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To Henry W. Halleck1Jump to section
Hallecks head Quarters Corinth--- June 4, 1862.
Your despatch of to-day to Sec. of War received. Thanks for the good news it brings. Have you anything from Memphis or other parts of the Mississippi river? Please answer.
A. LINCOLN.
Annotation
[1] ALS, RPB. ``Hallecks Head Quarters Corinth'' is not in Lincoln's handwriting. Halleck had telegraphed Stanton on June 4 that General John Pope was thirty miles south of Corinth and ``already reports 10,000 prisoners and deserters. . . and 15,000 stand of arms captured.'' (OR, I, X, I, 669). Pope later denied ever having made such a report (OR, I, X, II, 635), but Halleck maintained that he had telegraphed ``the exact language of General Pope. If it was erroneous, the responsibility is his, not mine.'' (OR, I, X, I, 671). On June 5 Halleck telegraphed that ``A dispatch from Grand Junction says it was reported there that Memphis was evacuated on Saturday I have nothing to confirm the report & can hear nothing of the flotilla in the Mississippi River.'' (DLC-RTL).