WAR DEPARTMENT,
Washington City,
June 28, 1862.
Major-General McCLELLAN:
Save your army at all events. Will send re-enforcements as
fast as we can. Of course they cannot reach you to-day, to-morrow, or next day.
I have not said you were ungenerous for saying you needed re-enforcements. I
thought you were ungenerous in assuming that I did not send them as fast as I could.
I feel any misfortune to you and your army quite as keenly as you feel it
yourself. If you have had a drawn battle or a repulse it is the price we pay
for the enemy not being in Washington. We protected Washington and the enemy
concentrated on you. Had we stripped Washington, he would have been upon us
before the troops could have gotten to you. Less than a week ago you notified
us that re-enforcements were leaving Richmond to come in front of us; It is the
nature of the case, and neither you nor the Government are to blame. Please
tell at once the present condition and aspect of things.
A. LINCOLN.
P. S. – General Pope thinks if you fall back it would be
much better toward York River than toward the James. As Pope now has charge of
the capital, please confer with him through the telegraph.
SOURCE: 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. 269
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