SUMNER'S "RIGHT GRAND DIVISION."**
BY DARIUS N. COUCH, MAJOR-GENERAL, U. S. V.PIC 105/1
HOT WORK FOR HAZARD'S BATTERY. SEE P. 115.

ON the evening of October 15th, 1862, a few days after McClellan had placed me in command of the Second Corps, then at Harper's Ferry, the commanding general sent an order for Hancock to take his division the next morning on a reconnoissance toward Charlestown, about ten miles distant. The division started in good season, as directed. About 10 in the morning General McClellan reined up at my headquarters and asked me to go out with him to see what the troops were doing. Our people had met the enemy's outpost five miles from the Ferry, and while artillery shots were being exchanged, both of us dismounted, walked away by ourselves, and took seats on a ledge of rocks. After a little while McClellan sent to an aide for a map of Virginia. Spreading it before us, he pointed to the strategic features of the valley of the Shenandoah, and indicated the movements he intended to make, which would have the effect of compelling Lee to concentrate in the vicinity, I think, of Gordonsville or Charlottesville, where a great battle would be fought. Continuing the conversation, he said, "But I may not have command of the army much longer. Lincoln is down on me," and, taking a paper from his pocket, he gave me my first intimation of the President's famous letter.#

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**It is due to General Couch to state that, with limited time in which to prepare this paper, he dictated it to a stenographer in answer to questions by the editors bearing chiefly on his personal recollections.--EDITORS.

#Lincoln's letter is dated October 13th, 1862, and begins: "MY DEAR SIR,--You remember my speaking to you of what I called your over-cautiousness. Are you not over-cautions when you assume that you cannot do what the enemy is constantly doing? Should you not claim to be at least his equal in prowess, an act upon the claim?" Further on the President says: "Change positions with the enemy, and think you not he would break your communication with Richmond within the next twenty-four hours? You dread his going into Pennsylvania; but if he does so in full force, he gives up his communication to you absolutely, and you have nothing to do but to follow and ruin him. . . . Exclusive of the water-line, you are now nearer Richmond than the enemy is, by the route that you can and he must take." And in conclusion: "It is all easy if our trops march as well as the enemy, and it is unmanly to say they cannot do it. This letter is in no sense an order."
In his "Life of Abraham Lincoln" (Chicago: Jansen, McClurg & Company) Isaac N. Arnold makes President Lincoln say: "With all his failings as a soldier, McClellan is a pleasant and scholarly gentleman. He is an admirable engineer, but he seems to have a special talent for a stationary engine."--EDITORS.

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