Alas for the pleasant prognostications of the military men!
The General this morning received the despatches, which you will see before
this, confessing that the attack has been a failure. I do not as yet, know all
the results of this bitter disappointment. Charleston is not to be ours as yet,
and another instance is added to the many, of the President having clearer
perceptions of military possibilities than any man in the Cabinet or the field.
He thought it would fail.
SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and
Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 72-4; Michael Burlingame,
Editor, At Lincoln’s Side: John Hay’s Civil War Correspondence and
Selected Writings, p. 33 where the entire letter appears.
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