Picture this..

[Brenal]

There are some scenes from history that I am able to picture in my minds eye better than others and today this one leapt off of the page

From the book With Grant and Meade. From The Wilderness to Appomattox by Theodore Lyman (Volunteer Aide to General Meade.)

There came a cipher despatch from Sherman in the West. Mr Dana, Assistant Secretary of War, hastened - with considerable want of tact - to read it to the General. Sherman therein told Grant that the Army of the West, having fought, could now afford to manoeuvre and that, if his (Grant's) inspiration could make the Army of the Potomac do it's share, success would crown our efforts. The eyes of Major-General George Gordon Meade stood out about one inch as he said, in a voice like cutting an iron bar with a handsaw: "Sir! I consider that despatch an insult to the army I command and to me personally. The Army of the Potomac does not require General Grant's inspiration or anybody's else inspiration to make it fight!" He did not get over it all day and at dinner spoke of the western army as "an armed rabble"


I wonder if, had Sherman not been way out west, this could have been the cause of a duel between two of the most senior Union Officers.

 

[E_just_E]

Duel? Between Sherman and Meade? Nope. Meade was a Lame Duck General and just the titular head of the AoP at that point, since the AoP was indeed in practice led by Grant, his superior, who ended up doing exactly what Sherman suggested. Mead did have a reputation of being "conservative" (aka "defensive" aka "slow") as well as high-strung and adverse to critcism. Both of those characteristics can be seen in that passage.

 

[Brenal]

Duel? Between Sherman and Meade? Nope. Meade was a Lame Duck General and just the titular head of the AoP at that point, since the AoP was indeed in practice led by Grant, his superior, who ended up doing exactly what Sherman suggested. Mead did have a reputation of being "conservative" (aka "defensive" aka "slow") as well as high-strung and adverse to critcism. Both of those characteristics can be seen in that passage.

Yes, I understand Meade's position and his temperament and I can still picture him with his hands about Sherman's throat ....