The American Civil War, day by day - Page 27 - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

Wandering the information superhighway, he came upon the last refuge of civilization, PoFo, the only forum on the internet ...

Those who do not remember the past are condemned to relive it. Note: nostalgia *is* allowed.
Forum rules: No one line posts please.
#15045066
October 28, Monday

Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston assumes immediate command of the Army of Central Kentucky at Bowling Green.

There is a skirmish near Budd’s Ferry, Maryland, on the Potomac; another at Laurel Bridge in Laurel County, Kentucky; and a Federal scout to Fulton, Missouri.

A pro-secessionist is ridden out of Braintree, Massachusetts, on a rail.
#15045232
October 29, Tuesday

The huge combined land and sea expedition, under Brigadier General Thomas W. Sherman and Flag Officer Samuel F. Du Pont, leaves Hampton Roads, Virginia, for the Carolina coast and Port Royal, north of Savannah, Georgia. The finest natural harbor on the southern coast, between the ports of Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia, it would give the Union Navy the deep-water harbor it needs to maintain a year-round blockade along most of the south Atlantic coast. The expedition has seventy-seven vessels and about twelve thousand troops, the largest ever assembled by the United States. Considerable pains have been taken to conceal its destination, but this very day the Richmond government alerts the coastal defenses that the expedition has sailed.

There are skirmishes at and near Woodbury, Kentucky.

President Lincoln and General McClellan again discuss military plans for the Army of the Potomac as they have so often during this autumn of organization but offensive inactivity.

In England pro-Union and pro-Confederate meetings are held, with considerable speechmaking by both sides.

Lack of supplies and manpower are reported to be hurting both armies in western Virginia.
#15045438
October 30, Wednesday

President Davis takes General Beauregard to task for permitting portions of his controversial report on the Battle of Manassas to be printed in the newspaper and saying that “it seemed to be an attempt to exalt yourself at my expense.”

General Lee is ordered to return to Richmond, his “Kanawha and New River Campaign” ending as “ingloriously” as had his efforts about Cheat Mountain.
#15045685
October 31, Thursday

A remnant of the Missouri legislature votes the state out of the Union and into the Confederacy at Neosho, which in effect creates Missouri as a state in both nations.

There is skirmishing at Greenbrier and Cotton Hill, western Virginia, and near Morgantown, Kentucky.

President Lincoln receives a formal request from General-in-Chief Winfield Scott to retire from his post. The elderly, obese, ailing Scott is unable to cope with the heavy duties of office and has been pressed by the young and ambitious McClellan, who believes his superior unfit to command. President Lincoln appoints youthful, self-contained, supposedly vigorous Major General George B. McClellan as his successor. The old man is stepping down voluntarily but under pressure after one of the most illustrious and lengthy careers in American military life. The Civil War is too new, too young, too intense. And more, another man wants the job. Scott has realized he has to go, but he would prefer his successor to be Major General Henry W. Halleck rather than the ardent thirty-four-year-old general who has been complaining about him publicly and privately for months.

Lincoln is worried that McClellan might feel overburdened by the increased responsibility, so that evening he visits him at his headquarters. Lincoln finds him in high spirits, glad to be out from under General Scott’s dead weight. When the President asks whether he is as aware of the additional weight of command of all the armies as well as the weight that has been taken away, McClellan says, “I can do it all.”
#15045864
November 1, Friday

The seventy-seven ships of the Port Royal expedition are swept by a violent storm off always dangerous Cape Hatteras on their way to South Carolina from Fort Monroe. Scattered so badly that Captain Du Pont can sight only one other ship’s sails from the deck of his flagship, damaged, a transport sunk and another ship so close to sinking that the crew have had to heave their cannon over the side, the ships try to reach their rendezvous after captains open sealed orders prepared for such an emergency. Meanwhile, the defenders of the fleet’s objective receive a telegram from Richmond: “The enemy’s expedition is intended for Port Royal.”

There is a skirmish with Amerinds on the Peosi River of Texas.

Three days of fighting takes place near Gauley Bridge and Cotton Hill, western Missouri. From Rolla a Federal cavalry force operates against guerillas.

General Fremont at Springfield signs an agreement with commissioners from Confederate General Price regarding exchange of prisoners and releases those arrested “for mere expression of political opinions.” This agreement will soon be abrogated by President Lincoln, as it goes beyond local military authority.

