President Abraham Lincoln, in an Unpublished Letter Early in the Civil War, Seeks to Bolster the Nascent Army’s Ability to Cut Off the Confederate Supply and Rail Lines and Protect Washington

Also learn about President Lincoln’s letter: President Abraham Lincoln Expresses His Personal Concern for “our gallant and suffering soldiers”

This very letter asking McClellan to meet Ellet, at Lincoln’s request, was carried to the door of McClellan, who nonetheless refused to see him; thus snubbing both Ellet and the President

 

“You propose raising for the service of the U.S., a Civil Engineer Corps…I would be glad to accept one if approved by Gen. Scott, Gen. McClellan & Gen. Totten.”

 

This letter has been in the same private collection for at least a century; its content does not appear in Basler nor any other publication of Lincoln’s works we could identify

The Army Corps of Engineers during the Civil War was shaped by antebellum military sentiments against large peacetime armies. Instead, the nation relied heavily upon militias and volunteer forces if and when they were needed. The Corps of Engineers, a branch of the Army since Thomas Jefferson’s establishment of West Point in 1802, was continuously underfunded. Although needed to explore the frontiers, protect the borders, build and maintain infrastructure, and manage military education, engineers were few and promotions were slow. The nation benefitted in wartime from the small enclave’s abilities, tactical thinking, expertise in defensive positions, and understanding of topographical features. But when the Civil War broke out in April 1861, the Corps was plagued by small numbers, lack of funding, and the resignation of members to join state units or go South to serve the Confederacy. They were limited in what they could accomplish. Moreover, the corps’s Chief Engineer Joseph Totten short-sightedly chose not to accept engineers who had not graduated from West Point.

Charles Ellet Jr. was the greatest civil engineer in the United States during the Antebellum period. He is considered as the father of the modern suspension bridge; his first such bridge was built in 1842 over the Schuylkill River near Philadelphia when he was thirty-two years old. His second major wire suspension bridge was at Niagara Falls in 1848, and his third was over the Ohio River at Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1849. The Wheeling Bridge, which spanned 1,010 feet, was the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time. It paved the way for–and gave encouragement to–other U.S.-based engineers (like the Roeblings of Brooklyn Bridge fame). Although often singularly remembered for pioneering record-setting American bridges, Ellet’s engineering accomplishments were much broader. He also designed major canals and railroads, laid railroads over mountains, and planned vast projects of flood control and river navigation. He submitted to Congress the first comprehensive plan for controlling flooding along the Mississippi River using strategically located reservoirs and levees. He also conceived of the idea of using steam-powered battering-ram ships in naval battles, and wrote a pamphlet on it. Ellet’s biographer wrote that in his time, “Ellet was recognized by both friend and opponent as a true genius. He had an inordinate amount of imagination, originality, and creativity.” He is often compared to the famous English civil engineer Brunel.

When the Civil War broke out, Ellet offered his services to Lincoln and others, including his intimate knowledge of Virginia and its infrastructure. He advocated the use of steam-powered ram ships as defensive measures to protect northern harbors from Confederate ships and gunboats. But his aid and advice initially went unheeded. In August 1861, he wrote to President Lincoln to ask if he could raise a corps of civil engineers to make a survey of the terrain of the border states to help familiarize the army with them. This was more than the Army Corps of Engineers could do at that time. Ellet felt that Washington was vulnerable. Lincoln approved of the idea, but said it was ultimately up to McClellan and Gen. Winfield Scott. Lincoln gave Ellet a letter stating his approval, to be shown to McClellan, Scott, and Totten. McClellan, who had the ultimate say, refused even to see Ellet, despite his note from Lincoln. This was likely meant as much as a message to Lincoln from McClellan that he should stay out of military affairs, as a judgment on Ellet’s ideas.

Ellet then published a pamphlet criticizing McClellan, saying that he was too busy with parades to actually fight the war and that he never knew where the enemy was or what they were doing. These views were published in a pamphlet titled, “The Army of the Potomac and Its Mismanagement,” which was printed in the New York Times, and created quite a stir.

Autograph letter signed, Executive Mansion, Washington, August 19, 1861, to Ellet, being the original letter Lincoln gave to Ellet to take to McClellan. “You propose raising for the service of the U.S., a Civil Engineer Corps. I am not capable to judge of the value of such a corps; but I would be glad to accept one if approved by Gen. Scott, Gen. McClellan & Gen. Totten. Please see them and get their views upon it.”

On September 20, Ellet wrote Lincoln saying he had tried to communicate with McClellan but was snubbed and denied an audience. He noted his frustration that McClellan seemed to not appreciate his scheme to chart and disable rail infrastructure. Ellet said, “I called this morning at the residence of General McClellan, and endeavored to obtain an interview with him through the influence of your note requesting him to give me one. But the general was unwilling to communicate with me…My effort, I regret to report, was entirely unsatisfactory.” He went on to remind Lincoln of the necessity of such a corps.

Lincoln himself made occasional evening visits to McClellan’s house to discuss strategy, and was treated rudely. In a very famous incident of McClellan snubbing Lincoln, on November 13, less than two months after Ellet was snubbed and wrote a letter to Lincoln saying so, the President, Seward, and presidential secretary John Hay stopped by to see the general. McClellan was out, so the trio waited for his return. After an hour, McClellan came in and was told by a porter that the guests were waiting. McClellan headed for his room without a word, and only after Lincoln waited another half-hour was the group informed of McClellan’s retirement to bed. Hay felt that the president should have been greatly offended, but Lincoln replied that it was “better at this time not to be making points of etiquette and personal dignity.” Lincoln made no more visits to the general’s home. Thus did McClellan again thumb his nose at the President.

Ellet’s ram ship suggestions went unheeded by the Union Army until March 9, 1862. On that day, the Confederacy’s ironclad ram ship Merrimack virtually destroyed a fleet of Union boats at the Battle of Hampton Roads. The battle did more to elevate the logic of Ellet’s proposed ram ship plan than anything he said or could have said. Putting together a fleet of steam-powered battering-ram ships, overnight, became a Union Army emergency priority. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton was now convinced that if the North hoped to end the war sooner rather than later, it would have to cut off the Confederate source of trade and transportation. Key to this would be taking control of the Mississippi River, and a fleet of rams would be a crucial weapon in doing this. Stanton was convinced that no one was better suited to lead the mission—and rapidly produce such ships—than Ellet. The fifty-two-year-old civil engineer was quickly commissioned as a colonel in the Army and put in charge of the operation. In the Battle of Memphis, in 1862, two ram ships commanded by Col. Charles Ellet, Jr. engaged eight Confederate ironclads, sinking one, disabling and capturing three, and scattering the rest. Col. Ellet, who had taken a bullet in his leg, died two weeks later. His body was taken to Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and lay in state beneath the Liberty Bell.

This letter has been in a private collection for at least a century. There is no record of it having reached the market publicly before. Indeed it is does not appear in any published works, including Basler. Its existence is referenced in a privately printed work by a descendant of Ellet, though even here its content is not noted.