To William S. Rosecrans1Jump to section
Major General Rosecrans Washington, March 10, 1864.
Please carefully examine and consider the question whether, on the whole, it would be advantageous to our Military operations for the United States to furnish iron for completing the South-West-Branch of the Pacific Railroad all, or any part of the way from Rolla to Springfield, Missouri, so fast as the Company shall do all the other work for the completion, and to receive pay for said iron in transportation upon said newly made part of said road--- and if your opinion shall be in the affirmative, make a contract with the company to that effect, subject to my approval or rejection. In any event report the main facts together with your reasoning, to me. Yours truly A. LINCOLN
Annotation
[1] ALS (ADfS?), DLC-RTL. See Lincoln to Rosecrans, March 4, supra. On September 15, 1864, Rosecrans submitted his report, enclosing the agreement made at St. Louis on July 26, between the Pacific Railroad (by its president, George R. Taylor) and the United States (by Colonel William Myers, assistant quartermaster, acting under Rosecrans' order), which followed Lincoln's instructions of March 10. Exhibit P of the Report is a letter from Bates to Rosecrans, March 19, 1864:
``I venture to address you touching a matter of great importance which has been committed to your discretionary judgment, by a special order of the President. . . . I shall not trouble you. . . with any detailed. . . facts, nor any prolonged argument. . . because my friend, Mr Gibson who will hand you this, is fully possessed of the subject, and has. . . all needful documents. . . I desire however to say that, long ago (perhaps two years---& ever since) I urged upon the government here, the immediate completion of that road, as a military necessity, and as a measure of great and obvious economy, in money, time, and actual force necessary, not only to the defence of that frontier, but also to the reestablishment of the national authority, still farther south and west. In my judgment, the same necessity and the same motives of economy still exist. . . .
``The measure, if now adopted and promptly acted upon, will, I think, yield immediate fruits---1. It will stranguilize Missouri into order & peace: 2. It will deter the enemy from any attempt, even by guerrillas, to continue the war in S.W. Mo. and N.W. Arkansas: 3. It will set free a large force, now required to guard that region, either to serve in other fields, where the enemy is still in force, or to return to agriculture. . . .
``I know that the President heretofore was favorable to the measure, and I am fully convinced that he believes, with me, now, that if it had been then