Extra Credit Questions

[Eva Elisabeth]

Roger, congratulations. You are much smarter than I was. It was a poor question and - worse - although I thought I had been careful, I had done some poor research. After double-checking Frémont now, you are right. I first thought he had been in Washington two times, but that was wrong.

The general in the sentence I read was Sherman. He vistited Lincoln at the White House in March 61 and once later that year, in October, when was assigned to succeed R. Anderson as a commander in Kentucky. Outside Washington he met Lincoln on July 23,1861, when Lincoln visited the troops after the First Bull Run (or Manassas, to be fair to the Southern audience), and at the end of the war in Richmond.

I was so fascinated when I thought about this because from nowadays perspective it seems so incredible that such a leading general meets the president (and visits the capital) so rarely. The main reason for this, I suppose, was the distance, and if it was, the single sentence I mentioned above would indirectly reveal so much about the difficulties and conditions in those days - without modern means of transport, electric lightening or central heating (and, not to forget, the internet!). It would be quite interesting to experience this for some days, but not necessarily during wartime or as a slave, an definitly only with a return ticket!