Rise to Greatness

by David Von Drehle

  placed in a crypt: Browning diary, Feb. 24, 1862.

  his temper sometimes frayed: Pierce, “The Freedmen at Port Royal,” The Atlantic Monthly 12, no. 71 (September 1863), pp. 291–315.

  “There seems to be a great itching”: Edward Pierce, quoted in Herndon’s Informants, pp. 684–85.

  credit for the colossal success: Grant, Memoirs and Selected Letters, p. 214.

  this fiasco: ibid., pp. 219–20.

  “We could have marched”: ibid., p. 214.

  “Every boat that came up”: ibid., p. 213.

  place Grant under arrest: McClellan to Halleck, March 3, 1862.

  “resumed his former bad habits”: Halleck to McClellan, quoted in Foote, The Civil War, Vol. 1, p. 317.

  “I was disgusted”: quoted in Smith, Grant, pp. 168–69.

  “You cannot be relieved”: Halleck to Grant, March 13, 1862, quoted in Smith, Grant, p. 178.

  “time was given the enemy”: Grant, Memoirs and Selected Letters, pp. 214–15.

  This scolding, along with Lincoln’s order: Sears, George B. McClellan, pp. 156–68.

  “It was a magnificent spectacle”: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, Feb. 27, 1862.

  “Why in tarnation”: Nicolay diary, Feb. 27, 1862.

  4: MARCH

  gave Lincoln a memo: Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln: A History, Vol. 3, pp. 445–49.

  “I have none”: RW, p. 269.

  “fonder of details”: Adams, Richard Henry Dana: A Biography, Vol. 2, p. 264.

  “‘only five minutes’”: Nicolay to Therena Bates, March 24, 1861.

  “so busy in letting rooms”: RW, p. 375.

  “You are Seward’s man”: Duberman, Charles Francis Adams, pp. 256–57.

  “the Chicago post-office”: Adams, Charles Francis Adams: An American Statesman, pp. 145–46.

  Two scholars estimated: Carman and Luthin, Lincoln and the Patronage, p. 332; see also Carwardine, Lincoln, for an extensive and shrewd discussion of Lincoln’s skillful use of political patronage.

  “‘Fairness to all’”: Lincoln to Seward, December 1861, quoted in Nicolay, “Lincoln in the Campaign of 1860,” in An Oral History of Abraham Lincoln, p. 94.

  a dozen Irish-born Union generals: Carman and Luthin, Lincoln and the Patronage, pp. 156-60.

  “I want Schimmelfennig”: RW, p. 165.

  “for this great Methodist church”: quoted in “Conversation … [with Congressman] Orth of Indiana,” in An Oral History of Abraham Lincoln, p. 82.

  “bail[ing] out the Potomac”: RW, p. 210.

  “never under any administration”: “Two Manuscripts of Gideon Welles,” edited by Muriel Burnitt, The New England Quarterly 11, no. 3 (September 1938), p. 594.

  he declined to appoint: Donald, “We Are Lincoln Men,” pp. 122–23.

  “give more to his enemies”: Leonard Swett, quoted in Herndon and Weik, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 2, pp. 243–44.

  “a considerable portion of every day”: Welles diary, Sept. 16, 1862.

  “limited to a couple of stories”: RW, p. 126.

  “nonsensical and preposterous dialogue”: Van Deusen, William Henry Seward, p. 256.

  “don’t let it be smutty”: ibid.

  he visited Lincoln to preview: After Seward’s initial reckless steps as secretary of state, Lincoln insisted that major dispatches be edited and approved by him before they were sent. Thus, the diplomatic correspondence between Seward and the American envoys in Europe provides an important window on Lincoln’s strategic thinking. Cf. RW, p. 156.

  “at the beginning of the end”: Seward to Adams, March 6, 1862.

  “The Government has attempted more”: Davis, quoted in the New York Times, March 1, 1862.

  “a question of resources”: RW, p. 106.

  every money stream … would be tapped: New York Times, March 10, 1862.

  “something to complain of”: ibid., March 4, 1862.

  enormous economic advantage: National Geographic Society, Atlas of the Civil War: A Comprehensive Guide to the Tactics and Terrain of Battle, p. 22.

  Pea Ridge: Long, The Civil War Day by Day: An Almanac, 1861–1865, pp. 179–81; Earl J. Hess, “Battle of Pea Ridge,” in Heidler and Heidler, eds., Encyclopedia of the American Civil War, pp. 1467–68.

  “disease of the entire nation”: RW, p. 119.

  “slavery is no small affair”: ibid., p. 368.

  “full and equal share”: ibid., p. 122.

  The details … had been taking shape: cf. Guelzo, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, pp. 60–65, 102–8.

