He was then in the possession of all his faculties and grasped the elements of the problem far better than his generals and heads of departments.

Popular clamor compelled Lincoln to change him at last, but those who were behind the scenes well knew that if other departments had been as well managed as was the War Department under Cameron, all things considered, much of disaster would have been avoided.
Lochiel, as Cameron liked to be called, was a man of sentiment.

In his ninetieth year he visited us in Scotland and, passing through one of our glens, sitting on the front seat of our four-in-hand coach, he reverently took off his hat and bareheaded rode through the glen, overcome by its grandeur.

The conversation turned once upon the efforts which candidates for office must themselves put forth and the fallacy that office seeks the man, except in very rare emergencies.
Apropos of this Lochiel told this story about Lincoln's second term: One day at Cameron's country home near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, he received a telegram saying that President Lincoln would like to see him.

Accordingly he went to Washington.