What McClellan Said After Lincoln Fired Him... скачать в хорошем качестве

What McClellan Said After Lincoln Fired Him...

November 7th, 1862. Rectortown, Virginia. Major General George Brinton McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac, sat in his headquarters tent on a cold evening. Snow may have been falling outside, soft flakes drifting down through the darkness and settling on the canvas roofs of thousands of military tents spread across the Virginia countryside. The Army of the Potomac, nearly one hundred thousand strong, rested in their encampments after weeks of slow marching through the autumn landscape. And their commander, the man they called the Young Napoleon, may have been writing another letter to his beloved wife, Ellen, as he did nearly every night. According to documented accounts, two officers from the War Department arrived around eleven o'clock that night, carrying sealed orders from President Abraham Lincoln. One of them was Brigadier General Catharinus Buckingham, who had traveled by train from Washington specifically to deliver this message. The general may have knocked on the tent post and waited for permission to enter, his breath visible in the cold November air, his face perhaps betraying nothing of the news he carried. McClellan received his visitors with the formal courtesy expected of a commanding general. He took the sealed envelope, broke it open, and read the words that President Lincoln had written. The message was direct and left no room for misunderstanding. According to the official text, Lincoln was relieving McClellan of command of the Army of the Potomac, effective immediately. General Ambrose Burnside would replace him. #history #lincoln #americanhistory