oal, which he blew, with his spectacles still on his nose; then he
clapped the coal to the powder, and after the explosion, remarked:
"There is too much left there." There is something almost grotesque, but
touching and pathetic as well, in this picture of the President of the
United States, with all his enormous cares and responsibilities, engaged
in so petty a matter as testing a sample of powder. And yet so great was
his anxiety for the success of the armies and navies under his control
that he wished to become personally satisfied as to every detail. He did
not wish our armies or our war-vessels to lose battles on account of bad
powder. "At another time," Admiral Dahlgren has related, "the President
sent for me regarding some new invention. After the agent of the
inventor left, the President began on army matters. 'Now,' said he, 'I
am to have a sweat of five or six days'" (alluding to an impending
battle, for the result of which he was very anxious). Again: "The
President sent for me. Some man in trouble about arms; President holding
a breech-loader in his hand. He asked me about the iron-clads, and
Charleston." And again: "Went to the Department and found the President
there. He looks thin, and is very nervous. Said they were doing nothing
at Charleston, only asking for one iron-clad after another. The canal at
Vicksburg was of no account, and he wondered how any sensible man could
favor it. He feared the favorable state of public expectation would pass
away before anything was done. Then he leveled a couple of jokes at the
doings at Vicksburg and Charleston." No wonder the sympathetic
Dahlgren, witnessing the sufferings of the tortured President, should
exclaim: "_Poor gentleman_! How thin and wasted he is!"

The gloomy outlook in the Spring of 1862 was relieved by the substantial
victories of General Burnside in North Carolina and of General Grant in
Tennessee. The President was cheered and elated by these successes. It
is related that General Burnside, visiting Washington at this time,
called on the President, and that "the meeting was a grand spectacle.
The two stalwart men rushed into each other's arms, and warmly clasped
each other for some minutes. When General Burnside was about to leave,
the President inquired, 'Is there anything, my dear General, that I can
do for you?' 'Yes! yes!' was the quick reply, 'and I am glad you asked
me that question. My three brigadiers, you know; everything depended on
them, a