WAR DEPARTMENT,
Washington City, May
12, 1864,
Maj. Gen. GEORGE G. MEADE,
Commanding Army of the Potomac:
GENERAL: This Department congratulates you and your heroic
army, and returns its cordial thanks for their gallant achievements during the
last seven days, and hopes that the valor and skill thus far manifested will be
crowned with the fruits of ultimate and decisive victory. Major-General Wright
has been nominated, and will be confirmed to-day by the Senate, as a major-general
in the place of General Sedgwick. I am informed that all of the other pending
nominations for officers in your command will also be confirmed to-day. The sad
casualties that have befallen the officers of your army leave many vacancies to
be filled, and if you will send me the names of the persons you desire to have
appointed to the rank of brigadier, their nominations will be immediately sent
to the Senate.
I beg to suggest that on the first occasion that may offer
for a flag of truce, every effort be made to recover the remains of the gallant
General Wadsworth, which are understood to be still in the hands of the enemy,
and those of any other officers who may be in a like situation.
Trusting that Divine Providence may have you in His keeping,
in the midst of the dangers that now surround you, I remain,
Truly, yours,
EDWIN M. STANTON,
Secretary of War.
[Memorandum of answer.]
I have the honor to acknowledge your kind letter of
congratulation, and on behalf of this army to return you my thanks for the
same. I have communicated to the army the high appreciation entertained by the
Department of its services, and I feel confident this appreciation will prove a
great incentive to future exertions. I shall avail myself of your generous
offer to promote deserving officers, and will, so soon as I can confer with
corps commanders, present a list of names for your action.
MEADE.
SOURCES: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume
36, Part 2 (Serial No. 68), p. 654; George Meade, The Life and Letters
of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 2, p. 196
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