Part 24
I think it very important for General Rosecrans to hold his position at or about Chattanooga, because if held from that place to Cleveland, both inclusive, it keeps all Tennessee clear of the enemy, and also breaks one of his most important railroad lines. To prevent these consequences is so vital to his cause that he cannot give up the effort to dislodge us from the position, thus bringing him to us and saving us the labor, expense, and hazard of going farther to find him, and also giving us the advantage of choosing our own ground and preparing it to fight him upon. The details must, of course, be left to General Rosecrans, while we must furnish him the means to the utmost of our ability. If you concur, I think he would better be informed that we are not pushing him beyond this position; and that, in fact, our judgment is rather against his going beyond it. If he can only maintain this position, without more, this rebellion can only eke out a short and feeble existence, as an animal sometimes may with a thorn in its vitals.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL A. E. BURNSIDE
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D.C., September 21, 1863.
GENERAL BURNSIDE, Greenville, Tenn.:
If you are to do any good to Rosecrans it will not do to waste time with Jonesboro. It is already too late to do the most good that might have been done, but I hope it will still do some good. Please do not lose a moment.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL A. E. BURNSIDE
WAR DEPARTMENT, September 21, 1863. 11 A.M.
GENERAL BURNSIDE, Knoxville, Tenn.:
Go to Rosecrans with your force without a moment's delay.
A. LINCOLN,
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS
WASHINGTON, September 21, 1863. 12.55 PM.
MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Chattanooga:
Be of good cheer. We have unabated confidence in you, and in your soldiers and officers. In the main you must be the judge as to what is to be done. If I were to suggest, I would say, save your army by taking strong positions until Burnside joins you, when, I hope, you can turn the tide. I think you had better send a courier to Burnside to hurry him up. We cannot reach him by telegraph. We suppose some force is going to you from Corinth, but for want of communication we do not know how they are getting along. We shall do our utmost to assist you. Send us your present positions.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS.
[Cipher.]
WAR DEPARTMENT, September 22, 1863.8.30 A.M.
MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Chattanooga, Tenn.:
We have not a word here as to the whereabouts or condition of your army up to a later hour than sunset, Sunday, the 20th. Your despatches to me of 9 A.M., and to General Halleck of 2 P. M., yesterday, tell us nothing later on those points. Please relieve my anxiety as to the position and condition of your army up to the latest moment.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO O. M. HATCH AND J. K. DUBOIS.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON. September 22, 1863.
HON. O. M. HATCH, HON. J. K. DUBOIS, Springfield, Ill.:
Your letter is just received. The particular form of my despatch was jocular, which I supposed you gentlemen knew me well enough to understand. General Allen is considered here as a very faithful and capable officer, and one who would be at least thought of for quartermaster-general if that office were vacant.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO MRS. LINCOLN.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 22, 1863.
MRS. A. LINCOLN, Fifth Avenue House, New York:--Did you receive my despatch of yesterday? Mrs. Cuthbert did not correctly understand me. I directed her to tell you to use your own pleasure whether to stay or come, and I did not say it is sickly and that you should on no account come. So far as I see or know, it was never healthier, and I really wish to see you. Answer this on receipt.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS.
WASHINGTON, September 23,1863. 9.13 A.M.
MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Chattanooga, Tenn:
Below is Bragg's despatch as found in the Richmond papers. You see he does not claim so many prisoners or captured guns as you were inclined to concede. He also confesses to heavy loss. An exchanged general of ours leaving Richmond yesterday says two of Longstreet's divisions and his entire artillery and two of Pickett's brigades and Wise's legion have gone to Tennessee. He mentions no other.
"CHICAMAUGA RIVER, SEPTEMBER 20.
"GENERAL COOPER, Adjutant-General:
"After two days' hard fighting we have driven the enemy, after a desperate resistance, from several positions, and now hold the field; but he still confronts us. The loses are heavy on both sides, especially in our officers....
"BRAXTON BRAGG"
A. LINCOLN
PROCLAMATION OPENING THE PORT OF ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA,
SEPTEMBER 24, 1863.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A Proclamation.
