Mr. Lincoln’s T-Mails 22

The title of this essay was unashamedly taken from the 2006 book MR. LINCOLN’S T-MAILS: The Untold Story of How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War by Tom Wheeler. Even though a book title can not be copyrighted and therefore I may use any title I choose with impunity, I did not plagiarize this one because, quod erat demonstrandum, I have just given credit for the title to the author of the book.

A sometimes heard apothegm is: “There is nothing new under the sun.” Despite that statement being a cliché, it often contains an element of truth. Practically instant communication with the modern technologies of e-mails and cellular voice and text messaging seems completely new to young moderns, yet is it? No, it isn’t. Two inventors named Cooke and Wheatstone patented a telegraph that worked by electromagnetism in 1837. Later that year Samuel F.B. Morse (1791-1872) developed the first successful electromagnetic telegraph in the United States and made a singular contribution with his invention of a series of dots and dashes called Morse Code to send messages.

Abraham Lincoln was the first American president to have almost instant communication with his military field commanders in time of war by his use of the then new technology of the telegraph. It is altogether fitting and proper that this was so. Lincoln is still the only U.S. president to hold a patent. As young man, Lincoln invented a devise to re-ballast a boat stuck on a sandbar by use of adjustable buoyant chambers. Although the devise was never built, this does show that Lincoln was attuned to new technology to solve old problems.

As would be natural, even for someone as open and receptive to new ideas as Lincoln, the concept of a president communicating with electronic speed with his officers in the field was not speedily embraced. With the American Civil War starting in April 1861, Lincoln sent few telegraphs to his generals in 1861. This quickly changed as 1861 passed into 1862. Once Lincoln realized the great advantage of this new communication tool he utilized it more and more. Strangely, or perhaps not, Lincoln did not have a telegraph link tied into the White House. Instead he would walk across the street from the White House to the telegraph office. This may have provided him with a diversion from his other duties and allowed him to get away from the office seekers and other visitors to the White House who devoured his precious time.

Another example of there being “nothing new under the sun” concerning Lincoln is his address at the Cooper Institute in New York City on February 27, 1860. In this major political speech Lincoln used the expression “that is cool.” Of course the meaning was different from what that expression means now. Lincoln was referring to threat by the Southern states to secede from the Union, then blaming their decision on the North. Or as Lincoln put it: “A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, ‘Stand and deliver or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!’”

Tom Wheeler tells the story that when Lincoln would go to the telegraph office he would start reading all of the incoming telegraph messages whether they were intended for him, his Secretary of War, or the Commanding General in Washington. When he came to the last one he had read in his previous visit he would say, “Well boys, I am down to the raisins.” After this occurred a few times the curiosity one of the telegraph operators got the better of him and he asked, “Mr. President, what do you mean when you say ‘I am down to the raisins?’” Lincoln told the story (as is well known, he had a million of them) of the girl back in Springfield, Illinois who, at her birthday party, over indulged in food, got sick, and started throwing up. The last thing she had eaten were raisins for dessert. A doctor was called and in examining the basin where she had “cast up her accounts” saw the small black objects, the raisins, in the basin and told the anxious parents that the danger had passed as the child was “down to the raisins.” So said Lincoln, when I see the last message I had read on my previous visit, I know I need go no further. Whether it was something trivial or important, Lincoln had a talent for illustrating the point with a simple but appropriate story (see my essay: Lincoln Stories).

As anyone who has ever seen people try to ‘micro-manage’ every job, business deal, political problem, or any situation, knows, instant communication can be more of a bane than a blessing. Lincoln did not fall into that trap. He did get involved in the details of earlier, to varying degrees incompetent generals, but once he had the winning team of Ulysses Grant and William Sherman in place he mostly deferred to their judgments. When he appointed Grant to the rank of Lieutenant General and overall army commander he told him, “I do not know, nor do I want to know the details of your military plans for defeating the Confederate armies.”

Lincoln was what would be known today as a hands-on, walking-around executive. He realized the importance of personal contact with his administrative assistants, politicians, and military commanders. When personal contact was not possible, Lincoln also was aware that written communications in the form of letters were sometimes necessary and more appropriate than the more limited telegraph messages. Few people, including U.S. presidents, were better at communicating than Lincoln. There are several examples where Lincoln would write letters to his military commanders when they missed an opportunity to deliver decisive blows to their Confederate foes. When he was finished writing the letter Lincoln would quietly file it away because he instinctively knew the general would resign if he received it. It was a cathartic exercise for Lincoln to write his criticism thereby relieving some of the stress he was under without causing an action he might regret.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the communication power of the telegraph contributed materially to the preservation of the United States as one indivisible nation. Without President Lincoln having the means to interject himself into the important daily actions and decisions of his field commanders, the outcome of the war might well have not been decisive for the North. Of course it is one thing to have the technology to do this and quite another to possess the wisdom and skill to make these interventions useful. Whether it was fate or luck that the country had Lincoln as its president at that time, the nation then, and in the future, profited from it.