HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF POTOMAC
October 19, 1863
It seems to me I had got to Sunday morning, the 11th, when
we began to march back. We started from Headquarters and passed through Brandy
Station, forded the Rappahannock, close to the railroad, and took up our camp
near the railroad and about two miles from the river. . . . This move, though in the wrong
direction, was, without question, a good one, as it bothered the enemy and
caused them to hesitate. ... In the morning we got off about ten (for the
General does not mount till he has heard that the army is properly under way)
and rode along the north side of the railroad, past the camp I first came to
(H.Q. near Warrenton Junction), and so to Catlett's Station, where we found the
1st Corps taking their noon rest; also their chief, General Newton, and General
(Professor) Eustis, partaking from a big basket. A spy came in also, who gave
such information as showed that the Rebels had made less rapid progress than we
supposed. Going a mile or two on, we saw a spectacle such as few even of the
old officers had ever beheld; namely, 2500 waggons, all parked on a great,
open, prairie-like piece of ground, hundreds of acres in extent. I can compare
it to nothing but the camp of Attila, where he retreated after the “Hun
Schlacht,” which we saw at the Berlin Museum. They were here got together, to
be sent off to the right, by Brentsville, to Fairfax Station, under escort of
General Buford's division. How these huge trains are moved over roads not fit
for a light buggy, is a mystery known only to General Rufus Ingalls, who treats
them as if they were so many perambulators on a smooth sidewalk! We turned off
to a house, two miles from Catlett's, and again pitched our movable houses, on
a rocky bit of a field. . . .
At daylight next morning, every corps was in motion,
tramping diligently in the direction of the heights of Centreville, via Manassas
Junction. We of the Staff had hardly dressed, when there was a great cracking
of carbines in the woods, not a mile off, and we discovered that a Rebel
regiment of horse had coolly camped there during the night, and were now
engaged with our cavalry, who soon drove them away. Pretty soon the sound of
cannon, in the direction of Auburn, announced that the Rebels, marching down
from Warrenton, had attacked General Warren's rear. He, however, held them in
check easily with one division, while the other two marched along, passing our
Headquarters at 9.30 A.m. As they went on, I recognized the Massachusetts 20th,
poor Paul Revere's regiment. And so we jogged, General Meade (who has many a
little streak of gunpowder in his disposition) continually bursting out against
his great bugbear, the waggons; and sending me, at full gallop, after
General Sykes, who was a hundred miles, or so, ahead, to tell him that the rear
of his ambulance train was quite unprotected. . . . The 15th was employed in feeling the
intentions of the enemy and resting the exhausted men. On the 16th came on a
deluge of rain which spoiled our contemplated move next day. On the 18th,
yesterday, we got some information of reliable character for the first time,
viz: that they had torn up the railroad and were falling back on Warrenton. Before
that there was every kind of report: that they were going up the Shenandoah
Valley; marching on Washington, and falling back on Richmond; and they keep so
covered by cavalry, that it is most difficult to probe them. Thus far in the
move they have picked up about as many prisoners as we, say 700; but we have
the five guns and two colors, they having none. To-day we all marched out at
daylight, and are now hard after them, the General praying for a battle. Our
cavalry has been heavily engaged this afternoon, and they may make a stand, or
indeed, they may not. I think I was never so well and strong in my life.
General Buford came in to-day, cold and tired and wet; “Oh!” said he to me, “do
you know what I would do if I were a volunteer aide? I would just run home as
fast as I could, and never come back again!” The General takes his hardships
good-naturedly.
[The result of the manoeuvres brought the army toward
Washington, which caused uneasiness and dissatisfaction at the Capitol. “At
Centreville,” writes Lyman, “we had a set-to between Meade and Halleck. Meade
had asked, by telegraph, for some advice, and stated that he was not
sufficiently assured of the enemy's position to risk an advance; so conflicting
were the reports. Halleck, apparently after dinner, replied in substance, ‘Lee
is plainly bullying you. If you can't find him, I can't. If you go and fight him,
you will probably find him!’ General Meade, much offended, prepared a reply in
some such words as these: ‘If you have any orders, I am ready to obey them; but
I must insist on being spared the infliction of such truisms in guise of
opinions as I have recently been favored with. If my course is not
satisfactory, I ought to be and I desire to be relieved.’ He had written ‘bunsby
opinions,’ and consulted me as to whether it would do; to which I replied that
the joke was capital, but not in accordance with the etiquette of a
commander-in-chief; so he substituted the other. Poor General Meade! Said he, ‘I used to think how nice it would be
to be Commander-in-Chief; now, at this moment, I would sooner go, with a
division, under the heaviest musketry fire, than hold my place!’” Lee, finding
that he could not outflank Meade, fell back, and Halleck apologized.]
SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s
Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness
to Appomattox, p. 33-6