President Lincoln formally designates General McClellan general in chief of all Federal armies.
#15046061
November 2, Saturday

The career of flamboyant, effervescent, ineffective Major General John C. Fremont in the Western Department comes to an end when a messenger penetrates Fremont’s guards at Springfield, Missouri, and hands him the orders placing Major General David Hunter temporarily in command of the department. Fremont complains that he should not be relieved as he is about to fight the nearby enemy at the old field of Wilson’s Creek. But Price and his Confederates are more than sixty miles away. An instant uproar rises from some of Fremont’s notorious staff, the army, and a portion of the populace of St. Louis. There are rumors of actual revolt and supposedly there are those that want Fremont to “set up for himself” his own nation in the West. This never gets beyond the talking stage, however, and the disturbance caused by Fremont’s removal will die down.

Meanwhile, southeastern Missouri continues to be roiled from operations of General Jeff Thompson’s pro-Confederates. From November 2nd through the 12th Federal troops will carry out operations against them from Bird’s Point, Cape Girardeau, and Ironton, Missouri.

Confederate newspapers warn citizens of the impending invasion of the south Atlantic coast.

Governor Isham G. Harris of Tennessee calls for citizens to furnish shotguns and other arms for troops now gathering.

USS Sabine, part of the scattered Port Royal expedition, goes down, but the Marine battalion on board escapes.
#15046089
An instant uproar rises from some of Fremont’s notorious staff, the army, and a portion of the populace of St. Louis. There are rumors of actual revolt and supposedly there are those that want Fremont to “set up for himself” his own nation in the West. This never gets beyond the talking stage, however, and the disturbance caused by Fremont’s removal will die down.

This is remarkable, and gives some idea of just how weak the USA was as a nation-state at the time of the Civil War. As I said earlier, if the Secession of the Southern states had not been firmly stamped on, it's not impossible that the whole federal United States might have unravelled shortly thereafter. If Lincoln had not possessed the personal qualities he did, and if he had not been President during that crisis, there might not be a nation called 'the United States of America' right now.

It also suggests just how easily an incompetent blowhard demagogue could sway public opinion. I guess some things about America will never change.... Lol. ;)
#15046122
Potemkin wrote:This is remarkable, and gives some idea of just how weak the USA was as a nation-state at the time of the Civil War. As I said earlier, if the Secession of the Southern states had not been firmly stamped on, it's not impossible that the whole federal United States might have unravelled shortly thereafter. If Lincoln had not possessed the personal qualities he did, and if he had not been President during that crisis, there might not be a nation called 'the United States of America' right now.

IIRC, this wasn't the last time at least some of those in the West (as opposed to the Far West) considered creating their own nation.
It also suggests just how easily an incompetent blowhard demagogue could sway public opinion. I guess some things about America will never change.... Lol. ;)

Actually, Fremont was competent ... within his area of expertise as an explorer of the Far West. But he was also a prima donna; this wasn't necessarily a problem by itself, some of our most competent military leaders have been prima donnas--but when it came to actually fighting a war he was far from competent. I've seen at least one writer that suggested he would have been a far better president in 1857 than he was a fighting general in 1861.
#15046305
November 3, Sunday

In spite of their differences, McClellan and his staff rise at a rainy 4 am and along with a squadron of cavalry escort General Scott to the railway station to give him a goodbye salute before he boards the train. Later that day McClellan writes to his wife, “The sight of this morning was a lesson to me which I hope not soon to forget. I saw there the end of a long, active, and industrious life, the end of the career of the first soldier of his nation; and it was a feeble old man scarce able to walk; hardly anyone there to see him off but his successor. Should I ever become vainglorious and ambitious, remind me of that spectacle.”

As Scott makes his lonely trip to retirement at West Point, there is general approval that a younger man who promises so much will be at the helm as General-in-Chief. True, the fall is flitting past with little to no action, but the Army looks grand.

Major General David Hunter takes over active command of the Western Department from Fremont at Springfield, Missouri.

General Grant sends a column south on the west side of the Mississippi in an attempt to bag or destroy the force under General Jeff Thompson, reported near the Missouri bootheel in the St. Francis region.

President Davis writes General J.E. Johnston of his concern over what he calls the false reports that Davis prevented General Beauregard from following the enemy after Manassas. He asks for Johnston’s support.
#15046460
November 4, Monday

Major General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson assumes control of his new Shenandoah Valley District.

