SEPTEMBER 11, 1862:
If asked
in retrospect, President Lincoln would probably have said that his worst day as
President---apart from letting Mary drag him to the theatre to see Our American Cousin on Good Friday,
1865---was September 11, 1862.
Robert E.
Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia arrived in Hagerstown, Maryland, as very
unwelcome guests, but the type that couldn’t simply be politely asked to leave.
Lee was planning to move on to Harrisburg and Philadelphia, just as Governor
Curtin of Pennsylvania feared, but Lee had decided to use Hagerstown as his
staging area for the further invasion of the North, and the Rebels begin to dig
in. Lee is undefeated; the Union Army has been defeated many times, latest at
Bull Run (a second time!) and is disorganized, or so many people, North and
South, believe.
What no one realizes is that George B. McClellan, though an
indifferent battlefield general and a megalomaniac, is also a gifted military
organizer, and he has managed to rebuild the Army of The Potomac into an
effective fighting force even while on the march. Whether he will use the
weapon he has crafted remains to be seen.
The Governor of Pennsylvania sent this message to Lincoln on
September 11th:
‘I have information
this evening of a private character, which I deem entirely reliable, that the
whole of the rebel army has been moved from Frederick, and their destination is
Harrisburg and Philadelphia. You should order a strong guard placed upon the
railway lines from Washington to Harrisburg to-night, and send here not less
than 80,000 disciplined forces … It is our only hope to save the North and
crush the rebel army. Do not suppose for one instant that I am unnecessarily
alarmed … The enemy will bring against us not less than 120,000, with large
amount of artillery. The time for decided action by the National Government has
arrived. What may we expect?’
What indeed?
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