“The President tells me” Charles Sumner to Francis Lieber, January 17, 1863, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, ed. Edward L. Pierce (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1877-93), 4:114.
“Peace Democrats,” or “Copperheads” Jennifer L. Weber’s Copperheads: The Rise and Fall of Lincoln’s Opponents in the North (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006) shows the power and range of the effort of Copperheads to challenge the Union war effort.
caricatured as a wacko Frank L. Klement, The Limits of Dissent: Clement L. Vallandigham and the Civil War (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1970), paints a more sympathetic portrait of Vallandigham, 102—11, 123—25.
“The Constitution as it is” Ibid., 116—17.
“Defeat, debt, taxation” Ibid., 124 25.
“The Peace Party means” John A. McClernand to AL, February 14, 1863, ALPLC.
bitter fruits of the Democratic victories Arthur Charles Cole, The Era of the
Civil War, 1848-1870 (Chicago: A. C. McClurg and Company, 1922), 298-99.
“uttered one word” Marvel, Burnside, 231—32.
“a bane usurpation” Klement, The Limits of Dissent, 152—54.
“I am here in a military bastile” Ibid., 163—64.
“an error on the part” Welles, Diary, May 19, 1863, 306.
“source of Embarrassment” Ambrose Burnside to AL, May 29, 1863, ALPLC.
“being done, all were” AL to Ambrose Burnside, May 29, 1863, CW, 6:237.
his own resolution Vallandigham was taken by Confederate authorities to Wilmington, North Carolina, and finally made his way to Canada in July. Nominated by the Democrats of Ohio for governor on June 11, he ran his campaign in exile, represented by surrogates. In the election on October 13, 1863, he was defeated by Republican John Brough 288,000 to 187,000.
“fight, fight, fight” Hebert, Fighting Joe Hooker, 188.
“Would like to have a letter” AL to Joseph Hooker, April 15, 1863, CW, 6:175.
“if he should meet” Joseph Hooker to AL, April 15, 1863, CW, 6:175.
“It seems to me Mr. Capen knows nothing” “Memorandum Concerning Francis L. Capen’s Weather Forecasts,” April 28, 1863, CW, 6:190-91.
“I fully appreciate the anxiety” Joseph Hooker to AL, April 27, 1863, ALPLC.
“How does it look now?” AL to Joseph Hooker, April 27, 1863, CW, 6:188.
“I am not sufficiently advanced” Joseph Hooker to AL, April 27, 1863, CW, 6:188.
“Where is General Hooker?” AL to Daniel Butterfield, May 3, 1863, ALPLC.
“he had a feverish anxiety” Welles, Diary, May 4, 1863, 291.
“We have news here” AL to Joseph Hooker, May 4, 1863, CW, 6:196.
“I am informed” Joseph Hooker to AL, May 4, 1863, CW, 6:196.
“ashen in hue” Brooks, Washington in Lincoln’s Time, 57—58.
CHAPTER 23. You Say You Will Not Fight to Free Negroes: May 1863-September 1863
“be true to the Constitution” Klement, Limits of Dissent, 178—81.
“make a respectful response” AL to Erastus Corning, May 28, 1863, CW, 6:235.
“I had it nearly all” James F. Wilson, “Some Memories of Lincoln,” North American Review 163 (December 1896): 670—71. Although this reminiscence by Wilson was written years later, it rings true with Lincoln’s conversations with others about his methods of thinking, retrieving, and writing. See Wilson, Lincoln’s Sword, for an excellent discussion of the Corning letter, 165—77. See also Neely, Fate of Liberty, 66—68.
“Ithasvigor” Welles, Diary, June 5, 1863, 323.
“doing their part” AL to Erastus Corning and Others [June 12], 1863, CW, 6:261.
“assert and argue” Ibid.
“was not arrested” Ibid., 263—66.
“I think that in such a case” Ibid., 266—67.
“maintained martial, or military law” Ibid., 268.
“throughout the indefinite peaceful” Ibid., 267.
“God be praised” John W. Forney to ALJune 14, 1863, ALPLC.
“timely, wise” Edwin D. Morgan to ALJune 15, 1863, ALPLC.
“covered all essential ground” Roscoe Conkling to AL, June 16, 1863, ALPLC.
“There are few” Nicolay and Hay, 7:349.
“The Publication Society” Francis Lieber to AL, June 16, 1863, ALPLC.
“Allow me to express” David Lod to ALJune 14, 1863, ALPLC.
