The Life of Abraham Lincoln for Young People, Told in Words of One Syllable — John Shaqi
The Life of Abraham Lincoln for Young People, Told in Words of One SyllablePutnam, Harriet
History
The Life of Abraham Lincoln for Young People, Told in Words of One Syllable
Putnam, Harriet
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Juvenile literature
The foe moved their cap-i-tal from Mont-gom-er-y, Ala. to Rich-mond,
Va. and the first bat-tle of weight was to lie be-tween the two
cap-i-tals. The folks at the North thought the war would be a short
one. Most of the North-ern vol-un-teers had been called out for but
three months, so it was thought by some that a bat-tle must be fought
ere that time came to an end. The press at the North made a loud call
for a “for-ward move-ment.” From day to day there was the cry of “On to
Rich-mond!”
This hot speed was not the wish of Gen. Scott, then Com-man-der-in-chief
of all the U. S. troops. He said it would be “death to our cause.” It
has since been thought that if the men in the North had been more slow
to move, the first great loss would not have been theirs.
It was on the 21st, of Ju-ly, 1861, that the bat-tle of Bull Run was
fought. Gen-er-al Mc-Do-well moved to-wards Rich-mond. The foe was
led by Gens. Jo-seph E. John-ston and Beau-re-gard. The bat-tle was a
sharp one and the loss large. At just the right mo-ment the foe had
fresh troops sent to help them and thus gained the day. Af-ter a hard
fight, the Un-ion for-ces had to give up. They fled back in haste to
Wash-ing-ton.
[Illustration: MARCHING TO BULL RUN.]
Sher-man was Colo-nel of a reg-i-ment at Bull Run. Though he did his
part well, he had a fear that the Pres-i-dent would find fault with
him for the great loss at that bat-tle. He felt that he had done all
he could with men who had been rushed in-to a fight ere they had had
time to learn the art of war. Lin-coln knew that Sher-man had done his
best with what he had. He knew that Sher-man was “val-u-a-ble man,” so
he at once made him a Brig-a-dier Gen-er-al, sent him to Lou-is-ville,
Ken-tuc-ky, and put him in charge of a large force of troops.
The bat-tle of Bull Run, it has been said, was fought to please “the
pol-i-ti-cians.” It was the on-ly time the Pres-i-dent yield-ed to the
pub-lic clam-or, and he was al-ways sor-ry that he then did so.
In a few days af-ter the bat-tle of Bull Run the Pres-i-dent went out
to see the sol-diers. He made a kind speech, and told them to “cheer
up,” for he “knew that bet-ter days were com-ing.”
Pres-i-dent Lin-coln felt that while Gen. Scott had a ver-y sound head
and had done great good in his long years of work in the ar-my, he had
come to the time when age had be-gun to “tell” up-on him. But what
man could he put in his place? Gen. Mc-Do-well had met with de-feat.
Gen. Pat-ter-son, too, had failed. Up to that date the on-ly off-i-cer
who had won was Gen. Mc-Clel-lan, in charge of O-hi-o troops in West
Vir-gin-ia. Gen. Scott spoke to Pres-i-dent Lin-coln in fa-vor of
this young man, Mc-Clel-lan, and, as it was not ea-sy to find just
the one need-ed at that hour, Mc-Clel-lan was kept at Wash-ing-ton to
or-gan-ize the troops com-ing in to that cit-y and make all read-y for
a strong cam-paign.
[Illustration: GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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