Team of Rivals

by Doris Kearns Goodwin

  when he arrived…Army of the Potomac: Entry for July 27, 1861, in Long, The Civil War Day by Day, p. 101.

  Among the Union’s…the Mexican War: See chapter 1 of Stephen W. Sears, George B. McClellan: The Young Napoleon (New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1988).

  defeated a guerrilla band: Sears, George B. McClellan, p. 80.

  “the man on horseback”: Entry for July 27, 1861, in Russell, My Diary North and South, p. 480.

  “a more martial look”: Entry for July 1861, in Gurowski, Diary from March 4, 1861 to November 12, 1862, p. 76.

  drunken soldiers…troops wander the city: Entry for July 27, 1861, in Russell, My Diary North and South, p. 479; Star, July 31, 1861.

  “You have no idea…such yelling”: GBM to MEM, [September 11, 1861], in The Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan, Selected Correspondence, 1861–1865, ed. Stephen W. Sears (New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1989), p. 98.

  “the great obstacle”: GBM to MEM, August 9, 1861, in ibid., 81.

  “entirely insufficient…in our front”: GBM to Winfield Scott, August 8, 1861, in ibid., p. 80.

  Scott was furious…opposition forces: Winfield Scott to Simon Cameron, August 9, 1861, Lincoln Papers.

  It would not be…miscalculations: Sears, George B. McClellan, pp. 103, 109.

  discord…continued to escalate: GBM to AL, August 10, 1861, in Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan, p. 82; GBM to MEM, September 27, 1861, in ibid., pp. 103–04.

  “concentric pressure”: Sears, George B. McClellan, p. 98.

  “crush…in one campaign”: GBM to MEM, August 2, 1861, in Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan, p. 74.

  “result…in my hands”: GBM to MEM, August 9, 1861, in ibid., pp. 81–82.

  “by some strange…of the land”: GBM to MEM, July 27, 1861, in ibid., p. 70.

  “the people call…country is saved”: GBM to MEM, August 9, 1861, in ibid., pp. 81–82.

  Scott was “a perfect imbecile…a traitor”: GBM to MEM, August 8, 1861, in ibid., p. 81.

  “eternal jealousy…distinction”: GBM to MEM, October 6, 1861, in ibid., p. 106.

  “The remedy…small of the back”: Winfield Scott to Simon Cameron (copy), October 4, 1861, reel 1, Stanton Papers, DLC.

  McClellan’s headquarters: Entry for September 2, 1861, in Russell, My Diary North and South, pp. 520–21; Sears, George B. McClellan, p. 100.

  “smoking…writing”: Entry for September 2, 1861, in Russell, My Diary North and South, p. 520.

  “I have just been…stories to tell”: GBM to MEM, October 16, 1861, in Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan, p. 107.

  “together…mortals”: Entry for November 1861, in Gurowski, Diary from March 4, 1861 to November 12, 1862, p. 123.

  “lying down, very much fatigued”: Brigadier Van Vliet, quoted in entry for October 9, 1861, in Russell, My Diary North and South, p. 552.

  magnificent reviews of more than fifty thousand troops: Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, October 5, 1861; JGN to TB, November 21, 1861, container 2, Nicolay Papers.

  “not a mistake…a hitch”: GBM to MEM, November 20, 1861, in Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan, p. 137.

  “A long time…not mind that”: GBM to MEM, October 6, 1861, in ibid., p. 106.

  “a slave-catching order”…their masters: Entry for September 1861, in Gurowski, Diary from March 4, 1861 to November 12, 1862, p. 95.

  “fighting to preserve…to do with him”: GBM to Samuel L. M. Barlow, November 8, 1861, in Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan, p. 128.

  “some of the greatest…of Job”: GBM to MEM, October 10, 1861, in ibid., p. 106.

  “a meddling…old woman”: GBM to MEM, October 11, 1861, in ibid., pp. 106–07.

