By David J. Kent
Washington, D.C.
Thursday, September 29, 2022
General Ulysses S. Grant may not have been deterred, but discretion is the better part of valor for the Lincoln Group of DC. Our October 1st tour and picnic is canceled due to the impending residual effects of Hurricane Ian.
As we're all by now aware, Hurricane Ian crashed through the western end of Cuba several days ago, sending the entire country into darkness. Ian then picked up energy, beating into the Gulf coast of Florida around Fort Myers at just a few miles per hour short of a Category 5 hurricane. After turning most of central Florida into a treeless lake, Ian is expected to turn back inland and head up toward Virginia. Forecasts call for heavy rain late Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in our area.
The original plan was for our tour to meet at the Chancellorsville Visitors Center where Craig Howell would begin a tour focused on on the relationship between President Abraham Lincoln and newly promoted Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant during the days leading up to the Battle of the Wilderness (May 5-6, 1864). This is the fight that inaugurated the bloody and frustrating Overland Campaign between the Rapidan and the James Rivers. A reporter for a New York newspaper visited General Grant's headquarters just before leaving for Washington on the evening of May 6 and asked if he could deliver a message to President Lincoln. Grant responded: "Tell the President there will be no turning back." No news could be more welcome to the man of whom an Illinois reporter had written some years earlier: "There is no back-down in Abraham Lincoln."
With Ian heading in our direction, and with the time frame for rescheduling unworkable for other dates this fall, the tour for the Wilderness Campaign will be rescheduled for the spring of 2023 (probably May or June). Craig is considering also a second tour to Spotsylvania in the fall of 2023, giving us two tours for the price of one! More details to follow as plans for next year are developed.
Until then, check in on our many Lincoln Group friends in Florida and do what you can to assist in rebuilding after the storm. And stay safe and dry here in the DMV.