[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.”35Having matured as an executive, Lincoln still faced grave problems in the year ahead.As Bates noted, “We have not suppressed the rebellion.The hand of God is in this thing.”36Chapter 13“My God, my God, what will the country say”Ink had barely dried on the Emancipation Proclamation when reports of the Battle of Stone’s River began trickling into the War Department’s telegraph office.For several weeks Lincoln had watched for positive news from General Rosecrans.On December , , Henry Halleck expressed the president’s impatience, writing, “If you remain one more week at Nashville, I cannot prevent your removal.” Rosecrans replied, “If my superiors have lost confidence in me, they had better at once put someone else in my place.To threats of removal.I am insensible.” Halleck became more conciliatory but made it clear that Lincoln wanted the rebels driven from middle Tennessee because Southern sympathizers in England would use the January session of Parliament to put pressure on the prime minister to intervene.If Union forces occupied middle Tennessee, pro-Confederate parliamentarians would be unable to claim the South was winning the war.Referring to Lincoln, Halleck added, “You can hardly conceive his great anxiety about it.”1On December , as Rosecrans’s army marched into middle Tennessee,General Bragg’s Confederates began moving west to attack Nashville.On the last day of December the two armies collided at Stone’s River.Bragg struck Rosecrans’s right wing, bent it back, but could not break it.On New Year’s Day, while Lincoln hosted the annual reception at the White House, Rosecrans’s and Bragg’s armies stared at each other from across the West Branch of Stone’s River and did nothing.On January  Confederates unsuccessfully assaulted the Union left and retired to their original position.Rosecrans claimed victory because Bragg withdrew, but he neither hurt the enemy nor gained middle Tennessee.Like McClellan, he succeeded by fighting defensively.Lincoln could not evaluate the battle from Washington, but after the recent debacle at Fredericksburg, he took Rosecrans at his word, telegraphing, “God bless you and all with you!”2Rosecrans’s account of Stone’s River contained distortions, but Lincoln valued any good military news coming his way.As weeks passed into months, he came to understand the incompleteness of the Rosecrans victory.Instead of pursuing the rebels and fighting, Rosecrans wintered at Murfreesboro.On February  Lincoln gave Rosecrans a nudge, instructing him to stop “de-“ m y g o d , m y g o d , w h at w i l l.”147fensive” measures and launch “counter-raids.” Rosecrans never responded.Instead of taking action against the enemy, he fretted over the president’s insinuations.3In January Lincoln pointed to Rosecrans as a general with a futurebut two months later realized Stone’s River had been a draw.Meanwhile, Rosecrans accused Halleck of intentionally withholding men and supplies to force him to fight.Then he accused Stanton of doing everything possible to make him fail.Neither accusation made sense.Halleck explained that Stanton merely wanted to encourage aggressiveness and would grant a major generalship in the regular army to the first man to win the next important victory.Rosecrans fumed, saying he felt degraded by an administration“auctioneering” commissions to officers in an effort to force them to fight before they were ready.Rosecrans looked foolish.The same offer went to all generals, who went about the business of war without comment.4On March  Rosecrans sent his list of grievances directly to the president.Lincoln addressed the general’s complaints with characteristic patience.Among the requests Rosecrans wanted his promotion to major generalretro-dated to rank Grant.Lincoln said doing so would only hurt others, adding, “The world will not forget that you fought the battle of ‘Stones River’and it will never care a fig whether you rank Gen.Grant on paper, or he so, ranks you [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]