Rise to Greatness (67 page)

“As the period approaches”: Adams to Seward, April 25, 1862.

a likeness of John Bright: Ronald A. Rietveld, “The Lincoln White House Community,” p. 23.

ratify a treaty:
CW,
Vol. 5, p. 186.

“Laus Deo!”:
Sumner to Francis Lieber, April 25, 1862.

Lincoln … supported a public referendum:
CW,
Vol. 5, p. 169.

“the largest slave-holder”: Sumner to John Andrew, April 22, 1862.

Lincoln … had promised: Browning diary, April 14, 1862.

the president owed Wickliffe: Speed,
The Union Cause in Kentucky, 1860–1865,
pp. 99–104.

“the most incessant rains”: Grant to Julia Dent Grant, April 15, 1862.

“
Skulls
and
toes
”: quoted in Marszalek,
Commander of All Lincoln’s Armies,
pp. 122–23.

Thousands of wounded men:
The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant,
Vol. 5, p. 20.

lashed himself to a bunk: Sherman to Thomas Ewing, Sr., May 3, 1862.

folded their reports:
The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant,
Vol. 5, pp. 48–51.

“I never saw a man”: Marszalek,
Commander of All Lincoln’s Armies,
pp. 122–23.

Halleck issued a flurry of orders:
The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant,
Vol. 5, pp. 48–51.

When a complaint: ibid., pp. 67–68.

Only Buell’s timely arrival: Don C. Buell, “Shiloh Reviewed,” in
Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,
Vol. 1, pp. 487–536.

the same indictment: Flood,
Grant and Sherman: The Friendship That Won the Civil War,
p. 121.

“ought to be shot”: Sumner to John Andrew, April 22, 1862.

“This story of surprise”: Sherman to John Sherman, April 22, 1862.

“Newspapers now rule”: Sherman to Thomas Ewing, Sr., April 27, 1862.

“Retreat! Save yourselves!”: Daniel,
Shiloh: The Battle That Changed the Civil War,
p. 137.

“not from motives of patriotism”: from an 1862 editorial in the
Western Standard
of Celina, Ohio; quoted in the Springfield, Ohio,
News-Sun,
Feb. 6, 2011.

“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.