  He proposed … a joint resolution: CW, Vol. 5, pp. 144–46.

  “deprive them of this hope”: ibid.

  “milk-and-water gruel”: quoted in Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 6, p. 107.

  “The proposition … is an epoch”: Sumner to Frances Bird, March 12, 1862.

  “The great, transcendent fact”: quoted in Guelzo, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, p. 107; see also New York Times, March 7, 1862.

  “a presentiment that he should die”: Bates diary, March 17, 1862.

  “Have you noticed the facts”: CW, Vol. 5, pp. 152–53.

  “talk plainly”: Sumner to John Andrew, March 2, 1862.

  complained that … Stanton kept him away: McClellan, McClellan’s Own Story, p. 195.

  bending in McClellan’s favor: McClellan to Halleck, March 3, 1862.

  a memo for the War Department: “To the War Department,” in The Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan: Selected Correspondence, 1860–1865, pp. 193–94.

  “damned fizzle”: Nicolay diary, Feb. 27, 1862.

  “unexpected piece of good fortune”: McClellan to Samuel Barlow, Jan. 18, 1862.

  Stanton had been hearing: Stanton to Thomas Ewing, Sr., April 2, 1862, Ewing Family Papers, Box 67, Library of Congress Manuscript Division.

  “caused great solicitude”: ibid.

  photographers’ shops … were packed: Taft diary, April 1, 1862.

  “The City seems to be entirely full”: ibid., March 8, 1862.

  McClellan exploded: McClellan, McClellan’s Own Story, p. 196.

  “the undying hate”: McClellan to Halleck, March 3, 1862.

  “just pitch in”: Sears, George B. McClellan, p. 160.

  “fight should have been at Manassas”: Browning diary, June 18, 1862.

  “a house submerged”: quoted in Greene and Massignani, Ironclads at War: The Origin and Development of the Armored Warship, 1854–1891, p. 61.

  the Confederate ship Virginia: Gene A. Smith, “CSS Virginia,” in Heidler and Heidler, eds., Encyclopedia of the Civil War, pp. 2034–36.

  this was the day: cf. John T. Wood, “The First Fight of Iron-Clads,” in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. 1, pp. 692–711.

  “Since I sent in my message”: Nicolay diary, March 9, 1862.

  “One thought she would go”: ibid.

  “thin and wasted”: Dahlgren diary, March 9, 1862.

  “a caged lion”: Nicolay diary, March 9, 1862; Welles diary, pp. 61–67.

  an utterly original design: Gene A. Smith, “Monitor,” in Heidler and Heidler, eds., Encyclopedia of the American Civil War, pp. 1346–47.

  “incredulity and contempt”: Welles diary, pp. 61–67.

  “like a pygmy”: Wood, “The First Fight of Iron-Clads,” p. 701.

  “a thousand years of battle and breeze”: Ibid., p. 692. For further details of the battle, see also S. D. Greene, “In the ‘Monitor’ Turret,” in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. 1, pp. 719–29.

  “snapping my thumb”: Wood, “The First Fight of Iron-Clads,” p. 701.

  “Iron will be King”: L. M. Powell to Gustavus V. Fox, April 4, 1862, in Confidential Correspondence of Gustavus Vasa Fox, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1861–1865, Vol. 2, p. 287.

  good news … followed by even more: Nicolay diary, March 9, 1862.

  “most excited and impressive”: Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 5, p. 226.
/>   emancipation was already started: cf. RW, p. 123.

  panel of border state congressmen: Guelzo, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, pp. 105–6.

  “touched the hem”: RW, p. 356.

  “good faith” answer: ibid., pp. 121–22.

  “sink or swim with you”: Bates diary, March 15, 1862.

  Why … block the Potomac again?: Welles diary, pp. 61–67.

  “Great ignorance”: Bates diary, March 11, 1862.

  “Stanton is exceedingly industrious”: Lincoln Observed: The Civil War Dispatches of Noah Brooks, p. 47.

  his experience of the Stanton style: William F. Roelofson to Thomas Ewing, Sr., Aug. 14, 1862, Ewing Family Papers, Box 14, No. 5100, Library of Congress Manuscript Division.

  main telegraph moved: Bates, Lincoln in the Telegraph Office: Recollections of the United States Military Telegraph Corps During the Civil War, pp. 132–37.

  “Let him wait”: quoted in Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 2, p. 197.

  President’s Special War Order No. 3: Hay diary, pp. 35–36.

  “Forget it”: Goodwin, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, pp. 429–30.

  “prompt, full, and frequent reports”: CW, Vol. 5, p. 155.

  “end of the rebellion”: New York Times, March 12, 1862.

  “a fool’s errand”: Bates diary, March 13, 1862.

