Spottsylvania Court House Battle-field, May 15, 9 P.
M.
A lull in the roar of battle enables me to write you a few
lines. It has been raining hard, both yesterday and to-day, putting the roads
in such condition as to compel both armies to keep still — a rest that the men
on both sides were glad to have. I do not see the papers, and therefore cannot
tell how true their accounts are, and I have not time to give you any details.
I think we have gained decided advantages over the enemy; nevertheless, he
confronts us still, and, owing to the strong position he occupies, and the
works he is all the time throwing up, the task of overcoming him is a very
difficult one, taxing all our energies. I send you a letter received from the Secretary of War, for safe keeping, as it shows I am not utterly ignored by the
Department. General Grant showed me a despatch he had written to the War
Department, speaking in complimentary terms of my services, and asking I be
made a major general in the regular army. I told him I was obliged to him for
his good opinion, but that I asked and expected nothing from the Government,
and that I did not myself attach any importance to being in the regular army,
so long as I held an equal rank in the volunteer service. What the result will
be I cannot tell.
SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George
Gordon Meade, Vol. 2, p. 195
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