An Interesting Letter from the Civil War

[Draggingtree]

An Interesting Letter from the Civil War Or at least could have been, maybe

By: Joe Cor (Diary) | August 24th, 2013 at 10:42 AM

 

Sent from the field headquarters of Army of the Potomac, October 20, 1862:

 

My Dear President Lincoln,

 

May I first of all say that you and I both want the same thing, which is the restoration of the Union. I have always maintained that like you, I am totally devoted to ending the Confederacy, and no one can construe my actions as otherwise. As the writers at the esteemed journal, National Copperhead, so eloquently put it earlier this year, “Those who claim that General McClellan has in any way been responsible for the setbacks of the Federal Army are completely mistaken. Seven Pines and Antietam are not General McClellan’s fault. General McClellan is simply trying to do what is possible given the military realities he has been handed. No one could possibly have done better under the circumstances. “ Those words were well spoken, and I beg you to keep them in mind when Republican firebrands whisper in your ear that I could be doing more. I might just add, to show you the difficulty of my situation and that of the Union cause in general, that the Federal government right now controls only some portions of the country north of the Mason-Dixon Line. We can truly be said to only be in control one half of one third of the actual landmass of the United States. What I can and cannot accomplish is highly circumscribed by that unfortunate reality.

 

However, I wish not to dwell on my manifest lack of culpability in the current state of affairs, but instead to quell all of this talk that I should be attacking General Lee — or as I prefer to call it, shutting down the Army of the Potomac. My critics make the claim that I should attack Lee now, before the

http://www.redstate.com/joe_cor/2013/08/24/an-interesting-letter-from-the-civil-war/

[Valin]

@Draggingtree

 

 

George McClellan was a genius, at building an army. The Army Burnside, Hooker Mead and later Grant used was the product of his work. He just wasn't very good at using it. Always gave council to his fears.

 

I was doing a lot of War Gaming (Battle Tech) years ago, and I was always running into guys who would build these wonderful units, the problem was they were more afraid of losing and having their army destroyed than winning.

 

also

"May I first of all say that you and I both want the same thing, which is the restoration of the Union. I have always maintained that like you, I am totally devoted to ending the Confederacy, and no one can construe my actions as otherwise."

 

I wonder if that was strictly true. From what I have read, I have some questions on that front.

 

 

Off topic (not that I ever let a little thing like that stop me) Here we are 150 years later, and if you want to start an argument, mention the Civil War, War Between the States, War of Northern Aggression, the 2nd American Revolution...whatever you call it can show where you stand. We're still talking about it, and finding new things to say and new ways of saying them.