Lincoln Letter: "A Significant Find"

The National Archives unveiled on Thursday a handwritten note by Abraham Lincoln exhorting his generals to pursue Robert E. Lee's Confederate army after the battle of Gettysburg, underscoring one of the great missed opportunities for an early end to the Civil War.

Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein describes the letter as "a significant find," reports CBS News correspondent Peter Maer.

Gettysburg, a town in southern Pennsylvania, marked the farthest northward penetration by the rebellious southern army in the 1861-65 war, which ended slavery in the United States. During three days of fighting July 1-3, 1863, the Confederates suffered 28,063 dead, injured or missing and the U.S. side 23,047.

An archives Civil War specialist discovered the July 7, 1863, note from President Lincoln three weeks ago in a batch of military papers stored among the billions of pages of historical documents at the mammoth building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington.

The text of Lincoln's note has been known because the general to whom Lincoln addressed it telegraphed the contents verbatim to the front lines at Gettysburg. There, the Union army's leaders failed for more than a week to pursue Lee aggressively after his defeat.

A week after Lincoln's note, the Confederate army slipped across the Potomac River into Virginia, and the war continued for two more years.

Although Gen. George Meade led the Northern troops in the battle at Gettysburg that marked the turning point of the war, he has always been faulted for not closing in and destroying Lee's army.

At a news conference, archivist Trevor Plante said he was looking for something else last month when he found Lincoln's note tucked away in a drawer among other papers. His reaction was "wow" when he recognized the handwriting and Lincoln's signature.

[cfin5]

Actually, several of you guys are correct. The north did not recognised the Confederate States of America just like England did not recognise the United States during the revolutionary war. Example; January 1, 1863.....President Abraham Lincoln issues Final Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves in states rebelling against the Union "forever free". Don't forget Abe was a lawyer by trade and I'm sure that he understood his proclamation was not arrogant propaganda (according to the Union that is)......What part of the southern states cessation from the Union, which was voted on by them to do so, did'nt the Union understand?

[jdweymouth]

There were two sides to the Civil War. The North did not recognize the South as a sovereign nation, but there is no denying the two sides. If you deny it, how do you explain the 1,000,000 casualties caused by the war, hmmm?

The reason slavery got so much publicity was because the issue was that the southern states said that they had the right to abolish or preserve it; not the federal government. Whereas, the federal government said the opposite. The issue was state's rights; not slavery, per se.

[jimkun]

Fartknocker2 = Typical intelligence of the type of people who support Bush. And like Bush, why let facts get in the way. No wonder Bush has 70% approval rating among Republicans.

Per wikipedia: "The Union government never declared war but conducted its war efforts under a proclamation of blockade and rebellion."

[rillifane]

Slavery was THE issue that caused the Confederate States to secede as they themselves said at the time. It is utterly absurd to suggest that anything else was the cause.

People who have the temerity to criticize others for an alleged lack of knowledge of history ought to consider doing a bit of research before spreading that silly "it wasn't about slavery" line.

It is contradicted by the official declaration of causes published by several Confederate states at the time and confirmed by every written record, recollection and memoir of the events put forth by the people who were there.

[bareemperor]

Now we need to find the letter from D!ck Cheney to Controlled Demolition, Inc...

[bobgee_1999]

FARTKNOCKER2: Except, of course, that Lincoln was a Republican. And regardless of whether or not the Confederate States had officially left the Union, they were certainly engaging in armed insurrection. Further, the article is not wrong, as it nowhere states anything about official recognition of the CSA, one way of another.

[nsri1982]

Please post a comment with a little intelligence of American history. They were in fact a nation on the verge of gaining diplomatic recognition from Europe until Antietam. Also, slavery was the second reason for the war after unification. Also, the war was indirectly caused by slavery hence the decade of the 1850s. Please be intelligent when posting.

[cfin5]

Part of page 5 of the letter descibes the situation to why I believe the confederates were not pursude.......our guns of Batty A were still on the field where they were left the evening of the 3rd. day after the famous charge of Gen. Pickets Infantry. I with the rest was on that field for 5 days without much to eat just laying around our guns just watching the enemy. And not in any shape to attack them as we were in about as bad a shape as they were. We rode off that ridge and left our comrades a lying over that ground and one of our men left his brother laying there dead. A man that never seen a big battle has no idea of what it looks like to see 50,000 men and more horses a lying over the ground for 2 or 3 miles and lots of them had been a lying there for 3 days and that within 50 miles of Washington D.C., Haridsburg, Philadelphia and Baltimore and the dead men and horses swelled up to bursting and their legs sticking up. I tell everyone that war is Hell. I had the hardest time of my life for the 5 days on that Battle field for strain on my nerves.......

[cfin5]

reaper221.....Your not kidding they had the best Generals. My two grandfathers were from Tennessee and Kansas.....I found the letter and will post it as verbatim as I can read his handwriting if you would like.

[gunnerone2]

My ancestors also fought in that battle. History has shown that the Confederacy had the best generals and Meads failure to follow up on the battle supports that. My ancestors were on the Confederate side of the battle and there were many issues that caused the South to succeed. Slavery was not the most important one. The North won due to superior transportation and manufacturing ability.