be, render aid to McClellan's campaign against Richmond.

The very day on which the President made this order proved to be the
crisis of McClellan's campaign. That was the day he had fixed upon for a
general advance; but so far from realizing this hope, it turned out,
also, to be the day on which General Lee began his attack on the Army of
the Potomac, which formed the beginning of the seven days' battles, and
changed McClellan's intended advance against Richmond to a retreat to
the James River. It was after midnight of the next day that McClellan
sent Stanton his despairing and insubordinate despatch indicating the
possibility of losing his entire army.

Upon the receipt of this alarming piece of news, President Lincoln
instantly took additional measures of safety. He sent a telegram to
General Burnside in North Carolina to come with all the reinforcements
he could spare to McClellan's help. Through the Secretary of War he
instructed General Halleck at Corinth to send twenty-five thousand
infantry to McClellan by way of Baltimore and Washington. His most
important action was to begin the formation of a new army. On the same
day he sent Secretary of State Seward to New York with a letter to be
confidentially shown to such of the governors of States as could be
hurriedly called together, setting forth his view of the present
condition of the war, and his own determination in regard to its
prosecution. After outlining the reverse at Richmond and the new
problems it created, the letter continued:

"What should be done is to hold what we have in the West, open the
Mississippi, and take Chattanooga and East Tennessee without more. A
reasonable force should in every event be kept about Washington for its
protection. Then let the country give us a hundred thousand new troops
in the shortest possible time, which, added to McClellan directly or
indirectly, will take Richmond without endangering any other place which
we now hold, and will substantially end the war. I expect to maintain
this contest until successful, or till I die, or am conquered, or my
term expires, or Congress or the country forsake me; and I would
publicly appeal to the country for this new force were it not that I
fear a general panic and stampede would follow, so hard it is to have a
thing understood as it really is."

Meanwhile, by the news of the victory of Malvern Hill and the secure
position to which McClellan had retired at Harrison's Landing, the
P