A. LINCOLN. [ [!-- H2 anchor --] ]
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL FRENCH. [Cipher] WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C.,
July 5, 1863.
MAJOR-GENERAL FRENCH, Fredericktown, Md.:
I see your despatch about destruction of pontoons. Cannot the enemy ford the river?
A. LINCOLN. [ [!-- H2 anchor --] ]
CONTINUED FAILURE TO PURSUE ENEMY
TELEGRAM TO GENERAL H. W. HALLECK.
SOLDIERS' HOME, WASHINGTON, JULY 6 1863.7 P.M., MAJOR-GENERAL HALLECK:
I left the telegraph office a good deal dissatisfied. You know I did not like the phrase—in Orders, No. 68, I believe—"Drive the invaders from our soil." Since that, I see a despatch from General French, saying the enemy is crossing his wounded over the river in flats, without saying why he does not stop it, or even intimating a thought that it ought to be stopped. Still later, another despatch from General Pleasonton, by direction of General Meade, to General French, stating that the main army is halted because it is believed the rebels are concentrating "on the road towards Hagerstown, beyond Fairfield," and is not to move until it is ascertained that the rebels intend to evacuate Cumberland Valley.