CAMP PIERPONT, VA., December
21, 1861.
It has been several days since I last wrote to you, owing to
occupation, principally drilling my command and yesterday going on a foraging
expedition.1 Of this last you are advised by this time through the
public press, as what with the telegraph and the night train, it is actually a
fact that at 11 A. M. to-day I read in the Philadelphia papers of this date an
authentic account of the affair, furnished by McCall, before I had an
opportunity of getting information either from Ord2 or McCall. I do
not know whether you will be disappointed in not seeing my name in connection
with the affair, but this is the fortune of war. Reynolds and myself were
allowed to secure our plunder undisturbed, but after permitting two
expeditions, the enemy made preparations to capture the third, which was Ord's.
He left early in the morning with his brigade, and Reynolds followed to support
him, and it was intended that I should remain in camp for the day. About 10
o'clock, however, McCall received information from Ord, who was advancing, that
he had reason to believe the enemy were going to dispute his advance. McCall
immediately went out to join him, leaving word with me to get my command under
arms and be ready to move at a moment's notice. About 1 P. M., hearing heavy
firing, without waiting for orders, I started with the brigade and reached the
scene, distant eleven miles, by 4 o'clock, only to learn that it was all over,
and that I might march back to camp, which we did, arriving here about
half-past 8, pretty well tired out. It appears they had four regiments and a
battery of artillery. Ord had a battery and five regiments. They had the choice
of ground and opened the attack. Their artillery was miserably served and did
us no damage. Ours, on the contrary, under Ord's directions, was very well
served and did great execution — so much so that, after throwing them into
confusion, our men charged, and they fled in all directions, leaving their dead
and wounded and lots of baggage on the ground, giving us a complete and
brilliant success. I have just seen General Ord, and I asked him how the men
behaved. He replied, better than he expected, but not so well as they ought;
that there was much shirking and running away on the part of both officers and
men. Still, he persuaded two regiments to maintain their ground and finally to
charge. These were the Kane Rifles (Charley Biddle's regiment) and the Ninth, a
very good regiment commanded by a Colonel Jackson. One regiment he could do
nothing with — (but this, as well as all that precedes, is entre nous). The
fact that the enemy were routed, leaving killed, wounded, baggage, etc., on the
ground, will always be held up to show how gallantly the volunteers can and did
behave, and the world will never know that it was the judicious posting and serving
of the battery by Ord (himself an artillery officer) which demoralized and
threw into confusion the enemy, and prepared them to run the moment our people
showed a bold front, which it required all Ord's efforts and some time to get
them to do. Ord says if they had charged when he first ordered them, he would have
captured the whole battery and lots of prisoners. You will see therefore that
the result proves the justness of my prediction. Owing to the success of our
artillery, the men were gotten up to the charging point. Had the artillery of
the enemy been served as ours was, and committed the same devastation, he could
not have kept his command together five minutes. In other words, it is success
in the beginning of an action which keeps volunteers together, and disaster or
being checked is sure to throw them into confusion or cause them to run.
Among the wounded was an officer, and from his person was
taken a letter which was evidently written by a person of intelligence and
position. It speaks of their fortifications at Centreville, says they are
prepared for McClellan's attack, that whilst they know an attack from him would
be a military faux pas and cannot but result disastrously, yet their
hopes are based upon the knowledge of the pressure that is being brought to
bear on him by the people of the North, who are ignorant of war and deluded
with an overweening sense of their own power and a blind contempt for their
enemy. This letter has been sent to McClellan. We have heard nothing from them
since our return.
__________
1 Engagement,
Dranesville, Va., December 20, 1861. Federal loss, killed, wounded, and
missing, 68 (O. R.).
2
Brigadier-General Edward O. C. Ord, commanding 3d Brg. Pa. Reserves.
SOURCE: George
Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 1, p. 236-8
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