Brigadier General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Meade, August 31, 1862

CENTREVILLE, August 31,1862.

I write to advise you that after three days' continuous fighting I am all safe and well.¹ Old Baldy was hit in the leg, but not badly hurt. Willie (your brother) I saw this morning, all safe — Willie Watmough also. All your friends, I believe, are safe. I have had several officers and many men killed and wounded, but no one that you know particularly. We have been obliged to fall back from the old Bull Run battle-field, where we fought. The enemy are superior in force and flushed with their success. We are in a critical position, but I trust will get out of it. This result is no more than might have been known by any one who looked upon things in their proper light.

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¹ Second Battle of Bull Run, Va., August 28-30, 1862. Federal loss, killed, wounded, and missing, 14,462 (O. R.).

SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 1, p. 306

Brigadier General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Meade, July 1, 1862

CITY POINT¹, HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, July 1, 1862.

Dear Margaret:

After four days’ fighting, last evening, about 7 P. M., I received a wound in the arm and back.² Fortunately I met Dr. Stocker, and got hold of a little cart I had, in which I was brought here. Dr. Stocker says my wounds are not dangerous, though they require immediate and constant medical attendance. I am to leave in the first boat for Old Point, and from thence home. Kuhn, I fear, is killed. Willie Watmough³ was not hurt, the last I saw of him. Good-by!

Yours,

G. G. MEADE.

__________

¹ This should be opposite City Point.

² The ball entered the side and came out at the back. In the hurried examination he probably heard, or was told, that he had been struck in the back. This seemed to worry him more than the fact of being wounded, for all through the watches of the long night he would revert to the thought, saying to Dr. Stocker, “Just think, doctor, of my being shot in the back!”

³ Lieutenant Watmough did, as previously stated, receive a wound.

SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 1, p. 299-300

Brigadier General George G. Meade to Margaretta Sergeant Meade, September 22, 1861

IN CAMP, September 22, 1861.

I hope you will not be very much put out at not receiving a letter earlier from me, but I have really been very much occupied, and yesterday, in addition to other duties, we had a grand division review for the Prince de Joinville¹ and others. I was so sorry you and Sergeant² had gone. The review passed off very well, pretty much the same as you saw, except that, having been advised of the arrival of the distinguished strangers only the night before, Gauttier did not have the privilege of sticking McCall for a fine collation. McClellan, however, took the Frenchmen over to the Chain Bridge and by Ball's Cross-Roads.

I felt very sad when you drove off, and could hardly shake off the idea that I was looking on you perhaps for the last time — at any rate, for a long while; but I trust matters will be more favorable to us, and that it will please a just and merciful Providence to permit us to be happy once more, united, and free from immediate trouble. There has been nothing new since you left. We have daily the usual announcement that the enemy have been seen somewhere above us, on the opposite side; but they confine their operations to letting us see them. What they are going to do, no one without the gift of second sight can possibly imagine. In the meantime we are becoming better prepared to meet them, and after awhile if they don't show themselves, I presume we shall have to hunt them up. I find camp life agrees very well with me, and the active duties I have entered on are quite agreeable. Sometimes I have a little sinking at the heart, when I reflect that perhaps I may fail at the grand scratch; but I try to console myself with the belief that I shall probably do as well as most of my neighbors, and that your firm faith must be founded on some reasonable groundwork.

William Palmer brought Kuhn³ out to see me, who presented letters from Harrison Smith⁴ and Henry Fisher, asking me to assist him in procuring a staff appointment. He said he supposed my staff was full, but would be glad to serve on it as a volunteer, as pay was no object to him, but simply a position and a chance to see service. While I was talking to him I received Charley Cadwalader’s letter. I then told him C.’s declination made a vacancy, but I did not know whether I could appoint a civilian, not commissioned in the volunteers; that McClellan, McCall and myself were trying to have young Watmough⁵ appointed in this manner, which if we succeeded in would be a precedent. He expressed himself greatly pleased, and said he would await the result in Washington.

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¹ Third son of Louis Philippe, King of the French 1830-1848.

² Son of General Meade.

³ James Hamilton Kuhn, of Philadelphia, afterward A. D. C. to General Meade and killed at the Seven Days' Battle, June 30, 1862.

⁴ Brother-in-law of Mrs. Meade.

⁵ William Watmough, cousin of Mrs. Meade, afterward A. D. C. to General Meade.

SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Vol. 1, p. 219-20