Lincoln by David Herbert Donald

Lincoln by David Herbert Donald

Author:David Herbert Donald
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Literary, Azizex666
ISBN: 9781439126288
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 1995-01-01T05:00:00+00:00


Naming Rosecrans and Burnside was a shrewd move. Burnside, in particular, was a happy choice. In addition to having some military reputation from his expedition against Roanoke Island, he looked like a great commander. His sturdy figure, his commanding presence, and even his elaborate side-whiskers gave an impression of manly competence. Generally considered a protégé of McClellan, he would be less objectionable to that general’s admirers than almost any other possible commander. Yet McClellan’s enemies were aware that their friendship had recently cooled, since McClellan spoke slightingly of Burnside’s slowness to advance at Antietam.

Known to be generally in favor of the President’s policies, Rosecrans and Burnside were politically neutral. Unlike McClellan, they were not Democratic partisans, nor were they aligned with either the Moderate or the Radical faction of the Republican party. In the past, Republican Moderates had supported commanders like McClellan and Buell, practitioners of limited war, waged by professionals, with minimal impact on civilians. The Radicals—and more particularly the vocal ultra-Radical Jacobins—looked to military leaders like Joseph Hooker, who promised to bring the war to the people of the Confederacy and to revolutionize Southern society. Belonging to neither group, Lincoln tried to stake out the central ground for his own.

Whether the appointments of Burnside and Rosecrans were a shrewd military move was open to question. Burnside himself said that he was not capable of leading the Army of the Potomac, and Rosecrans had hitherto displayed no talent for a large command. But for the moment, most were willing to give the new commanders a fair trial, and the President gained a little time to attend to some of the numerous other duties of his office, necessarily neglected during the previous months of crisis.

He continued to work long hours, rising early, often after a sleepless night, to go to his White House office before his breakfast, which consisted of a cup of coffee and an egg. Returning to his desk after breakfast, he examined papers and signed commissions for another hour or so. There were always routine matters to be handled, like the required congratulations to Frederick Grand Duke of Baden, on the announcement of the marriage of Her Grand Ducal Highness the Princess Leopoldine of Baden to His Most Serene Highness the Prince Hermann of Hohenloe Langenburg. Of course, the State Department drafted these messages, but the President had to sign them. In the course of a morning he efficiently handled many requests by briefly endorsing the papers: “Submitted to Gen. Halleck, asking as favorable consideration as may be consistent,” or, to Secretary Caleb B. Smith, “Let the appointment be made, as within recommend[ed],” or “Sec. of War, please make such response to this as may seem proper.”

At ten o’clock his office hours for petitioners and visitors began. A visitor, C. Van Santvoord, made notes on those who called on the President in a single morning: One “dapper, smooth-faced, boyish-looking little person” whispered a request, apparently for a clerkship, until the President dismissed him with an emphatic “Yes, yes, I know all about it, and will give it proper attention.



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