August 11, 1862 (Tuesday): Pleasonton's Bold Proposal

General Alred Pleasonton

HAXALL'S, August 11, 1862.
General R. B. MARCY,
Chief of Staff:
    GENERAL: Your note of this date received.* There are moments when the most decided action is necessary to save us from great disasters. I think such a moment has arrived.
The enemy before us is weak. A crushing blow by this army at this time would be invaluable to disconcert the troops of the enemy to the north of us. That blow can be made in forty-eight hours. Two corps would do it, and be in position to go wherever else they may be ordered by that time.
    From all I can learn there are not 36,000 men between this and Richmond, nor do I believe they [can] get more before we can whip them. I have guides ready, and know the roads sufficiently well to accomplish anything the general wants.
    I write this as a friend. I shall willingly carry out the general's orders, be they what they may, but I think he has an opportunity at this time few men ever attain.
    Destroy this, and whatever I have said shall not be repeated by me.


Very truly, yours,
A. PLEASONTON.

 *Not found.

Official Records, Series I., Vol. 11, Part 3, Page 369.

The Union army was divided not just physically, but in terms of loyalties.  There were still McClellan men, like Pleasonton, who remained loyal to the point of proposing here a made rush on Richmond.  With troops already on their way to Aquia Creek it was an impractical suggestion, but it would have made for an interesting turn of events.  Marcy, to whom this was addressed, was McClellan's chief-of-staff and father-in-law.  Pleasonton commanded a division of cavalry in the Seven Days and was noted as the commander of Union cavalry at Brandy Station.  After the war he had the unique distinction of being dismissed from the Bureau of Internal Revenue for lobbying Congress to abolish the income tax.  He also caused a stir by claiming to have been offered command of the Army of the Potomac before Grant.