“phraseology calculated” AL to Matthew Birchard and Others, June 29, 1863, CW, 3:303—05. For a discussion of Lincoln’s “public persuasion” in the Corning and Birchard public letters, see Philip Shaw Paludan, The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1994), 199—202.
“sacrifice of their dignity” Matthew Birchard to AL, July 1, 1863, ALPLC.
“his poor mite” AL to Joseph Hooker, June 16, 1863, CW, 6:281.
“I have some painful intimations” AL to Joseph Hooker, May 14, 1863, CW, 6:217.
“Have you already” AL to Joseph Hooker, May 7, 1863, CW, 6:201.
“Do the Richmond papers” AL to John A. Dix, May 11, 1863, CW, 6:210.
“The fall of Vicksburg” Ulysses S. Grant to Halleck, May 24, 1863, cited in Smith, Grant, 252—53.
“Whether Gen. Grant shall” AL to Isaac N. Arnold, May 26, 1863, CW, 6:230.
“I do not think our enemies” Thomas, Robert E. Lee, 279.
always realistic Stephen W. Sears, Gettysburg (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003), 12-14.
their greatest loss Robertson, Stonewall Jackson, 727—36.
South’s belief that God Daniel W. Stowell, “Stonewall Jackson and the Providence of God,” Religion and the American Civil War, ed. Randall M. Miller, Harry S. Stout, and Charles Reagan Wilson (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 187-207.
“I wish to lose no time” AL to John W. Forney, May 13, 1863, CW, 6:214.
“to pitch into his rear” Joseph Hooker to AL, June 5, 1863, ALPLC.
“I would not take any risk” AL to Joseph Hooker, June 5, CW, 6:249.
“I would not go South” AL to Joseph Hooker, June 10, 1863, CW, 6:257.
“If the head of Lee’s army” AL to Joseph Hooker, June 14, 1863, CW, 6:273.
“Scary rumors abroad” Welles, Diary, June 14, 1863, 328.
“looks like defensive merely” AL to Joseph Hooker, June 16, June 16, 1863, CW, 6:280,282.
Lincoln made a mistake Thomas and Hyman, Stanton, 273.
“the President in a single remark” Welles, Diary, June 26, 1863, 348.
“observed in Hooker” Welles, Diary, June 28, 1863, 351.
Meade later wrote his wife Freeman Cleaves, Meade of Gettysburg (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1960), 123—24.
Meade led his Pennsylvania troops Ibid., 103—15.
“Have you any reports” AL to Darius N. Couch, June 24, 28, CW, 6:293, 299.
“The people of New Jersey” Joel Parker to AL, June 29, 1863 CW, 6:311-12.
“I really think the attitude” AL to Joel Parker, June 30, 1863, CW, 6:311-12.
The strike came sooner Sears, Gettysburg, 142—44, 162—63.
“I entered this place” John Buford to Alfred Pleasanton, June 30, 1863, OR, vol. 27, pt. 1,923.
deployed his horse soldiers James M. McPherson, Hallowed Ground: A Walk at Gettysburg (New York: Crown Journeys, 2003), 18—21.
“meeting engagement” Sears speaks of the meeting engagement; see Gettysburg, 168.
had been involved in an accident Randall, Mary Lincoln, 324.
“Our task is not yet” George G. Meade to Army of the Potomac, July 7, 1863, CW, 6:318.
By the end of May 1863 For a description of the siege and surrender of Vicksburg, see Smith, Grant, 252—56.
“is such to cover that Army” AL, “Announcement of News from Gettysburg,” July 4, 1863, CW, 6:314.
“How long ago is it” AL, “Response to a Serenade,” July 7, 1863, CW, 6:319-20.
“The enemy should be pursued” Henry C. Halleck to Georg
e G Meade, July 14, 1863, CW, 6:328.
I do not believe AL to George G Meade, July 14, 1863, CW, 6:327.
“I do not remember” AL to Ulysses S. Grant, July 13, 1863, CW, 6:326.
“I believe it is a resource” AL to Ulysses S. Grant, August 9, 1863, CW, 6:374.
“I never met with a man” Frederick Douglass, “Emancipation, Racism, and the Work Before Us: An Address Delivered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,” December 4, 1863, Frederick Douglass 3:606—7.
“I have given the subject” Ulysses S. Grant to AL, August 23, 1863, ALPLC. Grant’s reply probably did not reach Lincoln before he had sent off his letter to Conkling on August 27. He determined to add the insights from Grant to the letter he had already sent to Conkling. Thus, on August 31, Lincoln wrote to Conkling yet again, asking that he insert the following paragraph.
