In Burnside’s reorganization of the army, Hooker, who had assumed command of the Fifth Corps when Porter had been relieved, was promoted to command the “Center Grand Division.” Hooker’s promotion meant that command of the Fifth Corps was open and Meade, as the senior division commander in the Army of the Potomac, believed that the command was rightfully due to him. Instead, the command went to Daniel Butterfield.
"This places General Butterfield in command of Porter's corps. General Butterfield is my junior, and I am his only senior on duty with this army. I thought that both Stoneman and A. S. Williams had divisions, both of whom are my seniors; but to-day I find Stoneman has a corps and that Williams is not with this army, having been left on the Potomac. Hence I am the only general who is affected by the giving a corps to Butterfield. I saw to-day Franklin and Baldy Smith, who referred to this matter, and said Burnside did not know how to arrange it otherwise, and they thought if I made an application to Burnside and gave him any chance of acting, that he would assign me to the corps." He added, "his command being a corps, and I his senior, in command only of a division, I have a right to complain; just as I did when, in command of a brigade, so many of my juniors were commanding divisions."
Meade went to complain to Burnside, and Burnside told him that "he was until that moment perfectly ignorant that I ranked Butterfield; that he agreed with me in all I said; that he would rather have me in command of the corps; that Butterfield's assignment was only temporary; that he would inquire what probability there was of Sedgwick or any other senior officer being sent, and if there was none, and there was a probability of the position being open for any time, that I should certainly have it, as I was the last man he would set aside or slight in any way." According to Meade, “All he regretted now was that I had not been in command of it,” at Fredericksburg. “More than this I could not ask.”
Burnside took no action before the Battle of Fredericksburg, but a few days after the Battle told Meade he would place him in command of the 5th Corps.
Meade was surprised to hear that Hooker objected. "I expressed great surprise at this, and referred to Hooker having urged my assignment to his corps on the field of battle, and spoke of the letter he had written to Halleck urging my promotion. Burnside said Hooker had explicitly remarked his opposition was not personal to me, for he considered me one of the most splendid soldiers in the army; but it was on the principle of not changing commanders alone that he objected."
Meade took command from an angry Butterfield on December 25. "After the first ice was broken, Butterfield was very civil. He insisted on me eating my Christmas dinner with him, and really had a very handsome entertainment, at which were present all the division and brigade commanders of the corps. After dinner, when they had all left, to give Butterfield a chance, I told him I considered he was fully justified in being disappointed and put out; that if I had been assigned to a corps in disregard of the rank of others, been retained there for a month, gone through a battle and then removed on account of rank, I should myself, as I had experienced in a similar instance, feel very much annoyed and disgusted, and that I considered such feelings natural. Poor Butterfield then opened his heart, I having hit the nail on the head, and told me that when first assigned he went to Burnside and asked whether it was a temporary affair, or not, as he should arrange matters somewhat differently if he was only to hold the position till some senior brigadier or major general came along, and that Burnside assured him positively and distinctly that it was permanent, and that he should not be disturbed. I said certainly that aggravated the matter, but that he should not hold me responsible; that the mistake and misfortune resulted from the injustice that was done me when he was first assigned, and that General Burnside had told me, per contra, that he was ignorant at the time that I ranked him (Butterfield). So to-day I have been installed, and the affair appears to be definitely and satisfactorily settled."
Unfortunately for Meade, while matters were settled to his satisfaction, they were not to Butterfield's. “Have I any friends in Washington?” he wrote to one of Meade's enemies, Zachariah Chandler.