When little more than a month after the disaster of Fredericksburg, Mr. Lincoln entrusted the command of the army to General Hooker, he was anxious that the advance should be resumed with the least possible delay. The hopes which he entertained from the time the Federal army was in sight of the capital of the Confederacy in June, 1862, had been continually frustrated; sentiment throughout the North was becoming exceedingly impatient; the time of enlistment of a portion of the troops in service was about to expire; desertions in the army were alarmingly frequent, and everything combined to make an early movement desirable. General Hooker was not a favorite of Halleck's, the Commander-in-Chief at Washington, but he was selected by Mr. Lincoln to head the army of the Potomac because of his energetic character and his fighting qualities. He had served creditably in the Mexican War, gone through the Peninsula campaign with McClellan as a division commander, and was in charge of one of the three grand divisions of the army under Burnside. Impetuous in disposition and outspoken by nature, he was wont to give expression to his opinion of his fellow officers including his superior in rank, and it was on this account that the very day preceding his appointment, General Burnside had prepared an order, subject to the approval of the President, dismissing him from the service. This, however, was diplomatically ignored by the two men when the transfer of the command was made: General Burnside in general orders, upon his taking leave asked the army, "to give to the brave and skillful General who has so long been identified with its organization, and who is now to command you, your full and cordial support, etc." While General Hooker in taking command says, he only "gives expression to the feeling of this army when he conveys to its late commanding General the most cordial good wishes for his future, etc." And adds, "in equipment, intelligence and valor, the enemy is our inferior, let us never hesitate to give him battle wherever we can find him."
Mr. Lincoln in bestowing the appointment wrote: "What I now ask of you is military success * * *; and now beware of rashness. Beware of rashness, but with energy and sleepless vigilance, go forward and gain us victories."
