The Every-day Life of Abraham Lincoln Part 28

NOTES

[A] The popular vote was as follows: Lincoln, 1,857,610; Douglas, 1,291,574; Breckenridge, 850,082; Bell, 646,124. Of the electoral votes, Lincoln had 180; Breckenridge, 72; Bell, 39; and Douglas, 12.

[B] On the very day of Lincoln's arrival in Was.h.i.+ngton, he said to some prominent men who had called upon him at his hotel, "As the country has placed me at the helm of the s.h.i.+p, I'll try to steer her through."

[C] This first call for troops was supplemented a month later (May 16) by a call for 42,034 volunteers for three years, for 22,114 officers and men for the regular army, and 18,000 seamen for the navy.

[D] Orpheus C. Kerr (_Office Seeker_) was the pseudonymn of Robert H. Newell, a popular humorist of the war period, who dealt particularly with the comic aspects of Was.h.i.+ngton and army life.

[E] Lincoln never lost his interest in exhibitions of physical strength, and involuntarily he always compared its possessor with himself. On one occasion--it was in 1859--he was asked to make an address at the State Fair of Wisconsin, which was held at Milwaukee. Among the attractions was a "strong man" who went through the usual performance of tossing iron b.a.l.l.s and letting them roll back down his arms, lifting heavy weights, etc.

Apparently Lincoln had never seen such a combination of strength and agility before. He was greatly interested. Every now and then he gave vent to the e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n, "By George! By George!" After the speech was over, Governor Hoyt introduced him to the athlete; and as Lincoln stood looking down at him from his great height, evidently pondering that one so small could be so strong, he suddenly gave utterance to one of his quaint speeches. "Why," he said, "I could lick salt off the top of your hat!"

[F] Hon. George S. Boutwell of Ma.s.sachusetts stated Lincoln said to him personally: "When Lee came over the river, I made a resolution that if McClellan drove him back I would send the proclamation after him. The battle of Antietam was fought Wednesday, and until Sat.u.r.day I could not find out whether we had gained a victory or lost a battle. It was then too late to issue the proclamation that day; and the fact is, I fixed it up a little on Sunday, and Monday I let them have it."

[G] The cause of General Hooker's seeming stupefaction at the critical point of the Chancellorsville battle has been much discussed but never satisfactorily explained. It has been thought that he was disabled by the shock of a cannon-ball striking a post or pillar of the house where he had his headquarters. An interesting entry in Welles's Diary, made soon after the battle, reflects somewhat the feeling at the time. "Sumner expresses an absolute want of confidence in Hooker; says he knows him to be a blasphemous wretch; that after crossing the Rappahannock and reaching Centreville, Hooker exultingly exclaimed, 'The enemy are in my power, and G.o.d Almighty cannot deprive me of them.' I have heard before of this, but not so direct and positive. The sudden paralysis that followed, when the army in the midst of a successful career was suddenly checked and commenced its retreat, has never been explained. Whiskey is said by Sumner to have done the work.

The President said that if Hooker had been killed by the shot which knocked over the pillar that stunned him, we should have been successful."

[H] General T.R. Tannatt, a graduate of West Point in 1858, is now (1913) an active and honored citizen of Spokane, Was.h.i.+ngton.

[I] The criticism of Meade for not attacking Lee before he recrossed the Potomac is based on the a.s.sumption that the attack must be successful. On this point Meade's words to Halleck, written in reply to the latter's conciliatory letter of July 28, can hardly be ignored. "Had I attacked Lee the day I proposed to do so, and in the ignorance that then existed of his position, I have every reason to believe the attack would have been unsuccessful, and would have resulted disastrously. This opinion is founded on the judgment of a number of distinguished officers after inspecting Lee's vacated works and position. Among these officers I could name Generals Sedgwick, Wright, Sloc.u.m, Hays, Sykes, and others." In other words the attack which Meade has been so severely blamed for not making might have ended in reversing the results at Gettysburg, losing all we had gained at such terrible cost, placed Was.h.i.+ngton and other Northern cities in far more deadly peril, and changing the whole subsequent issues of the war.

[J] A curious revelation of the estimate of General Halleck held by at least one member of the Cabinet, and of the relations between Halleck and the President, is found in Welles's Diary in the record of a rather free conversation with the President during the anxious period about the time of the battle of Gettysburg. Says Mr. Welles: "I stated I had observed the inertness if not the incapacity of the General-in-Chief, and had hoped that he [the President], who had better and more correct views, would issue peremptory orders. The President immediately softened his tone, and said, 'Halleck knows better than I what to do. He is a military man, has had a military education. I brought him here to give me military advice. His views and mine are widely different. It is better that I, who am not a military man, should defer to him, rather than he to me.' This,"

continues Mr. Welles, "is the President's error. His own convictions and conclusions are infinitely superior to Halleck's; even in military operations, more sensible and more correct always.... Halleck has no activity; never exhibits sagacity or foresight." And in another place in the same Diary we are given this singular picture by a Cabinet minister of the man who was at that moment the General-in-Chief of the Union armies and the military adviser of the President: "Halleck sits and smokes, and swears, and scratches his arm, but exhibits little military capacity or intelligence; is obfuscated, muddy, uncertain, stupid as to what is doing or to be done."