“Yes,” replied Lee, “That is the case. I would be ungenerous to demand all of our mobile forces. I will assign Captain Stuart to your command.”
“Thank you, General Lee, you are most gracious.”
“What’s next?” asked Davis.
“The time phasing of the plan concerns me,” said Stanton. “Winters are hard in northern Illinois. If we’re going to make a late season push toward Chicago we have to get there before winter closes in on us. We can’t be stuck outside the city when the blizzards come. The season is short for the landing in Boston too. Hurricanes are rampant in the early summer and the nor’easters arrive in late October. Those storms will put our shipping at risk. We shouldn’t land an army in Boston unless we’re certain that we can supply it. Do we really have enough time to capture Boston and Chicago before winter forces us to suspend our operations? Would it be better to wait until next May to commence these operations?”
All looked at McClellan.
“We must commence the offensives now,” argued McClellan. “That is our best guarantee of success. Delaying will allow the Insurgents to improve their position more than we can improve ours.
“They have about two hundred thousand men in the field at this moment. In six months they may have four hundred thousand. In a year they may have a million.
“They are defending Boston and Portland with a few dozen untrained artillerists in the harbor forts and nothing at all on the mainland. In a year they’ll have Boston and Portland defended with underwater torpedoes and heavy artillery manned by trained gunners emplaced on the mainland and protected by thousands of men in fortifications.
“They have fortified the bluffs of the Mississippi. They haven’t fortified the Wabash or the Illinois. Let’s not give them time to think of doing it.
“They have got the British to guarantee their access to the sea by way of Montreal. A year from now they may be able to persuade the British to guarantee their possession of the New England ports.
“They have been able to raise an army to contest our forces on land, but they have acquired only a handful of ships and loyal crews to contest us by sea. They will soon think to construct a formidable navy to defend their ports or carry on warfare against us on the high seas with commerce raiders and privateers.
“They’ve manned their front lines at the contested points in Illinois and Pennsylvania but they haven’t yet built up a strategic reserve that could take the offensive against us.
“They have made some nuisance raids from Kansas and Iowa to tie down our Missouri militias guarding the western frontier, but they haven’t yet raided across the Ohio River into Kentucky and Virginia, nor have they tried to advance into Maryland and Delaware.
“They are clever. Let’s not give them time to contemplate ways to make the war more difficult than it already is. Let’s keep them on the defensive and devoting their full attention to reacting to our operations and not to contemplating operations against us.”
Davis held up his hand to stop McClellan who was prepared to bring up many more perils of delaying the offensive. “I think you’ve convinced us beyond any reasonable doubt of the necessity for taking the offensive in October. Does anybody still object to the October commencement?”
This time there was silence.
“What say you, General Lee? Did your reconnaissance to Indiana and Illinois cause you any misgivings about your assigned role in executing the plan?”
“No, sir,” replied Lee. “My reconnaissance has satisfied me that the Wabash River will be ideal for a breakthrough. It is fordable but scarcely defended. The railroads approaching the front are sufficient to concentrate the one hundred and twenty regiments allocated to the breakthrough phase of the campaign. The terrain is flat and therefore suitable for my men to cut across Grant’s rear and surround his army before he is aware that a major attack is underway.”
“Well, that leaves us with the question of reinforcement and resupply,” said Davis. He addressed Secretary of the Navy Buchanan. “Frank, it’s up to you to charter all the ships we need to move Mac’s National Army into the New England ports. Charter what you need in New Orleans to keep Lee’s supplies moving up the Mississippi River. Mr. Stanton is a lawyer. He’ll know how to charter the ships through civilian agencies so that the Rebels don’t get wind that this is a military operation.”
“And so that we don’t run the price of the charters up,” added Stanton.
Davis addressed Stanton. “It will also be your job to keep the railroads moving. Railroad men can be stubborn. Make sure they understand the importance of this operation. And tell them to keep quiet about it.”
“Of course,” said Stanton. “I’m an old railroad lawyer. I’ll sue them if they don’t comply.” The others laughed, but Davis had the impression that it wasn’t in Mr. Stanton’s nature to joke about using his authority to accomplish what had to be accomplished and worry about the legal niceties later on. That could be a useful trait during time of war.
9
Charleston, South Carolina, September 11, 1861
“Damn that Jefferson Davis!” William Yancey said to his friend Robert Rhett, publisher of the influential Southern Rights paper, TheCharleston Mercury. “He can’t do anything right. I handed him the presidency of the Southern Republic on a silver platter at the Charleston Convention and he spit on the plate! Then I run the Free States out of the Union, and he goes to start a war to bring them back in! What the hell ever got into him?”
Yancey held up the latest edition of TheCharleston Mercury. He pointed to the headline: Davis Rejects Peace Offer. Says Confederate Union is Indivisible.
“Stephen Douglas sunk his hooks into him before he passed away,” answered Rhett, sitting on the small part of his office sofa that wasn’t piled high with copies of old newspapers. “So did Buchanan, McClellan, Stanton, Andy Johnson, Alexander Stephens, and Robert E. Lee. They’re all Unionists first and Southerners second.”
“He sure didn’t have room for any of us at the table, did he?” added Yancey, lounging in the chair under the open window. “Not a single Southern Rights man in the Cabinet. Not a one! He tried to shut me up by sending me out of the country on that wild goose chase as Minister Plenipotentiary to Great Britain.”
“I remember you telling me about that,” said Rhett. “Didn’t he cook up some cock-and-bull about wanting you to go to Britain…something to do with the Brits brokering a deal for Spain to sell us Cuba in return for our letting the Europeans set themselves up in Mexico.”
“What a load of bull that turned out to be! I’m sure Douglas invented that one up all by himself. Davis isn’t devious enough to concoct those kinds of schemes.” Yancey grimaced as he remembered Douglas’ chicanery.
Rhett rolled his eyes. “Nobody in either party could ever match Douglas in the art of scheming! I don’t think even old Abe Lincoln, damn his scurrilous soul, is half as devious.”
“No,” said Yancey, in reluctant agreement. “Mr. Lincoln is crazy, but he’s honest about what he believes in. Jefferson Davis is like that too. I can’t say as I find fault with him personally, but he’s trying to kill our hopes for a Southern Republic just as dead as old Abe would have if he’d been elected President of the old United States. We could have seceded from Old Abe’s government. We can’t get out from under Jefferson Davis.”