GDG- Lincoln's poem (Dennis Lawrence contributed)

[MICHAEL DAVIDSON]

Thank you for putting up the Lincoln poem.  I suspect that even in doggerel, Lincoln was deep.  The timing is right, Lee having escaped and Lincoln fuming at Meade, for Lincoln to "blow some steam" with a sarcastic verse.  The verse may reflect Lincoln's anguish over Meade's attitude, yet another general who didn't understand Lee's army, not cities, was the objective, more than any notion that Lee's whole purpose was to "sack Phil-del."
   
  It seems to me to reprise the theme that was causing Lincoln "such deep distress" as in the letter penned to Meade on the 14th, never sent:
   
   http://www.civilwarhome.com/lincolnmeadeletter.htm   Executive Mansion, 
Washington, July 14, 1863. 
  Major General Meade 
          I have just seen your despatch to Gen. Halleck, asking to be relieved of your command, because of a supposed censure of mine. I am very--very--grateful to you for the magnificent success you gave the cause of the country at Gettysburg; and I am sorry now to be the author of the slightest pain to you. But I was in such deep distress myself that I could not restrain some expression of it. I had been oppressed nearly ever since the battles at Gettysburg, by what appeared to be evidences that yourself, and Gen. Couch, and Gen. Smith, were not seeking a collision with the enemy, but were trying to get him across the river without another battle. What these evidences were, if you please, I hope to tell you at some time, when we shall both feel better. The case, summarily stated is this. You fought and beat the enemy at Gettysburg; and, of course, to say the least, his loss was as great as yours. He retreated; and you did not, as it seemed to me, pressingly pursue him;
 but a flood in the river detained him, till, by slow degrees, you were again upon him. You had at least twenty thousand veteran troops directly with you, and as many more raw ones within supporting distance, all in addition to those who fought with you at Gettysburg; while it was not possible that he had received a single recruit; and yet you stood and let the flood run down, bridges be built, and the enemy move away at his leisure, without attacking him. And Couch and Smith! The latter left Carlisle in time, upon all ordinary calculation, to have aided you in the last battle at Gettysburg; but he did not arrive. At the end of more than ten days, I believe twelve, under constant urging, he reached Hagerstown from Carlisle, which is not an inch over fifty-five miles, if so much. And Couch's movement was very little different. 
        Again, my dear general, I do not believe you appreciate the magnitude of the misfortune involved in Lee's escape. He was within your easy grasp, and to have closed upon him would, in connection with our other late successes, have ended the war. As it is, the war will be prolonged indefinitely. If you could not safely attack Lee last Monday, how can you possibly do so South of the river, when you can take with you very few more than two thirds of the force you then had in hand? It would be unreasonable to expect, and I do not expect you can now effect much. Your golden opportunity is gone, and I am distressed immeasurably because of it. 
        I beg you will not consider this a prosecution, or persecution of yourself As you had learned that I was dissatisfied, I have thought it best to kindly tell you why. Abraham Lincoln
  Source: "The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln" edited by Roy P. Baster
   
  >> end citation from http://www.civilwarhome.com/lincolnmeadeletter.htm
   

  Message: 4
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 09:40:13 -0600
From: Dennis Lawrence <denlaw at fone.net>
Subject: Re: GDG- Titans and...
To: GDG <gettysburg at arthes.com>
Message-ID: <6.0.0.22.2.20070811093743.0509d8c0 at pop3.fone.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"; format=flowed

I know he is not a common soldier, but I have always been amazed by 
Lincoln's bit of  doggerel.  Does his assumption that the rebels were
going 
to sack Philadelphia match what  the Union  thought that time?  Is that

what Lee's goal was?

>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Lee's Invasion of the North

Gen. Lees invasion of the North written by himself&shy;

  In eighteen sixty three, with pomp,
   and mighty swell,
   Me and Jeff's Confederacy, went
    forth to sack Phil-del,
    The Yankees the got arter us, and
    giv us particular hell,
    and we skedaddled back again,
    And didn't sack Phil-del.

A. Lincoln, July 19, 1863