did not take long before Lincoln’s anxieties began to rise. He was disturbed by “Meade’s slow movements since Gettysburg,” and he was particularly irritated at the phrase in Meade’s congratulatory order to the army on July 4th and its call to “drive the invaders from our soil.” Drive the invaders from our soil! Lincoln burst out in unrestrained dismay, My God! Is that all? He grumbled to Hay, “Will our Generals never get that idea out of their heads? The whole country is our soil.” And he added ominously, “This is a dreadful reminiscence of McClellan.”8
