CAMP NEAR FALMOUTH, VA.,
February 6, 1863.
To-day an order is issued abolishing grand divisions and
returning to the system of corps. I am announced as in command of the Fifth Corps.
This is what I expected and accords with my ideas of what is best for the
efficiency of the army. Baldy Smith has been relieved of his command and
Sedgwick takes his corps — cause unknown, but supposed to be his affiliation
with Franklin, and the fear that he would not co-operate with Hooker. This,
however, is mere surmise, I have not seen any one to know or hear what is going
on.
Last evening I received orders to send out an expedition
this morning, which I did; but it has been storming violently all day, and this
afternoon I sent to recall it. The Ninth Corps, which came with Burnside from
North Carolina, is not announced in the order published to-day, and I hear it
is under orders to move — where it is going, not known, but the probability is
that Burnside has asked to have it with him, in case he returns to North
Carolina.
The news from Charleston1 looks very badly, I
hope our friend Frailey will come out all right. Stellwagon of the Mercedita,
if you remember we met at Mrs. Frailey's last summer, the evening I went in
there. Our navy has hitherto been so successful, that it seems hard to realize
a reverse.
I do not know what to make of the political condition of the
country. One thing I do know, I have been long enough in the war to want to
give them one thorough good licking before any peace is made, and to accomplish
this I will go through a good deal.
__________
1 Confederate gun-boats under Com. Ingraham broke
the Federal blockade at Charleston, S. C.
SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George
Gordon Meade, Vol. 1, p. 353-4
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