Good Morning, General Scott

In which McClellan and Scott are no longer friends

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We all have priorities, and mine tonight was watching the Redskins and the Cowboys embarrass professional football. So I give you all only a short post today, with little commentary about a Cabinet meeting held on September 27, 1861, nominally to discuss strategy with the North's top two generals. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Wells noted in his diary that it was an "unpleasant interview" in which Scott harangued McClellan for circumventing him and speaking directly to the Cabinet while ignoring all requests for information.

As an offering to you for having wasted my own time, here is McClellan's account of the ordeal to Mary Ellen in his nightly letter.

He [the President] sent a carriage for me to meet him & the Cabinet at Genl Scott's office. Before we got through the General "raised a row with me." I kept cool, looked him square in the face, & rather I think got the advantage of him. In the course of the conversation he very strongly intimated that we were no longer friends. I said nothing, merely looked at him & bowed assent. He tried to avoid me when we left, but I walked square up to him, looked him fully in the eye, extended my hand & said "Good Morning, General Scott." He had to take my hand, & so we parted. As he threw down the glove & I took it up, I presume war is declared--so be it. I do not fear him. I have one strong point: that I do not care one iota for my present position.

Print Source:

• Sears, 100-101.