Original Lincoln document newly discovered at NARA

[markj]

Interesting story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070607/ap_on_re_us/archives_lincoln

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

[FlatLandFed]

Re: Original Lincoln document newly discovered at NARA

Very interesting, indeed. Thanks for sharing. Makes you wonder what else is "tucked away" from view, perhaps forgotten and presumably "lost."

Now let the debates continue -- was Lee's Army still intact enough to have defeated Meade's boys in Round II further down the road, or was the Army of the Potomac in rough enough shape after the events of July 1-3 that to try to chase down the Confederates would have been foolhardy?

I know my great-grandfather's cousin in the 154th NY probably would have preferred being followed by federal friends to what waited for him in a Richmond prison.

Cheers,
Paul Hadley

[Tom Ezell]

Re: Original Lincoln document newly discovered at NARA

Could have been interesting... While nearly all the units that participated in the fight on the 16th were fairly well shot up, McClellan still had Porter's Corps, which had yet to snap a cap. But then again, Porter Alexander, then serving as the ANV's ordnance officer, noted that one of the reasons that Lee dared to stand and bluff on the 17th was that he had a full supply of artillery and small arms ammuniton immediately on hand.

McClellan made a small effort to pursue or at least harass Lee's re-crossing the Potomac on the 18th and captured a portion of the Confederate artillery train, but a vigorous counterattack re-took the lost guns and wagons, and served to reinforce Little Mac's nervous nelly-ism about approaching the ANV under almost any conditions.

[Dave Gaddy]

Re: Original Lincoln document newly discovered at NARA

This sounds as if it is the original draft of the message that was then (enciphered? and) sent by War Dept/US Mil Telegraph (USMT), as published and "in the record."

SOP was to retain/file original text with "as sent" version (for later verification, if questioned), and wartime USMT telegrams ran in the multi-millions. Perhaps this one was set aside, separated because of its authorship. But there must be many more in Lincoln's hand among those "billions" of papers held at National Archives, Library of Congress, and other repositories.

(Not to damp down the excitement of the find--which was reported locally almost at the same time as a finding of Lee material in an old trunk, including stars cut from his uniform! Being able to see, if not touch, original material still carries a thrill lacking when we read a page in the OR!)

[roundshot]

Re: Original Lincoln document newly discovered at NARA

McClellan? Porter's Corps? Wrong battle, methinks.

[BillO'Dea]

Re: Original Lincoln document newly discovered at NARA

When I saw this I was in the middle of rereading Colonel Charles Wainwright's journal.
Its one of the better ones as it gives a staff officers view point and since he wrote it just for himself, never expecting it to be published it is very honest and blunt. He was chief of the artillery for the first corps at this stage of the war. Not a Regular army officer of West Point, but someone who knew his business and had high standards.
Here are some parts of the entries for the time in question.
-- Bill O'Dea
Salt Boilers mess
Liberty Rifles
Southern Guard

July 5th Sunday
Lee has cleared out; gone off to the westward during the night with all his army. He evidently waited yesterday to give Meade a chance to attack him; perhaps too, in order to get his trains well started on the way. Meade was too wise to try the attack and so Lee cleared off. A number of our generals I know think that we ought to have attacked. I for one am glad that he did not. Lee had doubtless lost very heavily, but we had suffered almost as much, and our men were quite as much exhausted as his. In every respect the two armies are so well balenced that the assaulting party is sure to fail if the other has time to post itselfand do anything at intrenching, This has been shown in every battle, unless the generalship was very bad. Here Lee had a position as quite as strong or stronger than ours; was intrenched and had his 140 pieces of artillery in position. He was probably some what short of of artillery ammunition, but not of small arms and canister. Americans of both sides are not elated by success or depressed by defeat as most people are. The Saxon bulldog blood in them would have made the rebels fight harder then ever to pay off the scores of Friday; while i could plainly see that our men thought they had fight enough for once. On strictly scientific grounds perhaps we ought to have attacked, but takeing the compostition of the two armies into consideration, I feel sure Meade was right in not doing it.

FOUR MILES BEYOND FUNKSTOWN July 10 Friday
We have a good position here, if our flanks are taken care of, but i do not suppose that there is to be a possibliity of Lee attacking us. The men I suppose by the advice of their officers or at any rate with their aid and consent, comenced piling up rails and digging earth the instant they were formed in line; even before orders came down from General Newton to do so. I was sorry to see so much anxiety to make themselves secure; it does not speak well for the moral of the men. I fear they are more willing to be attacked than attack, which is not a good sign just now, for if there is any more fighting at all we must be the attacking party, Perhaps this feeling is not so much to be wondered at, when one takes into consideration the three last battles, and the tendency of Americans to resaon on everything. They see that victory has been with the defensive, and wish to be always in the position.

WILLIAMSPORT July 14, Tuesday.
This morning when we turned out lee was gone clean over the Potomac into Virginia again. People at home of course will now pitch into meade, as they did McClellan after Antietam, for letting him escape. My own opinion is that under the circumstances and with the knoledge General Meade then had he was justified in putting off his attack untill today, Everything went to prove that the enemy could not cross the river untill it fell, as General French reported having captured the whole of their pontoons. It seems, however, that he did not get them all, for Lee had enough left to make one bridge with the help of some canal boats. ..........I know that none of his guns in front of us were removed untill after the rain, for I examined all the tracks this morning. Had we attacked anytime before dark we should have encountered the whole of their Artillery, As the guns on the left had the farthest to go to reach the crossing, they certainly were not the last to be removed.
We pushed to this place at a pretty good rate, passing directly through their line of works. These were by far the strongest I have seen yet; evidently laid out by engineers and built as if they meant to stand a month's siege.

[FlatLandFed]

Re: Original Lincoln document newly discovered at NARA

Nice quotation, friend Bill,
Guess we'll never know for sure what would have happened if there'd been a full scale attack on July 4 or 5. Possibly both armies would have needed complete refitting, or one may have been destroyed for good.

Per the discussion on telecommunicating, here's a new book to consider:
http://www.mrlincolnstmails.com/tmails.php.

Anybody perused it, yet?

Thanks.
Paul Hadley
Proud Member of the Old 54th Legion