One excuse McClellan gave for his timidity was the president’s decision to withhold Irvin McDowell’s corps, which had originally been slated to sail to the Peninsula. Lincoln changed that plan at the last minute when he discovered that Little Mac, in violation of orders, had not left enough men behind to guarantee the safety of Washington. The president was indignant when informed that only 19,022 raw troops were in and around the capital instead of the 40,000 to 50,000 recommended by McClellan’s division commanders. Such legerdemain would have justified Little Mac’s removal, but Lincoln had no confidence in the other generals of the Army of the Potomac. When notified of the president’s action, the Young Napoleon called it “the most infamous thing that history has recorded. … The idea of depriving a General of 35,000 troops when actually under fire!” To Lincoln he telegraphed an urgent appeal: “In my deliberate judgement, the success of our cause will be imperilled when it is actually under the fire of the Enemy, and active operations have commenced. Two or three of my Divisions have been under fire of artillery most of the day. I am now of the opinion that I shall have to fight all of the available force of the Rebels, not far from here. Do not force me to do so with diminished numbers.” The Young Napoleon grumbled that enemies in Washington, among them Lincoln and Stanton, were conspiring to undermine his offensive and that they were “traitors … willing to sacrifice the country & its army for personal spite & personal aims.”
Source: Abraham Lincoln ∶ A Life ▫𓂃
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