EXECUTIVE MANSION,
Washington, February
3, 1862.
MY DEAR SIR: You and I have distinct and different plans for
a movement of the Army of the Potomac – yours to be down the Chesapeake, up the
Rappahannock to Urbana, and across land to the terminus of the railroad on the
York River; mine to move directly to a point on the railroads southwest of
Manassas.*
If you will give me satisfactory answers to the following
questions I shall gladly yield my plan to yours:
1st. Does not your plan involve a greatly larger
expenditure of time and money than mine?
2d. Wherein is a victory more certain by
your plan than mine?
3d. Wherein is a victory more valuable by
your plan than mine?
4th. In fact, would it not be less valuable
in this, that it would break no great line of the enemy's communications, while
mine would?
5th. In case of disaster, would not a retreat be
more difficult by your plan than mine?
Yours, truly,
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
Major-General McCLELLAN.
__________
* For the President’s memorandum accompanying this note, see
under same date in “correspondence, etc., post.
SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume
5 (Serial No. 5), p. 41-2
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