FALMOUTH, VA., April
12, 1863.
I feel very sad when I think of young Dehon and Hamilton
Kuhn, both so full of life and promising so much; to be cut off in the way they
were, is truly mournful, and I feel sometimes as if I was individually
responsible, and in some measure the cause of the misfortune of their friends.
I have had another hard day's work. No sooner had the
President left, than a Major General Follarde, of the Swiss army, comes down
here, with orders to Hooker to show him every attention, and as he does not
speak English, and I have some pretensions to speaking French, Hooker turned
him over to me, and I have, to-day, been taking him all through my camps and
showing him my command. He seems like all foreign officers of rank, intelligent
and educated. He expressed himself delighted and wonder-struck with all he saw,
and says our troops will compare favorably with the best troops in Europe, and
he has seen them all. If he goes back to Philadelphia, I will give him a letter
to you, for I think he will interest you.
I note what you say of General Hooker. I think he will
outlive that scandal, for it most certainly is a scandal. Whatever may have
been his habits in former times, since I have been associated with him in the
army I can bear testimony of the utter falsehood of the charge of drunkenness.
I spoke to the President when here about Franklin, and
endeavored to convince him that the whole affair turned on a misapprehension,
Burnside thinking he was saying and ordering one thing and Franklin
understanding another. I know that Franklin did not, nor did any of
those around him, believe or understand that Burnside intended our attack for
the main attack, which Burnside now avers was always his intention.
SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George
Gordon Meade, Vol. 1, p. 365-6
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