"Bug eyed old snappin' turtle" General Meade 2 days Before Gettysburg!

Rebforever

Lt. Colonel
Joined
Oct 26, 2012
(Copy to commanding officer Eleventh Army Corps.)

CIRCULAR.] Headquarters Army of the Potomac,

June 30, 1863.

The commanding general requests that previous to the engagement soon expected with the enemy, corps and all other commanding officers address their troops, explaining to them briefly the immense issues involved in the struggle. The enemy are on our soil. The whole country now looks anxiously to this army to deliver it from the presence of the foe. Our failure to do so will leave us no such welcome as the swelling of millions of hearts with pride an joy at our success would give to every soldier of this army. Homes, firesides, and domestic altars are involved. The army has fought well heretofore; it is believed that it will fight more desperately and bravely than over if is addressed in fitting terms. Corps and other commanders are authorized to order the instant death of any soldier who fails in his duty at this hour. By command of Major-General Meade:

S. WILLIAMS,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

Stern orders, don't you think! :cold:

https://ehistory.osu.edu/books/official-records/045/0415

Series 045, Page 1003 is the starting place if one is interested to see the Union orders after General Lee has moved his Army North. To me it is good reading.
 
Meade following General Lee's retreat to Williamsport.

WASHINGTON, July 8, 1863-12. 30 p. m.

Major-General MEADE:

There is reliable information that the enemy is crossing at Williamsport. The opportunity to attack his divided forces should not be lost. The President is urgent and anxious that your army should move against him by forced marches.

H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief.

https://ehistory.osu.edu/books/official-records/045/0605
 
HDQRS. ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, July 8, 1863-3 p. m.

(Received 3. 20 p. m.)

General HALLECK:

My information as to the crossing of the enemy does not agree with that just received in your dispatch. His whole force is in position between Funkstown and Williamsport. I have just received information that he has driven in my cavalry force in front of Boonsborough. My army is and has been making forced marches, short of rations and barefooted. One corps marched yesterday and last night 30 miles. I take occasion to repeat that I will use my utmost effort to push forward this army.

GEO. G. MEADE,

Major-General, Commanding.

https://ehistory.osu.edu/books/official-records/045/0606
 
Yes, sounds like Halleck. I mean, it's Halleck. Guessing most of his dispatches post battle are pretty similar. There were reasons Reynolds and co. refused the job.

You just know Meade had to sit on hands not to reply " OK look, you come here and get this guy. " It wasn't a sterling moment from Washington. Both armies shattered, Gettysburg a shambles and men who'd fought 4 days in heat and dreck not in terrific shape anyway. Must have been maddening to Meade getting these- like he was enjoying a good sleep in his tent, having forgotten Lee's army and required reminders.
 
What is the difference between Lincoln riding Meade after a successful campaign vs Lincoln riding McClellan after a successful campaign? Personal taste?
 
WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, July 8, 1863-12. 30 p. m.

General LORENZO THOMAS,

Harrisburg, Pa.:

Your dispatch of this morning to the Secretary of War is before me. The forces you speak of will be of no imaginable service if they cannot go forward with a little more expedition. Lee is now passing the Potomac faster than the forces you mention are passing Carlisle. Forces now beyond Carlisle to be joined by regiments still at Harrisburg, and the united force again to join Pierce somewhere, and the whole to move down the Cumberland Valley, will, in my unprofessional opinion, be quite as likely to capture the "man in the moon" as any part of Lee's army.

A. LINCOLN.

https://ehistory.osu.edu/books/official-records/045/0612
 
HARRISBURG, PA., July 8, 1863. (Received 5. 10 p. m.)

Honorable E. M. STANTON,

Secretary of War:

Telegram of the President received. It is a slow business to organize militia and put them in march. I am afraid the President supposed the troops in advance were to delay until those behind came up, but not so, as the orders are to press forward. Pierce's infantry have been ordered to the Clear Spring country. The Forty-fifth Regiment, just arrived from Philadelphia, will go forward to Shippensburg without change of cars. Nothing of interest from the front.

L. THOMAS,

Adjutant-General.

https://ehistory.osu.edu/books/official-records/045/0613
 
Honorable E. M. STANTON:

The following sent by operator at Altoona, as received by him from operator at Loudon at 9 a. m.:

A sharp Connecticut horse-drover left Hagerstown yesterday morning. He mingled among the rebel officers and soldiers, and says he heard them say their engineers had raised sunken canal-boats at Williamsport and constructed them into pontoon bridges, and were passing their sick wounded men on Tuesday night, and had begun passing their baggage train early yesterday morning. This is reliable. Meade and Couch had been furnished with the above information.

L. THOMAS,

Adjutant-General.

https://ehistory.osu.edu/books/official-records/045/0619
 
OFFICE PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL, July 9, 1863.

Brigadier-General WILLIAMS,

Assistant Adjutant-General:

GENERAL: I would respectfully present a few facts and suggestions for the consideration of the commanding general.

During the recent engagements, large number of soldier were passed to the rear, not only by surgeons, but by commanding officers, without specifying place; consequently, they were scattered over the whole country in the rear of the line of battle. Large numbers of enlisted men were also found beyond the line of fire, in charge of pack mules, officers' horses, mess establishments, and company and regimental property, as well as guards of general officers, pioneer detachments, entirely unarmed, regimental bands, and field music, scattered all along the rear, all of which were on no duty whatever.

I would respectfully suggest that all musicians be put on hospital duty, in order that others, on such duty, may be relieved that pioneers be compelled to remain with their regiments; that personal guards, excepting such as are absolutely necessary, be ordered to the ranks, and that no enlisted man whatever be permitted to take

charge of officers' private property; that all company and regimental property be carried with the regimental baggage, and that all permits to fall to the rear from line of battle, in time of action, shall specify to what hospital.
Corps and division commanders should point out to their provost-marshall, respectively, their line of battle so soon as formed, that their guards, may be deployed in rear, at proper distances, to check disorder, and, in a crisis, to be put in with the troops. With their respective reserves the provost-marshalls should habitually be found.

Provost-marshall should keep themselves acquainted as to the position of the hospitals of their commands, making frequent inspections of the same, to see that no stragglers and skulkers are gathered there.

On marches, passes given by medical officers to fall out of the ranks are taken advantage of by the men, to quarter themselves at houses along the road, and at considerable distances from it, thus losing all knowledge of the whereabouts of their regiments.

Excepting in cases of absolute necessity, they should be prohibited from entering any house whatever, and this cannot be done so long as officers, both regimental and staff, are in the habit of congregating at houses along the line of march. Excepting for water, there is no need of stopping at private houses.

Teamsters and train guards are especially lawless in this respect, demanding food and committing depredations more than any other of our troops; quartermasters in charge of trains, in many instances, appearing to take no notice whatever of these acts.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

M. R. PATRICK,

Provost-Marshal-General.

https://ehistory.osu.edu/books/official-records/045/0621
 
Can I ask what is the point of this thread? The title and the order quoted in the OP talk about two days before the battle of Gettysburg. The remainder of the posts are disconnected telegraph quotations about Lee crossing the Potomac after the battle. What is the object of the exercise?
 
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