Executive Mansion,
Washington, July 21, 1863.
My dear General
Howard:
Your letter of the 18th is received – I was deeply mortified
by the escape of Lee across the Potomac, because the substantial destruction of
his army would have ended the war, and because I believed, such destruction was
perfectly easy – believed that Gen. Meade and his noble army had expended all
the skill, and toil, and blood, up to the ripe harvest, and then let the crop
go to waste – Perhaps my mortification was partly heightened because I had
always believed – making my belief a hobby possibly – that the main rebel army
going North of the Potomac, could never return, if well attended to; and
because I was so greatly flattered in this belief, by the operations at Gettysburg
– A few days having passed, I am now profoundly grateful for what was done,
without criticism for what was not done – Gen. Meade has my confidence as a
brave and skillful officer, and a true man.
Yours very truly
A. Lincoln
SOURCES: Roy P. Basler, editor, Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln,
Volume 6, p. 341;
A copy of this letter can be found in The Abraham Lincoln
Papers at the Library of Congress; George Meade, The Life and
Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 2, p. 138;
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