Whereas, in my proclamation of the twenty-seventh of April, 1861, the ports of the States of Virginia and North Carolina were, for reasons therein set forth, placed under blockade; and whereas the port of Alexandria, Virginia, has since been blockaded, but as the blockade of said port may now be safely relaxed with advantage to the interests of commerce:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United Sates, pursuant to the authority in me vested by the fifth section of the act of Congress, approved on the 13th of July, 1861, entitled "An act further to provide for the collection of duties on imports, and for other purposes," do hereby declare that the blockade of the said port of Alexandria shall so far cease and determine, from and after this date, that commercial intercourse with said port, except as to persons, things, and information contraband of war, may from this date be carried on, subject to the laws of the United States, and to the limitations and in pursuance of the regulations which are prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury in his order which is appended to my proclamation of the 12th of May, 1862.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this twenty-fourth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
A. LINCOLN.
By the President WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS.
WAR DEPARTMENT, September 24, 1863. 10 A.M.
MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Chattanooga, Term.:
Last night we received the rebel accounts, through Richmond papers, of your late battle. They give Major-General Hood as mortally wounded, and Brigadiers Preston Smith, Wofford, Walthall, Helm of Kentucky, and DesMer killed, and Major-Generals Preston, Cleburne, and Gregg, and Brigadier-Generals Benning, Adams, Burm, Brown, and John [B. H.] Helm wounded. By confusion the two Helms may be the same man, and Bunn and Brown may be the same man. With Burnside, Sherman, and from elsewhere we shall get to you from forty to sixty thousand additional men.
A. LINCOLN
MRS. LINCOLN'S REBEL BROTHER-IN-LAW KILLED
TELEGRAM TO MRS. LINCOLN.
WAR DEPARTMENT, SEPTEMBER 24, 1863
MRS. A. LINCOLN, Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York:
We now have a tolerably accurate summing up of the late battle between Rosecrans and Braag. The result is that we are worsted, if at all, only in the fact that we, after the main fighting was over, yielded the ground, thus leaving considerable of our artillery and wounded to fall into the enemy's hands., for which we got nothing in turn. We lost in general officers one killed and three or four wounded, all brigadiers, while, according to the rebel accounts which we have, they lost six killed and eight wounded: of the killed one major-general and five brigadiers including your brother-in-law, Helm; and of the wounded three major-generals and five brigadiers. This list may be reduced two in number by corrections of confusion in names. At 11.40 A.M. yesterday General Rosecrans telegraphed from Chattanooga: "We hold this point, and I cannot be dislodged except by very superior numbers and after a great battle." A despatch leaving there after night yesterday says, "No fight to-day."
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL McCALLUM.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., September 25, 1863.
GENERAL McCALLUM, Alexandria, Va.:
I have sent to General Meade, by telegraph, to suspend the execution of Daniel Sullivan of Company F, Thirteenth Massachusetts, which was to be to-day, but understanding there is an interruption on the line, may I beg you to send this to him by the quickest mode in your power?
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL MEADE.
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., September 25, 1863.
MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE, Army of Potomac:
Owing to the press in behalf of Daniel Sullivan, Company E, Thirteenth Massachusetts, and the doubt; though small, which you express of his guilty intention, I have concluded to say let his execution be suspended till further order, and copy of record sent me.
A. LINCOLN.
TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 25, 1863.
MY DEAR GENERAL ROSECRANS:
We are sending you two small corps, one under General Howard and one under General Slocum, and the whole under General Hooker.
Unfortunately the relations between Generals Hooker and Slocum are not such as to promise good, if their present relative positions remain. Therefore, let me beg--almost enjoin upon you--that on their reaching you, you will make a transposition by which General Slocum with his Corps, may pass from under the command of General Hooker, and General Hooker, in turn receive some other equal force. It is important for this to be done, though we could not well arrange it here. Please do it.
Yours very truly,
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS.
WAR DEPARTMENT, September 28, 1863. 8 A.M.
MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Chattanooga., Tenn.:
You can perhaps communicate with General Burnside more rapidly by sending telegrams directly to him at Knoxville. Think of it. I send a like despatch to him.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL SCHOFIELD.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C, September 30, 1863.
GENERAL SCHOFIELD, Saint Louis, Mo.:
Following despatch just received:
"Union Men Driven out of Missouri."
"Leavenworth, September 29, 1863.
