Authors: David Von Drehle
Lee had significant concerns: Lee to Jefferson Davis, Sept. 3, 1862, Papers of Jefferson Davis, Rice University, available online at
http://jeffersondavis.rice.edu/Content.aspx?id=111
.
“throwing off … yoke”: McPherson,
Battle Cry of Freedom,
p. 536.
Lee … banned enlisted men:
The War of the Rebellion,
Series 1, Vol. 19, Part 2, pp. 603–4.
Lee was able to scrape up: ibid., pp. 605, 602.
Whittier composed a ballad: Whittier,
The Complete Poetical Works of Whittier,
pp. 342–43.
Davis would later explain: Davis,
The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government,
Vol. 2, pp. 276–77.
“these discordant elements”:
RW,
p. 441.
he would “inflict injury”: Lee to Davis, Sept. 8, 1862, in
The Wartime Papers of Robert E. Lee,
p. 301.
Palmerston and Russell agreed: Crook,
Diplomacy During the American Civil War,
pp. 86–88.
“perhaps his finest hour”: McPherson,
Crossroads of Freedom,
pp. 87–88.
“There was design”: Welles diary, Sept. 6, 1862.
“reckless and untameable”: ibid., Sept. 8 and 10, 1862.
Chase was furious at Welles: ibid., Sept. 7, 1862.
Welles suspected Stanton: ibid., Sept. 11, 1862.
Smith … turned on Seward: ibid., Sept. 10, 1862.
Blair set on Stanton: ibid., Sept. 12, 1862.
“you want … Seward out”: Chase diary, Sept. 10, 1862.
“humiliating submissiveness”: ibid., Sept. 12, 1862.
As usual: Sears,
George B. McClellan,
pp. 273–78.
credence to mistaken reports:
CW,
Vol. 5, p. 409.
“consist of their oldest regiments”: McClellan to Halleck, Sept. 11 [Sept. 10], 1862.
“How does it look now?”:
CW,
Vol. 5, p. 418.
“fall into the hands”: Chase diary, Sept. 12, 1862.
“a long and free discussion”: Welles diary, Sept. 12, 1862.
“There was bluster”: ibid.
Weed … called on Chase: Chase diary, Sept. 15, 1862.
“Seward was supple”: Welles diary, Sept. 17, 1862.
“freeing all the apprentices”: Chase diary, Sept. 12, 1862.
“Alas, poor country”: Sumner to Francis Lieber, Sept. 16, 1862.
Nast sketched the … scene:
Harper’s Weekly
6, no. 301 (Oct. 4, 1862), p. 1.
“I was nearly overwhelmed”: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, Sept. 14, 1862.
Tubs of lemonade: Sears,
Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam,
pp. 108–11.
beauty of the countryside: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, Sept. 12, 1862.
“Please do not let him get off”:
CW,
Vol. 5, p. 418.
latest estimate was ludicrously high: Chase diary, Sept. 13, 1862.
“I shall follow”: McClellan to Halleck, Sept. 12, 1862, 5:30
P.M.
a twist so unlikely: Sears,
Landscape Turned Red,
pp. 112–13.
“Now I know”: ibid.
debate with … Chicago ministers:
CW,
Vol. 5, pp. 420–25.
eventually debunked: William P. Rigge, “The Pope and the Comet,”
Popular Astronomy
16 (October 1908), pp. 481–83.
“I have not decided”:
CW,
Vol. 5, pp. 420–25.
“I will do it”:
ibid.
“study the plain physical facts”: ibid.
“Here is a paper”: Gibbon,
Personal Recollections of the Civil War,
p. 73.
“hope for a great success”: McClellan to Lincoln, Sept. 13, 1862.
“so dark, so obscure”: quoted in McPherson,
Crossroads of Freedom,
p. 117.
the same “strange dream”:
RW,
p. 486.
“No tongue can tell”: quoted in Hattaway and Jones,
How the North Won,
p. 243.
planned to renew the battle: McClellan to Halleck, Sept. 18, 1862, 8
A.M.
; McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, Sept. 18, 1862, 8
A.M.
“I am aware of the fact”: McClellan,
Report of Major-General George B. McClellan,
pp. 149–50.
stunned and partially decapitated: ibid.
“Few and foggy dispatches”: Welles diary, Sept. 18, 1862.
“Antietam was fought Wednesday”: Nicolay and Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
Vol. 6, pp. 164–65.
president “could not but feel”: ibid., p. 146.
“When Lee came over”:
RW,
p. 38.
too busy writing: Chase diary, Sept. 21, 1862.
“I let them have it”: Nicolay and Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
Vol. 6, pp. 164–65.
“there was some general talk”: Chase diary, Sept. 22, 1862.
“High-handed Outrage”:
Artemus Ward: His Book,
pp. 34–35.
“The ‘neigh’ of a horse”: Carpenter,
The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln,
pp. 150–51.
“Why don’t you laugh?”:
RW,
p. 417.
the president grew serious: Chase diary, Sept. 22, 1862.
he “had made a vow”: Welles diary, Sept. 22, 1862.
Lincoln hesitated: Chase diary, Sept. 22, 1862.
“God had decided this question”: Welles diary, Sept. 22, 1862.
“I am here”: Chase diary, Sept. 22, 1862.
This revised version: Guelzo,
Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation,
pp. 172–73.
Seward … offered a proposal: Chase diary, Sept. 22, 1862.
