Friday, February 13, 2015

Major-General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Meade, March 13, 1865

Headquarters Army Of The Potomac, March 13, 1865.

I wish you would think favorably of my proposition to take a trip to the army. I think it would arouse you and distract your mind.

You do not do justice quite to the court of inquiry. The finding is a complete vindication of my part in the operation. I enclose a slip from the Army and Navy Journal, which gives in full the “Finding of the Court,” the papers having only published that portion in which individual officers are censured by name.1 On reading this you will see the court states that, had my orders been carried out, success was certain, and that failure was due to the neglect of my orders by Major General Burnside and others. It is true the court might have amplified this much more than it did, and not ignored altogether Burnside's extraordinary course, in the withdrawal of his command, which was the cause of our great loss. The Richmond papers say Hampton has whipped Kilpatrick, and we have a despatch from Sheridan reporting the occupation of Charlottesville and destruction of the James River Canal.
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1 For article mentioned, see Appendix T.

SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 2, p. 267

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