It certainly does, thought Stanton. In time of war nations live or die according to the leadership of their generals. Lee is the personification of leadership.
“General Bragg will be in nominal command of the West until you are ready to take the field,” explained McClellan. “He will be acting as Inspector General. In that capacity he will insure an adequate standard of training of all the men assembling in the Mississippi Valley. On or about October first we will concentrate those men on the Illinois front and you will take the offensive.”
“A good plan,” acknowledged Lee. “Perhaps Bragg will not be so popular with the men, but his discipline in training will save their lives in battle.”
“Bragg isn’t popular with himself,” cracked McClellan. “He’s the only general in any man’s army who has ever ordered his own court martial!”
The men rollicked with laughter. The often-told story about Bragg ordering his own court martial for failing to follow one of his own orders to the letter was an exaggeration, but only a small one. Bragg was notorious for quarrelling with every officer within his reach. But he would hand over to Lee a superbly trained army.
“Have any candidates been selected for consideration to command here in the East?” asked Lee.
“That’s the other subject I wanted to discuss,” McClellan answered, rubbing his chin. “I’ve been thinking that perhaps I should step down as Secretary of War and assume direct command of this department. Like you, I’m a field commander, not an administrator. I suppose I’ve seen more of modern warfare than any other living man, in Mexico and in Europe. I am longing to put that practical knowledge to good use for my country.” He addressed Stanton. “How would you like to become Secretary of War, subject to the President’s approval, of course?”
Stanton was surprised by the proposition. When he composed his thoughts he answered, “Like General Lee, I will be pleased to serve my country in any capacity where I can be of the most value. I am honored by your confidence that I will be able to execute such a high responsibility.”
“Your record in Buchanan’s Cabinet speaks for itself,” McClellan assured him. “You stiffened ‘Old Buck’s’ spine sufficiently to clamp down on the secession nonsense from the Southern Fire Eaters. Otherwise they’d have been in a race with the Free State Rebels to see who could get out of the Union first. We’d be fighting Secessionists from both directions. It’s our good fortune that you decided to stick with us instead of taking a position in Lincoln’s Free State Government.”
“It wasn’t an easy decision,” Stanton confessed. “I learned to admire Mr. Lincoln while trying cases with him. Salmon Chase is my dearest friend, and he did implore me to come over to their side. But I can’t see destroying this Confederate Union because of our dispute over keeping the Negroes, who are but one-seventh of our people, as slaves.”
“I also grew very fond of Mr. Lincoln back during the days when I ran the Illinois Central and he tried railroad cases for me,” replied McClellan with a smile. “Oh, how he loved to tell stories when we stayed in those little taverns in the frontier towns! And how we laughed! Oh, too bad, that the Abolitionists have persuaded him to take up their cause!”
Stanton took off his hat and patted down the sweat gathering in his thick curly hair. “I remember reading an article last year in the St. Louis Globe predicting that this country will ultimately attain a population of six hundred million in the next century — if we can keep it together for that long. But if we don’t stay united we’ll fall prey to the European disease of national jealousies spawning wars, famines, and plagues. Our continent will become the ruin of Mankind’s hopes instead of its salvation. We must stay united and at peace. Let’s save the country now, then we’ll address slavery later on, when the public sentiment is advanced enough to favor the gradual liberation of the Negroes.”
“A splendid way of stating the case,” agreed McClellan.
“If we break the country up now we’ll never put it back again,” Stanton elaborated. “In ten years we’ll be five or six countries. The Europeans will be sticking their noses in our affairs and making alliances with some of us to fight against the others. I saw that danger right away when the Rebels started coordinating their defiance with the British. We’ve been trying for a hundred years to get the British off our continent. Now the Rebels want to invite them back in?”
“Your view satisfies me that you are the right man for the position,” replied McClellan. “As soon as we get back to Washington City I will recommend to the President your appointment as Secretary of War and mine as commander of the Department of the East. The sooner we get things sorted out here, the sooner General Lee can get on with advancing his plans for the West.”
“What are your plans here, in the East, if I may ask?” said Lee. “Do you intend to renew the assault on Philadelphia?”
“Oh, no,” answered McClellan. “We can’t try that again. The Rebels are pouring every man and his dog into the fronts around Philadelphia and New York. They’re barricading the back door through Harrisburg as well. And this, mind you, is exactly what we want them to do, because this is the one place where we shall not attack them!”
Lee’s expression flashed surprise. “What is your plan?”
“An amphibious assault,” replied McClellan, looking off in the distance. “Landings of our armies at Boston, Portland, and Portsmouth, followed by overland advances into Hartford, Providence, and Augusta. We’ll take New England away from the Rebs while they’re all down here gawking at New York and Philly. That’s why I want Stanton to be our Secretary of War.”
McClellan looked at Stanton. “We’ll rely on you to organize the shipyards to transport our men to New England and keep them supplied with food and equipment once they get there. We’ll rely on you to organize the rail traffic in the Mississippi Valley when Lee renews his assault in the West. This is a big country, and it will take a superb administrator of your energy to coordinate the logistics of the war across all of it.”
“Your plan to occupy Boston from the sea appears to be the same in principle to what we proposed to do in Philadelphia — taking those people’s cities by surprise without fighting them street by street,” Lee observed.
“It’s what we must do,” confirmed McClellan. “We can’t afford another set-piece battle like we had in St. Louis. That ‘victory’ cost us nine thousand casualties. And it leveled the city.”
“The North does have a lot of cities,” said Lee. “The Free Staters can garrison each such that it would cost us an army corps to reduce. Given enough time they can prepare their defenses in depth so as to make each city prohibitively expensive for us to capture.”
“Ex-act-ly!” exclaimed McClellan. “That’s why the Insurrection must be suppressed quickly, with the least amount of death and destruction. We want the country restored in substance and in spirit. Every man who is diverted into the war is lost to the production of peaceful pursuits. Those killed and crippled are lost not only to the present generation, but to those who follow us. The longer the war continues, the more difficult it will be to restore national harmony, and the more likely the British and French will intervene on behalf of the Free States. Our victories must be rapid and complete.”
3
The White House, August 7, 1861
President Jefferson Davis called the Confederate Union Cabinet to order in the Executive Office on the 2nd floor of the White House.