CAMP NEAR STAFFORD
COURT HOUSE, VA., November 20, 1862.
The occupation of the march the last few days has prevented
my writing to you. I suppose you have seen in the papers the order dividing the
army into three grand divisions, and giving the command of certain corps to the
senior officers on duty with those corps. This places General Butterfield in
command of Porter's corps. General Butterfield is my junior, and I am his only
senior on duty with this army. I thought that both Stoneman and A. S. Williams
had divisions, both of whom are my seniors; but to-day I find Stoneman has a
corps and that Williams is not with this army, having been left on the Potomac.
Hence I am the only general who is affected by the giving a corps to
Butterfield. I saw to-day Franklin and Baldy Smith, who referred to this
matter, and said Burnside did not know how to arrange it otherwise, and they
thought if I made an application to Burnside and gave him any chance of acting,
that he would assign me to the corps. This, however, is a very delicate matter,
and I have seen several cases where such action has ended to the discomfiture
of the protestant. I will, however, see Parke and have a talk with him, and see
how the land lies, and if there is any prospect of effecting any good, I will
act. I presume you understand the question. General Butterfield does not
command me, but his command being a corps, and I his senior, in command only of
a division, I have a right to complain; just as I did when, in command of a
brigade, so many of my juniors were commanding divisions. Again, Martindale
belongs to that corps, and will doubtless, now that he is acquitted by the
court, return to duty, and he is my senior, and would have the right to command
it.
I presume you have seen Halleck's letter in regard to the
supplying of the army. It is a piece of special pleading well worthy the brain
of General Halleck, but unfortunately there are too many facts in the
possession of this army to disprove all he asserts, which I trust McClellan
will now come out publicly and expose. My letters to you of themselves are
sufficient evidence, and nearly every general officer in the army can testify
to the same facts, viz., that their requisitions for clothing, ammunition and
other supplies, made early in October, were not filled till the end of the
month, just before the movement across the river began. But what are truths and
facts against political and personal malice and vindictiveness?
SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George
Gordon Meade, Vol. 1, p. 329-30
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