Best Friend to All

This chapter examines Edwin M. Stanton's appointment of his friends and relatives at the War Department. When Stanton presented the cabinet with his preliminary report on the army, on March 11, 1862, his estimate of the number of men under arms came as a shock. His war board had calculated 672,878 men, while no one, including Stanton, had anticipated more than half a million. Rather than yielding a sense of security against the presumably smaller army of the Confederacy, the revelation provoked alarm at the enormous expense. A spate of Union victories cast a bright light on the financial situation, bringing hope that the rebellion might soon be crushed and federal expenses restored to normal. The rest of this chapter discusses some of Stanton's actions during the Civil War, including his order to stop military recruitment and to take “military possession” of all the country's railroads in the name of President Abraham Lincoln. It also considers Stanton's antagonistic relationship with Major General George B. McClellan.