EXCUTIVE MANSION,
June 28, 1862.
Hon. W. H. SEWARD:
MY DEAR SIR: My view of the present condition of the war is
about as follows:
The evacuation of Corinth and our delay by the flood in the
Chickahominy has enabled the enemy to concentrate too much force in Richmond
for McClellan to successfully attack. In fact, there soon will be no
substantial rebel force anywhere else. But if we send all the force from here
to McClellan the enemy will, before we can know of it, send a force from
Richmond and take Washington. Or if a large part of the Western army be brought
here to McClellan they will let us have Richmond and retake Tennessee,
Kentucky, Missouri, &c. What should be done is to hold what we have in the
West, open the Mississippi, and take Chattanooga and East Tennessee without
more. A reasonable force should in every event be kept about Washington for its
protection. Then let the country give us 100,000 new troops in the shortest
possible time, which, added to McClellan, directly or indirectly, will take
Richmond without endangering any other place which we now hold and will
substantially end the war. I expect to maintain this contest until successful,
or till I die, or am conquered, or my term expires, or Congress or the country
forsake me; and I would publicly appeal to the country for this new force were
it not that I fear a general panic and stampede would follow, so hard is it to
have a thing understood as it really is. I think the new force should be all,
or nearly all, infantry, principally because such can be raised most cheaply
and quickly.
Yours, very truly,
A. LINCOLN.
SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series III,
Volume 2 (Serial No. 123), p. 179-80
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