April 18, 1863.
To-day is fine and beautiful, and if we only have a continuance
of such weather, we shall soon be on the move. I suppose the sooner we get off
the better. General Hooker seems to be very sanguine of success, but is
remarkably reticent of his information and plans; I really know nothing of what
he intends to do, or when or where he proposes doing anything. This secrecy I
presume is advantageous, so far as it prevents the enemy's becoming aware of
our plans. At the same time it may be carried too far, and important plans may
be frustrated by subordinates, from their ignorance of how much depended on
their share of the work. This was the case at Fredericksburg. Franklin was not
properly advised, that is to say, not fully advised, as to Burnside's plan. I
am sure if he had been so advised, his movements would have been different.
I suppose you have seen Jeff Davis's proclamation on the
subject of food. It undoubtedly is a confession of weakness, but we should be
very careful how we allow ourselves to be led astray by it. Not a single
exertion on our part should be relaxed, not a man less called out than before.
We might as well make up our minds to the fact that our only hope of peace is
in the complete overpowering of the military force of the South, and to do this
we must have immense armies to outnumber them everywhere. I fear, however, that
this plain dictate of common sense will never have its proper influence.
Already I hear a talk of not enforcing the conscription law. Certainly no such
efforts are being made to put the machinery of the law into motion as would
indicate an early calling out of the drafted men. In the course of the next
month and the one ensuing, all the two-year and nine-month men go out of
service. Of the latter class there were called out three hundred thousand. How
many are in service I don't know. I do know, however, that this army loses in
the next twenty days nearly twenty-five thousand men, and that I see no
indication of their being replaced. Over eight thousand go out of my corps
alone. These facts have been well-known at Washington for some time past, and
pressed upon the attention of the authorities, and perhaps arrangements unknown
to me have been made to meet the difficulty.
SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George
Gordon Meade, Vol. 1, p. 366-7
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