Monday, August 3,
1863.
I send a few lines by Sergeant,1 who returns
to-day. We see by the Herald that two of General Meade's sons are
drafted, and the inference is that Sergeant's name has been drawn, and he ought
therefore to be at home to attend to it. He has had a very nice time, of which
he will give you the particulars. There was a handsome little fight that
Buford's cavalry had day before yesterday, that he might have seen, but the
weather was very warm and the scene of operations quite distant from my
headquarters, so I did not say anything to him about it. He will give you all
the news and tell you all my troubles.
The Government, for some reason best known to itself, has
ordered me to cease the pursuit of Lee, though I strongly recommended an
advance. This is confidential, though the newspapers for some days have been
announcing that I would have to assume the defensive. Halleck in one despatch
said it was because a considerable part of my army would be required to enforce
the draft, but afterwards said he would only require sixteen hundred men, which
I have sent. I don't know what this all means, but I suppose in time it will
all come right.
_______________
1 Son of General Meade.
SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George
Gordon Meade, Vol. 2, p. 141
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