CAMP NEAR SHARPSBURG,
MD., October 12, 1862.
Hooker and I are old acquaintances. We were at West Point
together, served in Mexico together, and have met from time to time since. He
is a very good soldier, capital general for an army corps, but I am not
prepared to say as to his abilities for carrying on a campaign and commanding a
large army. I should fear his judgment and prudence, as he is apt to think the
only thing to be done is to pitch in and fight. He injured himself in Mexico by
attaching himself to Pillow and his clique. Soon after the Mexican war, being
in California, he resigned, did not succeed in private life, and at one time I
understood he was quite low in fortune, and was glad to accept the position of
wagon-master. His want of success, added to other causes, led him at this time
into dissipation, and many of his friends thought he was ruined and gone. At
the commencement of these troubles he repaired to Washington, and through
California influence procured one of the first appointments as brigadier
general. At Williamsburg he did some desperate fighting, and had a flare up
with Sumner and McClellan. Being always intimate with the President, on
McDowell's being relieved he got his corps, with which he was fortunate at
South Mountain and Antietam. Now he is made, and his only danger is the fear
that he will allow himself to be used by McClellan's enemies to injure him.
Hooker is a Democrat and anti-Abolitionist — that is to say, he was. What he
will be, when the command of the army is held out to him, is more than any one
can tell, because I fear he is open to temptation and liable to be seduced by
flattery.
McClellan does not seem to have made as much out of his
operations in Maryland as I had hoped he would, and as I think he is entitled
to. His failure to immediately pursue Lee (which Hooker would have done), and
now this raid of Stuart's in our rear (for permitting which the public will
hold McClellan accountable), will go far towards taking away from him the
prestige of his recent victories. I don't wish you to mention it, but I think
myself he errs on the side of prudence and caution, and that a little more
rashness on his part would improve his generalship.
Stuart's raid will undoubtedly interfere with our contemplated
movements, for he destroyed at Chambersburg a large amount of clothing destined
for this army, which the men are greatly in need of, and without which they can
hardly move.
SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George
Gordon Meade, Vol. 1, p. 318-9
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