COACHES HOT SEAT NFL

NFL Post Week 3 Coaches Hot Seat Rankings

These Hot Seat Coaches are already under a lot of stress…give them a little more Mr. Johnny Cash!

NFL Post Week 3 Coaches Hot Seat Rankings

1.  Dennis Allen, Oakland Raiders – The Oakland Raiders played a close game against what looks like a slightly above average NFL team in the 2014 version of the New England Patriots BUT Raiders head coach Dennis Allen needs WINS and quick or Allen may find himself out of a job before we get to the halfway point of the NFL season.

Now at 0 – 3 on the season and 8 – 27 overall in three seasons as the head coach of the Raiders there is a very interesting game set-up this coming Sunday between the No. 1 Hot Seat Coach (Dennis Allen) and the No. 3 Hot Seat Coach (Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin) in London with the losing head coach no doubt ending up in a bad spot that will be very difficult to get off of in 2014 with their head coaching job intact.

Can Dennis Allen’s Raiders team possibly beat the Miami Dolphins on Sunday and then go into the bye week with some time to regroup and get ready for an October 12 game against division foe San Diego Chargers at home in Oakland?

YES….but if the Raiders lose to the Dolphins at home on Sunday we have to think there is at least a 50 – 50 chance that Dennis Allen does NOT coach the game against the Chargers on October 12 which makes this Dolphins game the MUST WIN Game of all MUST WIN Games as it pertains to the head football coach of the Oakland Raiders.

2.  Gus Bradley, Jacksonville Jaguars – It is OUR opinion here at Coaches Hot Seat that…

Great Football Coaches are Great Football Coaches no matter what team they coach and that a Great Football Coach can make a Bad Team Good, a Good Team Very Good, A Very Good Team Great, and a Great Team a Champion

…..and that is why there is NO Damn Excuse for second year Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley or ANY other NFL head coach to not having his team moving forward in Year 2 on the job and the last time we checked at 0 – 3 as the Jaguars are right now in Bradley’s second-year on the job is NOT moving forward!

With the loss to the Colts on Sunday Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley is now 0 – 3 on the season and 4 – 15 in two seasons on the job and either Bradley will get the Jaguars playing winning football soon or Gus Bradley will be just another NFL assistant coach that couldn’t hack it as a head coach which is a mighty Damn long list indeed.

The BIG problem facing Gus Bradley and the Jaguars is that now at 0 – 3 they have to play at the San Diego Chargers and then against the Pittsburgh Steelers at home up next which to us means the Jaguars are looking right at an 0 – 5 start to the 2014 NFL season with plenty of tough games still to play and a second losing season almost for sure up on the board for Gus Bradley as a head coach.

Can Gus Bradley survive going something like 4 – 12 again in 2014 after posting a 4 – 12 record last season?

Maybe….BUT….Maybe Not so our recommendation to Gus Bradley is to coach like your job is on the line Gus…..because it is!

3.  Joe Philbin, Miami Dolphins – It is OUR opinion here at Coaches Hot Seat that the only way that Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin will have ANY chance to coach the Dolphins in 2015 is to take Miami to the Postseason Playoff this season and starting 1 – 2 which included an embarrassing loss to the Kansas City Chiefs at home on Sunday was certainly not the way Joe Philbin NEEDED to start the 2014 season.

Even scarier the Dolphins they travel this Sunday to play the very Damn mediocre Oakland Raiders in London and a loss to the winless Raiders in this spot would really put Joe Philbin and his football team behind the 8-ball especially with the Green Back Packers coming to Miami to play the Dolphins on October 12.

The equation REALLY is very simple for Joe Philbin in 2014?

Make the Postseason Playoffs or BUST which means Joe Philbin and the Miami Dolphins better Damn beat the Oakland Raiders on Sunday.

4.  Rex Ryan, New York Jets – We will freely admit here at Coaches Hot Seat that we always liked Buddy Ryan when he was a coach in the NFL and thus we have always pulled for Rex Ryan to succeed himself BUT it is next to Damn impossible to pull for Rex Ryan when his football plays like it did on Monday night against the Chicago Bears which was very simply….

Very Damn Embarrassing for EVERYONE involved…..PERIOD.

If ANY Coaches Hot Seat member was sitting in the General Manager of the New York Jets on Monday night or ANY night for the last couple of seasons we would be incredibly Damn pissed-off right now because in our opinion…

Rex Ryan is FAILING at the most basic job of being a head coach

…which is getting HIS football team as the Head Coach ready to play each and every game and in our opinion the New York Jets were not ready to play the game against the Chicago Bears on Monday night.

