JANUARY 26, 1863:
President
Lincoln writes a very frank letter to his new Commanding General, admitting his
reservations about having appointed him. It reads in part:
GENERAL:—I have
placed you at the head of the Army of the Potomac. Of course I have done this
upon what appear to me to be sufficient reasons, and yet I think it best for
you to know that there are some things in regard to which I am not quite
satisfied with you. I believe you to be a brave and skillful soldier, which of
course I like. I also believe you do not mix politics with your profession, in
which you are right. You have confidence in yourself, which is a valuable if
not an indispensable quality. You are ambitious, which within reasonable bounds
does good rather than harm; but I think that during General Burnside's command
of the army you have taken counsel of your ambition and thwarted him as much as
you could…I have heard, in such a way as to believe it, of your recently saying
that both the army and the government needed a dictator. Of course it was not
for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only those
generals who gain successes can set up dictators. What I now ask of you is
military success, and I will risk the dictatorship… I much fear that the
spirit that you have aided to infuse into the army, of criticizing their
commander and withholding confidence from him, will now turn upon you…And now
beware of rashness. Beware of rashness, but with energy and sleepless vigilance
go forward and give us victories.
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