  “an old fool…altogether fancy him!”: GBM to MEM, October 31, 1861, in ibid., p. 114.

  a flattering letter…promotion to major general: SPC to GBM, July 7, 1861, quoted in Schuckers, The Life and Public Services of Salmon Portland Chase, p. 427.

  engagement at Ball’s Bluff: Entry for October 21, 1861, in Long, The Civil War Day by Day, p. 129.

  “a slight demonstration…move them”: GMB to Charles P. Stone, October 20, 1861, quoted in note 2 of GBM to Stone, October 21, 1861, in Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan, p. 109.

  casualties at Ball’s Bluff: “Return of casualties in the Union forces in the engagement at Ball’s Bluff, Virginia, October 21, 1861,” OR, Ser. 1, Vol. V, p. 308.

  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr…. home to recover: SPC to KCS, July 28, 1865, reel 35, Chase Papers.

  “the death…a desert”: Noah Brooks, “Recollections of Abraham Lincoln,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine 31 (July 1865), p. 228.

  “Mr. Lincoln sat”…and kissed him: Benjamin Rush Cowen, Abraham Lincoln: An Appreciation by One Who Knew Him (Cincinnati, Ohio: Robert Clarke Co., 1909), pp. 29–30.

  Eckert…received word: Bates, Lincoln in the Telegraph Office, pp. 95–96.

  “with bowed head…into the street”: Charles Carleton Coffin, “Lincoln’s First Nomination and His Visit to Richmond in 1865,” in Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Rice (1909 edn.), p. 176.

  Mary was similarly distraught: Entry for October 22, 1861, in Russell, My Diary North and South, p. 558.

  Willie and Tad…were heartbroken: Helm, The True Story of Mary, p. 191.

  “On the Death of Colonel Edward Baker”: NR, November 4, 1861.

  “to care for him…his orphan”: AL, “Second Inaugural Address,” March 4, 1865, in CW, VIII, p. 333.

  “disaster…committed”: GBM to Division Commanders, Army of the Potomac, October 24, 1861, in Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan, p. 111.

  “The whole thing…directly to blame”: GBM to MEM, October 25, 1861, in ibid., p. 111.

  the president defended McClellan: Entry for October 26, 1861, in Hay, Inside Lincoln’s White House, p. 28.

  unleashed a diatribe…to remove Scott: GBM to MEM, October 26, 1861, in Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan, p. 112; Sears, George B. McClellan, p. 123.

  “You may have…heads to call me”: GBM to MEM, October 30, 1861, in Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan, p. 112.

  “long and brilliant…deep emotion”: AL, “Order Retiring Winfield Scott from Command,” November 1, 1861, in CW, V, p. 10.

  Lincoln designated McClellan: AL to GBM, November 1, 1861, in ibid., pp. 9–10.

  “I saw there…his successor”: GBM to MEM, November 3, 1861, in Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan, pp. 123–24.

  All the members…on his journey: Star, November 2, 1861; Charles Winslow Elliott, Winfield Scott: The Soldier and the Man. American Military Experience Series (New York: Arno Press, 1979), p. 743.

  “quite a number of citizens”: NYH, November 4, 1861.

  the young Napoleon: Sears, George B. McClellan, p. xi.

  “I do not intend to be sacrificed”: GBM to MEM, October 31, 1861, in Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan, p. 113.

  to confront the rebel forces: GBM to Simon Cameron, October 31, 1861, in ibid., pp. 114–19; GBM to MEM, August 16, 1861, in ibid., p. 85.

  “to dodge…Presdt etc.”: GBM to MEM, October 31, 1861, in ibid., p. 113.

  “the original…his high position”: GBM to MEM, November 17, 1861, in ibid., pp. 135–36.

  “I wish here to record…personal dignity”: Entry for November 13, 1861, in Hay, Inside Lincoln’s White House, p. 32.

