“We will never allow our hallowed Republic to disassemble itself into squabbling tribes of petty nations to be pushed hither and yon by the European monarchies! Let us therefore devote ourselves to completing the late President Douglas’ work of placing the Confederate Union on an unshakable foundation where it may never again be disturbed by hostile powers from within or without!”
The Cabinet stood up again, applauding and whistling. The Southerners — Aleck Stephens and Howell Cobb of Georgia; R.M.T. Hunter of Virginia; Andy Johnson of Tennessee; John Crittenden of Kentucky; and John Reagan of Texas — were ardent Unionists. Kentucky Senator John C. Breckinridge alone was a Southern Rights man of sorts. He might have been inclined to support a Southern War of Independence if Mr. Lincoln had been elected President. But like most other Southern Rights men, he had taken up the pro-Union faith now that the extremists on the northern side of the Ohio were in rebellion against the government of his party.
The Northern men — George McClellan of Pennsylvania; Horatio Seymour of New York; Caleb Cushing of Massachusetts; William English of Indiana; William Richardson of Illinois; and George Pendleton of Ohio — were, if anything, even angrier with their fellow Northerners whom they believed had walked into secession and treason because they valued the Negro more than the Union.
When the Cabinet sat back down, sixty-seven year old John C. Crittenden — a former Senator, Governor of Kentucky, Attorney General, and now the elder statesman of the Confederate Union Congress — spoke.
“Thank you, Mr. President. You have admirably explained why the doctrine of State Sovereignty does not apply to the Rebellion at the North. May I suggest that you make this case directly to the people, beginning with a speech in New York City?”
“Yes, that’s what we need,” concurred Secretary of the Navy Caleb Cushing. “Our voters in the Rebel States must not for a moment believe that we will abandon them to the traitors of the Republican Party.”
“We must defeat Mr. Lincoln’s pen as well as his sword,” agreed Pendleton.
Davis nodded. “Then I will go to New York as soon as practicable and speak against Mr. Lincoln’s sugarcoating of the poison of Rebellion.
“Now let’s turn our attention to the military situation. General Lee and the Secretary of War have proposed a reorganization of our high command. I concur with their proposal. General Lee shall resume his position as General of the West, commanding our forces between the Appalachians and the frontier. Lee, at his own request, has been relieved as General of the Armies, because he viewed that position as an encumbrance to his field command.
“Mac will take the field as Commanding General of the Department of the East. Assistant Secretary of War Stanton will move up to take Mac’s place.
“We don’t want to alert the Insurgents that we’re planning new campaigns this year, so I would like your tentative approval of these changes sub silento. We will present them to the full Senate for confirmation after our next campaigns are underway in October.”
“I think these changes will be beneficial,” said Kentucky’s Senator John Breckinridge, whose flamboyant youth contrasted with fellow Kentuckian John Crittenden sitting next to him. “I’m pleased to learn that General Lee will remain in the field. I had been under the impression that he had been designated to bear the opprobrium for our defeat in the East, in a campaign he had nothing to do with organizing.”
“The fault is exclusively mine,” said Davis. “I should not have asked Lee to command the armies collectively as well as individually. That mistake has been rectified. General Lee will return to the field and remain there.”
“I, too, will anticipate gratifying results from these changes,” said Senator R.M.T. Hunter of Virginia. “Now, may I ask the Secretary of War to please tell us what happened at Gettysburg? I don’t think I shall want to entirely rely on what the newspaper editors are saying about it!”
Davis motioned for McClellan to speak.
McClellan looked up from his papers. “Mr. President and fellow members of the Union Cabinet: Senator Hunter is certainly right: victories speak for themselves; defeats must be explained and steps taken to insure that they do not happen again. At any rate that’s what the newspaper editors keep telling us!”
Most of the men groaned. The newspaper editorials had not been kind either to the government or to General Lee.
“However, we must not discount our significant successes in the West. The Rebels sought to push us entirely out of the Northwest. They sought to make St. Louis their fulcrum to lever us out of Missouri. With full control of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, they imagined that they would be able to restore overland communication to the Pacific Coast and thereby incite their partisan friends in Oregon and California to join them in treason. I don’t need to tell you how formidable their rebellion would have become if they had succeeded in advancing their frontiers to these lines.”
McClellan allowed the Cabinet a moment to contemplate that point.
“But they did not succeed,” he sternly reminded them. “Their hold on St. Louis has been broken. The insurgent leader, Captain Lyon, has forfeited his despicable life. Those who rallied to his treasonous standard have gone with him into the Infernal Regions.
“We have likewise defeated their attempts to drive us out of Illinois and Indiana, thanks to the inspired leadership of Blackjack Logan, Sterling Price, and General Harney. General Lee will now return to the West to complete the work of suppressing the Rebels in Illinois and Indiana. That will isolate the insurgency in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Kansas from its centers to the east.”
“Good!” exclaimed Illinois Senator William Richards. “Illinois and Indiana are our states. We won them fair and square in the election. The Rebels have no claim whatsoever on them.”
“The Rebels don’t have claim to any state,” Davis reminded him.
“Now to the East,” McClellan continued. “Our plan there was to deceive the Rebels in Philadelphia by fixing their attention on feints from Wilmington and New York. General Lee was to make the main advance through Harrisburg, seizing the rolling stock there and then moving swiftly into Philadelphia from the west. We hoped to surprise and capture the enemy’s forces before they had time to organize their defense, thereby avoiding the destruction of property and loss of life that accompanied the house-to-house fighting in St. Louis. Lee was then to advance into New Jersey and capture the Rebels in their siege lines around New York. He was to combine forces with Joe Johnston and advance on into New England to break the back of the Rebellion.”
“A well-conceived plan,” acknowledged Senator Hunter.
“It was well-considered,” agreed McClellan, “but in the interest of celerity we had to execute it with insufficiently trained men. In the event, our movement toward Harrisburg was disrupted by Fremont’s reconnaissance through Chambersburg. He commanded a small force of cavalry, but they were screened by the mountains and struck our men from an unexpected direction. Our men panicked, as green troops are prone to doing when taken by surprise.”
The Union Cabinet murmured as they tried to envision the chaos resulting from Fremont’s unexpected attack. McClellan continued reading from his notes.
“Upon being informed of the fighting around Gettysburg, Free State officers moved their men out of Philadelphia. They attacked around the east side of our lines from the direction of Lancaster. They met Fremont’s men attacking from the west and effected an envelopment. Fortunately, Colonel Thomas Jackson, held in reserve, was able to break the envelopment, allowing General Lee and many of our men to escape. We nevertheless lost over three thousand men. About three hundred are presumed killed, the rest wounded or captured.”