Tuesday, July 22, 2014

July 23, 1864---"Are you able to take care of the enemy . . . ?"



JULY 23, 1864:      
   
General Jubal Early C.S.A. has returned to the Shenandoah Valley, and engages Union troops under General David Hunter near Kernstown. Abraham Lincoln, well aware that Hunter had previously retreated out of the Valley without offering battle to Early, and that Washington, D.C. had been invested as a result, sends Hunter a terse and acerbic telegram:

Are you able to take care of the enemy when he turns back upon you, as he probably will on finding that Wright has left? 

Hunter takes great umbrage at his Commander-in-Chief’s implied criticism of his competence and asks to be relieved of command. But before Lincoln even sees Hunter’s own request, he orders Hunter replaced. Ulysses S. Grant makes him a “desk general.”  Hunter stews in his own juice pushing papers for the rest of the war. 



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