  He would hold…could be achieved: Henry Ketcham, The Life of Abraham Lincoln (New York: A. L. Burt, 1901), p. 291.

  “A minute passes…rebellious consciousness”: Stoddard, Inside the White House in War Times, p. 63.

  His “mouth would relax…sea of laughter”: Grimsley, “Six Months in the White House,” JISHS, p. 55.

  “daily drive…so much needed”: Ibid.

  soirées in the Blue Room: Turner and Turner, Mary Todd Lincoln, pp. 96–97, 98; MTL to Hannah Shearer, October 6, 1861, ibid., p. 108; Baker, Mary Todd Lincoln, p. 231.

  Dani
el Sickles…“temporary insanity”: Thomas and Hyman, Stanton, pp. 83–85.

  Henry Wikoff…“and Thackeray”: John W. Forney, Anecdotes of Public Men, Vol. I (New York: Harper & Bros., 1873; New York: Da Capo Press, 1970), pp. 366–71 (quote p. 367).

  “My wife…never fallen out”: AL, quoted in Baker, Mary Todd Lincoln, p. 196.

  When Prince Napoleon…visited: Entry for August 3, 1861, in Lincoln Day by Day, Vol. III, p. 58.

  “We only have…proper season”: MTL to Hannah Shearer, August 1, 1861, in Turner and Turner, Mary Todd Lincoln, p. 96.

  “beautiful dinner…predominated”: Grimsley, “Six Months in the White House,” JISHS, p. 70.

  Mary requested Volume 9: Entry for August 5, 1861, in Lincoln Day by Day, Vol. III, p. 59.

  William Scott: Court-martial of Private William Scott, Co. K, 3rd Vermont Infantry, case file OO-209, Court-Martial Case Files, 1809–1894, entry 15, Records of the Office of the Judge Advocate General (Army), RG 153, DNA; NYT, September 10, 1861.

  As the story was told: See L. E. Chittenden, Recollections of President Lincoln and His Administration (New York and London: Harper & Bros., 1901), p. 267.

  “Think…much as he tried to”: Grimsley, “Six Months in the White House,” JISHS, p. 71.

  Lincoln walked over…“‘Lady President’”: George B. McClellan, McClellan’s Own Story (New York: Charles L. Webster & Co., 1887), p. 91 (quote); entry for September 8, 1861, in Lincoln Day by Day, Vol. III, p. 65.

  “that it was asking…‘only one he had’”: Chittenden, Recollections of President Lincoln (1901 edn.), p. 273.

  “the most beautiful…my own”: MTL to Hannah Shearer, July 11, 1861, Turner and Turner, Mary Todd Lincoln, p. 94.

  drives with the Sewards: See entries for September 1, 3, and 6, 1861, Fanny Seward diary, Seward Papers, for examples of afternoons spent driving with Sewards; FAS to LW, [August 1861], reel 119, Seward Papers.

  “a plain…& the crops”: FAS to LW, [July 1861?], reel 119, Seward Papers.

  “I liked him…all over him”: Entry for September 1, 1861, Fanny Seward diary, Seward Papers.

  “abandon of…climb a rope”: NYT, June 17, 1861.

  “With one impulse…mouth to mouth”: Entry for September 6, 1861, Fanny Seward diary, Seward Papers.

  “I love…and does”: Entry for September 9, 1861, Fanny Seward diary, Seward Papers.

  “palatial…tasteful & attractive”: FAS to LW, [July 1861?], reel 119, Seward Papers.

  confined to her bed by migraines: See FAS to LW, [August 1861], reel 119, Seward Papers; “‘I have supped full on horrors,’ from Fanny Seward’s Diary,” ed. Patricia Carley Johnson, American Heritage X (October 1959), p. 62.

  vacation in upstate New York and Long Branch: Entry for August 14, 1861, in Lincoln Day by Day, Vol. III, p. 60.

