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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: decided upon the Bull Run campaign, he devoted every spare moment
to the study of such books upon the art of war as would aid him
in solving the questions that he must face as Commander-in-Chief
of the armies. With his quick mind and unusual power of logic he
made rapid progress in learning the fixed and accepted rules on
which all military writers agree. His mastery of the difficult
science became so thorough, and his understanding of military
situations so clear, that he has been called, by persons well
fitted to judge, "the ablest strategist of the war." Yet he never
thrust his knowledge upon his generals. He recognized that it was
their duty, not his, to fight the battles, and since this was so,
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