Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 7 [Nov. 5, 1863-Sept. 12, 1864].

About this Item

Title: Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 7 [Nov. 5, 1863-Sept. 12, 1864].
Author: Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865.
Publication: New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press; 1953.
Rights/Permissions: The University of Michigan Library provides access to these materials for educational and research purposes, with permission from their copyright holder. If you decide to use any of these materials, you are responsible for making your own legal assessment and securing any necessary permission.
Link to this Item: http://name.umdl.umich.edu/lincoln7
Cite this Item: "Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Volume 7 [Nov. 5, 1863-Sept. 12, 1864]." In the digital collection Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/lincoln7. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed April 26, 2025.

Pages

To Stephen A. Hurlbut1Jump to section

Major General Hurlbut. Executive Mansion
My Dear Sir. Washington May 2d. 1864

Gen Farnsworth has just been reading to me from your letter to him of the 26th. ult. I snatch a moment to say that my friendship and confidence for you remains unabated, but that Gen's Grant & Thomas2Jump to section cannot be held to their just responsibilities. if they are not allowed to control in the class of cases to which yours belongs.

From one stand point a court of Inquiry is most just, but if your case were my own, I would not allow Gen's Grant and Sherman [to] be diverted by it just now. Yours Truly A. LINCOLN

Annotation

[1] Copy, DLC-RTL. General John F. Farnsworth, who had resigned his commission on March 4, 1863, to take up his duties as congressman, was pressing Hurlbut's demand for a court of inquiry. On April 16, 1864, General Sherman telegraphed Hurlbut: ``There has been marked timidity in the management of affairs since Forrest passed north of Memphis. General Grant orders me to relieve you. You will proceed to Cairo and take command there.'' (OR, I, XXXII, III, 381).

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Page 328

On April 18 Hurlbut replied: ``Portions of your telegram are of such a nature as justify and, in fact, require that I should demand a court of inquiry, where all the facts and circumstances may be developed, and your charge of `marked timidity' be proven or disproven. When that shall have been done, and the responsibility of the late disasters fixed upon the proper parties, I shall do myself the justice of tendering to the President . . . my resignation of a commission which cannot be advantageously held by me in subordination to officers who entertain and express the opinions contained in your dispatch.'' (Ibid., p. 405).

Also on April 18 Hurlbut wrote Stanton requesting a court of inquiry and enclosing Sherman's telegram. On April 30 Halleck communicated the request to Grant, and on May 2 Grant declined to order a court of inquiry (ibid., pp. 405-406).

[2] George H. Thomas, in command at Nashville, Tennessee.