Lincoln, the unknown

20Lincoln had learned, back in New Salem, that it was easyto rent a building and stock it with groceries; but to make it payrequired qualities which neither he nor his drunken partnerpossessed.He was destined to discover, through years of heartbreak andbloodshed, that it was easy to get a half million soldiers whowere willing to die, and a hundred million dollars to equip themwith rifles and bullets and blankets; but to win victories requireda kind of leadership which it was almost impossible to find."How much in military matters," exclaimed Lincoln, "dependson one master mind!"asking theSo, time and again, he went down on his knees,Almighty to send him a Robert E. Lee or a Joseph E. Johnstonor a Stonewall Jackson."Jackson," he said, "is a brave, honest, Presbyterian soldier.If we only had such a man to lead the armies of the North, thecountry would not be appalled with so many disasters."But where in all the Union forces was another StonewallJackson to be found? Nobody knew. Edmund Clarence Stedmanpublished a famous poem every verse of which ended withthe plea, "Abraham Lincoln, give us a Man."It was more than the refrain of a poem. It was the cry of ableeding and distraught nation.The President wept as he read it.For two years he tried to find the leader for whom the140