Hey everyone, welcome to episode 2.

I'm Tracey, hello y'all, thanks for tuning in to the podcast.

In Washington, DC, at 10 p.m. on the night of November 6, 1862, Brigadier General

Catherine Asbukingham was summoned to the office of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.

The 54-year-old Bukingham and Ohio native had graduated from West Point in 1829 in the

same class and four spots below his good friend Robert E. Lee.

Here in November 1862, in the midst of a civil war in which he and Lee had chosen different

sides, Bukingham was on special duty at the War Department, assigned to the Secretary

of War's office.

So far in the war, Bukingham had held only desk jobs, but Stanton was about to send him

out into the field on an important mission.

When Bukingham stepped into Stanton's office that night, General and Chief Henry Hallock

was also there.

Stanton and Hallock wanted him to deliver two envelopes to the Army of the Potomac.

The envelopes weren't sealed and Stanton encouraged Bukingham to read their contents.

And was addressed to Major General George B. McClellan and it contained two letters.

The first was an order from President Lincoln, relieving McClellan from command of the Army

of the Potomac.

The second was from Hallock, ordering McClellan to travel to his home in New Jersey and from

there, report by letter to the War Department.

The second envelope contained two orders for Major General Ambrose Burnside.

Even from Lincoln appointing him to command of the Army of the Potomac and the other from

...