Of course, this is a “sickness” of sorts of head coaches across the NFL that spend so much time on scheme, plays, and other Total and Complete Bullshit that has NOTHING to do with getting a team ready to play and win each and every game BUT this particular “sickness” is especially acute with the New York Jets under Rex Ryan and when a football club is spending Hundreds of Millions of Dollars on players and coaches we for one would…

DEMAND that the Head Football Coach get his teams ready to play and win each and every game….PERIOD.

Sorry Rex Ryan….you may know a Helluva lot about the game of football BUT you don’t know shit about being a head football coach.

Up next for the New York Jets…

The Detroit Lions at home in what is a MUST, MUST, MUST WIN Game for Rex Ryan….IF the New York Jets ownership and management actually give a Damn about fielding a WINNING team that is which in our opinion is an open question right now.

5.  Jason Garrett, Dallas Cowboys – In the “Disconnected from the Real World and Not Giving A Damn Whether Your Team Actually Wins or Not” that is the Dallas Cowboys football team it probably didn’t matter that the Dallas Cowboys almost lost to the St. Louis Rams on Sunday because does it really matter at all if Jason Garrett and the Cowboys win a decent amount of games in 2014 and make the Postseason Playoffs?

Not really….in our opinion….because Jerry Jones knows that Dallas Cowboys fans are some of the Stupidest Damn People on Planet Earth and will buy tickets, merchandise, and all kinds of other Cowboys Crapola whether the Cowboys are winning or not which makes sense because in our opinion Jason Garrett could hold onto the Cowboys head coaching job forever into future whether he is winning or not….as long as Jason Garrett continues to kiss Jerry Jones’ precious ass….which is also our opinion as well!

Now at 2 – 1 on the season the Dallas Cowboys welcome into the stadium that is filled with those Very Damn Stupid Cowboys fans the New Orleans Saints this coming Sunday night and does it really matter at all if the Cowboys beat the Saints or not on Sunday night?

NOT REALLY!

Congratulations to Jerry Jones….you have done something that we didn’t think possible after President Ronald Reagan destroyed Communism 25 years ago….YOU Jerry Jones have revived Communism here in the United States of America and in the state of Texas to boot because what is a better example of the promotion of Communism than a head football coach with a .525 winning percentage basically being given a free pass whether he wins or not?

Jerry Jones = Sorry Ass Communist…..in our opinion of course and Hell if Jerry Jones ever sued us over our opinion as citizens of the American Republic we would just bring a chart with Jason Garrett’s coaching records….

2010:  5 – 3 – No Playoffs
2011:  8 – 8 – No Playoffs
2012:  8 – 8 – No Playoffs
2013:  8 – 8 – No Playoffs
2014:  2 – 1 – Playoffs?

…..to court and the judge would find in our favor in about 5 seconds unless of course Jerry could get the case into court in the 9 th Federal Circuit in San Francisco which is full of Socialists that no doubt raise kids that don’t keep score in little league games which is the equivalent of what is going on with the Dallas Cowboys right now!

In our opinion of course!

Hell at this rate Jerry Jones there will be MILLIONS of kids in Texas that will believe being Very Damn Average….think Jason Garrett…is something to be celebrated and rewarded and doesn’t that bode well for the future of the state of Texas that might one day have lots of kids that will be wondering why they are constantly getting fired by REAL Americans when they are doing very Damn average work that certainly Damn seemed acceptable to Jerry Jones and the Cowboys!

6.  Tom Coughlin, New York Giants – Believe it or not there was a time not that long ago when the New York Giants beating a team at home with a first year head coach like the Houston Texans would have been no Damn big deal BUT with the Giants looking like one of the worst coached teams in the game of football on any level in the American Republic today the Giants beating the Texans is a BIG deal because ANY win by Tom Coughlin and his Giants team these days is a reason to celebrate!

Now at 1 – 2 on the season the New York Giants travel to play at the Washington Redskins on Thursday night against another team with a first year head coach and thus a Hall of Fame coach like Tom Coughlin should have a team that will win this game against the Skins easily…..right?

Not Even Close!

Our guess….the Washington Redskins will DESTROY the hapless New York Giants on Thursday night who in our opinion will just flat-out quit and give-up if they get behind the Skins early on in the game on Thursday.

Coach Hard Tom Coughlin not that it matter since you are in the Communist NFL where winning doesn’t really matter any more since it is really….ALL ABOUT THE MONEY!

