ed in you, not from
any act or omission of yours touching the public service, up to the time
you were sent to Leavenworth, but from the flood of grumbling despatches
and letters I have seen from you since. I knew you were being ordered
to Leavenworth at the time it was done; and I aver that with as tender a
regard for your honor and your sensibilities as I had for my own, it never
occurred to me that you were being "humiliated, insulted, and disgraced";
nor have I, up to this day, heard an intimation that you have been
wronged, coming from any one but yourself. No one has blamed you for the
retrograde movement from Springfield, nor for the information you gave
General Cameron; and this you could readily understand, if it were not
for your unwarranted assumption that the ordering you to Leavenworth must
necessarily have been done as a punishment for some fault. I thought then,
and think yet, the position assigned to you is as responsible, and as
honorable, as that assigned to Buell--I know that General McClellan
expected more important results from it. My impression is that at the
time you were assigned to the new Western Department, it had not been
determined to replace General Sherman in Kentucky; but of this I am not
certain, because the idea that a command in Kentucky was very desirable,
and one in the farther West undesirable, had never occurred to me. You
constantly speak of being placed in command of only 3000. Now, tell me, is
this not mere impatience? Have you not known all the while that you are to
command four or five times that many.

I have been, and am sincerely your friend; and if, as such, I dare to make
a suggestion, I would say you are adopting the best possible way to ruin
yourself. "Act well your part, there all the honor lies." He who does
something at the head of one regiment, will eclipse him who does nothing
at the head of a hundred.

Your friend, as ever,

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL HALLECK.

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 31, 1861

GENERAL H. W. HALLECK, St. Louis, Missouri:

General McClellan is sick. Are General Buell and yourself in concert? When
he moves on Bowling Green, what hinders it being reinforced from Columbus?
A simultaneous movement by you on Columbus might prevent it.

A. LINCOLN.

[Similar despatch to Buell same date.]

1862

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL D. C. BUELL.

WASHINGTON CITY, January 1, 1862

BRIGADIER-GENERAL BUELL, Louisville:

Gen