Brigadier General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Meade, July 1, 1862

CITY POINT¹, HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, July 1, 1862.

Dear Margaret:

After four days’ fighting, last evening, about 7 P. M., I received a wound in the arm and back.² Fortunately I met Dr. Stocker, and got hold of a little cart I had, in which I was brought here. Dr. Stocker says my wounds are not dangerous, though they require immediate and constant medical attendance. I am to leave in the first boat for Old Point, and from thence home. Kuhn, I fear, is killed. Willie Watmough³ was not hurt, the last I saw of him. Good-by!

Yours,

G. G. MEADE.

__________

¹ This should be opposite City Point.

² The ball entered the side and came out at the back. In the hurried examination he probably heard, or was told, that he had been struck in the back. This seemed to worry him more than the fact of being wounded, for all through the watches of the long night he would revert to the thought, saying to Dr. Stocker, “Just think, doctor, of my being shot in the back!”

³ Lieutenant Watmough did, as previously stated, receive a wound.

SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 1, p. 299-300