Friday, January 17, 2014

Major General George B. McClellan to Abraham Lincoln, October 17, 1862

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC
Camp in Pleasant Valley, October 17, 1862.

His Excellency the PRESIDENT:

SIR: Your letter of the 13th instant reached me yesterday morning by the hands of Colonel Perkins.

I had sent out strong reconnaissances early in the morning in the direction of Charlestown, Leetown, &c., and as sharp artillery fire was heard, I felt it incumbent to go to the front. I did not leave Charlestown until dark, so that I have been unable to give Your Excellency's letter that full and respectful consideration which it merits at my hands.

I do not wish to detain Colonel Perkins beyond this morning's train; I therefore think it best to send him back with this simple acknowledgment of the receipt of Your Excellency's letter. I am not wedded to any particular plan of operations. I hope to have to-day reliable information as to the position of the enemy, whom I still believe to be between Bunker Hill and Winchester. I promise you that I will give to your views the fullest and most unprejudiced consideration, and that it is my intention to advance the moment my men are shod and my cavalry are sufficiently renovated to be available.

Your Excellency may be assured that I will not adopt a course which lifters at all from your views without first fully explaining my reasons, and giving you tame to issue such instructions as may seem best to you.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

GEO. B. McCLELLAN,
Major-General, U.S. Army.

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 19, Part 1 (Serial No. 27), p. 16

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