🐓 Babb McNabb and His Rooster: An Abraham Lincoln Story

Drawing from Lincoln's Yarns and Stories,
by Alexander K. McClure

In the early 1830s, the men of New Salem, Illinois, frequently appointed Abraham Lincoln as the arbiter of their local contests - especially if money was involved. His honesty and reputation for integrity made him the natural judge of everything from footraces to wrestling matches. When he said “winner,” the verdict was final.

One such contest involved a local farmer named Babb McNabb, who had spent weeks bragging about the ferocious fighting qualities of his prize red rooster. The bird was eventually matched against a battle-scarred veteran of the New Salem pits, and the bets ran high.

The crowd buzzed with excitement as Lincoln — serving as the umpire — called for the birds to be placed in the ring. The moment of truth, however, was a disaster. When the two birds were tossed into the ring, McNabb’s rooster took one look at his advancing opponent, turned tail, and fled. Once he reached a safe distance, the bird hopped onto a fence, spread his feathers, and began to crow lustily as if he had won the day.

As a frustrated McNabb paid out his losses, he glared at his bird and groused:

"Yes, you little cuss—you're great on dress parade, but not worth a damn in a fight."

🗣️ The Historical Echo

Decades later, during the Peninsula Campaign in 1862, President Lincoln found himself dealing with a different kind of "dress parade." General George B. McClellan was busy exhausting the patience of the North by continually drilling, reviewing, and polishing the Army of the Potomac while persistently avoiding a confrontation with the enemy.

Remembering the New Salem pit, Lincoln told Noah Brooks [*], a friend and journalist, the rooster story as a gentle, frontier‑flavored parable. Lincoln likened the General to Babb McNabb’s rooster: a magnificent specimen to look at — but when the moment came to move, to strike, to risk, to fight — it perched on the fence and crowed.

Lincoln didn’t need to spell out the comparison. Brooks understood exactly what he meant.

🔨 The Quiet Verdict

President Lincoln never mocked General McClellan in the press. He didn’t shame him, didn’t ridicule him, didn’t make him an example.

But privately, he reached back to a dusty New Salem memory.

McClellan may have built a beautiful army, but Lincoln knew that an army on “dress parade” is just a rooster on a fence if it won’t enter the pit.

That was Lincoln’s quiet verdict on a general who loved the show more than the fight.

Another anecdote from the archives of Abraham Lincoln, Storyteller.

Mac

[*] FYI: Noah Brooks was a journalist and political correspondent who wrote for the Sacramento Daily Union and later for the New York Tribune. He came to Washington in 1862 and quickly became part of Lincoln’s informal inner circleIf Lincoln’s rooster verdict hit hard, wait until you see how he handled Meade, Hooker, and McClellan.

a trusted observer with a gentle manner, a sharp eye, and none of the self‑promotion that plagued other Washington reporters.

Brooks kept detailed notes, and he was meticulous about distinguishing what Lincoln told him directly from what he heard second‑hand. He later published Washington in Lincoln’s Time, a work historians consider one of the most valuable firsthand accounts of Lincoln’s presidency.

🎩 If Lincoln’s rooster verdict hit hard, wait until you read about how he handled all three — Meade, Hooker, and McClellan in "Abraham Lincoln Chose Restraint — And Why It Saved the Union".

📚 Works CitedN

[1] Brooks, Noah (1895) Washington in Lincoln’s Time (New York: The Century Co.). pp. 256–257.