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Telling a disappointed Mexican War hero why he wasn’t promoted.
LINCOLN, ABRAHAM. Autograph Letter Signed, to General Ward Burnett, Executive Mansion, Washington, D.C., March 7, 1863. 5 x 8”. With: Edwin M. Stanton. Letter Signed, to New York Mayor George Opdyke, Washington, D.C., June 20, 1863. 8 x 10”. Inventory #21369 $34,000
Gen. Ward B. Burnett had served with distinction during the Mexican War, but was denied a brigadier generalship in the Union army. Burnett sought an explanation from Lincoln. Making clear he bore no malice toward Burnett, Lincoln responds, “The nomination fell, with many others, because the number nominated exceeded the law.”
Complete Transcript:
“Washington, March 7, 1863
General Ward B. Burnett
My dear Sir.
Col. Diven has just been with me seeking to remove a wrong impression which he supposes I might have of you, springing from a report he had once made in the New-York Senate, as I understood him. I told him, as I now tell you, that I did not remember remember to have ever heard of the report, or any thing against you.
As I remember, you were nominated last year, and the nomination fell, with many others, because the number nominated exceeded the law. I call to mind no reason why you have not been re-nominated, except that you have not been in active service, while others more than sufficient to take all the places have been.
Yours truly, A. Lincoln”
Historical Background:
A West Point graduate, Burnett had served with distinction under Winfield Scott. He was seriously wounded at Churubusco, and was awarded a gold medal by his regiment. After the Mexican War, Burnett worked as a civil engineer at the Brooklyn and Philadelphia navy yards, and served as U.S. surveyor general in Kansas and Nebraska. When his Civil War nomination for brigadier general was rejected, he asked Col. Alexander S. Diven, a former New York state
senator and Republican congressman, to discuss the matter with Lincoln. Diven’s visit prompted this response.
Lincoln’s letter is accompanied by a letter from Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. On June 20, 1863, Stanton refuses a request from the mayor of New York that “such power be given to General Ward B. Burnett, to muster men into the United States service.”
Burnett never received the commission he sought. Nevertheless, he played a significant role during the New York City Draft Riots in July 1863. Near Wall Street, Burnett organized and swore in volunteer forces to fend off the rioters. According to William O. Stoddard, an aide to Lincoln who happened to be in New York at the time, Burnett and his men “kept company with a wide-mouthed mountain howitzer” and protected the U.S. Treasury and the Customs House. The general appeared “very cool, and determined but a little bloodthirsty.”
Additional Historical Background:
Despite never receiving a regular commission during the Civil War, Burnett continued to take an active part in the struggle. Joining Burnett’s hastily formed militia regiment during the New York Draft Riots, Stoddard, Lincoln’s aide, reported:
“When we reached the corner of the Sub-Treasury, there on the steps was General Ward B. Burnett, organizing a company of volunteers that promised to be a good one. I knew that he had commanded the First New York Volunteers in the Mexican War and was accounted a brave, capable officer. That was the man to serve under, and we at once fell into line, recalling our soldier experience in the Rifles. The General swore us in, gave us instructions, looked very cool, and determined but a little bloodthirsty, and we were posted. That is, we were put temporarily in charge of the Treasury, under the impression that there was to be an immediate attack on it. Later we were transferred to the portico of the Custom House, where we kept company with a wide-mouthed mountain howitzer.”
Lincoln’s letter to Burnett—penned the same week he signed the first federal military draft—is accompanied by Stanton’s June 20, 1863, letter to New York Mayor George Opdyke:
Transcript B:
“...In reply to your letter… requesting that such power be given to General Ward B. Burnett, to muster men into the United States service, as was given to the late Colonel Baker and others, I have to state, that the request having been considered by the Department, it is not deemed expedient to grant it, great inconvenience and prejudice to the service, having been experienced from irregular authority to muster in recruits. The Department is informed that the force of recruiting officers is amply sufficient to muster in the recruits as fast as is consistent with due examination, and proper regard to the interests of the United States..."
General Ward B. Burnett (1811-84) graduated from West Point in 1832 to immediately serve in the Black Hawk War. He resigned in 1836 to become a civil engineer, but re-joined to raise a regiment in the Mexican War. In addition to the gold medal awarded by his regiment, Burnett was presented with a gold snuff box that had been given to Andrew Jackson by the City of New York for his 1815 defense of New Orleans. Jackson had bequeathed the snuff box "to that patriot of New-York City who should be adjudged by his countrymen to have been the most distinguished in defense of his country and our country's rights" (New York Times, 6/25/1884. Burnett spent the years between the Mexican War and the Civil War as a civil engineer engaged on the construction of the dry docks at the navy yards at Brooklyn and Philadelphia. He served as U.S. surveyor general for Kansas and Nebraska from 1858 to 1860.
Not published in Basler.
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