Headquarters Army Of
Potomac
October 23, 1863
And where do you think I was all yesterday? I will tell you.
Early, the orderly, poked his head into the tent saying: “Colonel Lyman, the General
will have breakfast at seven” (which was an hour earlier than he had said the
night before). As soon as I sat down, says the General: “I am going to Washington;
would you like to go?” . . .
Major-General Humphreys said he too would go, and the General's son George
completed the party. In much haste I ran, and crammed my best coat, pantaloons,
shoes, sash, gauntlets, and brushes into my big saddle-bags, the which I
entrusted to a mounted orderly. Thereupon we speedily got on horseback, and
first rode to General Sedgwick (familiarly called “Uncle John”), to whom
General Meade handed over the command, in his absence at Washington, to consult
about the late moves and those consequent on them. Uncle John received the
heavy honors in a smiling and broad-shouldered style, and wished us all a good
journey, for he is a cheery soul. With little delay, we again mounted and rode
twelve miles, briskly, to Gainesville, whither the railroad comes. The Chief
stepped into a little room, used as a telegraph-office, and, quicker than
winking, he stood, arrayed only in his undergarments; then, before, almost, I
could get my coat off, he had put on a pair of shoes, a new coat, and an
elegant pair of trousers! “Now then, Lyman, are you ready? Where’s Humphreys?
Humphreys is always late! Come, come along, the train is going to start!” You
should have seen the unfortunate Aide — his coat unbuttoned, his shoestrings
loose; on one arm the saddle-bags, on the other, his sword, sash, etc., etc.,
and he hastening after the steam-engine Meade! However I completed my toilette
in the car, which was all to ourselves; and flatter myself that my appearance
was considerably peacock. We went rattling and bumping over a railroad that
reminded me of the one from Civita Vecchia, to Manassas Junction, and thence to
Washington, over a route I have already described to you when I came down. Only
this time we came through Alexandria, and, instead of taking there a boat, kept
on and went across the long bridge, going thus into the very city by the rail.
There was a carriage from Willard's awaiting us; the guard-post near by turned
out in our honor, and we drove in great state to General Halleck's office;
where General Meade went in and held a solemn pow-wow; the two came forth
presently and walked over to the White-House, where they held another pow-pow
with the President. Captain George and I, meanwhile, studied the exterior
architecture, and I observed a blind had been blown off and broken and allowed
to lie outside. In fact they have a nigger negligence, to a considerable
extent, in this half-cooked capital.
SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s
Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness
to Appomattox, p. 36-8
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