Headquarters Army Of The Potomac, June 24, 1864.
Our operations here for the last few days, though not so
heavy as prior to the 18th, have still been very active. We have been extending
our lines around Petersburg, and have encountered considerable opposition from
the enemy, which has somewhat checked the rapidity of our progress.
I am sorry to see the feeling you report as existing with
certain persons. Despondency is never going to get us through this war, and
although this army has not accomplished all that ignorant people anticipated,
it has really done more than could reasonably have been counted on. Our losses,
it is true, have been large, but not larger than is incidental to operations of
the character of ours, being offensive, and conducted on so grand a scale, with
such numbers. Fifty days' constant marching and fighting has undoubtedly had
its influence on the army, and its condition is not what it was when we first
crossed the Rapidan.
On the 18th I assaulted several times the enemy's positions,
deliberately, and with the expectation of carrying them, because I had positive
information the enemy had not occupied them more than twelve hours, and that no
digging had been done on the lines prior to their occupation. Nevertheless, I
failed, and met with serious loss, principally owing to the moral condition of
the army; for I am satisfied, had these assaults been made on the 5th and 6th
of May, we should have succeeded with half the loss we met.
Another inconvenience we suffer from is in the loss of
superior and other officers. Hancock's Corps has lost twenty brigade
commanders, and the rest of the army is similarly situated. We cannot replace
the officers lost with experienced men, and there is no time for reorganization
or careful selection. At the same time you must remember the enemy labors under
like disadvantages. I conversed with some prisoners yesterday, who said they
were completely exhausted, having had no rest or sleep for days, and being
compelled to be all the time marching. I said to one of them, “Well, we will
treat you well,” and he replied, “Oh, sir, you cannot treat us worse than we
are treated on the other side.” In flags of truce, and on all occasions that we
meet the rebel officers, they always begin conversation by asking when the war
is going to be over, and expressing themselves as most heartily tired and
anxious for peace. I believe these two armies would fraternize and make peace
in an hour, if the matter rested with them; not on terms to suit politicians on
either side, but such as the world at large would acknowledge as honorable, and
which would be satisfactory to the mass of people on both sides. But while I
ardently desire peace, and think a settlement not impracticable, I am opposed
to any cessation of our efforts so long as the war has to be continued, and I
regret to see symptoms of a discontent which, if persisted in, must paralyze
our cause. Again, it is impossible for me personally to avoid my share of the
odium, if any is to be cast on this army. I complain, and I think justly, that
the press and the Government despatches fail to acknowledge my services, but I
cannot reasonably do this, and expect to be shielded from complaints, if any
are made of the operations.
You know I have never shut my eyes to the obstacles we have to
encounter, and have always appreciated the difficulties to be overcome. The
campaign, thus far, has been pretty much what I expected; if anything, rather
greater obstacles than I anticipated. I still believe, with the liberal supply
of men and means which our superior resources ought to furnish, we will win in
the long run; but it is a question of tenacity and nerve, and it won't do to look
behind, or to calculate the cost in blood and treasure; if we do we are lost
and our enemies succeed. You may remember I told the good people of
Philadelphia, that what we wanted was men, fighting men; that the war could
only be closed by desperate and bloody fighting; and the sooner the people
realize this, and give evidence of their appreciation by coming forward to
fight, the better.
I am well and seem to improve on hard work. I have had only
three hours' sleep for several nights past.
SOURCE: George Meade, The
Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 2, p. 206-8
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