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In: US Civil War·Biographies·Essays, Letters & Speeches
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #2658.
This volume is a primary‑source collection of Abraham Lincoln’s official papers and writings from 1862‑1863, catalogued under United States history, Civil War, and political correspondence. It opens with a series of formal communications, telegrams, memoranda, and proclamations, addressed to military leaders such as Generals McClellan, McDowell, and Farragut, and to Congress. The opening pages record Lincoln’s recommendations for congressional thanks to naval officers after the capture of Forts Jackson and Philip, his responses to field reports, and his careful directives on troop movements, supply lines, and the contentious issue of emancipation proclamations. The material is presented in its original format, preserving the dated headings, signatures, and official seals that mark each document as a genuine artifact of wartime governance.
The voice is unmistakably Lincoln’s: a measured, authoritative prose that blends legal precision with occasional moral appeal. The style reflects mid‑nineteenth‑century governmental correspondence, formal, dense, and rich in period terminology. Readers with an interest in Civil‑War strategy, presidential leadership, or the evolution of Lincoln’s policies on slavery will find this volume especially rewarding, as it offers unfiltered insight into the president’s day‑to‑day decision‑making during the nation’s most turbulent years.
The opening · free to read
Your long despatch of yesterday is just received. I will answer more fully soon. Will say now that all your despatches to the Secretary of War have been promptly shown to me. Have done and shall do all I could and can to sustain you. Hoped that the opening of James River and putting Wool and Burnside in communication, with an open road to Richmond, or to you, had effected something in that direction. I am still unwilling to take all our force off the direct line between Richmond and here.
A. LINCOLN.
SPEECH TO THE 12TH INDIANA REGIMENT, MAY [15?] 1862
SOLDIERS, OF THE TWELFTH INDIANA REGIMENT:
It has not been customary heretofore, nor will it be hereafter, for me to say something to every regiment passing in review. It occurs too frequently for me to have speeches ready on all occasions. As you have paid such a mark of respect to the chief magistrate, it appears that I should say a word or two in reply. Your colonel has thought fit, on his own account and in your name, to say that you are satisfied with the manner in which I have performed my part in the difficulties which have surrounded the nation. For your kind expressions I am extremely grateful, but on the other hand I assure you that the nation is more indebted to you, and such as you, than to me. It is upon the brave hearts and strong arms of the people of the country that our reliance has been placed in support of free government and free institutions.
For the part which you and the brave army of which you are a part have, under Providence, performed in this great struggle, I tender more thanks especially to this regiment, which has been the subject of good report. The thanks of the nation will follow you, and may God's blessing rest upon you now and forever. I hope that upon your return to your homes you will find your friends and loved ones well and happy. I bid you farewell.
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL I. McDOWELL.
WASHINGTON, May 16, 1862.
May 17, 1862. You will retain the separate command of the forces taken with you; but while co-operating with General McClellan you will obey his orders, except that you are to judge, and are not to allow your force to be disposed otherwise than so as to give the greatest protection to this capital which may be possible from that distance.
[Indorsement.]
The President having shown this to me, I suggested that it is dangerous to direct a subordinate not to obey the orders of his superior in any case, and that to give instructions to General McClellan to this same end and furnish General McDowell with a copy thereof would effect the object desired by the President. He desired me to say that the sketch of instructions to General McClellan herewith he thought made this addition unnecessary.
Respectfully, M. C. M.
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