The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-06-08
LlNcoLN's GENERALS.
Ills Ugly" Letters Were as soIcltous as
the Advice of Father.
{ From the Philadelphia Inquirer)

the Advice of Father.
From the Philadelphia Inquirer)
The president of the United States is
the commander-in-ch chief of the army
and navy. 1t is his right, not only to
call out troops and appoint officers, but
to direct campaigns. This military
authority of the president has not been
conspicuous in the war just ended
though if hostilities had lasted longer
it might have been as necessary for
Mr.. Mckinley to have exercised his
power as it was for Abraham Lincoln
in the civil war. 1t was several months
after the war between the north and
south began, much longer time, in
fact, than the entire war with Spain
has covered, before Mr. Lincoln found
1t necessary to take the military reins
IN his hands and to issue orders di-
recting movements. He shrank at first
from any such action, because, as he
very frankly owned, he knew nothing
about military matters, and he did not
want to embarrass his generals. He
was made the more sensitive on this
point because the first great battle of
the war-that of Bull Run, an unfor
tunate disaster-was fought at his wish
and against the advice of the COM
mander-in-chief of the army, General
Scott. For several months after Bull
Run the president gave no direct or
ders, though he would write long let
tiers to his generals of what he called
suggestions.
1t was fully six months after he ap-
pointed Mcclellan to the command of
the army of the Potomac before Mr.
Lincoln could be persuaded to issue a
decisive order for that general to move.
NO man ever studied harder for a cou-
pie Of months than Lincoln did before
he asserted himself as commander-in-
chief. He crammed on every military
book he could get hold of. He knew
his army down to the last man. He
studied maps down to the smallest
stream and elevation. He summoned
every military expert within reach and
asked questions until his head spun
and he went away wondering how the
man had learned so much of the sub
ject.
Throughout the war Mr. Lincoln was
beset by his generals to right their
wrongs and crafty their ambitions,
He was quick to see the motives at
the bottom of complaints and pleas,
and when he thought them petty he
bluntly said so, at the same time re-
Winding the applicants that winning
battles, not haggling for honors, was
soldiers business just then. Thus, in
March, 1868, Rosecrans became els
turbed because Grant outranked him,
and he wrote Lincoln, asking that his
commission be dated earlier. Lincoln
at once saw the reason of the request
and he replied:
Now, as to your request that your
commission should be dated Decem-
Der, 1861. OF course, you expected to
gain something by this; but you should
remember that precisely so much as
you should gain by it others would
lose by it. If the thing you sought had
been exclusively ours, we would have
given it cheerfully; but, being the
right of other men, we having mere
ly arbitrary power over 1t, the taking
it from them and giving it to you be-
comes a more delicate matter and
more deserving of consideration. Truth
to speak. do not appreciate this mat
ter of rank on paper as you officers do.
The world will not forget that you
fought the battle of Stone river, and it
will never care a fig whether you rank
General Grant on paper, or he ranks
you"
When it happened, as it sometimes
did, that the jealousies between gen.
erals became open conflicts, and Lin
coin was called upon by one or the
other to interfere, he never hesitated
to refuse if he felt that his interior
ence would complicate matters. Cen
orally he managed to put into his re-
fusal a word of good sense which If it
had been needed would have saved the
country much disagreeable scandal,
and often would have saved the contes-
tant his reputation. A case to the point
occurred in January, 1863, when Nc
Clernand and Halleck were having
trouble and McClernand appealed to
Lincoln. The presidents reply was
terse but sufficient:
Il have too many family controver-
sizes, so to speak, already on my hands
to voluntarily, or so long as 1 can avoid
it, take UP another. You are now doing
well-well for the country and we'll for
yourself-much better than you could
possibly be if engaged in open war with
Gen Halleck. Allow me to beg that,
for your sake. for my sake, and for the
country's sake, you give your whole at
tention to the better work"
One pleasant feature of Mr.. Lincoln's
relations to his generals was the hearth
ness with which he acknowledged ev-
cry advance God bless you and your
army!" was the gist of many a tele-
gram, many a verbal message which he
sent Perhaps of all these congratula-
tory messages none is pleasanter read
ing in the light of later events than the
presidents letter to Gen. Grant after
Vicksburg. In a way it may be called
Lincoln's first recognition of Grant
Major General Grant:
My Dear General do not remem-
Der that you and I have ever met per-
sonally. 1 write this now as a grateful
acknowledgment for the almost ines
Unable service you have done the coun-
try. ] wish to say a word further.
When you first reached the vicinity of
Vicksburg, l thought you should do
what you finally did-march the troops
across the neck; run the batteries with
the transports, and thus go below; and
never had any faith, except a gen
eral hope that you knew better than
I that the Yazoo pass expedition and
the like could succeed. When you got
below and took Port Gibson, Grand
Gulf and vicinity, I thought you should
go down the river and Join Gen. Banks
and wnen you turned northward. east
of the Big Black, I feared it was a mis-
take. I now wish to make the personal
acknowledgment that you were right
and 1 was wrong. Yours very truly,
"A. Lincoln"