CAMP AT CATLETT'S
STATION, April 19, 1862.
My last letter was written from Manassas Junction. Yesterday
we broke up that camp and marched to this point, which is twelve miles farther
on the railroad from Alexandria to Gordonsville. I do 'not know the object of
our being moved here, except that we are nearer the Rappahannock and
Fredericksburg. The railroad we are on crosses the Rappahannock about fifteen miles
from here. At this point the enemy have destroyed the bridge, and it is said
have a force of some ten thousand behind earthworks, on the other side,
determined to prevent our rebuilding the bridge. Yesterday a brigade under
Abercrombie advanced to that point and exchanged artillery shots with the
enemy, without injury to either side. Abercrombie is still there, and the
railroad to that point is being repaired. When this is done, I suppose we will
be pushed forward and the enemy dislodged from the other side, unless in the
meantime it is determined to go from here to Fredericksburg, which is only
twenty-eight miles from here. McDowell went yesterday to Washington, intending
to go down to Acquia Creek, and sent from hence under Augur a brigade of
infantry and two regiments of cavalry to Fredericksburg. At Falmouth, a place
on the Rappahannock, some five miles from Fredericksburg, and where there was a
bridge, our advance of cavalry was fired upon from an ambuscade and some twenty-two
saddles emptied, Bayard (the colonel in command) having his horse shot under
him, but he was not touched. Our men charged and drove the enemy (a Mississippi
regiment) before them and over the bridge, which they set fire to in their
retreat; but our people were in time to extinguish the fire and save a great
portion of the structure. I have always believed they would resist our advance
on Richmond, and have no doubt by the time we get across the Rappahannock,
whether we cross at Fredericksburg or at the railroad crossing near here, that
they will have assembled a force sufficiently large to give us all the glory we
want in overcoming it.
SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George
Gordon Meade, Vol. 1, p. 260-1
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