FALMOUTH, VA., April 5,
1863.
Yesterday I received yours of the 2d instant, announcing you
had been to Bailey's to see my sword. I saw the item in the Inquirer you
allude to, and was not a little taken down by another in the next column, in
which the presentation fever was most justly inveighed against. I did all I
could to prevent anything being given to me, and on several occasions when I
was approached to know what I would like to have, I always refused to take
anything, and earnestly requested as a personal favor to have the thing
stopped. This last affair was gotten up after I had left the division, and the
first I knew of it was that the sword had been ordered and would soon be ready
for presentation. There is to be a grand jollification at Willard's, I hear, on
the occasion, when the Governor and divers other big-bugs will be present to
gas and make me feel uncomfortable. I would give a good deal to escape this
ordeal, and am in hopes we shall be on the move before they get ready. I would
much prefer the men giving their money to their wives, or, if they are not so
blessed, to the widows and orphans that the war has made. I see by the Inquirer
of yesterday that the 18th instant is the day appointed for the
presentation, but I rather think that by that date I shall have other work on
hand.
Some one has sent me a copy of the Evening Journal with
Wilkeson's letter about Birney in it.
SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George
Gordon Meade, Vol. 1, p. 362-3
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