"Rest assured, General," the quiet voice responded, "the heroism and skill of yourself, officers and men, is and forever will be appreciated."
The President returned to Washington profoundly puzzled as to his duty. He was alarmed at the display of self esteem which his defeated General had naïvely made, and his loyalty was boldly and opened questioned by his advisers, and yet he was loath to remove him from command. Down in his square, honest heart he felt that with all his faults, McClellan was a man of worth, that he had never been thoroughly whipped in a single battle and that he hadn't had a fair trial.
Any other man in power than Abraham Lincoln would have removed him instantly on the receipt of his insolent and insulting dispatch. Instead, the President had gone to see him with an open mind. He returned determined to strengthen his military council by the addition of an expert in Washington as his Commander-in-Chief.
He called to this post Henry W. Halleck. Although McClellan had waived the crown of such power aside with lofty words of unselfish patriotism, he received the announcement of Halleck's promotion and his subordination with sullen rage.
"In this thing," he wrote his wife, "the President and those around him have acted so as to make the matter as offensive as possible to me."
And yet against every demand that McClellan should be removed from command the President was obdurate. Again and again his friends urged:
"McClellan is playing for the Presidency."
"All right. Let him. I am perfectly willing that he shall have it if he will only put an end to this war."
But if the President refused to remove him from command, Halleck and Stanton managed quickly to strip him of half his army by detaching and sending it to join the new army of General Pope. McClellan, with the remainder of his men, had been sent by transport back to Alexandria. General John Pope was summoned from the West to take command of the new "Army of Virginia," composed of the divisions of Fremont, Banks and McDowell, and the detached portion of McClellan's men.
All eyes were now centred on the new Commander. The West had only seen success--Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Pea Ridge, Shiloh, and Island No. 10.