To Samuel R. Curtis1Jump to section
St. Louis, Mo. Oct. 12, 1862
Would the completion of the railroad some distance further in the direction of Springfield, Mo, be of any military advantage to you? Please answer. A. LINCOLN
Annotation
[1] ALS, RPB. This telegram is misdated August 12, 1862, in the Official Records (I, XIII, 560; also NH, VII, 308). No answer from Curtis has been found. See also Lincoln's order extending the Pacific Railroad, July 11, supra. On September 11, Attorney General Bates wrote Lincoln urging the completion of the railroad ``at all events to Little Piney---without delay. If that is not done, we put to fearful hazard, the success of the campaign in that region. . . .'' (DLC-RTL). On September 19. Bates wrote again about Missouri matters in general and the railroad in particular, and on September 23 addressed Lincoln ``earnestly to entreat you to grant . . . an order for the continuation of the . . . S. W. Branch of the Pacific Railroad, from Rolla to Lebanon, through the Ozark Mountains. [a draft of an order for that purpose, is herewith presented.]'' (Ibid.). Brackets are in the source.
If the order of July 11 was actually issued on that date, Bates' letters of September 11, 19, and 23 are hardly comprehensible. It seems barely possible that the ``draft of an order'' enclosed by Bates on September 23 may have been the order signed by Lincoln on July 11, but in this case it is difficult to conjecture why Bates dated it ``June 27'' and later changed the date to ``July 11.'' It is also possible that the ``draft of an order'' enclosed by Bates on September 23 was an undated draft of a letter which is preserved in the Lincoln Papers (No. 18528) immediately following Bates' letter of September 19 rather than following the letter of September 23. If so, there is no evidence that the letter was ever sent by Lincoln. The text of the draft of the letter is as follows:
``To Major General Curtis
``Commanding Department of Missouri
``General Many persons, including several Major Generals who have commanded in Missouri, have urged me to order the completion of the South West Branch of the Pacific Railroad to Lebanon. Nevertheless the burdens of the National Treasury are so enormous that I hesitate to make this order, and have concluded to refer the subject to you with the following instructions.
``You will investigate the matter thoroughly, and in doing so, you will exclude all considerations of a local character and confine yourself to the point whether the completion of this road will decrease instead of increasing the national expenditures in the prosecution of the war and the maintainance of the supremacy of the Government in that section of the country.
``Should you be well satisfied upon this point you will order the work to be done and the materials to be provided as expeditiously and as economically as possible, and for this purpose you are hereby authorized to appoint a Superintendant of the same; and to make such contracts as may be requisite therefor, and to make the proper requisitions upon the Quartermaster at St. Louis for payment thereof.
``You will be especially careful to undertake no work beyond Little Piney unless you are thoroughly satisfied that you are acting within these instructions,