On raising troops and holding an election in Tennessee - photo 1

On raising troops and holding an election in Tennessee

Lot 148
17.01.2024 11:00UTC -05:00
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$ 60 480
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
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ID 1119191
Lot 148 | On raising troops and holding an election in Tennessee
Estimate value
$ 50 000 – 80 000
On raising troops and holding an election in Tennessee

Abraham Lincoln, 3 July 1862

LINCOLN, Abraham (1809-1865). Autograph letter signed as President ("A. Lincoln") to Andrew Johnson, Washington, 3 July 1862.



One page, bifolium, 252 x 198mm, on lined stationery bearing a blind stamp of the Capitol at top left (a few spots of soiling, else very clean and bright).



Lincoln beseeches Andrew Johnson for additional troops from Tennessee and floats the idea of a plebiscite for the state, writing that if the vote was in favor of the Union, "it would be worth more to us than a battle gained." A remarkable letter from Lincoln during the summer of 1862 as he was attempting to raise an additional 300,000 new troops for the Union: "You are aware we have called for a big levy of new troops. If we can get a fair share of them in Tennessee I shall value it more highly than a like number most anywhere else, because of the face of the thing, and because they will be at the very place that needs protection. Please do what you can, and do it quickly. Time is everything." Although Tennessee formerly voted to secede from the Union, much of the eastern portion of the state was Unionist. Johnson, who also hailed from the east of the state, campaigned in the Senate to keep Tennessee in the Union in the spring of 1861. Once the state voted to leave the Union in June, Johnson, fearing for his life, left the state and returned to Washington and became the only member of a seceded state to sit in the Senate—a position that brought him close to Lincoln. In March 1862 Lincoln appointed him military governor of the state—and for much of 1862 and 1863, Tennessee was a continual battle ground. On 10 July, Johnson replied by telegraph to Lincoln that the "number of troops suggested can and will be raised in Tennessee…" (Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress, Series 1. General Correspondence).



Lincoln then moved to the subject of an election: "A word on another subject. If we could, somehow, get a vote of the people of Tennessee and have it result properly it would be worth more to us than a battle gained. How long before we can get such a vote?" To this, Johnson replied in the same telegram: "As to an expression of public opinion as soon as the rebel army can be expelled from East Tennessee there can & will be an expression of public opinion that will surprise you but I am constrained to say one thing as I said to you repeatedly in the fall Genl. Buell is not the man to redeem East Tennessee." (Ibid.) Johnson was referring to Don Carlos Buell who would be relieved of his command of the Army of the Ohio in October after he allowed a far smaller force of Confederates to escape after the Battle of Perryville (8 October). Published in Basler, Collected Works, Vol. 5, pp. 302-303 (quoted from Emmanuel Hertz, Abraham Lincoln, a New Portrait. 871-72). Provenance: A. T. White (penciled initials on verso).

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