OCTOBER 13, 1862:
President
Lincoln writes to General McClellan, scarcely able to restrain his impatience
as he urges him to move against Lee, who is calmly encamped at Winchester:
“MY DEAR SIR--You
remember my speaking to you of what I called your over-cautiousness. Are you
not over-cautious when you assume that you cannot do what the enemy is
constantly doing? Should you not claim to be at least his equal in prowess, and
act upon the claim? . . . For a great part of the way you would be practically
between the enemy and both Washington and Richmond, enabling us to spare you
the greatest number of troops from here. When at length running for Richmond
ahead of him enables him to move this way, if he does so, turn and attack him
in rear. But I think he should be engaged long before such a point is reached.
It is all easy if our troops march as well as the enemy, and it is unmanly to
say they cannot do it. This letter is in no sense an order.”
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