The fall of 1861 saw a lull in the fighting in Virginia and gave President Abraham Lincoln some time to reflect and make changes in his attempts to restore the union. Lincoln waited as the newly appointed commander of the “Army of the Potomac,” George B. McClellan, reorganized and trained his troops. Lincoln also set free some of his critics whom he had had arrested without charges and thrown into cells across the country, hoping this sign of clemency would silence them in the future.