Davis, angered by his quarrel with Beauregard, writes Generals Cooper and Lee for information in regard to rumors that the President has rejected plans “for vigorous movements against the enemy.”

At Port Royal Sound north of Savannah a US Coast Survey vessel prowls the area escorted by two naval vessels. They are fired on by small vessels of the Confederate naval squadron as the scattered main Federal fleet reassembles outside the sound.
#15046658
November 5, Tuesday

General Robert E. Lee is named commander of the new Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and East Florida by the Confederate government. Although his reputation is a bit tarnished by the fruitless campaigning in western Virginia, he still maintains an influence with the people of the South.

A dispatch informs General Grant that General Polk is definitely sending reinforcements to General Price. Grant is now ordered to make a demonstration against Columbus, Kentucky.

Federal forces under Brigadier General William Nelson occupy Prestonburg, Kentucky.

Four Federal naval vessels fight the small, weak Confederate flotilla in Port Royal Sound, South Carolina, forcing it up into the inland streams.
#15046883
November 6, Wednesday

Voters of the Confederate States of America go to the polls to select their President under their “permanent” government. Chosen without opposition for a six-year term is Jefferson Davis, who up to now has officially been Provisional President. Members of the first regular Congress are also selected. As yet there is only one political party—the Democratic—although within it there are various factions forming.

Off Port Royal, Captain Du Pont holds a conference of his captains at which he outlines his order of battle for the next day. The opposing Confederate forces are Forts Beauregard and Walker, on the north and south sides of the sound less than three miles apart, and three tugs mounting one gun each and a converted river steamer commanded by Commodore Josiah Tattnall, whom Du Pont served alongside of in what is already known as “the old navy” and knows to be a bold and capable officer. This will be a purely naval affair—not only are the soldiers on the transports still green around the gills thanks to the storm, but they lost almost all their landing craft. Du Pont orders that the ships making the attack will divide into two squadrons, one of nine of the heaviest frigates and sloops, and the other of five gunboats. They will pass in parallel columns between the two forts, then the smaller squadron will peel off to engage the Confederate flotilla while the larger squadron will circle within the sound between the two forts, slowing as it passes each fort to bring maximum fire on them.

General Grant loads five infantry regiments supported by two cavalry troops and a six-gun battery onto four transports and, guarded by two wooden converted gunboats, steams down the Ohio River toward Cairo, Illinois where he ties up for the night. There at two in the morning he receives a report that General Polk has ordered a strong column to cut off and destroy the troops Grant has sent to do the same to Thompson. Within the hour he decides that instead of a demonstration he will launch a direct, all-out attack on Belmont, the steamboat landing across the Mississippi River from Columbus. (None of the reports Grant has received are true—Polk has no intention of reinforcing Price; he is not preparing a column to bag the force that is supposed to be pursuing Thompson, who for that matter has retired from the field by now; and far from being a staging area, Belmont is only an observation post, a low-lying, three-shack hamlet dominated by the guns on the tall bluff across the river and manned by one regiment of infantry—half of whom is on the sick list—one battery of artillery, and a scratch collection of cavalry.)
#15047196
November 7, Thursday

Hundreds of miles apart, two noteworthy military events take place. At one an important base is won for the Federals; at the other a Northern general receives a lesson in offensive action.

At 8 am Flag Officer Du Pont leads his powerful Federal naval squadron into Port Royal Sound, steaming in between Forts Beauregard and Walker and taking fire from both. His plan works perfectly. Tattnall brings the Confederate flotilla of four small vessels out to meet them and fires several broadsides, but facing fourteen men-of-war swiftly withdraws up Skull Creek. According to a Savannah newspaper, Tattnall dipped his pennant three times in salute to his old messmate, “regretting his inability to return the highflown compliments of Flag Officer Du Pont in a more satisfactory manner.” The five gunboats take up station off the mouth of the creek to make sure he stays there while the main force deals with the forts. Circling slowly, the fleet pounds the earthworks of Fort Walker on Hilton Head Island and then of Fort Beauregard to the north. The Confederate defenders are outgunned and their return fire not very effective—the ships, moving on an elliptical course with constant changes in speed, range, and deflection, are extremely hard to hit. As well, the defenders haven’t wasted their scant powder on anything as unprofitable as target practice, and now find that many of the shells won’t fit, the powder is inferior, and the crews become exhausted within an hour of opening fire—unwilling to trade sweat for blood, they ended up paying in both. Not that it matters, as Fort Walker has been designed to be defended only from an assault straight in from the sea. The Confederates lost as soon as Du Pont came up with his plan. By 2:20 Fort Walker has been abandoned and the Union flag raised above the ramparts while Fort Beauregard lowers its flag by nightfall, the forces in both withdrawing inland to form a new line of defense. Casualties are light with 11 Confederates killed, 48 wounded, 3 captured, and 4 missing. For the Federals, there are 8 killed, 6 seriously wounded, and 17 slightly wounded. No major damage is done to the Federal vessels, and soon Thomas W. Sherman’s 12,000 men begin their occupation of the Hilton Head-Port Royal area.