In our opinion of course.

7.  Ken Whisenhunt, Tennessee Titans – Ken Whisenhunt posted a…

45 – 51 (.469)

…overall record in six seasons as the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals and we are going to hold Whisenhunt to a very high standard in his tenure with the Tennessee Titans and after starting the 2014 season at 1 – 2 we would like to welcome Ken Whisenhunt to the Hot Seat!

With all of Ken Whisenhunt’s experience as an assistant and head coach in the NFL we believe he should be able to have the Titans very close to a .500 record at least by the end of the season and with a game….

At Indianapolis

….on Sunday if Whisenhunt is going to get and keep his rear-end off the Hot Seat he better Damn get a few wins over the next few weeks or things could mighty Hot indeed in Nashville, Tennessee for Kenny-Boy.

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Coaches Hot Seat NFL Quotes of the Day – Tuesday, September 23, 2014 – Michael Crichton

“If you don’t know history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree.”

And

“Do you know what we call opinion in the absence of evidence? We call it prejudice.” State of Fear

And

“It’s better to die laughing than to live each moment in fear.”

And

“What makes you think human beings are sentient and aware? There’s no evidence for it. Human beings never think for themselves, they find it too uncomfortable. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told-and become upset if they are exposed to any different view. The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity, and the characteristic result is religious warfare. Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their ‘beliefs.’ The reason is that beliefs guide behavior which has evolutionary importance among human beings. But at a time when our behavior may well lead us to extinction, I see no reason to assume we have any awareness at all. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion. Next question.” The Lost World

And

“God creates dinosaurs, God kills dinosaurs, God creates man, man kills God, man brings back dinosaurs.” Jurassic Park

And

“The planet has survived everything, in its time. It will certainly survive us.” Jurassic Park

And

“You think man can destroy the planet? What intoxicating vanity. Let me tell you about our planet. Earth is four-and-a-half-billion-years-old. There’s been life on it for nearly that long, 3.8 billion years. Bacteria first; later the first multicellular life, then the first complex creatures in the sea, on the land. Then finally the great sweeping ages of animals, the amphibians, the dinosaurs, at last the mammals, each one enduring millions on millions of years, great dynasties of creatures rising, flourishing, dying away — all this against a background of continuous and violent upheaval. Mountain ranges thrust up, eroded away, cometary impacts, volcano eruptions, oceans rising and falling, whole continents moving, an endless, constant, violent change, colliding, buckling to make mountains over millions of years. Earth has survived everything in its time. It will certainly survive us. If all the nuclear weapons in the world went off at once and all the plants, all the animals died and the earth was sizzling hot for a hundred thousand years, life would survive, somewhere: under the soil, frozen in Arctic ice. Sooner or later, when the planet was no longer inhospitable, life would spread again. The evolutionary process would begin again. It might take a few billion years for life to regain its present variety. Of course, it would be very different from what it is now, but the earth would survive our folly, only we would not. If the ozone layer gets thinner, ultraviolet radiation sears the earth, so what? Ultraviolet radiation is good for life. It’s powerful energy. It promotes mutation, change. Many forms of life will thrive with more UV radiation. Many others will die out. Do you think this is the first time that’s happened? Think about oxygen. Necessary for life now, but oxygen is actually a metabolic poison, a corrosive glass, like fluorine. When oxygen was first produced as a waste product by certain plant cells some three billion years ago, it created a crisis for all other life on earth. Those plants were polluting the environment, exhaling a lethal gas. Earth eventually had an atmosphere incompatible with life. Nevertheless, life on earth took care of itself. In the thinking of the human being a hundred years is a long time. A hundred years ago we didn’t have cars, airplanes, computers or vaccines. It was a whole different world, but to the earth, a hundred years is nothing. A million years is nothing. This planet lives and breathes on a much vaster scale. We can’t imagine its slow and powerful rhythms, and we haven’t got the humility to try. We’ve been residents here for the blink of an eye. If we’re gone tomorrow, the earth will not miss us.” Jurassic Park

And

“I am certain there is too much certainty in the world.”

And

“All your life people will tell you things. And most of the time, probably ninety-five percent of the time, what they’ll tell you will be wrong.” The Lost World

And

“Praise not the day until evening has come, a woman until she is burnt, a sword until it is tried, a maiden until she is married, ice until it has been crossed, beer until it has been drunk.” Eaters of the Dead

And

“It’s hard to decide who’s truly brilliant; it’s easier to see who’s driven, which in the long run may be more important.” Congo

And

“Books aren’t written – they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn’t quite done it.”

