What should be done is to hold what we have in the West, open the Mississippi, and take Chattanooga and East Tennessee without more. A reasonable force should in every event be kept about Washington for its protection. Then let the country give us a hundred thousand new troops in the shortest possible time, which, added to McClellan directly or indirectly, will take Richmond without endangering any other place which we now hold, and will substantially end the war. I expect to maintain this contest until successful, or till I die, or am conquered, or my term expires, or Congress or the country forsake me; and I would publicly
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of the seven days battles, and changed Mc-Clellan's intended advance against Richmond to a retreat to the James River.
It was after midnight of the next day that McClellan sent Stanton his despairing and insubordinate despatch indicating the possibility of losing his entire army.
Upon the receipt of this alarming piece of news, President Lincoln instantly took additional measures of safety.
He sent a telegram to General Burnside in North Carolina to come with all the reinforcements he could spare to McClellan's help.
Through the Secretary of War he instructed General Halleck at Corinth to send twenty-five thousand infantry to McClellan by way of Baltimore and Washington.
His most important action was to begin the formation of a new army.
On the same day he sent Secretary of State Seward to New York with a letter to be confidentially shown to such of the governors of States as could be hurriedly called together, setting forth his view of the present condition of the war, and his own determination in regard to its prosecution.
After outlining the reverse at Richmond and the new problems it created, the letter continued:
New York. The Century Corp. 1919. Published October 1902.
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