{"id":944,"date":"2013-06-28T20:35:36","date_gmt":"2013-06-28T20:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/?p=944"},"modified":"2016-06-19T12:25:06","modified_gmt":"2016-06-19T12:25:06","slug":"letter-to-george-mcclellan-october-25-1862","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/letter-to-george-mcclellan-october-25-1862\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter to George McClellan (October 25, 1862)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Contributing Editors for this page include Brian Elsner and Thomas Warf<\/em><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Ranking<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-size: 36px;\">#51<\/span> on the list of 150 Most Teachable Lincoln Documents<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Annotated Transcript<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/node\/40417\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that fatigue anything?&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>On This Date<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu\/panel\/this_date\/1862-10-25\" target=\"_blank\">HD Daily Report, October 25, 1862<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thelincolnlog.org\/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&amp;day=1862-10-25\" target=\"_blank\">The Lincoln Log, October 25, 1862<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Close Readings<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gWbP-IHH1AQ?rel=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nPosted at YouTube by &#8220;Understanding Lincoln&#8221; course participant Thomas Warf, August 2014<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.quora.com\/Brian-Elsner\/Posts\/Close-Reading-3-Abraham-Lincoln-to-George-Brinton-McClellan-October-25-1862\" target=\"_blank\">Brian Elsner, &#8220;Understanding Lincoln&#8221; blog post (via Quora), October 7, 2013\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Custom Map<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps\/ms?msid=214923210427089848626.0004def4e79e2ae545ca4&amp;msa=0&amp;ll=39.456475,-77.746296&amp;spn=0.094369,0.181446&amp;iwloc=0004f309cb2d505a10484\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-3511\" src=\"http:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/files\/2013\/06\/Screen-shot-2014-02-22-at-9.46.42-PM.png\" alt=\"Screen shot 2014-02-22 at 9.46.42 PM\" width=\"484\" height=\"440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/files\/2013\/06\/Screen-shot-2014-02-22-at-9.46.42-PM.png 692w, https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/files\/2013\/06\/Screen-shot-2014-02-22-at-9.46.42-PM-300x272.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 484px) 100vw, 484px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps\/ms?msid=214923210427089848626.0004def4e79e2ae545ca4&amp;msa=0&amp;ll=39.456475,-77.746296&amp;spn=0.094369,0.181446&amp;iwloc=0004f309cb2d505a10484\" target=\"_blank\">View in Larger Map<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>How Historians Interpret<\/h3>\n<p>\u201cIn response to McClellan\u2019s explanation that his horses were exhausted, Lincoln sent a tart reply through Halleck: \u2018The President has read your telegram, and directs me to suggest that, if the enemy had more occupation south of the river, his cavalry would not be so likely to make raids north of it.\u2019 Shortly thereafter, Lincoln more pointedly wired the Young Napoleon: \u2018I have just received your dispatch about sore tongued and fatiegued horses. Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that fatigue anything?\u2019 Indignant at what he considered a \u2018dirty little fling,\u2019 McClellan sent a lengthy report on his cavalry but failed to deal with Lincoln\u2019s larger point, that the army\u2019s inactivity threatened the war effort.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Michael Burlingame,\u00a0<em><a style=\"font-style: inherit;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.knox.edu\/documents\/pdfs\/LincolnStudies\/Burlingame,%20Vol%202,%20Chap%2029.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Abraham Lincoln: A Life<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(2 volumes, originally published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008) Unedited Manuscript by Chapter, Lincoln Studies Center, Volume 2, Chapter 29 (PDF), 3150.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn October 25, the War Department received a cavalry report forwarded by McClellan. In it, a Massachusetts cavalry colonel reported that 128 of his 267 horses were too ill or disabled to leave camp and that \u2018the horses, which are still sound are absolutely broken down from fatigue and want of flesh.\u2019 This report provided Lincoln with an outlet for his frustration as he wired McClellan, \u2018I have just read your dispatch about sore tongued and fatiegued [sic] horses. Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietem that fatigue anything? McClellan responded with a list of cavalry activities and defiantly concluded \u2018If any instance can be found where overworked Cavalry has performed more labor than mine since the Battle of Antietam I am not conscious of it.\u2019 Not surprisingly, McClellan missed the point of Lincoln\u2019s jab.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Edward H. Bonekemper, III, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=6brwCQAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PA151&amp;dq=Will+you+pardon+me+for+asking+what+the+horses+of+your+army+have+done+since+the+battle+of+Antietam+that+fatigue+anything?&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwimpcf36azNAhVDeT4KHdh9CUkQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\">McClellan and Failure<\/a><\/em> (Jefferson: McFarland &amp; Company, 2007), 151.<\/p>\n<h3>NOTE TO READERS<\/h3>\n<p>This page is under construction and will be developed further by students in the new \u201cUnderstanding Lincoln\u201d online course sponsored by the House Divided Project at Dickinson College and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. To find out more about the course and to see some of our videotaped class sessions, including virtual field trips to Ford&#8217;s Theatre and Gettysburg, please visit our Livestream page at <a href=\"http:\/\/new.livestream.com\/gilderlehrman\/lincoln\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/new.livestream.com\/gilderlehrman\/lincoln<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">Searchable Text<\/span><\/h3>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">Majr. Genl. McClellan<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">I have just read your despatch about sore tongued and fatigued horses. Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that fatigue anything?<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #c0c0c0;\">A. LINCOLN<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Contributing Editors for this page include Brian Elsner and Thomas Warf Ranking #51 on the list of 150 Most Teachable Lincoln Documents Annotated Transcript &#8220;Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that fatigue anything?&#8221; On This Date HD Daily Report, October 25, 1862 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10857],"tags":[10896,6088,11642,11630,10865,10870,10862,10876],"class_list":["post-944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-father-abraham","tag-anger","tag-letter","tag-management-style","tag-military-affairs","tag-private","tag-telegram","tag-wartime","tag-younger-readers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=944"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4367,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944\/revisions\/4367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/lincoln\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}