Saturday, February 22, 2014

Major General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Meade, December 9, 1862

CAMP NEAR FREDERICKSBURG, VA., December 9, 1862.

I have not written for two days, having been occupied with the march, as we had to change camp from our position near Acquia Creek Landing to our present location, near the Rappahannock River. The day we moved camp (yesterday) it was very cold, and the ground frozen hard, so that our teams found no difficulty in coming the ten miles of distance. The day before George's regiment moved over here, when Colonel Smith, commanding, took a wrong road, so that they had to march some twenty miles and did not reach their camp till late at night, and as their wagons did not arrive till the next morning, they had to pass the night, a bitter cold one, in the woods, without supper or blankets. However, they borrowed some axes and made big fires, and had, George said, quite a jolly time. George dined with us to-day, and I was at his camp yesterday. The more I see of the regiment, the better satisfied I am with George's being in it. The officers, as a body, are very much superior to any others (except the regulars), and there is a tone, altogether, which is very marked and gratifying. The regiment has been detailed to do duty with Franklin's grand division and separated from Bayard's command. This they do not like, because it cuts them off in a measure from chances of distinction; but this, I fancy, will be no great objection in your mind. I have seen friend Harding's kind notice of my promotion in the Inquirer. I presume you notified him of my telegram. I hope we have not counted our chickens before incubation, but as yet nothing official has reached me.

SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 1, p. 336

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