July 24, 1863
A jealous Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles complains about Secretary of State William H. Seward’s behavior: “This being Cabinet day, Mr. Seward spent an hour with the President, and when the rest came in, he immediately withdrew. Some inquiry was made in regard to army movements and Meade in particular, but no definite information was communicated. Meade is watching the enemy as fast as he can since he let them slip and get away from him.”
President Lincoln writes Postmaster General Montgomery Blair: “Yesterday little indorsements of mine went to you in two cases of Post-Masterships sought for widows whose husbands have fallen in the battles of this war. These cases occurring on the same day, brought me to reflect more attentively than I had before done, as to what is fairly due from us here, in the dispensing of patronage, towards the men who, by fighting our battles, bear the chief burthen of saving our country. My conclusion is that, other claims and qualifications being equal, they have the better right; and this is especially applicable to the disabled soldier, and the deceased soldier’s family.” One of those endorsements was probably that of the widow of Lieutenant Colonel Melancthon Smith, whose post as Rockford, Illinois postmaster had been filled by his wife during his military service and before his death at Vicksburg.
President Lincoln writes General Ambrose Burnside: ‘What, if anything further do you hear from John Morgan?” Burnside reported on the Confederate raider who had invaded Ohio: “One report places him with[in] ten miles of Cadiz Junction & the other between Antrim & Hendricsburg Shackleford close after him & we will try to have forces in his front whichever report is correct.”
Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War 
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