HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF
THE POTOMAC
Camp in Pleasant
Valley, October 17, 1862.
His Excellency the PRESIDENT:
SIR: Your
letter of the 13th instant reached me yesterday morning by the hands of
Colonel Perkins.
I had sent out strong reconnaissances early in the morning
in the direction of Charlestown, Leetown, &c., and as sharp artillery fire
was heard, I felt it incumbent to go to the front. I did not leave Charlestown
until dark, so that I have been unable to give Your Excellency's letter that
full and respectful consideration which it merits at my hands.
I do not wish to detain Colonel Perkins beyond this morning's
train; I therefore think it best to send him back with this simple
acknowledgment of the receipt of Your Excellency's letter. I am not wedded to
any particular plan of operations. I hope to have to-day reliable information
as to the position of the enemy, whom I still believe to be between Bunker Hill
and Winchester. I promise you that I will give to your views the fullest and
most unprejudiced consideration, and that it is my intention to advance the
moment my men are shod and my cavalry are sufficiently renovated to be
available.
Your Excellency may be assured that I will not adopt a
course which lifters at all from your views without first fully explaining my
reasons, and giving you tame to issue such instructions as may seem best to
you.
I am, sir, very
respectfully, your obedient servant,
GEO. B. McCLELLAN,
Major-General, U.S.
Army.
SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume
19, Part 1 (Serial No. 27), p. 16
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