And

“The purpose of life is to stay alive. Watch any animal in nature–all it tries to do is stay alive. It doesn’t care about beliefs or philosophy. Whenever any animal’s behavior puts it out of touch with the realities of its existence, it becomes exinct.” Congo

And

“In the corner store we pulled fat bottles of water from the shelves. No one thinks it’s weird that we have to buy clean water, and that’s how I know we’re going to hell.”

And

“In the information society, nobody thinks. We expected to banish paper, but we actually banished thought.”

And

“Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the “wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper’s full of them. In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.”

And

“Human beings are so destructive. I sometimes think we’re a kind of plague, that will scrub the earth clean. We destroy things so well that I sometimes think, maybe that’s our function. Maybe every few eons, some animal comes along that kills off the rest of the world, clears the decks, and lets evolution proceed to its next phase.” The Lost World

And

“All your life, other people will try to take your accomplishments away from you. Don’t you take it away from yourself.” The Lost World

And

“Anyone who says he knows God’s intention is showing a lot of very human ego.” Next

And

“Let’s be clear. The planet is not in jeopardy. We are in jeopardy. We haven’t got the power to destroy the planet – or to save it. But we might have the power to save ourselves.” Jurassic Park

And

“In other centuries, human beings wanted to be saved, or improved, or freed, or educated. But in our century, they want to be entertained. The great fear is not of disease or death, but of boredom. A sense of time on our hands, a sense of nothing to do. A sense that we are not amused.” Timeline

And

“Raising children is, in a sense, the reason the society exists in the first place. It’s the most important thing that happens, and it’s the culmination of all the tools and language and social structure that has evolved.” The Lost World

And

“Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled.”

And

“All human behavior has a reason. All behavior is solving a problem.” Disclosure

And

“A hundred years from now, people will look back on us and laugh. They’ll say, ‘You know what people used to believe? They believed in photons and electrons. Can you imagine anything so silly?’ They’ll have a good laugh, because by then there will be newer better fantasies… And meanwhile, you feel the way the boat moves? That’s the sea. That’s real. You smell the salt in the air? You feel the sunlight on your skin? That’s all real. Life is wonderful. It’s a gift to be alive, to see the sun and breathe the air. And there isn’t really anything else.” The Lost World

And

“Exercise invigorates the body and sharpens the mind.”

And

“Nobody dares to solve the problems-because the solution might contradict your philosophy, and for most people clinging to beliefs is more important than succeeding in the world.” State of Fear

And

“Working inspires inspiration. Keep working. If you succeed, keep working. If you fail, keep working. If you are interested, keep working. If you are bored, keep working.”

And

“His management philosophy, tempered in his rain-dancing days, was always to give the project to whoever had the most to gain from success–or the most to lose from failure.” Congo

And

“The greatest challenge facing mankind is the challenge of distinguishing reality from fantasy, truth from propaganda. Perceiving the truth has always been a challenge to mankind, but in the information age (or as I think of it, the disinformation age) it takes on a special urgency and importance.”

And

“The purpose of history is to explain the present – to say why the world around us is the way it is. History tells us what is important in our world, and how it came to be. It tells us what is to be ignored, or discarded. That is true power – profound power. The power to define a whole society.” Timeline

And

“I want to pause here and talk about this notion of consensus, and the rise of what has been called consensus science. I regard consensus science as an extremely pernicious development that ought to be stopped cold in its tracks. Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you’re being had.

Let’s be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus.

There is no such thing as consensus science. If it’s consensus, it isn’t science. If it’s science, it isn’t consensus. Period.”

Wikipedia: Michael Crichton

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Coaches Hot Seat NFL Quotes of the Day – Monday, September 22, 2014 – Abraham Lincoln

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

And

“All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind.”

And

“Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose – and you allow him to make war at pleasure.”

And

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.”

And

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”

And

“Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable – a most sacred right – a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.”

And

“As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.”

And

“Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.”

And

“Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new at all.”

And

“Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”

And

“Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem.”

And

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

And

“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.”

And

“I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.”

And

“I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end… I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.”

And

“I do the very best I know how – the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.”

And

“I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.”

And

“I was losing interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What I have done since then is pretty well known.”

And

“I will prepare and some day my chance will come.”

And

“If there is anything that a man can do well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance.”

And

“In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”

And

“It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.”

And

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”

And

“Surely God would not have created such a being as man, with an ability to grasp the infinite, to exist only for a day! No, no, man was made for immortality.”

