Executive Mansion,
Washington, August 31,
1863.
My dear General Rosecrans
Yours of the 22nd was received yesterday. When
I wrote you before, I did [not] intend, nor do
I now, to engage in an argument with you on military questions. You had
informed me you were impressed, through Gen. Halleck, that I was dissatisfied
with you; and I could not bluntly deny that I was, without unjustly implicating
him. I therefore concluded to tell you the plain truth, being satisfied the
matter would thus appear much smaller than it would if seen by mere glimpses. I
repeat that my appreciation of you has not abated. I can never forget, whilst I
remember anything, that about the end of last year, and beginning of this, you
gave us a hard earned victory which, had there been a defeat instead, the
nation could scarcely have lived over. Neither can I forget the check you so
opportunely gave to a dangerous sentiment which was spreading in the North.
Yours as ever
A. LINCOLN.
SOURCES: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume
52, Part 1 (Serial No. 109), p. 442; Roy P. Basler, editor, Collected
Works of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 6, p. 424-5;
A copy of this letter can be found in The
Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress
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