Lincoln's Lieutenants by Stephen W. Sears

Author:Stephen W. Sears
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Fredericksburg splintered the political as well as the military landscape. Even as the Committee on the Conduct of the War was taking the generals’ testimony at Falmouth, Senate Republicans of Radical bent created a governing crisis for the president. In caucus they passed a resolution calling for “a change in and partial reconstruction of the Cabinet.” Their target was Secretary of State Seward, whom they took to be the power behind the throne, responsible by manipulation for all that had gone wrong with the war effort. The senators were fed the ugly details in backstairs fashion by Seward’s cabinet rival, Treasury Secretary Chase. Presented with Seward’s resignation, the president confronted the senatorial cabal with a united cabinet (absent Seward but including an embarrassed Chase) and maneuvered Chase into offering his resignation. “I can ride on now,” Lincoln exclaimed. “I’ve got a pumpkin in each end of my bag!” With the two resignations in hand, he accepted neither. The cabal was stymied: To be rid of Seward would cost the favored Chase. By defusing the explosive situation, Lincoln could confront the real crisis—the management of the Army of the Potomac—without additional interference from Congress.5

Daniel Larned of Burnside’s staff remarked, “Jealousies and political intrigue are greater enemies than an open foe.” Franklin and Baldy Smith furnished proof of Larned’s observation. On December 20, the two signed a letter to the president. Because “the plan of campaign which has already been commenced cannot possibly be successful,” they proposed the Potomac army return to the Peninsula and base a campaign on the James River—150,000 men to advance on the north bank of the James, 100,000 on the south bank, carrying three days’ rations and 100 rounds, “blankets and shelter tents and a pair of socks and a pair of drawers.” This would inevitably produce the destruction of the Rebel army or the investment of the Rebel capital, “and the war will be on a better footing than it now or has any present prospect of being.” In reply, Lincoln recalled the fevered debate over McClellan on the Peninsula: “If you go to James River, a large part of the army must remain on or near the Fredericksburg line, to protect Washington. It is the old difficulty.” Of course, Smith grumbled, “nothing came of it.”

That Baldy Smith would go over Burnside’s head, contrary to army regulations, was not unexpected (one of Smith’s staff called him “a perfect Ishmaelite to his superior officers, as they found out to their cost”), but Franklin intriguing against his friend was new. Perhaps he hoped to draw attention away from his suspect role on December 13. Perhaps he was putting his name forward in the competition for next army commander. (On that score, he expressed concern that Bull Sumner might get the post—“so by losing Burnside we go from the frying pan into the fire.”) Whatever the motives, the joint letter ushered in a generals’ revolt against Ambrose Burnside.6

It was a revolt rooted in fertile ground. Sam Heintzelman held that Burnside had quite lost the respect of his officers.

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