Headquarters Army Of The Potomac,
Easter Sunday, March
27, 1864.
Your letter of the 25th inst. arrived this afternoon. I am very
much distressed to hear of Sergeant's continued weakness. As to my going home,
that is utterly out of the question. You must not expect to see me till next
winter, unless, as before, I am brought home on a litter. Whatever occurs, I
shall not voluntarily leave the field.
We have had most interesting services to-day by Bishop
Whipple, who administered the Holy Communion to quite a number of officers and
soldiers, hastily collected from the staff and the detachments on duty at these
headquarters. We had afternoon services, and afterwards the bishop and his
assistant, with General Seth Williams, dined with me. The bishop brought down
with him a magnificent bouquet of flowers, with which our rude altar was
adorned. The bishop is a most interesting man, about forty years of age, but
full of life and energy. He preached two most appropriate and impressive
discourses, well adapted to all classes of his hearers.
General Grant went up to Washington to-day, expecting to
return to-morrow. You do not do Grant justice, and I am sorry to see it. You do
not make a distinction between his own acts and those forced on him by the
Government, Congress and public opinion. If left to himself, I have no doubt
Grant would have let me alone; but placed in the position he holds, and with
the expectations formed of him, if operations on a great scale are to be
carried on here, he could not well have kept aloof. As yet he has indicated no
purpose to interfere with me; on the contrary, acts promptly on all my
suggestions, and seems desirous of making his stay here only the means of
strengthening and increasing my forces. God knows I shall hail his advent with
delight if it results in carrying on operations in the manner I have always
desired they should be carried on. Cheerfully will I give him all credit if he
can bring the war to a close.
SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George
Gordon Meade, Vol. 2, p. 184-5
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