FORT MONROE, VA., May 9, 1862.
Major-General McCLELLAN:
MY DEAR SIR: I have just assisted the Secretary of War in
framing the part of a dispatch to you relating to army corps, which dispatch of
course will have reached you long before this will.
I wish to say a few words to you privately on this subject.
I ordered the army corps organization not only on the unanimous opinion of the
twelve generals whom you had selected and assigned as generals of divisions,
but also on the unanimous opinion of every military man I could get an opinion
from, and every modern military book, yourself only excepted. Of course I did
not on my own judgment pretend to understand the subject. I now think it
indispensable for you to know how your struggle against it is received in
quarters which we cannot entirely disregard. It is looked upon as merely all
effort to pamper one or two pets and to persecute and degrade their supposed
rivals. I have had no word from Sumner, Heintzelman, or Keyes. The commanders
of these corps are of course the three highest officers with you, but I am
constantly told that you have no consultation or communication with them; that
you consult and communicate with nobody but General Fitz John Porter and
perhaps General Franklin. I do not say these complaints are true or just, but
at all events it is proper you should know of their existence. Do the
commanders of corps disobey your orders in anything?
When you relieved General Hamilton of his command the other
day you thereby lost the confidence of at least one of your best friends in the
Senate. And here let me say, not as applicable to you personally, that Senators
and Representatives speak of me in their places as they please without
question, and that officers of the Army must cease addressing insulting letters
to them for taking no greater liberty with them.
But to return: Are you strong enough – are you strong
enough, even with my help – to set your foot upon the necks of Sumner,
Heintzelman, and Keyes all at once? This is a practical and very serious
question for you.
The success of your army and the cause of the country are
the same, and of course I only desire the good of the cause.
Yours, truly,
A. LINCOLN.
SOURCES: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume
11, Part 3 (Serial No. 14), p. 154-5
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