"Governor Gamble having authorized Colonel Moss, of Liberty, Missouri, to arm the men in Platte and Clinton Counties, he has armed mostly the returned rebel soldiers and men wider bonds. Moss's men are now driving the Union men out of Missouri. Over one hundred families crossed the river to-day. Many of the wives of our Union soldiers have been compelled to leave. Four or five Union men have been murdered by Colonel Moss's men."
Please look to this and, if true, in main or part, put a stop to it.
A. LINCOLN
TELEGRAM TO F. S. CORKRAN.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, September 30, 1863.
HON. FRANCIS S. CORKRAN, Baltimore, Md.: MRS. L. is now at home and would be pleased to see you any time. If the grape time has not passed away, she would be pleased to join in the enterprise you mention.
Yours truly,
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL TYLER
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D.C., October 1, 1863.
GENERAL TYLER, Baltimore:
Take care of colored troops in your charge, but do nothing further about that branch of affairs until further orders. Particularly do nothing about General Vickers of Kent County.
A. LINCOLN.
Send a copy to Colonel Birney. A. L.
TO GENERAL SCHOFIELD.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON,
OCTOBER 1, 1863
GENERAL JOHN M. SCHOFIELD:
There is no organized military force in avowed opposition to the General Government now in Missouri, and if any shall reappear, your duty in regard to it will be too plain to require any special instruction. Still, the condition of things, both there and elsewhere, is such as to render it indispensable to maintain, for a time, the United States military establishment in that State, as well as to rely upon it for a fair contribution of support to that establishment generally. Your immediate duty in regard to Missouri now is to advance the efficiency of that establishment, and to so use it, as far as practicable, to compel the excited people there to let one another alone.
Under your recent order, which I have approved, you will only arrest individuals, and suppress assemblies or newspapers, when they may be working palpable injury to the military in your charge; and in no other case will you interfere with the expression of opinion in any form, or allow it to be interfered with violently by others. In this you have a discretion to exercise with great caution, calmness, and forbearance.
With the matter of removing the inhabitants of certain counties en masse, and of removing certain individuals from time to time, who are supposed to be mischievous, I am not now interfering, but am leaving to your own discretion.
Nor am I interfering with what may still seem to you to be necessary restrictions upon trade and intercourse. I think proper, however, to enjoin upon you the following: Allow no part of the military under your command to be engaged in either returning fugitive slaves or in forcing or enticing slaves from their homes; and, so far as practicable, enforce the same forbearance upon the people.
Report to me your opinion upon the availability for good of the enrolled militia of the State. Allow no one to enlist colored troops, except upon orders from you, or from here through you.
Allow no one to assume the functions of confiscating property, under the law of Congress, or otherwise, except upon orders from here.
At elections see that those, and only those, are allowed to vote who are entitled to do so by the laws of Missouri, including as of those laws the restrictions laid by the Missouri convention upon those who may have
## participated in the rebellion.
So far as practicable, you will, by means of your military force, expel guerrillas, marauders, and murderers, and all who are known to harbor, aid, or abet them. But in like manner you will repress assumptions of unauthorized individuals to perform the same service, because under pretense of doing this they become marauders and murderers themselves.
To now restore peace, let the military obey orders, and those not of the military leave each other alone, thus not breaking the peace themselves.
In giving the above directions, it is not intended to restrain you in other expedient and necessary matters not falling within their range.
Your obedient servant,
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL S. M. SCHOFIELD.
WASHINGTON, D.C. OCTOBER 2, 1863
MAJOR-GENERAL SCHOFIELD:
I have just seen your despatch to Halleck about Major-General Blunt. If possible, you better allow me to get through with a certain matter here, before adding to the difficulties of it. Meantime supply me the
## particulars of Major-General Blunt's case.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO COLONEL BIRNEY. [Cipher.] WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D.C., October 3, 1863.
COLONEL BIRNEY, Baltimore, Md.:
Please give me, as near as you can, the number of slaves you have recruited in Maryland. Of course the number is not to include the free colored.
A. LINCOLN.
PROCLAMATION FOR THANKSGIVING, OCTOBER 3, 1863.
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AMERICA:
A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity which has sometimes seemed to invite and provoke the aggressions of foreign states; peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. The needful diversion of wealth and strength from the fields of peaceful industry, to the national defense has not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship: The axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of, iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect a continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be reverently, solemnly, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and voice, by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea, and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and prayer to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
A. LINCOLN.
By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL J. M. SCHOFIELD.