The battle has not been without its romantic aspect, for one of the defenders was Brigadier General Thomas F. Drayton, whose brother, Captain Percival Drayton, commanded one of the attacking frigates; the land for which they fought had been their childhood home. As well, some standard theories are going to have to be revised: the belief that one gun on land is equal to four on the water has been invalidated by steam, removing the restrictions of wind and current and allowing such maneuvers as Du Pont’s ellipse. Naval power is going to be a dominant factor in this war.

The Union now has a toehold in Confederate territory, between Savannah and Charleston. Although they do not exploit it sufficiently on land, it will remain a threat throughout the war and, most importantly, furnishes a base for the coaling and supplying of blockaders. Port Royal represents a valuable enclave carved in Confederate soil and its menace can never be forgotten by Confederate commanders. Later it will also become a center for Negro refugees, and with control of some of the finest old plantations in the South will become a center of uplift experiments among Black field hands by abolitionists.

Early the same morning far to the west, General Grant’s naval flotilla with 3,114 troops down the Mississippi from Cairo, Illinois. Landing on the Missouri shore three miles north of the hamlet of Belmont, Grant’s troops form up and march south while the gunboats continue downstream to engage the batteries on the Columbus bluff across the river. The infantry soon comes under heavy musket fire, from more than one half-sick regiment—Polk, having learned of the attack, has reinforced the Belmont garrison with four regiments. It is hard, stand-up fighting, five regiments on each side, each side supported by a battery of light infantry. The Confederates give ground stubbornly then eventually break. Running through the camp and taking cover on a narrow mud flat protected by a steep low bank, they call out to reinforcements arriving by boat to go back, that they’re whipped. They’re wrong—Grant’s men, having overrun the camp and also thinking they’ve won, have stopped to loot while officers gallop about from group to group delivering short eulogies. But with the Confederates out of the way, the batteries up on the Columbus bluff rake the camp while the fresh reinforcements line up to advance. Disgusted, Grant orders the camp burned to discourage the looters and does what he can to reassemble his command, only to learn that additional reinforcements have landed between him and his transports. When an aide exclaims that they are surrounded, Grant says, “Well, we must cut our way out as we cut our way in.” He is fortunate, though, in that his faulty intelligence has made his own plans impenetrable—Polk, refusing to believe that the action at Belmont is anything but a feint to distract him from the real attack, refuses to send more reinforcements until it is too late. In the end, Grant’s regiments succeed in “cutting their way out,” though at the price of abandoning most of their captured material, including four guns, many of the non-walking wounded, and one thousand rifles that the Confederates collected from the field afterward. Grant hadn’t kept back a reserve to throw into the battle at critical moments but performs more or less as a reserve himself, riding from point to point along his line to direct and encourage his troops in spite of having one horse shot from under him. Except for one regiment, which is cut off from the fighting and marches upstream to be picked up later, Grant is the last man aboard the final transport and almost left behind—the skipper had already pushed off, but looking back recognizes Grant on horseback and runs out a plank for him to ride across onto the boat.

And so ends the Battle of Belmont. The “battle” is really a large raid or reconnaissance. Federal losses are put at 120 killed, 383 wounded, and 104 captured or missing for 607 out of some 3,000. Confederate losses are 105 killed, 419 wounded, and 117 missing for 641 out of about 5,000 men put across the river. Aside from the casualties nothing of strategic value to either side is gained. This is recognized in the press, and the talk of “Grant the butcher” begins. As well, the battle followed in general the pattern of most of the battles fought this year—the attackers gain initial success, the defenders giving way to early panic, until suddenly the roles are reversed and the rebels are left in control of the field, crowing over Yankee cowardice But there is the intangible result of a Union commander getting experience in war in the field without being placed in a major battle before he is ready. And on the battlefield Grant had kept his head when everyone around him were losing theirs, was always where bullets flew the thickest, was the last man to leave the battle—and his men saw it all and love him for it. They aren’t having any of the “butcher” talk. And best of all, they have gained experience themselves and seen Confederates break and run.

