Oddly enough, the Army of the Potomac was in decent shape. There were regiments and even divisions in bad shape (“[It] was the first to break on May 2nd and is in a most disgusting condition as to discipline and morale,” a Massachusetts colonel wrote with regard to the 24th Regiment, but the army as a whole was ready to stand on the defensive and protect Washington, D.C. President Lincoln, on the other hand, was truly beside himself. A good friend visited him the day he received the news. All Lincoln could say, time and again, was “My God! What will the country say!”