Annotation
[1] ALS, NN. See Lincoln's endorsement to Sigel, January 26, supra. On February 5, General Hooker broke up the Grand Division organization of the Army of the Potomac and assigned Sigel to command of the Eleventh Corps. On February 12, Sigel wrote Joseph Dickinson, assistant adjutant general, Army of the Potomac, ``I beg leave respectfully to represent that the reduction of my command in the Army of the Potomac makes it exceedingly unpleasant . . . to remain longer in my present command, and therefore request that I be immediately relieved from my command. . . .'' On February 19, Lincoln directed Stanton to telegraph Hooker that the president ``has given General Sigel as good a command as he can, and desires him to do the best he can with it.'' (OR, I, XXV, II, 71). Sigel insisted, however, ``Either, that I be relieved from my command, or that my resignation be accepted, as my present position and relations . . . are so unsatisfactory and dispiriting to me, that it would be in the highest degree unpleasant for me to continue in command of my Corps.'' (Sigel to Stanton, March 11, 1863, DLC-RTL). Later Sigel took a subordinate command in the Department of the Susquehanna.