In Missouri Major General Hunter repudiates the agreement of Fremont and Price in regard to political prisoners.
#15047383
November 8, Friday

On USS San Jacinto, cruising in the Old Bahama Channel, the word is “beat to quarters” as smoke is seen on the horizon. The British mail packet Trent bound for Britain steams into view. The ensuing events will become a cause célèbre of international relations, threaten war between the United States and Britain, give the Confederacy cause for outcries against Federal tyranny, and provide international law with a permanent precedent. James M. Mason of Virginia and John Slidell of Louisiana, named commissioners to Great Britain and France by the Confederate States of America are en route to their new posts, having escaped the blockade at Charleston on October 12. The Federal authorities thought they were on a Confederate man-of-war and had made efforts to intercept them. San Jacinto under cantankerous, troublemaking, yet competent Captain Charles Wilkes had called at Havana, Cuba, and found the commissioners waiting passage on Trent. San Jacinto in turn awaited Trent’s departure from Cuba. Sailing in the early afternoon of this day, Trent is halted by threat of force, and after a spirited argument and some hot words, Mason and Slidell, with their secretaries, are taken under guard to San Jacinto, leaving behind outraged wives and children, and an irate and far from speechless British captain, officers, and crew. Slidell, as he parts from his wife, tells her, “My dear, we shall meet in Paris in sixty days.” San Jacinto, proud of its accomplishment, heads for Hampton Roads while Trent drives on for Britain. For the remainder of the year the seizure on the high seas will be hardly out of the news.

In the Savannah, Georgia, area, General Robert E. Lee, fresh from his depressing experience in western Virginia, takes command of the Confederate Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and East Florida. With it he assumes the burden of a wide territory, difficult to defend, blockaded, inadequately manned and armed, and now seriously threatened by the Federal victory at Port Royal. Taking hold quickly, he prepares as best he can for further invasions of the Southern mainland. Meanwhile, Federals carry out a reconnaissance on Hilton Head Island and nearby territory around Beaufort, South Carolina.

In the mountains of east Tennessee, pro-unionists wait no longer for military help from the outside which apparently is not coming soon. In an ill-managed uprising the mountaineers burn railroad bridges and harass Confederate outposts, forcing Brigadier General Felix Zollicoffer to call for reinforcements.

In Virginia there is a skirmish at Dam No. 5 on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. In Kentucky fighting breaks out at Ivy Mountain and Piketon.

The Federal gunboat Rescue, operating near Urbanna Creek up the Rappahannock in Virginia, captures a schooner, extracts her cargo, and burns her, in addition to dueling with shore batteries.

In Missouri pro-Federal Governor Hamilton R. Gamble makes arrangements for the organization of a militia.

In Savannah large crowds fill the streets and collect near the telegraph offices for news of the invasion of the Confederate shore a few miles north. Many families pack for the upcountry. At Charleston the ever vocal Mercury cries, “Let the invaders come, ‘tis the unanimous feeling of our people. Our Yankee enemies will, sooner or later, learn to their cost the difference between invaders for spoils and power, and defenders of their liberties, their native land.”
#15047561
November 9, Saturday

Federals from their new base at Port Royal capture the useful city of Beaufort, South Carolina, without a fight. General Lee writes Richmond that the Federal forces in the coastal area concern him greatly, what with their control of the ocean and many inland streams.

The Union War Department makes some important command changes that will have immense influence on future events. The old Department of the West is discontinued and a new Department of Kansas under Major General David Hunter created. The Department of New Mexico is to be under Colonel E.R.S. Canby. But most vital is the new Department of the Missouri, including Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois, and Kentucky west of the Cumberland River. This command is to be entrusted to Major General Henry Wager Halleck. Halleck is a strange, difficult man, much respected and disliked. His reputation as a military theoretician gives him the nickname “Old Brains.” But he offends many with his arrogant and self-seeking manner, and will devote much effort to the twin goals of expanding his command and making sure that no blame of any sort falls on him. Yet he is deservedly regarded as one of the most intelligent administrators in the Army—perhaps the War’s best—and it is to be his task to straighten out the considerable mess created by Fremont, and to direct operations along the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers.

