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Chapter Eight: “Pack Up and March,” August–October 1863
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119 Chapter E ight “Pack Up and March” August—October 1863 The Army of the Potomac I should have no objection to serving out the remainder of my term in camp here, but it is not our habit to stay long in so nice a place, and now we are almost momentarily expecting to receive the order to pack up and march at a double quick pace. . . . —Private Wilbur Fisk, Second Vermont Volunteers, Army of the Potomac, July 28, 1863 George Meade was steaming over his treatment by Washington leadership after Gettysburg. It was clear to Meade, after less than a month in command, that the Army of the Potomac was being directed from Washington with only minor input from the field generals. Meade doubted privately—in letters to his wife—that he had the necessary temperament to deal with the deskbound second-guessers in the Federal capital. After all, he wrote to his wife, the enemy had been driven “from our soil” (a phrase that he used after the battle of Gettysburg in his July 4 General Order 68 to the troops). There was no urgency in pursuing Lee because his army was back in the Confederacy. When Lincoln read Meade’s General Order 68, he was furious with its premise: “Will our generals never get that idea out of their heads? The whole country is our soil.” 120 Your Brother in Arms By the end of July, the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia were back where they had been at the end of June. Meade had some legitimate concerns about blindly pursuing Lee. First, he suspected Lee was quite capable of drawing the Army of the Potomac across the Rappahannock and then trapping them—to use Lincoln’s metaphor—“like an ox jumped half over a fence.” Meade also recognized that his army had been significantly depleted by high numbers of both desertions and casualties and that his remaining men were exhausted from the exertions of the last month. His troops were utterly fatigued, and he had no reserves waiting in the wings. Meade’s lingering self-doubts as an effective leader of the Army of the Potomac and his frustration with the direction he was getting from Washington caused him to submit his resignation. He did not press the matter when his superiors in Washington ignored his request and instead sent him an overdue accolade in the form of a compliment from Halleck for his “superior generalship .” Tepid as the accolade may have been, Meade knew that if he resigned his position as commander of the Army of the Potomac that Lincoln had no qualified candidate for the position among Meade’s subordinates now that Reynolds was dead and Hancock was recovering from a serious and disabling wound received at Gettysburg. Washington leadership concurred that the slate of generals available to replace “Old Snapping Turtle” was weak. Consistently and unequivocally loyal to the Union cause and to the army, Meade put aside his pride and continued to serve as the commanding general of the Army of the Potomac. Meade’s staying did not result in his becoming more aggressive in pursuing Lee. Over the next two months, Meade had his army repeatedly crossing back and forth over the Rappahannock in a series of tentative thrusts at the Army of Northern Virginia. Some skirmishes resulted, but, for the most part, the Union army spent the late summer and early fall feebly sparring with an elusive Lee and his army. Meanwhile, Lincoln’s star general was distinguishing himself in the western theater of war. After his capture of Vicksburg, Ulysses S. Grant was promoted by Lincoln to major general in the Regular Army for his performance. To Grant’s detractors, Lincoln countered: “I can’t spare this man. He fights.” In retaining Meade, Lincoln knew that Grant could be brought in to shore up Meade if the situation warranted. George Meade would continue in his position in the Army of the Potomac, where he had proven to be marginally effective, until such time as Grant’s style of aggressive, bold generalship was needed to achieve a decisive victory over Confederate forces. [T] he soldiers of the Army of the Potomac had seen many things, but they had never seen anything like the habits and morals of these new comrades in [54.166.234.171] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 06:36 GMT) “Pack Up and March,” August—October 1863 121 arms. . . . The men who...