Lincoln's Personal Attention to the Military Problems of the
War--Efforts to Push forward the War--Disheartening
Delays--Lincoln's Worry and Perplexity Brightening Prospects--Union
Victories in North Carolina and Tennessee--Proclamation by the
President--Lincoln Wants to See for Himself--Visits Fortress
Monroe--Witnesses an Attack on the Rebel Ram "Merrimac"--The
Capture of Norfolk--Lincoln's Account of the Affair--Letter to
McClellan--Lincoln and the Union Soldiers--His Tender Solicitude
for the Boys in Blue--Soldiers Always Welcome at the White
House--Pardoning Condemned Soldiers--Letter to a Bereaved
Mother--The Case of Cyrus Pringle--Lincoln's Love of Soldiers'
Humor--Visiting the Soldiers in Trenches and Hospitals--Lincoln at
"The Soldiers' Rest"


CHAPTER XX

Lincoln and McClellan--The Peninsular Campaign of 1862--Impatience
with McClellan's Delay--Lincoln Defends McClellan from Unjust
Criticism--Some Harrowing Experiences--McClellan Recalled from the
Peninsula--His Troops Given to General Pope--Pope's Defeat at
Manassas--A Critical Situation--McClellan again in Command--Lincoln
Takes the Responsibility--McClellan's Account of His
Reinstatement--The Battle of Antietam--The President
Vindicated--Again Dissatisfied with McClellan--Visits the Army in
the Field--The President in the Saddle--Correspondence between
Lincoln and McClellan--McClellan's Final Removal--Lincoln's
Summing-Up of McClellan--McClellan's "Body-Guard"