CAMP NEAR ALEXANDRIA, April
4, 1862.
Everything here has been changed. Just as we were on the eve
of embarking, orders came to proceed by land to Manassas and beyond. The
meaning of this change of movement no one knows. Some say it is due to the
fears of the President for Washington; others that it is a traverse McDowell is
working to get away from McClellan and go it on his own hook. I believe both
causes have conspired to bring it about; but whatever the cause, it is gross
injustice to McClellan to interrupt and interfere with his plans without
consulting him. He has gone down to Old Point in the firm belief and dependence
that McDowell and his corps of forty thousand men would go where he wanted them
to go, instead of which he suddenly hears, or will hear, that they have gone,
under the orders of some one else, in an entirely different direction. How any
man can be expected to carry on a campaign when such interferences and
derangement of plans are perpetrated, surpasses my comprehension. Remember, all
this is confidential; not a word to any one about it. Franklin was off at
daylight and King this afternoon; we (McCall's Division) have not yet gotten
our orders, but expect them momentarily. So far as going by land is concerned,
I am quite satisfied with the change; but I do not like the apparent want of
decision involved in the sudden changing of plans, and I fear, unless we have a
head and one mind to plan, that the old adage of too many cooks, etc., will be
verified.
SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George
Gordon Meade, Vol. 1, p. 256
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