Chandler: Back to Bull Run - and beyond!
A couple days ago we saw George B. McClellan requesting “forbearance, patience and confidence”. Some northern politicians weren’t that patient and were letting the Lincoln administration know it.
From the Richmond Daily Dispatch November 5, 1861:
The outside Pressure upon Gen. M’Clellan.
The Washington correspondent of the New York Tribune, says:
Senator Chandler of Michigan, Ben Wade of Ohio, Trumbull of Illinois, and Wilkinson of Minnesota, are here, representing to the Administration that the popular demand of their constituents is, that General McClellan or somebody else shall right off whip the Confederates on the south-side of the Potomac in a pitched battle, and as near Bull Run as is possible, and from thence roll the tide of war steadily southward till it meets the waters of the Gulf.
Zachariah Chandler was a U.S. senator from Michigan. He was a strong abolitionist and supported the Underground Railroad in Detroit. He is known for a letter he wrote to Michigan Governor Austin Blair on February 11, 1861, in which Chandler stated:
“P.S.-Some of the manufacturing States think that a fight would be awful. Without a little bloodletting, this Union will not, in my estimation, be worth a rush.”
Along with Benjamin Wade and Lyman Trumbull Chandler took one one of the carriage rides out to witness First Bull Run. They got a bloodletting as the Confederates routed the Union and almost captured Chandler’s party.
Lyman Trumbull
Benjamin Wade
