IT LENGTHENED THE WAR.
President Lincoln said, long before the National political campaign of 1864 had opened:
“If the unworthy ambition of politicians and the jealousy that exists in the army could be repressed, and all unite in a common aim and a common endeavor, the rebellion would soon be crushed.”
HIS THEORY OF THE REBELLION.
The President once explained to a friend the theory of the Rebellion by the aid of the maps before him.
Running his long fore-finger down the map, he stopped at Virginia.
“We must drive them away from here” (Manassas Gap), he said, “and clear them out of this part of the State so that they cannot threaten us here (Washington) and get into Maryland.