67th Tigers
Banned
67th you try and act like you are reading from the official files.
Guess what- you are wrong again.
Scott convinced Lincoln Lee was the man- have you managed to get THAT?
So that he would have been given what would have been the top command.
GOT THAT?
BUT since he refused the informal offer nothing was ever OFFICIAL?
GOT THAT?
There are MORE then enough accounts of what Lincoln intended from what Scott recommended. Why do you insist on keeping up this farce?
No, I've read quite a lot more on the subject than you though, apparently.
Lincoln asked Scott to make preparations to field an army in February 1861, and one of those preparations was to have a General Staff and Operational Departments (initially 3). Lee was penciled in for command of the Eastern (Virginia) department, promoted Colonel and recalled to Washington. He conditionally accepted the offer of Eastern Dept Command, assuming Virginia did not secede.
The two other officers selected were McClellan, an ex-regular major (of 1st Cavalry, which along with 2nd Cavalry received the cream of the US officer corps) who was considered an authority on the conduct of war, and was the Major General commanding the Ohio Militia (-> Ohio Dept), and Fremont, an ex-regular Lt Col and a authority on the logistics of operations out west. All sensible choices.
BTW: Of possible interest: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C05EED8143EE73BBC4C53DFBE668383669FDE