I know, as fully as one can know the opinions of others, that some of the commanders of our armies in the field, who have given us our most important successes, believe the emancipation policy, and the use of colored troops, constitute the heaviest blow yet dealt to the rebellion; and that at least some of those important successes could not have been achieved when it was, but for the aid of black soldiers. Among the commanders holding these views are some who have never had any affinity with what is called abolitionism.
“It would be gratifying” James C. Conkling to AL, August 14, 1863, ALPLC.
“Your letter of the 14th” AL to James C. Conkling, August 20, 1863, CW, 6:399 n. 1. At the lower left-hand corner of the telegram was a note, “Mr. C—Mr. Wilson got this in cipher.” Mr. Wilson was the superintendent of the Eastern Division of the Illinois and Mississippi Telegraph Company. The note was signed simply “Operator.” This notation suggested the desire to keep the movements of the president secret.
“For a moment the President” Nicolay and Hay, 7:379—380.
“While it would afford” James C. Conkling to AL, August 21, 1863, ALPLC.
“It would be very agreeable” AL to James C. Conkling, August 26, 1863, CW, 6:406.
“I cannot leave here” AL to James C. Conkling, August 27, 1863, CW, 6:414. Word of the Conkling invitation triggered a similar invitation from New York. Benjamin Field, secretary of the Union State Committee of New York, telegraphed Lincoln on August 26 telling him of plans to hold “a mass convention” in Syracuse, also on September 3. Field asked that Lincoln send the New York convention “the same address” that he was sending to Illinois. Lincoln wrote to Field on August 29 telling him that he was sending by mail a copy of “the Springfield letter.” CW, 6:420.
“I can always tell more” Stoddard, Inside the White House in War Times, 129—30.
“Further offensive prosecution” Ibid., 299.
“There are those who” AL to James C. Conkling, CW, 6:415.
“He is more an orator” Stoddard, Inside the White House in War Times, 130.
“The Letter was received” James C. Conkling to AL, September 4, 1863, ALPLC.
“ ‘God Bless Abraham Lincoln!’ “ New York Tribune, September 3, 1863.
“Thanks for your true” Charles Sumner to AL, September 7, 1863, ALPLC.
“God Almighty bless you” Henry Wilson to AL, September 3, 1863, ALPLC.
“Your letter to the Springfield Convention” John Murray Forbes to AL, September 7, 1863, Letters and Recolledions of John Murray Forbes, ed. Sarah Forbes Hughes (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1899), 2:73.
“for his recent admirable letter” Hay, Inside, September 10, 1863, 81.
understood more than ever Donald, Lincoln, 458.
CHAPTER 24. A New Birth of Freedom: September 1863-March 1864
Lincoln’s public letters of 1863 AL, The Letters of President Lincoln on Questions of National Policy (New York: H. H. Lloyd and Company, 1863).
“Rising to the dignity” Henry Ward Beecher, Independent, September 17, 1863.
“The conservative Republicans” “The Lounger,” Harper’s Weekly, August 29, 1863.
“It is something on the question” AL to Andrew Johnson, September 11, 1863, CW, 6:440.
“Unconditional Union men” Nicolay and Hay, 7:378.
“You and your noble army Edwin M. Stanton to William S. Rosecrans, July 7, 1863, OR, vol. 23, pt. 2, 518.
“You do not appear” William S. Rosecrans to Edwin M. Stanton, July 7, 1863, OR, vol. 23, pt. 2, 518.
“There is great disappointment” Henry W. Halleck to William S. Rosecrans, July 24, 1863, OR, vol. 23 pt. 2, 552.
“turnpikes next to impossible” William S. Rosecrans to AL, August 1, 1863, ALPLC.
“kind feeling for and confidence” AL to William S. Rosecrans, August 10, 1863, CW, 6:377-78.
“Chickamauga is as fatal” Charles H. Dana to Edwin M. Stanton, September 20, 1863, in John E. Clark, Jr., Railroads in the Civil War: The Impact of Management on Victory and Defeat (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2001), 142.
“Go to Rosecrans” AL to Ambrose E. Burnside, September 21, 2 a.m., 11 a.m., CW, 6:469,470.
“Well, Rosecrans has been whipped” Hay, Inside, September 27, 1863, 85.
“If you are to do” September 25, 1863, CW, 6:480-81.
Lincoln signed the letter Bates, Lincoln in the Telegraph Office, 202.
hastily called midnight meeting Clark, Railroads in the Civil War, 146—47.
“you can’t get one corps” Niven, Salmon P. Chase Papers, 1:450—54.
began moving to the railheads Clark tells this story well in Railroads in the Civil War, 141-212.
