December 13, 1864
As the Rebels have
known the fact for some time, and as the newspapers have hinted at it in
unmistakable terms, I conceive there is no impropriety in my saying that we have
now with us the 6th Corps once again. A week ago Sunday night the first
division came from City Point on the cars, having come straight from the
neighborhood of Winchester by car and boat. The next morning we were treated to
the sight of the familiar red crosses, and soon General Wheaton rode up, to see
the General and report. . . . Very loath were the Sixth Corps bucks to leave
the valley (where they had plenty of sheep and chickens and victories, and no
fighting except in the regular battles), and come to a place with which they
only connected more or less fighting, day and night (rather more than less),
much dust, heat, and drought, and no particular victories. However, they find
things better now, and will doubtless get contented in time. What must have
gratified them was that they relieved Crawford's division of the 5th Corps, on
the line, and took possession of their very nice log huts, which had been
carefully constructed uniformly in all the brigades. Crawford's people by no
means saw the thing in the same light. They took down their canvas roofs and
rolled them up with dudgeon, and marched off to take a temporary camp, previous
to the Weldon road expedition. I rode along the breastworks as the red crosses
marched into the deserted camps, and observed the aspect of grim satisfaction
with which the new comers went about, looking into the abandoned huts. The
luxurious Crawford had his nice log cabin taken down and carted to his new
locality. “However,” said Wheaton, “I slept in Crawford's kitchen, and that was
good enough for me.” On Tuesday came the 3d division, also with a new
commander, for brave General Ricketts lies at Washington, still suffering from
his wound; and General Seymour, he who was taken the second day of the
Wilderness, has the command. Seymour is a fiery and irrepressible sort of
party, and enraged the inhabitants of Charlottesville beyond measure. When they
told him they had had most extraordinary victories over Grant, he made them a
speech, in which he said it didn't make any sort of difference how many
victories they had, it wouldn't do them any sort of good; that in every battle
we killed off a good many of them, and that we intended to keep piling up men
indefinitely, until they knocked under, or were all shot! This enraged them
much, and they invited him to air himself for sixteen miles on foot, after it. . . . It was only last Monday that the 2d
division got here, under Getty, and with it came General Wright, commanding the
corps. Good General Wright, though always pleasant, is, I think rather in low
spirits. He has had poor luck, on numerous occasions, and it culminated at
Cedar Creek, where he chanced to have command of the army when it was
surprised. He had rallied it, when Sheridan arrived on the field; but of course
Sheridan had the credit of the victory, and indeed he deserved it. All the
officers say that Wright made prodigious exertions and rode along all parts of
the line in the hottest fire.
SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s
Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness
to Appomattox, p. 298-300
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