emain go forward to General McClellan as speedily
as possible; that General McClellan commence his forward movements from
his new base at once, and that such incidental modifications as the
foregoing may render proper be also made. A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL McCLELLAN.

WASHINGTON, April 6, 1862.

GENERAL G. B. McCLELLAN:

Yours of 11 A. M. today received. Secretary of War informs me that the
forwarding of transportation, ammunition, and Woodbury's brigade, under
your orders, is not, and will not be, interfered with. You now have
over one hundred thousand troops with you, independent of General Wool's
command. I think you better break the enemy's line from Yorktown to
Warwick River at once. This will probably use time as advantageously as
you can.

A. LINCOLN, President

TO GENERAL G. B. McCLELLAN.

WASHINGTON, April 9, 1862

MAJOR-GENERAL McCLELLAN.

MY DEAR SIR+--Your despatches, complaining that you are not properly
sustained, while they do not offend me, do pain me very much.

Blenker's division was withdrawn from you before you left here, and you
knew the pressure under which I did it, and, as I thought, acquiesced in
it certainly not without reluctance.

After you left I ascertained that less than 20,000 unorganized men,
without a single field battery, were all you designed to be left for the
defense of Washington and Manassas Junction, and part of this even to go
to General Hooker's old position; General Banks's corps, once designed for
Manassas Junction, was divided and tied up on the line of Winchester and
Strasburg, and could not leave it without again exposing the upper Potomac
and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. This presented (or would present when
McDowell and Sumner should be gone) a great temptation to the enemy to
turn back from the Rappahannock and sack Washington. My explicit order
that Washington should, by the judgment of all the Commanders of corps, be
left entirely secure, had been neglected. It was precisely this that drove
me to detain McDowell.

I do not forget that I was satisfied with your arrangement to leave Banks
at Manassas Junction; but when that arrangement was broken up and nothing
substituted for it, of course I was not satisfied. I was constrained to
substitute something for it myself.

And now allow me to ask, do you really think I should permit the line from
Richmond via Manaasas Junction to this city to be entirely open, except
what resistance