WAR DEPARTMENT,
Washington City, D.
C., June 15, 1862.
Major-General
FREMONT:
MY DEAR SIR: Your letter of the 12th, by Colonel Zagonyi, is
just received. In answer to the principal part of it I repeat the substance of
an order of the 8th and one or two telegraphic dispatches sent you since:
We have no indefinite power of sending re-enforcements; so
that we are compelled rather to consider the proper disposal of the forces we
have than of those we could wish to have. We may be able to send you some dribs
by degrees, but I do not believe we can do more. As you alone beat Jackson last
Sunday I argue that you are stronger than he is to-day, unless he has been
re-enforced, and that he cannot have been materially re-enforced, because such
re-enforcement could only have come from Richmond, and he is much more likely
to go to Richmond than Richmond is to come to him. Neither is very likely. I think
Jackson's game – his assigned work – now is to magnify the accounts of his
numbers and reports of his movements, and thus by constant alarms keep three or
four times as many of our troops away from Richmond as his own force amounts
to. Thus he helps his friends at Richmond three or four times as much as if he
were there. Our game is not to allow this. Accordingly, by the order of the
8th, I directed you to halt at Harrisonburg, rest your force, and get it well
in hand, the objects being to guard against Jackson's returning by the same
route to the Upper Potomac, over which you have just driven him out, and at the
same time give some protection against a raid into West Virginia. Already I
have given you discretion to occupy Mount Jackson instead, if, on full
consideration, you think best. I do not believe Jackson will attack you, but
certainly he cannot attack you by surprise; and if he comes upon you in
superior force you have but to notify us, fall back cautiously, and Banks will
join you in due time. But while we know not whether Jackson will move at all,
or by what route, we cannot safely put you and Banks both on the Strasburg
line, and leave no force on the Front Royal line, the very line upon which he
prosecuted his late raid. The true policy is to place one of you on one line
and the other on the other, in such positions that you can unite on either once
you actually find Jackson moving upon it. And this is precisely what we are
doing. This protects that part of our frontier, so to speak, and liberates
McDowell to go to the assistance of McClellan. I have arranged this, and am
very unwilling to have it deranged. While you have only asked for Sigel I have
spoken only of Banks, and this because Sigel's force is now the principal part
of Banks' force.
About transferring General Schenck's command, the purchase
of supplies, and the promotion and appointment of officers mentioned in your
letter, I will consult with the Secretary of War to-morrow.
Yours, truly,
A. LINCOLN.
SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume
12, Part 1 (Serial No. 15), p. 661
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