On October 25, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln sent Major General George B. McClellan a brief telegram that captured his mounting frustration with the Army of the Potomac’s delayed advance. More than a month after Antietam, Lincoln wanted McClellan to move against Robert E. Lee’s army in Virginia. McClellan continued to report obstacles to an advance, including the condition of his cavalry horses.
The immediate occasion was a report McClellan forwarded describing horses suffering from sore tongues, exhaustion, and other ailments. Lincoln answered with a cutting question:
“I have just read your despatch about sore tongued and fatigued horses. Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that fatigue anything?”
McClellan took offense and replied with a detailed account of his cavalry’s work. His defense addressed the horses’ exertions, but Lincoln’s criticism concerned the army’s broader failure to advance. The exchange exposed the widening gap between a commander explaining his operational difficulties and a president demanding results.
McClellan began moving his army across the Potomac on October 26. Nevertheless, on November 5, Lincoln ordered him relieved of command of the Army of the Potomac and replaced him with Major General Ambrose E. Burnside. The telegram did not itself remove McClellan; it vividly expressed the frustration that preceded his dismissal.
Its force lies in the contrast between the courteous opening—“Will you pardon me for asking”—and the accusation underneath. In two sentences, Lincoln turned a report about exhausted horses into a pointed challenge to his general’s conduct of the war.