  McClellan … was delighted: Rafuse, McClellan’s War, p. 193.

  “the brightest passage of my life”: McClellan to Samuel Barlow, March 16, 1862.

  “showed me my weakness”: quoted in Goodwin, Team of Rivals, pp. 422–23.

  “distressed and pale”: French diary, March 23, 1862.

  “Tad and I have fixed”: Randall, Lincoln’s Sons, pp. 133–34; CW, Vol. 5, p. 154.

  “depression of spirits”: Boyden, Echoes from Hospital and White House, pp. 58–62.

  Mary pressed a picture: ibid.

  “stand firm”: ibid.

  The emperor wanted to talk: Dayton to Seward, March 25 and 26, 1862.

  “France would have nothing to do with it”: ibid., March 31, 1862.

  “The period of inaction has passed”: “To the Army of the Potomac,” in The Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan, p. 211.

  “Numerous steam-tugs”: Warren Lee Goss, “Campaigning to No Purpose,” in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. 2, p. 159.

  “stride of a giant”: quoted in Sears, George B. McClellan, pp. 168–69.

  To accomplish this: McClellan to Stanton, March 19, 1862.

  “We began to fear”: RW, p. 148.

  “a tool of Jeff Davis”: Ellen Ewing Sherman to Thomas Ewing, Jr., March 20, 1862, Ewing Family Papers, Box 67; Stanton to Thomas Ewing, Sr., April 2, 1862, Ewing Family Papers, Box 67, Library of Congress Manuscript Division.

  meeting with Orville Browning: Browning diary, April 2, 1862.

  McClellan’s long relationship with … Davis: ibid.

  “The government seems doomed”: Stanton to Thomas Ewing, Sr., April 2, 1862, Ewing Family Papers, Box 67, Library of Congress Manuscript Division.

  “raw men timid”: Sherman, Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman, p. 249.

  “the task is so gigantic”: Sherman to Thomas Ewing, Jr., April 4, 1862.

  5: APRIL

  “Albert Sidney Johnston”: P. Roland Charles, “Albert Sidney Johnston,” in Heidler and Heidler, eds., Encyclopedia of the American Civil War, pp. 1081–83.

  “the great strategic position”: Grant, Memoirs and Selected Letters, p. 222.

  Johnston decided to strike: Davis, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Vol. 2, p. 50.

  “wild birds in great numbers”: Wheeler, Voices of the Civil War, pp. 88–89.

  believing that the Confederates were dispirited: Grant, Memoirs and Selected Letters, p. 223.

  “the first great modern battle”: Foote, The Civil War, Vol. 1, p. 338.

  “I think I have seen enough”: Wheeler, Voices of the Civil War, p. 89.

  “perhaps a dozen officers arrested”: Grant to Jesse R. Grant, April 26, 1862.

  Prentiss and his troops repulsed: Hattaway and Jones, How the North Won, p. 168.

  valuable hours of daylight: Wheeler, Voices of the Civil War, pp. 95–96.

  “Lick ’em tomorrow”: Smith, Grant, pp. 200–201.

  more casualties in two days at Shiloh: Foote, The Civil War, Vol. 1, p. 351.

  begin shooting the stragglers: ibid., p. 344.

  the “jealousy of Gen. Buell”: cf. Sherman to John Sherman, May 12, 1862: “Grant had been expecting Buell a whole week before he arrived.” Also Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 5, p. 318.

  Carroll struck preemptively: Catton, Grant Moves South, pp. 251–52.

  A line had been crossed: cf. Smith, Grant, p. 204 and 204n.

  “stepping on dead bodies”: Grant, Memoirs and Selected Letters, pp. 238–39.

  “like shooting into a flock of sheep”: quoted in McDonough, Shiloh, in Hell Before Night, p. 156.

  “valley of death”: Ambrose Bierce, “What I Saw of Shiloh,” in Civil War Stories, pp. 13–14.

  “break the heart of the rebellion”: Bates diary, April 9, 1862.

  “the horrid nature of this war”: Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, April 11, 1862.

  “except by complete conquest”: Grant, Memoirs and Selected Letters, p. 246.

  “breaks up the rebel cause”: McClellan to Lincoln, April 20, 1862.

  McClellan was “astonished”: McClellan to Louis M. Goldsborough, April 5, 1862.

  “In my deliberate judgment”: McClellan to Lincoln, April 5, 1862.

  “the most infamous thing”: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, April 6, 1862.

  Nothing was turning out: Rafuse, McClellan’s War, pp. 203–5; McClellan to Ambrose Burnside, May 21, 1862.

  Lincoln scolded: CW, Vol. 5, p. 182.

  “do it himself”: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, April 8, 1862.

  “I need all the aid”: McClellan to Lincoln, April 6, 1862.

