Lincoln went out of his way to console McDowell, whom he called “a good and loyal, though very unfortunate” officer who had to “drive the locomotive as he found it.” He told the general: “I have not lost a particle of confidence in you,” to which the insouciant McDowell replied: “I don’t see why you should, Mr. President.” He was demoted to division commander, while Robert Patterson was replaced by Nathaniel P. Banks shortly after Bull Run. When Patterson asked Lincoln for vindication, the president told him: “I have never found fault with or censured you; I have never been able to see that you could have done anything else than what you did do. Your hands were tied; you obeyed orders, and did your duty, and I am satisfied with your conduct.” Patterson recalled that these words were “said with a manner so frank, so candid, and so manly, as to secure my respect, confidence, and good will. I expressed to the President my great gratification with, and tendered my sincere thanks for, his fairness towards me, and his courtesy in hearing my case, and giving me some five hours of his time.” When Patterson requested a court-trial “in order to have a public approval of my conduct, and stop the abuse daily lavished upon me,” Lincoln said (as the general recalled) that “he would cheerfully accede to any practicable measure to do me justice, but that I need not expect to escape abuse as long as I was of any importance or value to the community, adding that he received infinitely more abuse than I did, but he had ceased to regard it, and I must learn to do the same.” To placate the general, Lincoln promoted his son to brigadier over Cameron’s strenuous objections.
Source: Abraham Lincoln ∶ A Life ▫𓂃
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