“...[McClellan] has had a hard time..."

MARY BANKS (WIFE OF GENERAL NATHAN BANKS) ON MCCLELLAN, BANKS, AND MCDOWELL IN SPRING 1862

Autograph letter signed by Mary Palmer Banks (1819–1901) to her husband, General Nathaniel Banks (1816–1894), governor of Massachusetts, Speaker of the House, and Union general during the Civil War. New York City, New York, 12 May 1862. 3 pages on a single folded sheet, 6 x 3 3/4 in., with embossed stamp of Holyoke Co. at upper left.

Mary begins by sharing news of their children and then reports that she has been reading about him, General George McClellan, and General Irvin McDowell in the newspapers. She also expresses her opinion of the difficulties McClellan had recently faced: “He has had a hard time but it takes very little to change our people, they are like children, they are rather weak.”

The newspapers Mary Banks read that spring were reporting on the progress of the Peninsula Campaign, particularly the advances of Generals Banks, McClellan, and McDowell toward the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia. Pressured by the president, politicians, and the public alike to mount an offensive and capture the city, Union commanders mobilized their forces in May 1862. Banks, then in command of the Department of the Shenandoah, was tasked with protecting Washington and securing the Shenandoah Valley in order to prevent Confederate forces from reinforcing their capital. McDowell, who had been demoted after a series of tactical failures, was restored to command of a corps attached to McClellan’s army, which had been transported en masse down the Chesapeake to Fort Monroe in preparation for the advance. Despite commanding overwhelming numerical superiority (Federal troops outnumbered Confederate forces by roughly four to one) McClellan chose to begin a siege rather than launch a direct attack on 5 April 1862.

As Mary Banks observed, this decision proved unpopular, particularly with President Lincoln, who chose to hold back McDowell’s corps in order to further protect Washington, D.C. Nevertheless, McClellan continued his advance and began crossing the Chickahominy River in mid-May. The Confederates began evacuating Richmond, but rather than press forward, McClellan paused to request reinforcements from Washington. He viewed Lincoln’s withholding of McDowell’s corps as punitive and wanted the additional men before attempting to seize the city. Unfortunately for the Union cause, this pause gave the Confederates time to regroup and recover the initiative, leading to the brutal Seven Days Battles. Banks and his forces were called upon to support McClellan, but were checked by Stonewall Jackson at Front Royal and Winchester and ultimately forced to retreat. Although McClellan’s army wounded Confederate commander Joseph E. Johnston, it proved no match for his replacement, Robert E. Lee, who upended Union plans and drove the Federals from the Peninsula.

All three generals referenced in the letter survived the campaign, but each suffered politically as well as militarily, Banks perhaps most notably. He was relieved of his command and reassigned to the Department of the Gulf, where his later service was likewise marred by setbacks, including the Red River Campaign. Mary Banks, for her part, visited her husband whenever possible during his military service and later traveled to New Orleans, where she hosted lavish dinners and staged concerts and theatrical performances for Union soldiers and their families.

[Abraham Lincoln, Politics, Mary Todd Lincoln, 1860 Election, Election of 1860, 1864 Election, Election of 1864] [Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs]