Lincoln, the unknown

LINCOLN THE UNKNOWN • 141nation was crying. He would give the army to one general whowould lead it to futile slaughter, and set ten or thirty or fortythousand widows and orphans weeping and wailing throughoutthe land. Then this discredited commander would be relieved;and another, equally inept, would try his hand and get tenthousand more slaughtered; and Lincoln, clad in dressing-gownand carpet-slippers, would pace the floor all night as the reportscame in, crying over and over:"My God! What will the country say? My God! What willthe country say?"Then another general would assume command, and the futileslaughter would go on.Some military critics now hold that McClellan, with all hisastounding faults and amazing incapacity, was probably the bestcommander the Army of the Potomac ever had. So imagine, ifyou can, what the others must have been!After McClellan's failure, Lincoln tried John Pope. Pope haddone splendid work out in Missouri, had captured an island inthe Mississippi and several thousand men.He was like McClellan in two ways: he was handsome, andhe was boastful. He declared that his headquarters was "in thesaddle"; and he issued so many bombastic announcements thathe was soon called "Proclamation Pope.""I have come to you from the West, where we have alwaysseen the backs of our enemies." With that blunt, tactless sentence,he opened his first address to the army. He then proceededto rebuke the troops for their inaction in the East, andinsinuated that they were infernal cowards; and ended by boastingof the military miracles he would perform.This proclamation made the new commander about as popularas a diamond-backed rattlesnake in dog-days: officers andmen alike detested him.McClellan's hatred for him was intense. Pope had come totake his place. Nobody realized that better than did McClellan—he was already writing for a position in New York—and hewas consumed with jealousy, was bitter with envy and resentment.Pope led the army into Virginia; a great battle was imminent;he needed every man he could get; so Lincoln showered Mc-Clellan with telegrams, ordering him to rush his men to Pope'said with all possible celerity.But did McClellan obey? He did not. He argued, he delayed,