CITY POINT, VA., July 7, 1864—8 a.m.
(Received 6 p.m.)
A change in the commander of the Army of the Potomac now
seems probable. Grant has great confidence in Meade, and is much attached to
him personally, but the almost universal dislike of Meade which prevails among
officers of every rank who come in contact with him, and the difficulty of
doing business with him felt by every one except Grant himself, so greatly
impair his capacities for usefulness and render success under his command so
doubtful that Grant seems to be coming to the conviction that he must be relieved.
The facts in the matter have come very slowly to my knowledge, and it was not
until yesterday that I became certain of some of the most important. I have
long known Meade to be a man of the worst possible temper, especially toward
his subordinates. I do not think he has a friend in the whole army. No man, no
matter what his business or his service, approaches him without being insulted
in one way or another, and his own staff officers do not dare to speak to him,
unless first spoken to, for fear of either sneers or curses. The latter,
however, I have never heard him indulge in very violently, but he is said to
apply them often without occasion and without reason. At the same time—as far
as I am able to ascertain—his generals have lost their confidence in him as a
commander. His order for the last series of assaults upon Petersburg, in which
he lost 10,000 men without gaining any decisive advantage, was to the effect
that he had found it impracticable to secure the co-operation of corps
commanders, and therefore each one was to attack on his own account and do the
best he could by himself. Consequently each gained some advantage of position,
but each exhausted his own strength in so doing, while for the want of a
general purpose and a general commander to direct and concentrate the whole, it
all amounted to nothing but heavy loss to ourselves. Of course there are
matters about which I cannot make inquiries, but what I have above reported is
the general sense of what seems to be the opinion of fair-minded and zealous
officers. For instance, I know that General Wright has said to a confidential
friend that all of Meade's attacks have been made without brains and without
generalship. The subject came to pretty full discussion at Grant's headquarters
last night on occasion of a correspondence between Meade and Wilson. The
Richmond Examiner charges Wilson with stealing not only negroes and horses, but
silver plate and clothing on his raid, and Meade, taking the statement of the
Examiner for truth, reads Wilson a lecture and calls on him for explanations.
Wilson deities the charges of robbing women and churches, and hopes Meade will
not be ready to condemn his command because its operations have excited the ire
of the public enemy. This started the conversation in which Grant expressed
himself quite frankly as to the general trouble with Meade and his fear that it
would become necessary to relieve him. In such event he said it would be
necessary to put Hancock in command.
C. A. DANA.
Hon. E. M. STANTON.
SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume
40, Part 1 (Serial No. 80), p. 35-6
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