SOLDIERS’ HOME,
[Washington,] July 6, 1863 — 7 p.m.
Major-General HALLECK:
I left the telegraph office a good deal dissatisfied. You
know I did not like the phrase, in Orders, No. 68, I believe, “Drive the
invaders from our soil.” Since that, I see a dispatch from General French,
saying the enemy is crossing his wounded over the river in flats, without
saying why he does not stop it, or even intimating a thought that it ought to
be stopped. Still later, another dispatch from General Pleasonton, by direction
of General Meade, to General French, stating that the main army is halted
because it is believed the rebels are concentrating “on the road toward Hagerstown, beyond Fairfield,” and is not to move until it is ascertained that
the rebels intend to evacuate Cumberland Valley.
These things all appear to me to be connected with a purpose
to cover Baltimore and Washington, and to get the enemy across the river again
without a further collision, and they do not appear connected with a purpose to
prevent his crossing and to destroy him. I do fear the former purpose is acted
upon and the latter is rejected.
If you are satisfied the latter purpose is entertained and
is judiciously pursued, I am content. If you are not so satisfied, please look
to it.
Yours, truly,
A. LINCOLN.
SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 27,
Part 3 (Serial No. 45), p. 567
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