Lost Lincoln Note

[Gil R.]

No one's mentioned this news item yet:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3255872&page=1

[Ironclad]

Another script perhaps?

[dude]

I read it this morning in the Washington Post...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/07/AR2007060701240.html?hpid%3Dmoreheadlines&sub=AR
 
 
interesting article... what I found more interesting was the letter Lincoln wrote to Meade that was very critical of him but that he never sent it....
 
From the Post article:

"My dear general, I do not believe you appreciate the magnitude of the misfortune involved in Lee's escape. He was within your easy grasp, and to have closed upon him would, in connection with our other late successes, have ended the war.
"As it is, the war will be prolonged indefinitely," Lincoln wrote. "Your golden opportunity is gone, and I am distressed immeasureably because of it."
It was one of the harshest letters Lincoln wrote during the war. And he never sent it.
Instead, he wrote on the envelope: "To Gen. Meade, never sent, or signed."
 

[sirduke_slith]

just to let people know that in the article it said the war ended with the surrender of ANV, but it didn't two confederate armies still were in play and still some battles were to come.

[Jam_USMC]

ORIGINAL: dude

I read it this morning in the Washington Post...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/07/AR2007060701240.html?hpid%3Dmoreheadlines&sub=AR


interesting article... what I found more interesting was the letter Lincoln wrote to Meade that was very critical of him but that he never sent it....

From the Post article:

"My dear general, I do not believe you appreciate the magnitude of the misfortune involved in Lee's escape. He was within your easy grasp, and to have closed upon him would, in connection with our other late successes, have ended the war.
"As it is, the war will be prolonged indefinitely," Lincoln wrote. "Your golden opportunity is gone, and I am distressed immeasureably because of it."
It was one of the harshest letters Lincoln wrote during the war. And he never sent it.
Instead, he wrote on the envelope: "To Gen. Meade, never sent, or signed."

Lincoln wrote letters to people all the time that he would never send out. It's beleived that he never meant to send them out in the first place, but instead just wrote them as a way of releiveing stress, just venting, we would say today. It helped him to "say it" on paper and then he would feel better about the whole situation and could then move on to the next problem. If you imagine being in his place, he had all these problems piled on him and really no one to talk with about them. Who else would understand what he was going through?

Jam

[dude]

ORIGINAL: Jam_USMC

ORIGINAL: dude

I read it this morning in the Washington Post...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/07/AR2007060701240.html?hpid%3Dmoreheadlines&sub=AR


interesting article... what I found more interesting was the letter Lincoln wrote to Meade that was very critical of him but that he never sent it....

From the Post article:

"My dear general, I do not believe you appreciate the magnitude of the misfortune involved in Lee's escape. He was within your easy grasp, and to have closed upon him would, in connection with our other late successes, have ended the war.
"As it is, the war will be prolonged indefinitely," Lincoln wrote. "Your golden opportunity is gone, and I am distressed immeasureably because of it."
It was one of the harshest letters Lincoln wrote during the war. And he never sent it.
Instead, he wrote on the envelope: "To Gen. Meade, never sent, or signed."

Lincoln wrote letters to people all the time that he would never send out. It's beleived that he never meant to send them out in the first place, but instead just wrote them as a way of releiveing stress, just venting, we would say today. It helped him to "say it" on paper and then he would feel better about the whole situation and could then move on to the next problem. If you imagine being in his place, he had all these problems piled on him and really no one to talk with about them. Who else would understand what he was going through?

Jam

... the funny thing is I do this all the time at the office (that's why I found Lincoln's so interesting)... when something goes awry I'll jot down an email... then think better of it and save it and not send it. Just hope no one evey finds my little folder of "venting"... (on a rare occasions I've gone as far as letting my boss review it before deciding what to do with it... I always seem to get the "uh... perhaps we should remove this section" comment from her.... )

[General Quarters]

Therapists actually recommend this practice.

But you have to be careful with emails. Twice someone has sent me emails, in each case an acquaintance who was looking for a job, which I forwarded to a colleague with my own candid comments -- or so I thought. In fact, I had sent it back to the person I was commenting on. In one case, I had said very nice things, so that was a winner. The other case was a very sweet fellow who, alas, was not very good at his job, so it was both embarrassing to me and a shame a good guy had to read such a harsh assessment. So watch out!

[dude]

.... that's why I have the practice of not "replying" but starting fresh with no names in the "to" fields until I'm done.  If I need the original email I cut and paste it into the new one.  But I always try and make sure the send to fields are blank until I'm done.

[LMUBill]

And a really ironic thing along this line is the telegraph that McClellan sent where he DIDN'T think twice about what he said and basically accused Lincoln and the government of treason for not supporting the AoP (during the Peninsula Campaign).   McClellan sent it trying to get a response but notihng ever happened, which made him really turn sour against the Lincoln Administration.  The reason why nothing happened?  The telegraph person at the War Department erased that line because it would upset the President.  I wonder what would have happened if that sentence had been left in?  [:D]

[Gil R.]

Just think of all the posts I've written for this forum that I erased instead of posting!

By the way, the longer of the two Lincoln letters -- the one to Meade -- will be in the next update of the load-screen flavor text file.

[Drex]

Or the reverse, all the times I posted when I should have kept my mouth shut.[:o]

[dude]

ORIGINAL: Drex

Or the reverse, all the times I posted when I should have kept my mouth shut.[:o]

Ditto.. remind me not to compare Grant and Lee again... [X(]