Welles was impressed: Welles diary, Sept. 22, 1862.
Chase spoke next: Chase diary, Sept. 22, 1862.
Welles also endorsed: Welles diary, Sept. 22, 1862.
Blair now spoke up: Chase diary, Sept. 22, 1862.
hand the Democrats “a club”: Welles diary, Sept. 22, 1862.
“in great doubt myself”:
RW,
p. 314.
Sumner … Douglass … Hamlin: quoted in Guelzo,
Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation,
pp. 157–62.
“Hoop de-dooden-do”: ibid.
he “knew more”: Hay diary, Sept. 24, 1862.
“our harpoon”: Carpenter,
The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln,
p. 75.
“environed with difficulties”:
CW,
Vol. 5, p. 438.
“The stocks have declined”: ibid., p. 444.
a second … dangerous decree: ibid., pp. 436–37.
“such an accursed doctrine”: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, Sept. 25, 1862.
later told Lincoln: Hay diary, Sept. 25, 1864.
“That is not the game”: Welles diary, Sept. 24, 1862.
He cashiered Key:
CW,
Vol. 5, pp. 442–43.
11: OCTOBER
“Dr. Zacharie has operated”:
CW,
Vol. 5, p. 436.
“put his foot down firmly”: ibid., p. 436n.
helped to muffle: ibid., p. 225.
“pestilent sheet”: William Goodell to Lincoln, July 9, 1862, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress Manuscript Division.
“I do very believe”: James Gordon Bennett to Lincoln, Aug. 11, 1862, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress Manuscript Division.
“accept this proclamation”: Fermer,
James Gordon Bennett and the New York Herald: A Study of Editorial Opinion in the Civil War Era, 1854–1867,
pp. 221–25.
“your kind note”: Mary Lincoln to James Gordon Bennett, Oct. 4, 1862.
“satisfy himself personally”: “Conversation with Hon. O. M. Hatch, Springfield, June 1875,” in
An Oral History of Abraham Lincoln,
p. 16.
“Compel the enemy”: McClellan to Halleck, Oct. 1, 1862; McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, Oct. 2, 1862.
“His ostensible purpose”: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, Oct. 2, 1862.
Gardner … “brought bodies”:
New York Times,
Oct. 20, 1862.
“very kind personally”: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, Oct. 5, 1862.
at least four letters: “Conversation with Hon. O. M. Hatch, Springfield, June 1875,” p. 16.
Lincoln … “regarded his position”:
RW,
pp. 275–76.
Hatch recalled the encounter: quoted in Browne,
The Every-Day Life of Abraham Lincoln: A Narrative and Descriptive Biography with Pen-Pictures and Personal Recollections by Those Who Knew Him,
pp. 529–30.
“Sing one of your sad … songs”: Lamon,
Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, 1847–1865,
pp. 145–48.
“he would be a ruined man”:
RW,
p. 132.
disappointed a cheering crowd:
CW,
Vol. 5, p. 450.
“I will back General McClellan”:
RW,
p. 425.
“most desperately contested”: Foote,
The Civil War,
Vol. 1, pp. 726–38.
the effects of Bragg’s retreat: Duke,
Reminiscences of General Basil W. Duke,
p. 333.
“overwhelmed with the crowd”: Nicolay to Therena Bates, Oct. 9, 1862.
his monthly paycheck: Miers,
Lincoln Day by Day,
Vol. 3, Oct. 6, 1862.
“The President directs”:
CW,
Vol. 5, p. 452n.
“disgust, discontent … disloyalty”: Sears,
George B. McClellan,
p. 325.
“a fatal error”: ibid., pp. 326–27.
transportation magnate William Aspinwall: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, Oct. 5, 1862.
“remedy for political error”: Williams,
Lincoln and His Generals,
p. 171.
“hope the indignant people”: McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, Sept. 29, 1862; see also McClellan to Mary Ellen McClellan, Sept. 25, 1862.
lacked “shoes, tents, blankets”: Rafuse,
McClellan’s War,
pp. 353, 358.
“quiet & pleasant time”: McClellan to Samuel Barlow, Oct. 17, 1862.
“It is humiliating”: Welles diary, Oct. 13, 1862.
“Three times round and out”:
RW,
p. 256.
“effect upon the popular mind”: Adams to Seward, Oct. 3, 1862.
“full of difficulty”: Foreman,
A World on Fire,
pp. 319–20.
“they have made a nation!”: Crook,
Diplomacy During the American Civil War,
pp. 87–92.
Adams was angry: Adams to Seward, Oct. 10, 1862.
“merely … lookers-on”: Crook,
Diplomacy During the American Civil War,
p. 98.
Now was the moment: Owsley,
King Cotton Diplomacy,
pp. 331–33.
Napoleon took this letter: ibid.
take the plunge: ibid.
“Nothing,” he replied: Dayton to Seward, Nov. 5, 1862.
Lincoln took up pen:
CW,
Vol. 5, pp. 460–61.
he would fire McClellan now: Sears,
George B. McClellan,
p. 335.
cavalry was no match: McClellan to Halleck, Oct. 14, 1862; Lincoln’s reaction is found in Halleck to McClellan,
The War of the Rebellion,
Series 1, Vol. 19, Part 2, p. 421.
“take things so leisurely!”: Nicolay to Therena Bates, Oct. 16, 1862.
“He does not understand”: Nicolay and Hay,
Abraham Lincoln,
Vol. 6, p. 280.