Headquarters Army Of Potomac
In The Field, October 16, 1863
Contrary to expectation to-day has been a quiet one for us;
and I have not left camp. The Rebels toward evening went feeling along our line
about three miles from here with cavalry and artillery, and kept up a desultory
cannonade, which, I believe, hurt nobody. Early this morning two batches of
prisoners, some 600 in all, were marched past, on their way to Washington. They
looked gaunt and weary, and had, for the most part, a dogged air. Many were
mere boys and these were mostly hollow-cheeked and pale, as if the march were
too much for them. Their clothes were poor, some of a dust-color, and others
dirty brown, while here and there was a U.S. jacket or a pair of trousers, the
trophies of some successful fight. Some were wittily disposed. One soldier of
ours cried out: “Broad Run is a bad place for you, boys.” “Ya-as,” said a
cheery man in gray, “but it’s puty rare you get such a chance.” An hour before
daylight came General Warren, exhausted with two nights’ marching, and a day's
fight, but springy and stout to the last. "We whipped the Rebs right
out," he said. “I ran my men, on the double-quick, into the railroad cut
and then just swept them down with musketry.” I got up and gave him a little
brandy that was left in my flask; he then lay down and was fast asleep in about
a minute. To-day they brought here the five cannon he took; they got the horses
of only one piece, four miserable thin animals, that had once been large and
good. I ought to say there are two very distinct classes among the prisoners.
Yesterday they brought in a splendid-looking Virginian, a cavalry man. He was
but poorly clad and was an uneducated person, but I never saw any one more at
ease, while, at the same time, perfectly innocent and natural. “You fellers”
was the way in which he designated General Meade and two other major-generals.
When asked where Zeb [sic] Stuart
was, he replied, with a high degree of vagueness: “Somewheres back here, along
with the boys.” . . .
SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s
Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness
to Appomattox, p. 32-3
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