WASHINGTON D.C., OCTOBER 4, 1863
MAJOR-GENERAL SCHOFIELD, St. Louis, Mo.:
I think you will not have just cause to complain of my action.
A. LINCOLN.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS.
WAR DEPARTMENT, October 4, 1863. 11.30 A.M.
MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Chattanooga, Tenn.:
Yours of yesterday received. If we can hold Chattanooga and East Tennessee, I think the rebellion must dwindle and die. I think you and Burnside can do this, and hence doing so is your main object. Of course to greatly damage or destroy the enemy in your front would be a greater object, because it would include the former and more, but it is not so certainly within your power. I understand the main body of the enemy is very near you, so near that you could "board at home," so to speak, and menace or attack him any day. Would not the doing of this be your best mode of counteracting his raid on your communications? But this is not an order. I intend doing something like what you suggest whenever the case shall appear ripe enough to have it accepted in the true understanding rather than as a confession of weakness and fear.
A. LINCOLN.
TO C. D. DRAKE AND OTHERS.
EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, October 5, 1863.
HON. CHARLES D. DRAKE AND OTHERS, Committee.
GENTLEMEN:-Your original address, presented on the 30th ult., and the four supplementary ones presented on the 3d inst., have been carefully considered. I hope you will regard the other duties claiming my attention, together with the great length and importance of these documents, as constituting a sufficient apology for not having responded sooner.
These papers, framed for a common object, consist of the things demanded and the reasons for demanding them.
The things demanded are
First. That General Schofield shall be relieved, and General Butler be appointed as Commander of the Military Department of Missouri.
Second. That the system of enrolled militia in Missouri may be broken up, and national forces he substituted for it; and
Third. That at elections persons may not be allowed to vote who are not entitled by law to do so.
Among the reasons given, enough of suffering and wrong to Union men is certainly, and I suppose truly, stated. Yet the whole case, as presented, fails to convince me that General Schofield, or the enrolled militia, is responsible for that suffering and wrong. The whole can be explained on a more charitable, and, as I think, a more rational hypothesis.
We are in a civil war. In such cases there always is a main question, but in this case that question is a perplexing compound--Union and slavery. It thus becomes a question not of two sides merely, but of at least four sides, even among those who are for the Union, saying nothing of those who are against it. Thus, those who are for the Union with, but not without slavery; those for it without, but not with; those for it with or without, but prefer it with; and those for it with or without, but prefer it without.
Among these, again, is a subdivision of those who are for gradual, but not for immediate, and those who are for immediate, but not for gradual extinction of slavery.
It is easy to conceive that all these shades of opinion, and even more, may be sincerely entertained by honest and truthful men. Yet, all being for the Union, by reason of these differences each will prefer a different way of sustaining the Union. At once, sincerity is questioned, and motives are assailed. Actual war comming, blood grows hot and blood is spilled. Thought is forced from old channels into confusion. Deception breeds and thrives. Confidence dies, and universal suspicion reigns. Each man feels an impulse to kill his neighbor, lest he be killed by him. Revenge and retaliation follow. And all this, as before said, may be among honest men only. But this is not all. Every foul bird comes abroad, and every dirty reptile rises up. These add crime to confusion. Strong measures deemed indispensable, but harsh at best, such men make worse by maladministration. Murders for old grudges, and murders for self, proceed under any cloak that will best serve for the occasion.
These causes amply account for what has occurred in Missouri, without ascribing it to the weakness or wickedness of any general. The newspaper files, those chroniclers of current events, will show that the evils now complained of were quite as prevalent under Fremont, Hunter, Halleck, and Curtis, as under Schofield. If the former had greater force opposed to them, they also had greater force with which to meet it. When the organized rebel army left the State, the main Federal force had to go also, leaving the department commander at home relatively no stronger than before. Without disparaging any, I affirm with confidence that no commander of that department has, in proportion to his means, done better than General Schofield.
The first specific charge against General Schofield is, that the enrolled militia was placed under his command, whereas it had not been placed under the command of General Curtis. The fact is, I believe, true; but you do not point out, nor can I conceive, how that did, or could, injure loyal men or the Union cause.