"called up by...behind his back": Entry for April 19, 1862, in Madeline Vinton Dahlgren, Memoir of John A. Dahlgren, Rear-Admiral United States Navy (Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., 1882), p. 364 n2.
"muscular power...in vain to imitate him": Viele, "A Trip with Lincoln, Chase, and Stanton," Scribners Monthly (1878), pp. 81516.
pored over maps...around Virginia: Ibid., p. 815; William E. Baringer, "On Enemy Soil: President Lincoln"s Norfolk Campaign," Abraham Lincoln Quarterly 7 (March 1952), p. 6.
Union forces at Fort Monroe: "Map of Hampton Roads and Adjacent Sh.o.r.e," in John Taylor Wood, "The First Fight of Iron-Clads," in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. I, Part 2, p. 699. The mouths of the James, Nansemond, and Elizabeth rivers all converge at Hampton Roads.
Merrimac...devastating engagements: Gene A. Smith, "Monitor versus Virginia (8 March 1862)," in Encyclopedia of the American Civil War, ed. Heidler and Heidler, p. 1348. Although the Confederates had rechristened the ironclad the CSS Virginia, the vessel continued to be known by its previous name, the Merrimac.
"It is a disgrace...cannot cope": Montgomery C. Meigs, quoted in Gorham, Life and Public Services of Edwin M. Stanton, Vol. I, p. 371.
An emergency cabinet meeting..."presence": Niven, Gideon Welles, p. 403.
Monitor..."cheese box on a raft": Entry for October 10, 1862, in French, Witness to the Young Republic, p. 412.
"a pigmy to a giant": NYT, March 14, 1862 (quote); NYT, March 11, 1862.
When Stanton learned..."with diamonds": NYT, March 16, 1862.
"The ringing of those plates": Herman Melville, "A Utilitarian View of the Monitor"s Fight," in The Works of Herman Melville, Vol. XVI (London: Constable & Co., 1924), pp. 44, 45.
huddled over maps...Navy Yard vulnerable: Baringer, "On Enemy Soil," ALQ 7 (1952), p. 8; Shelby Foote, The Civil War: A Narrative. Vol. I: Fort Sumter to Perryville (New York: Random House, 1958; New York: Vintage Books, 1986), p. 414.
Lincoln and his little group..."Treasury to follow": SPC to Janet Chase Hoyt, May 7, 1862, reel 20, Chase Papers.
one leg permanently damaged: Wolcott, "Edwin M. Stanton," p. 131.
Goldsborough approved...across the water: Foote, The Civil War, Vol. I, p. 414.
"a smoke curled...turned back": SPC to Janet Chase Hoyt, May 8, 1862, quoted in Warden, Private Life and Public Services, p. 428.
each personally surveyed...delay the attack: SPC to Janet Chase Hoyt, May 11, 1862, reel 20, Chase Papers; Baringer, "On Enemy Soil," ALQ (1952), pp. 1518.
Chase, accompanying...of the region: SPC to Janet Chase Hoyt, May 11, 1862, reel 20, Chase Papers.
"The night was very...of mere appearances": Carpenter, Six Months at the White House, pp. 10405.
reporters noted...bouts of vertigo: Philadelphia Inquirer, May 13, 1862.
"one of the strangest...military history": Foote, The Civil War, Vol. I, p. 413.
"So has ended...now virtually ours": SPC to Janet Chase Hoyt, May 11, 1862, reel 20, Chase Papers.
"Norfolk...my movements": GBM to MEM, May 10, [1862], in Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan, p. 262.
Welles invited..."field gla.s.ses and maps": FWS to FAS, undated letter, quoted in Seward, Seward at Washington...18611872, p. 89.
enjoyed an easy camaraderie...with one another: Mary Jane Welles to Edgar T. Welles, May 19, 1862, typescript, reel 34, Welles Papers.
Seward...composed a humorous poem: Entry for May 19, 1862, in Dahlgren, Memoir of John A. Dahlgren, p. 368.
"Virginia is sad...everywhere": WHS to FAS, May 19, 1862, quoted in Seward, Seward at Washington...18611872, p. 94.
"We saw war...precedes its march": WHS to FAS, undated letter, quoted in ibid., p. 93.
The steamer reached McClellan"s camp..."its supporting fleet": FWS to FAS, undated letter, quoted in ibid., p. 89.
"a nuisance": GBM to MEM, May 15, [1862], in Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan, p. 267.
he convinced..."this side of Richmond": WHS to AL, May 14, 1862, Lincoln Papers.
"one of the great...of the world": GBM to MEM, May 22, [1862], in Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan, p. 274.
"At night...or New York": FWS to FAS, undated letter, quoted in Seward, Seward at Washington...18611872, p. 89.
Seward advised Lincoln..."as soon as possible": WHS to AL, May 14, 1862, Lincoln Papers.
McDowell was ordered: AL to Irvin McDowell, [May 17, 1862], in CW, V, pp. 21920.
McClellan stood..."animal": GBM to MEM, [June 9, 1862], in Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan, p. 293.
an impromptu visit...Marco Bozzaris: Entry for May 22, [1862], in Dahlgren, Memoir of John A. Dahlgren, pp. 368, 368 n1; John W. M. Hallock, The American Byron: h.o.m.os.e.xuality and the Fall of Fitz-Greene Halleck (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2000), pp. 9698; Fitz-Greene Halleck, "Marco Bozzaris," in Yale Book of American Verse, ed. Thomas R. Lounsbury (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1912), pp. 1213.
"a common baggage...think much of McDowell!": Entry for May 23, 1862, in Dahlgren, Memoir of John A. Dahlgren, pp. 36970.
General Stonewall Jackson had been sent: McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, pp. 45557.
"I have been compelled...to join you": AL to GBM, May 24, 1862, in CW, V, p. 232.
"Stripped bare...from you instantly": AL to GBM, May 25, 1862, in ibid., pp. 23637.
"Independently...shall attack Richmond": GBM to AL, May 25, 1862, Lincoln Papers.
"just finished...knavery & folly": GBM to MEM, May 25, [1862], in Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan, p. 275.
"Lincoln"s diversion...to capture Richmond": McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, p. 460.
Confederate attack at Fair Oaks: Sears, To the Gates of Richmond, pp. 11145, 147, 149; Sears, George B. McClellan, p. 196.
"McClellan keeps sending...has not stirred": Christopher Wolcott to Pamphila Stanton Wolcott, June 11, 1862, in Wolcott, "Edwin M. Stanton," p. 156 (first quote); Wolcott to Wolcott, June 22, 1862, ibid., p. 157a (second quote).
bridges to be built: Sears, To the Gates of Richmond, p. 158.
"if I cannot fully...for the results": GBM to EMS, June 16, 1862, reel 3, Stanton Papers, DLC.
"utmost prudence...all know it": GBM to MEM, June 22, [1862], in Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan, p. 305.
allowed General Lee to take the initiative: Sears, To the Gates of Richmond, p. 151.