  “especially as…her husband”: FAS to LW, [July 1861?], reel 119, Seward Papers.

  word came…“company in the evening”: Entry for September 9, 1861, Fanny Seward diary, Seward Papers.

  “If things…my husband”: MTL, quoted in George B. Lincoln to GW, April 25, 1874, quoted in “New Light on the Seward-Welles-Lincoln Controversy,” Lincoln Lore 1718 (April 1981), p. 3.

  “It makes me…skein of thread”: MTL, quoted in Elizabeth Keckley, Behind the Scenes. Or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House. The Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers Series (New York: G. W. Carleton & Co., 1868; New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), p. 131.

  the long evenings Lincoln spent at Seward’s: Hendrick, Lincoln’s War Cabinet, p. 186.

  “My friend…churchwarden!”: Wilson, Intimate Memories of Lincoln, p. 422.

  “a tithe…read for ever”: Entry for October 12, 1861, in Hay, Inside Lincoln’s White House, p. 26.

  “personal courage…the enemy is”: Entry for October 10, 1861, in ibid., p. 25.

  brought up the Chicago convention…“his life in his hand”: Entry for October 17, 1861, in ibid., pp. 26, 27.

  probably rekindled memories…on the circuit: Taylor, William Henry Seward, p. 188.

  the fighting…in Missouri: See Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. IV, chapter 11, esp. pp. 206–11; Thomas L. Snead, “The First Year of the War in Missouri,” in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. I, Part I, Grant-Lee edition (New York: Century Co., 1887–88; Harrisburg, Penn.: Archive Society, 1991), pp. 262–65.

  Frank Blair…General Nathaniel Lyon: Snead, “The First Year of the War in Missouri,” Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. I, Pt. 1, pp. 264–68; Williams, Lincoln and the Radicals, p. 39; “Missouri for the Union,” in Parrish, Frank Blair.

  “thickly veiled”…revolvers: Snead, “The First Year of the War in Missouri,” Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. I, Pt. 1, p. 265 (quote); see also Franklin A. Dick, “Memorandum of Matters in Missouri,” Papers ofF. A. Dick, Miscellaneous Manuscripts Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

  the “earnest solicitation”: Entry for December 9, 1863, in Hay, Inside Lincoln’s White House, p. 123.

  “He is just…eminently practical”: “Editorial, 3 August 1861,” in Hay, Lincoln’s Journalist, p. 84.

  “There was…magical influence”: Koerner, Memoirs of Gustave Koerner, Vol. II, p. 162.

  “recklessness in expenditures”: JGN, memorandum of September 17, 1861, container 2, Nicolay Papers.

  Tales circulated…unwanted visitors: Ibid.; FB to Governor Dennison, September 19, 1861, quoted in Smith, The Francis Preston Blair Family in Politics, Vol. II, pp. 79–80.

  Frémont…had chosen to stay: Lorenzo Thomas to Simon Cameron, October 21, 1861, in OR, Ser. 1, Vol. III, p. 543; Parrish, Frank Blair, p. 116.

  General Lyon’s death…devastating defeat: Entries for August 10 and September 20, 1861, in Long, The Civil War Day by Day, pp. 107, 120.

  Frémont issued a bold proclamation…“declared freemen”: Proclamation of John C. Frémont, August 30, 1861, in OR, Ser. 1, Vol. III, pp. 466–67 (quotes p. 467).

  far exceeded…their future status: Joseph Holt to AL, September 12, 1861, Lincoln Papers.

  Lincoln learned of…a private letter to Frémont: Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. IV, pp. 416, 417–18.

  unilaterally recast…war against slavery: Benjamin Quarles, Lincoln and the Negro (New York: Oxford University Press, 1962; repr. New York: Da Capo Press, 1990), p. 71.

  has “anxiety…so as to conform”: AL to John C. Frémont, September 2, 1861, in CW, IV, p. 506.

  “Fremont’s proclamation…future condition”: AL to Orville H. Browning, September 22, 1861, in ibid., p. 531.

