Description:

EDWIN STANTON
(1814 - 1869) Secretary of War in Abraham Lincoln's cabinet whose dismissal by Andrew Johnson led to impeachment hearings for the president. Two crucial dispatches in the roiling dispute between McClellan, Halleck and Lincoln as Commander in Chief over Union strategy in the spring and summer of 1862, documenting Lincoln's increasing role in battlefield strategy. Convinced that his 80,000-man force on the Peninsula was too weak to move against Richmond, McClellan insisted that McDowell's entire army be sent down the Peninsula by water. Lincoln adamantly refused to leave the capitol unprotected and would only agree to send McDowell's force by land. Stanton transmitted this order to McDowell in a L.S. as Secretary of War, 1p. 4to., Washington, May 17, 1862: "Upon being joined by Shields Division, you will move upon Richmond by the General route of the Richmond & Fredricksburg Rail Road, cooperating with the forces under General McClellan now threatening Richmond from the line of the Pamunkey & York Rivers. While seeking to establish as soon as possible a communication between your left wing & the right wing of General McClellan, you will hold yourself always in such position as to cover the Capital of the Nation against a sudden dash by any large body of the Rebel forces. General McClellan will be furnished with a copy of these instructions, and will be directed to hold himself in readiness to establish communication with your left & to prevent the main body of the enemy's army from leaving Richmond and throwing itself upon your column before a junction between the two Armies is effected". Stanton adds a line of postscript in his hand: "A copy of his instruction in regard to the employment of your force is annexed". The news of Stonewall Jackson's highly mobile offensive into the Shenandoah Valley scuttled these plans and Lincoln suspended these orders on May 24, requesting that McDowell divert 20,000 troops in an attempt (in conjunction with Fremont) to trap Jackson's army. To Lincoln's intense displeasure, the attempt failed due to the slow response of the two commanders. "The important lesson the Federals learned from their failure to trap Jackson was 'unity of command' (Boatner, p.742)". In the second dispatch, just two weeks after Jackson brilliantly evaded capture, Lincoln combines Fremont's Mountain Department, Banks's Department of the Shenandoah, and McDowell's Department of the Rappahannock into a unified force under Genl. Pope (1822-1892). Stanton writes to McDowell, in an A.L.S. 1p. 8vo., Washington, June 24, 1862: "The President directs that the forces under your command Banks and Fremont be consolidated under command of General Pope into one army of three corps are commanded by Fremont one by Banks and one by yourself[.] A copy of the order will be sent [to] you this evening ". Pope and his new Army of Virginia would prove no more successful than McDowell. Both letters bear the expected folds with a weak fold on the June 24 letter repaired on verso. Together two pieces in very good to fine condition.

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October 9, 2010 11:00 AM EDT
Stamford, CT, US

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