May 25, 1864
Burnside's Corps, hitherto a sort of fifth wheel, was today incorporated
in the A. of P., and so put under Meade. . . . The enemy, with consummate skill, had
run their line like a V,1 with the point on the river, so that our
army would be cut in two, if we attacked, and either wing subject to
defeat; while the enemy, all the time, covered Hanover Junction. At 7.30, I was
sent to General Warren, to stay during the day, as long as anything of interest
was going on, and send orderlies back to report. I found the General among the
pines, about halfway up his line. In front a heavy skirmish was going on, we
trying to push on our skirmish line and they resisting obstinately. Presently
we rode down to where Griffin was, near the spot where the common road crosses
the Gordonsville rail. Griffin always goes sitting in unpleasant places. There
was a sharpshooter or two who, though we were hid by the small trees, would
occasionally send a bullet through, as much as to say: “I know you are there —
I'll hit you presently.” Appleton was shot through the arm near here, while
placing a battery in position. Then we rode to the extreme right, near to the
picket reserve of the 22d Massachusetts. Warren, who is always very kind to me,
told all the others to stay behind, but let me come. We rode under the crests,
and along woods a little, and were not shot at; and went as far as a log barn,
where we stopped carefully on the off side, and talked to the picket
officer. When we left, we cantered gracefully and came off all right. Then to
General Wright at E. Anderson's house; a nice safe place, and the family still
there; likewise iced water, very pleasant this hot weather. After which, once
more for a few minutes to Griffin, passing on the road one of his aides, on a
stretcher, exceeding pale, for he had just been hit in the artery of the arm and
lost a deal of blood before it could be stopped. Also there came a cheery
soldier, shot through the leg, who said: “Never mind, I hit five or six of them
first.” Finally we rode the whole length of Warren's and Crittenden's
lines, seeing Weld on the way. . . .
_______________
1 "Lee, concentrating his troops, interposed
them between the two wings of the Union Army, which were widely separated, and
could reinforce neither the other without passing over the river twice. ‘Grant,’ wrote Nicolay and Hay, ‘was
completely checkmated.’” — Rhodes, IV, 444.
SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s
Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness
to Appomattox, p. 127-8
