Part 113

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL FOSTER.

WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, August 28, 1863.

MAJOR-GENERAL FOSTER, Fort Monroe, Va.:

Please notify, if you can, Senator Bowden, Mr. Segar, and Mr. Chandler, all or any of them, that I now have the record in Dr. Wright's case, and am ready to hear them. When you shall have got the notice to them, please let me know.

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO GENERAL CRAWFORD.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C., August 28, 1863.

GENERAL CRAWFORD, Rappahannock Station, Va.:

I regret that I cannot be present to witness the presentation of a sword by the gallant Pennsylvania Reserve Corps to one so worthy to receive it as General Meade.

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO L. SWETT.

WASHINGTON, D. C., August 29, 1863.

HON. L. SWETT, San Francisco, Cal.: If the Government's rights are reserved, the Government will be satisfied, and at all events it will consider.

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO MRS. LINCOLN.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, D. C. August 29, 1863.

MRS. A. LINCOLN, Manchester, N. H.:

All quite well. Fort Sumter is certainly battered down and utterly useless to the enemy, and it is believed here, but not entirely certain, that both Sumter and Fort Wagner are occupied by our forces. It is also certain that General Gilmore has thrown some shot into the city of Charleston.

A. LINCOLN.

TELEGRAM TO J. C. CONKLING.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON,

August 31, 1863.

HON. JAMES C. CONKLING, Springfield, Ill.:

In my letter of the 26th insert between the sentence ending "since the issue of the Emancipation Proclamation as before" and the next, commencing "You say you will not fight, etc.," what follows below my signature hereto.

A. LINCOLN.

"I know as fully as one can know the opinions of others that some of the commanders of our armies in the field, who have given us our most important successes, believe the emancipation policy and the use of colored troops constitute the heaviest blow yet dealt to the rebellion, and that at least one of those important successes could not have been achieved when it was, but for the aid of black soldiers. Among the commanders holding these views are some who have never had any affinity with what is called abolitionism, or with Republican party politics, but who hold them purely as military opinions. I submit these opinions as being entitled to some weight against the objections, often urged, that emancipation and arming the blacks are unwise as military measures and were not adopted as such in good faith."

TO GENERAL W. S. ROSECRANS.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, August 31, 1863.