“If we can hold Chattanooga” AL to William S. Rosecrans, October 4, 1863, CW, 6:498.
“confused and stunned” Hay, Inside, October 24, 1863, 99.
“I therefore think it is safer” AL to Edward Bates, November 29, 1862, CW, 5:515-16.
“I tell you frankly” AL to Samuel R. Curtis, January 2, 1863, CW, 6:33-34.
“a pestilent factional quarrel” AL to John M. Schofield, May 27, 1863, CW, 6:234.
“It is very painful to me” AL to Charles D. Drake, et al., May 15, 1863, ALPLC.
“Neither side pays” AL to Henry L. Blow, Charles D. Drake, and Others, May 15, 1863, CW, 6:218.
a number of issues David Donald, Lincoln, has an excellent discussion of the complicated Missouri story, 451—54.
central problem was emancipation William E. Gienapp, “Abraham Lincoln and the Border States,” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 13 (1992): 36—37.
“postponing the benefits” Hay, Inside, July 31, 1863, 68.
“I express to you my profound conviction” William Parrish, Turbulent Partnership: Missouri and the Union, 1861—1865 (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1963), 160.
“all being for the Union” AL to Charles Drake and Others, October 5, 1863, CW, 6:500.
“had no friends” Edward Bates to AL, October 22, 1863, ALPLC. Bates is making reference to a conversation “the other day” between him and Lincoln.
arrange furloughs Lhomas and Hyman, Stanton, 292—95.
he felt “nervous” Welles, Diary, October 13, 1863, 469.
“Where is John Brough?” Emanuel Hertz, Abraham Lincoln: A New Portrait (New York: H. Liveright, 1931), 2:914.
“The victory is complete” Salmon P. Chase to AL, October 14, 1863, ALPLC.
“Glory to God” AL to Salmon P. Chase, October 14, 1863, ALPLC.
“Pennsylvania stands by you” James M. Scovel to AL, October 11, 1863, ALPLC.
“who is in good spirits” Welles, Diary, October 15, 1863, 470.
“Let me congratulate you” James F. Moorhead to AL, October 15, 1863, ALPLC.
“You will receive herewith” Henry W Halleck to Ulysses S. Grant, October 16, 1863, OR, vol. 30, pt. 4, 404, 479.
“I will hold the town” George H. Lhomas to Ulysses S. Grant, October 19, 1863, OR, vol. 30, pt. 4, 404, 479.
“You do not estimate” AL to John Williams and Nathaniel G. Laylor, October 17, 1863, CW, 6:525.
“My sugg
estion then” J. M. Forbes to AL, September 8, 1863, Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, 2:76.
In previous wars American soldiers were buried Drew Gilpin Faust, in This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008), offers a distinctive angle of vision on the changing understandings of death and dying provoked by the massive deaths of the Civil War.
plans for a national cemetery Kathleen R. Georg, “Lhis Grand National Enterprise: The Origins of Gettysburg’s Soldiers National Cemetery and Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association” (Gettysburg National Military Park Library, 1982), 82.
Everett set the date Frothingham, Edward Everett, 393.
“I am authorized” David Wills to AL, November 2, 1863, ALPLC. Gabor Borritt, in The Gettysburg Gospel: The Lincoln Speech That Nobody Knows (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006), offers a fresh and comprehensive examination of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address in its broad historical context.
“Four score and seven” AL, Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863, CW, 7:23.
“The days of our years” Psalms 90:10 (King James Version).
In the last three sentences Ibid.
Investigations to unearth On Lincoln’s awareness of the ideas of Daniel Webster and Lheodore Parker, see Garry Wills’s suggestive book, Lincoln at Gettysburg: Words That Remade America (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992).
“Half a century hence” Chicago Tribune, November 20, 1863.
“Surprisingly fine as Mr. Everett’s oration” Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican, November 20, 1863.
“The cheek of every American” Chicago Times, November 21, 1863.
“We pass over” Harrisburg Patriot and Union, November 20, 1863.
“The ceremony was rendered” Times (London), December 4, 1863.
“Permit me … to express” Edward Everett to AL, November 20, 1863, ALPLC.
Braxton Bragg’s effort McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, 676—77.
“Thomas, who ordered those men” Ibid., 677—80.
“The storming of the Ridge” Charles A. Dana to Edwin M. Stanton, November 26, 1863, ALPLC.
“I wish to tender you” AL to Ulysses S. Grant, December 8, 1863, CW, 7:53.
“Jeff Davis … cursed” Amistad Burwell to AL, August 28, 1863, ALPLC.
A. Lincoln Page 84