February 2013 Rear Ranks Post

From the Rear Ranks:  

 

Greetings Members!

 

I hope everyone enjoyed last month’s traditional roundtable format.  There were some great discussions and conclusions from each group.  This month’s presentation by Chris Densmore will explore the Emancipation Proclamation in associate with the Quakers.  This is appropriate given we have just passed the 150^th anniversary of its passage.  I hope to see you all this coming week and for your amusement I have included Abraham Lincoln’s letter to General Hooker as he took command of the Army of the Potomac.  

 

Respectively,

Chip Crowe
President,
Brandywine Valley Civil War Round Table

Letter to General Joseph Hooker

January 26, 1863

Executive Mansion

Washington, January 26, 1863

Major-General Hooker:
General.

            I have placed you at the head of the Army of the Potomac.  Of course I have done this upon what appear to me to be sufficient reasons.  And yet I think it’s best for you to know that there are some things in regard to which, I am not quite satisfied with you.  I believe you to be a brave and skillful soldier, which, of course, I like.  I also believe you do not mix politics with your profession, in which you are right.  You have confidence in yourself, which is a valuable, if not an indispensable quality.  You are ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds, does, good rather than harm.  But I think that during Gen. Burnside’s command of the Army, you have taken counsel of your ambition, and thwarted him as much as you could, in which you did a great wrong to the country, and to a most meritorious and honorable brother officer.  I have heard, in such a way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both the Army and the Government needed a Dictator.  Of course it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command.  Only those generals who gain successes, can setup up dictators.  What I now as of you is military success and I will risk the dictatorship.  The government will support you to the utmost of its ability, which is neither more nor less than it has done and will do for all commanders.  I much fear that the spirit which you have aided to infuse into the Army, of criticisizing their Commander, and withholding confidence from him, will now turn upon you.  I shall assist you as far as I can, to put it down.  Neither you, nor Napoleon, if he were alive again, could get any good out of an army, while such spirit prevails in it. 

     And now, beware of rashness.  Beware of rashness, but with energy, and sleepless vigilance, go forward, and give us victories.

Yours very truly

A. Lincoln

 

(Source Abraham Lincoln:  His Speeches and Letters p. 693-4)