And

“The assertion that “all men are created equal” was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain and it was placed in the Declaration not for that, but for future use.”

And

“These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people.”

And

“Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.”

And

“You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man’s initiative and independence.”

And

“Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find the way.”

And

“Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it.”

And

“The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall our selves, and then we shall save our country. Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.” Second State of the Union Address, December 1, 1862

And

“At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? — Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! — All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” Lycecum Address, 1838

And

“Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man’s nature — opposition to it, in his love of justice. These principles are an eternal antagonism; and when brought into collision so fiercely, as slavery extension brings them, shocks, and throes, and convulsions must ceaselessly follow. Repeal the Missouri Compromise — repeal all compromises — repeal the Declaration of Independence — repeal all past history, you still can not repeal human nature. It still will be the abundance of man’s heart, that slavery extension is wrong; and out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth will continue to speak.”

And

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow, this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

The Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863

And

Lincoln’s War, The Untold Story of American’s Greatest President as Commander in Chief by Geoffrey Perret

Here is a great excerpt from that book that happened just after the First Battle of Bull Run, August 1861:

“Dozens of regiments had set up impromptu around Fort Corcoran, on Arlington Heights. Every day these canvas congeries trembled like leaves in the wind as fresh rumors of an impending Confederate attack. And every day Lincoln heard fresh stories of demoralized troops, mutinous regiments, poor discipline. Some regiments were entitled to – and clamoring for – an immediate discharge, their ninety-day service complete. The War Department’s officers seemed to busy for the burdensome task of mustering them out. Unchecked, however, mutinous sentiments could spread through camps like a virulent disease.

Lincoln decided to see for himself, and Seward went with him. A few days after Bull Run, they rode across the Potomac in an open carriage on an impromptu visit to the troops. What greeted them was redoubts spreading across the landscape, tents sprouting like mushrooms in nearly every direction, dusty roads, a cross-hatching of cart tracks, men milling or lolling about, few signs of order or purpose. Yet the District, on edge for its safety, has more than enough men to defend it – if the men chose.

As the carriage rattled along towards Fort Corcoran, a red-bearded colonel strode up: William Tecumseh Sherman. He had commanded a brigade at Bull Run, superbly. Sherman asked if the President had come to see the troops. “Yes,” said Lincoln. “We heard that you had got over the big scare and we thought we would come over and see the boys.”

Sherman got into the carriage, giving the driver directions to a camp at the top of a small hill. Sitting next to Lincoln, he asked if the President intended to speak to the men. “I would like to,” said Lincoln.

Sherman said he no objection to that, but he did not want cheering, “No hurrahing, no humbug. We had enough of it before Bull Run to spoil any set of them.” None worse than the 69 th New York, filled with Irishmen angry at not being discharged. Sherman had rebuked one of the officers of lax discipline.

Standing in the carriage, Lincoln gave an impromptu talk to Sherman’s troops: bravery, sacrifice, gratitude, a glorious future. The men began to cheer, but he held up his hand. “Don’t cheer boys, I confess I rather like it myself, but Colonel Sherman says it is not military, and I guess we had better defer to his opinion.”

Closing his impromptu peroration, Lincoln said that as Commander in Chief, he was determined that every man should be treated exactly as the law required: his indirect promise that those entitled to a discharge would soon have one. As the carriage moved on, a young officer ran after it, calling out piteously, “Mr. Lincoln! Mr. Lincoln!”

Lincoln ordered the driver to stop. Here was the officer of the 69 th New York whom Sherman had criticized, panting hard. “Mr. President, I have a cause of grievance. This morning I went to speak to Colonel Sherman, and he threatened to shoot me.”

“I told him Mr. President, that if he refused to obey my order, I would shoot him on the spot,” said Sherman. “And I here repeat it, sir, that if I remain in command here, and he or any other man refuses to obey my orders, I’ll shoot him on the spot.”

Lincoln bent forward. “My lad, if I were you, and he threatened to shoot, I would not trust him, for I believe he would do it!” The troops, until then sympathetic to the officer, howled with laughter.

Both Seward and Lincoln were impressed by the comparative tidiness of the camps of Sherman’s regiments. “This is the first bright moment I’ve experienced since the battle,” Lincoln told Sherman before riding off. From his own military experience, he knew that neatness and cleanliness is an army spelled discipline; neglect was a signal of trouble to come.”

End of excerpt from Lincoln’s War

Wikipedia: Abraham Lincoln

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