blow.
"By delay, the enemy will readily gain on
you; that is, he willgain faster by fortifcations
and reinforcements than you can by reinforce
ments alone. And once more let me tell you,
it is indispensable TO you that you s.-!Ae blow.
l am powerless to help. This you will do me
justice to remember, l was always opposed to
going down the bay in search Of a field, instead
OF offighting at or near Manassas,as only shifting
and not surmounting difficulty; that we would
find the same enemy and the same equal in
trenchments at either place The country will
not fail to note--isi noting now--that the pres
eat hesitation to move upon an intrenched cne-
my is but the story of Manassas repeated.
81 beg leave to assure you that have never
written or spoken to you in greater kindness of
feeling than now, nor with fuller purpose 10
sustain you SO far as in my most anxious judg-
ment ] consistently can. But you must act.
"Yours, very truly, A. LINCOLN"