  “The trouble…only to himself”: Carpenter, “A Day with Governor Seward,” Seward Papers.

  “unable to eat…on such a principle”: Joshua Speed to AL, September 3, 1861, Lincoln Papers.

  “I know that you…to the very foundations”: FB to MB, September 1, 1861, Lincoln Papers.

  he himself had reluctantly concluded: Williams, Lincoln and the Radicals, pp. 48–49.

  “but being…public interests”: MB to AL, September 4, 1861, Lincoln Papers.

  General Meigs and Montgomery Blair…“look into the affair”: JGN, memorandum of September 17, 1861, container 2, Nicolay Papers; entry for September 10 to September 18, 1861, extracts from diary of Montgomery C. Meigs, container 13, Nicolay Papers.

  Jessie…arrived in Washington: “The Lincoln Interview: Excerpt from ‘Great Events,’” in The Letters of Jessie Benton Frémont, ed. Pamela Herr and Mary Lee Spence (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1993), pp. 264–65.

  “If I were…I did not do so”: John C. Frémont to AL, September 8, 1861, Lincoln Papers.

  “You are quite a female politician”: “The Lincoln Interview,” Letters of Jessie Benton Frémont, p. 266.

  “taxed me…for himself”: Entry for December 9, 1863, in Hay, Inside Lincoln’s White House, p. 123.

  she asked Lincoln…when he was ready: “The Lincol
n Interview,” Letters of Jessie Benton Frémont, p. 266.

  Lincoln wrote…“an open order”: AL to John C. Frémont, September 11, 1861, in CW, IV, pp. 517–18.

  he sent it to be mailed: Jessie Benton Frémont to AL, September 12, 1861, in Letters of Jessie Benton Frémont, p. 271 n1.

  “He had always…now very angry”: “The Lincoln Interview,” Letters of Jessie Benton Frémont, p. 267.

  the elder Blair revealed: Jessie B. Frémont to AL, September 12, 1861, Lincoln Papers.

  “examine into that Department”: AL to Jessie B. Frémont, September 12, 1861, draft copy, Lincoln Papers.

  “threatened the old man…from responsibility”: MB to W. O. Barlett, September 26, 1861, copy, reel 21, Blair Family Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress [hereafter Blair Family Papers, DLC].

  “most incautious”: EBL to SPL, October 7, 1861, in Wartime Washington, ed. Laas, p. 83.

  “The rebels…for defence”: Entry for September 10 to September 18, 1861, extracts from diary of Montgomery C. Meigs, container 13, Nicolay Papers.

  “a full & plain…should be consulted”: MB to AL, September 14, 1861, Lincoln Papers.

  Rumors circulated: Entry for December 28, 1861, in The Diary of Edward Bates, 1859–1866, p. 217; EBL to SPL, October 19, 1861, in Wartime Washington, ed. Laas, pp. 88, 90 n2.

  “with a view…removal”: NYT, September 17, 1861.

  “unbecoming…gentleman”: Smith, The Francis Preston Blair Family in Politics, Vol. II, p. 78.

  Monty interceded: MB to John C. Frémont, September 20, 1861, copy, reel 21, Blair Family Papers, DLC.

  the trial, which would never take place: MB to FPB, October 1, 1861, box 7, folder 6, Blair-Lee Papers, Dept. of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library [hereafter Blair-Lee Papers, NjP-SC].

  “Were you not…proclamation?”: FAS to LW, [c. September 4, 1861], quoted in Seward, Seward at Washington…1846–1861, p. 612.

  “has cast…step backwards”: Joseph Medill to SPC, September 15, 1861, reel 17, Chase Papers.

  “poor white trash”: Benjamin F. Wade to Zachariah Chandler, September 23, 1861, reel 1, Papers of Zachariah Chandler, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

  “Many blunders…them all”: Douglass’ Monthly (October 1861), pp. 530–31.