The new Department of the Ohio, which replaces those of Ohio and the Cumberland, consists of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Tennessee, and Kentucky east of the Cumberland River. Command is given to Brigadier General Don Carlos Buell, who supersedes W.T. Sherman. The job had proved too great a nervous strain for Sherman, who departs under a cloud with even his sanity questioned. Buell, like Halleck, is thought to be a stalwart, firm, and able soldier.

There is a skirmish at Ivy Mountain, Kentucky, and a small Federal expedition to Mathias Point, Virginia.

The bridge burning in eastern Tennessee by pro-unionists continues for several days.
#15047665
November 10, Sunday

President Davis writes General Joseph E. Johnston at Manassas that he is surprised the Army has shown so little increase since July, but that “we are restricted in our capacity to reinforce by want of arms.” He hoped to augment the numbers, “but you must remember that our wants greatly exceed our resources.”

There is fighting at Gauley Bridge, Guyandotte, and Blake’s Farm near Cotton Hill, western Virginia. Confederates begin to withdraw troops eastward as fighting in much of western Virginia has ended.

Federals from Hilton Head at Port Royal Sound carry out an expedition to Braddock’s Point, South Carolina, one of several such operations partially exploiting their landing on the South Carolina-Georgia coast.

There is a skirmish near Bristol in east Tennessee.
#15047840
November 11, Monday

Confederate Major General George B. Crittenden is assigned to command the District of Cumberland Gap.

At Columbus, Kentucky, one of the large 128-pound guns on the bluffs explodes accidentally, killing seven men and wounding Major General Leonidas Polk.

Fighting is confined to action at Little Blue River, Missouri, between Kansas Jayhawkers and secessionists, and at New Market Bridge near Fort Monroe, Virginia.

Professor Thaddeus Lowe sends up his Federal observation balloon from a special “Balloon-Boat” anchored in the Potomac River.

Formal obsequies are held in New York for Colonel Edward Baker, US senator killed at Ball’s Bluff. The body was sent to San Francisco.

In Washington President Lincoln watches an impressive torchlight procession in honor of McClellan.
#15048035
November 12, Tuesday

The Confederate government-owned blockade runner Fingal (later CSS Atlanta), bought in England, arrives in Savannah with military supplies.

In western Virginia Confederate General Floyd, still at Cotton Hill on its elevation overlooking the Federal encampment at Gauley Bridge, trying to drive them out with harassing direct artillery fire, is outflanked by Brigadier General Henry W. Benham and forced to retire. Characteristically, he blames General Lee.

Federals make a reconnaissance to Pohick Church and Occoquan, Virginia, but are driven back.
#15048251
November 13, Wednesday

In the evening President Lincoln and his secretary John Hay visit General McClellan at his home to find him out. The President waits some time, but when the general arrives McClellan immediately retires without speaking to President Lincoln. This incident will often be cited to show the manner in which the youthful general treats his President. The President himself, when Hay rants about the “insolence of epaulets,” quietly remarks that this is no time for concern over points of etiquette and personal dignity. But Hay will observe with satisfaction that from now on, when President Lincoln wants to see McClellan, he summons him to the White House.

In northern western Virginia there is skirmishing near Romney; and in Missouri one Federal expedition will operate from Greenville to Doniphan November 13-15, and another will move through Texas and Wright counties November 13-18.
#15048264
Doug64 wrote:November 13, Wednesday

In the evening President Lincoln and his secretary John Hay visit General McClellan at his home to find him out. The President waits some time, but when the general arrives McClellan immediately retires without speaking to President Lincoln. This incident will often be cited to show the manner in which the youthful general treats his President. The President himself, when Hay rants about the “insolence of epaulets,” quietly remarks that this is no time for concern over points of etiquette and personal dignity. But Hay will observe with satisfaction that from now on, when President Lincoln wants to see McClellan, he summons him to the White House.

Given the way that McClellan had treated Winfield Scott, Lincoln should not have been surprised at being snubbed by this insolent upstart. But McClellan had done himself no favours by this behaviour - he now had to produce the goods to justify and excuse his insolence. He had to win and keep winning against the Confederates....
  • 1
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 113

I'm surprised to see the genocide supporters (lik[…]

@JohnRawls What if your assumption is wrong???[…]

Sure, but they are too stupid to understand, Trum[…]

Israel-Palestinian War 2023

This is the issue. It is not changing. https://y[…]