Selected Correspondance of Abraham Lincoln 1863 Telegram To General W. S. Rosecrans
by Abraham Lincoln
WAR DEPARTMENT, October 4, 1863. 11.30 A.M.
MAJOR-GENERAL ROSECRANS, Chattanooga, Tenn.:
Yours of yesterday received. If we can hold Chattanooga and East
Tennessee, I think the rebellion must dwindle and die. I think you
and Burnside can do this, and hence doing so is your main object. Of
course to greatly damage or destroy the enemy in your front would be
a greater object, because it would include the former and more, but
it is not so certainly within your power. I understand the main body
of the enemy is very near you, so near that you could "board at
home," so to speak, and menace or attack him any day. Would not the
doing of this be your best mode of counteracting his raid on your
communications? But this is not an order. I intend doing something
like what you suggest whenever the case shall appear ripe enough to
have it accepted in the true understanding rather than as a
confession of weakness and fear.
