Camp Near Frederick, Maryland,
September 13, 1862.
My dear cousin:
I have just received your letter of the 10th ultimo. You are
mistaken in thinking I was offended at your criticism on the conduct of our
Generals in carrying on the war. I recollect your letter perfectly, and my
recollection is that I answered it at once. I do not undertake to uphold all of
the Generals, but this much I may venture to say, that if the Government had kept
the promises made, there might have been a very different result. With us it
has been a war carried on by politicians; with them there has been but one
head, and that a sound one. I have nothing with which to reproach myself. For
three years I have not slept absent from my command, for two years I have not
lived in a house; my division has been in as many engagements as any other,
with two exceptions, and we have never been driven from the field, and I
challenge comparison with any other.
Our men's hearts are not in the fight, and theirs are; and
as long as such are the facts, success will not attend us.
I hope some day to go home and die at the old place and be
buried beside my and your father.
Yours truly,
J. S.
SOURCES: George William Curtis, Correspondence of
John Sedgwick, Major-General, Volume 2, p. 81-2
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