A History of the American People

The problem was generals who would fight-and win. General Scott, head of the army, was not a
man of the highest wisdom, as we have seen; he was also seventy-five and ultra-cautious. The
overall strategy he impressed on Lincoln was to use the navy to blockade the Confederacy, the
number of vessels being increased from 90 to 650, and to divide the South by pushing along the
main river routes, the Mississippi, the Tennessee, and the Cumberland. But there was a desire
among lesser generals, especially Confederate ones, to have a quick result by a spectacular
victory, or by seizure of the enemy's capital, since both Richmond and Washington were
comparatively near the center of the conflict. In July 1861 one of Davis' warriors, General P. G.
T. Beauregard (1818-93), a flashy New Orleans aristo of French descent, who had actually fired
the first shots at Sumter, pushed towards Washington in a fever of anxiety to win the first
victory. He was joined by another Confederate army under General Joseph E. Johnston (1807-
91), and together they overwhelmed the Unionist forces of General Irvin McDowell (1818-85) at
Bull Run, July 21, 1861, though not without considerable difficulty. The new Unionist troops
ended by running in panic, but the Confederates were too exhausted to press on to Washington.
The battle had important consequences nonetheless. McDowell was superseded by General
George B. McClellan (1826-85), a small, precise, meticulous, and seemingly energetic man who
knew all the military answers to everything. Unfortunately for Lincoln and the North, these
answers added up to reasons for doing nothing, or doing little, or stopping doing it halfway. His
reasons are always the same; not enough men, or supplies, or artillery. As the North's
overwhelming preponderance in manpower and hardware began to build up, McClellan refused
to take advantage of it, by enticing the South into a major battle and destroying its main army.
The War Secretary said of him and his subordinates: We have ten generals there, every one afraid to fight ... If McClellan had a million men, he would swear the enemy had two million, and then he would sit down in the mud and yell for three.’ Lincoln agreed:The general
impression is daily gaining ground that [McClellan] does not intend to do anything.' At one point
Lincoln seems to have seriously believed McClellan was guilty of treason and accused him to his
face, but backed down at the vehemence of the general's response. Later, he concluded that
McClennan was merely guilty of cowardice. When Lincoln visited the troops with his friend O.
M. Hatch, and saw the vast array from a high point, he whispered 'Hatch-Hatch, what is all this?'
Hatch: Why, Mr Lincoln, this is the Army of the Potomac.' Lincoln (loudly):No, Hatch, no.
This is General McClellan's bodyguard.'
The best thing to be said for McClellan is that he had close links with Allan Pinkerton (1819-
84), the Scots-born professional detective, who had opened a highly successful agency in
Chicago. During Lincoln's campaign for the presidency, and his inauguration, Pinkerton had
organized his protection, and undoubtedly frustrated at least one plot to assassinate him.
McClellan employed him to build up a system of army intelligence, part of which worked behind
Confederate lines, with great success. It eventually became the nucleus of the federal secret
service. But Lincoln seems to have known little of this. He believed, almost certainly rightly, that
at Antietam in September 1862, McClellan, with his enormous preponderance, could have
destroyed the main Confederate army, had he followed up his initial successes vigorously, and
thus shortened the war. So he finally removed his non fighting general, and Pinkerton went with
him; and the absence of Pinkerton's thoroughness was the reason why it proved so easy to
murder Lincoln in 1865.
First Bull Run had mixed results for the Confederates. It appeared to be the doing of
Beauregard, and so thrust him forward: but he proved one of the least effective and most
troublesome of the South's generals. In fact the victory was due more to Johnston, who was a