Lincoln, Abraham (1809-1865) to Edwin M. Stanton
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC00639.20 Author/Creator: Lincoln, Abraham (1809-1865) Place Written: [Washington, D.C.] Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 29 March 1863 Pagination: 1 p. : docket ; 25 x 20 cm. Order a Copy
re: false reports of siege of Vicksburg. "I fear --in fact, I believe--the dispatch you mentioned is utter humbuggery...."
Basler, Roy P. The Collected Works Of Abraham Lincoln. (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Presss, 1953), Vol. VI 1862 - 1863,
p. 155.
Notes: Basler 6: 155 notes that the New York Mercury printed a false report of Grant's army bypassing Vicksburg by canal. Captain Fox is Gustavus V. Fox. Pennock is Captain Alexander M. Pennock, commanding the naval station at Cairo, Ill. The false report may stem from an actual attempt to build a canal. After he failed to take Vicksburg in December of 1862, Grant ordered Sherman to renew work on a canal to bypass the city. He abandoned the effort in March of 1863 when flood waters failed to cut a deep-water channel through the canal. James McPherson, Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction. Second edition (New York: McGraw Hill, 1982, 1992): 310.
March 29. 1863
Hon. E. M. Stanton
Sir
I fear - in fact, believe - the despatch you mentioned is utter humbuggery - I have tracked it up & found that it came from Cairo last night to the New-York-Mercury, was printed in that paper of this morning, [inserted: which] came by mail to Philadelphia & is thence telegraphed to Capt. [inserted: Fox.] Now, is [inserted: it] not past belief that such news would be at Cairo that length of time, and not be sent directly to us, especially as Pennock is under strict orders to send every thing promptly. Besides there are no six-iron clads, nor 15000 men at Vicksburg to pass through the canal, [inserted: even] if the Mississippi river had risen fifteen feet in as many minutes.
Yours truly
A. Lincoln
[Docket] March 29.
Pres't Lincoln.
Regarding some telegram
relative to Vicksburgh
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