  “Do you really think”: CW, Vol. 5, pp. 184–85.

  the moment … was slipping away: Sears, George B. McClellan, p. 179.

  Porter went floating away: Eye of the Storm: A Civil War Odyssey Written and Illustrated by Private Robert Knox Sneden, April 12, 1862.

  “You can imagine”: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, April 11, 1862.

  defrauding the government: Browning diary, March 3, 1862.

  “dress in costly materials”: quoted in Randall, Mary Lincoln, pp. 346–47.

  “Mrs. L is awfully Western”: quoted in Seale, The President’s House, Vol. 1, p. 363.

  “She wanted what she wanted”: Bayne, Tad Lincoln’s Father, p. 49.

  three hundred pairs of kid gloves: Browning diary, July 3, 1873.

  Following his disturbing meeting: Michael Burlingame, “Honest Abe, Dishonest Mary,” Historical Bulletin Number 50, Lincoln Fellowship of Wisconsin, 1994, pp. 15–20.

  White House stationery budget: Miers, Lincoln Day by Day, Vol. 3, April 4, 1862.

  “kiss mine”: quoted in Goodwin, Team of Rivals, p. 401.

  “The devil is abroad”: ibid.

  Reverend Francis L. Vinton: Mary Lincoln to Francis L. Vinton, April 13, 1862; Morgan Dix, “Memorial Sermon,” in Francis L. Vinton, Priest and Doctor, pp. 13–43.

  “good enough for tabby”: Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 2, p. 261.

  “‘When shall I awake’”: RW, p. 330.

  story of a mysterious letter: Boyden, Echoes from Hospital and White House, pp. 67–70.

  a beautiful Friday: Taft diary, April 4, 1862.

  went for a ride: New York Times, April 5, 1862.

  “in wild excitement”: Taft diary, April 9, 1862.

  a national day of thanksgiving: CW, Vol. 5, pp. 185–86.

  a double game: Crook, Diplomacy During the American Civil War, pp. 64–65.

  hive of Confederate sympathizers: Seward to Adams, May 2, 1862.<
br />
  formal protest … blind eye: Adams to Russell, March 25, 1862; Russell to Adams, March 27, 1862.

  “change of policy”: Adams to Seward, April 11, 1862.

  A wild rumor: Bates diary, April 11, 1862.

  a long memorandum for Adams: Seward to Adams, April 14, 1862.

  The two men had a long talk: Adams to Seward, April 25, 1862.

  “The North fights for supremacy”: Dayton to Seward, May 26, 1862, with attachment from Le Constitutionnel, May 23, 1862.

  “As the period approaches”: Adams to Seward, April 25, 1862.

  a likeness of John Bright: Ronald A. Rietveld, “The Lincoln White House Community,” p. 23.

  ratify a treaty: CW, Vol. 5, p. 186.

  “Laus Deo!”: Sumner to Francis Lieber, April 25, 1862.

  Lincoln … supported a public referendum: CW, Vol. 5, p. 169.

  “the largest slave-holder”: Sumner to John Andrew, April 22, 1862.

  Lincoln … had promised: Browning diary, April 14, 1862.

  the president owed Wickliffe: Speed, The Union Cause in Kentucky, 1860–1865, pp. 99–104.

  “the most incessant rains”: Grant to Julia Dent Grant, April 15, 1862.

  “Skulls and toes”: quoted in Marszalek, Commander of All Lincoln’s Armies, pp. 122–23.

  Thousands of wounded men: The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, Vol. 5, p. 20.

  lashed himself to a bunk: Sherman to Thomas Ewing, Sr., May 3, 1862.

  folded their reports: The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, Vol. 5, pp. 48–51.

  “I never saw a man”: Marszalek, Commander of All Lincoln’s Armies, pp. 122–23.

  Halleck issued a flurry of orders: The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, Vol. 5, pp. 48–51.

  When a complaint: ibid., pp. 67–68.

  Only Buell’s timely arrival: Don C. Buell, “Shiloh Reviewed,” in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. 1, pp. 487–536.

  the same indictment: Flood, Grant and Sherman: The Friendship That Won the Civil War, p. 121.

  “ought to be shot”: Sumner to John Andrew, April 22, 1862.

  “This story of surprise”: Sherman to John Sherman, April 22, 1862.

  “Newspapers now rule”: Sherman to Thomas Ewing, Sr., April 27, 1862.

  “Retreat! Save yourselves!”: Daniel, Shiloh: The Battle That Changed the Civil War, p. 137.

  “not from motives of patriotism”: from an 1862 editorial in the Western Standard of Celina, Ohio; quoted in the Springfield, Ohio, News-Sun, Feb. 6, 2011.