Beschreibung:

Autograph letter signed "Geo. G. Meade / Mg Gen" to General Horatio Wright, during the bloody Battle of Cold Harbor.
Cold Harbor]: 4 June 1864, 8:15 [am]. 2 pp., single sheet Headquarters, Army of the Potomac stationery (202 x 120 mm). Written in pencil. With a postscript signed with initials. Condition : folds. confusion and foolhardy orders to renew the assault at the battle of cold harbor: one of the bloodiest battles of the war. Meade writes: “Your dispatch reporting you are in advance of the 18th Corps has been sent to Gen. [William F.] Smith who is under the impression he is in advance of you. Smith and [Major General Winfield Scott] Hancock are both ordered to push forward. There is not the slightest idea that the 6th Corps is not doing what it always has done early and well. It is a question of judgement as to the timing of assaults which between the three corps may involve delay and failure … Push on & when you think it is time to stop report.” Robert E. Lee’s army was firmly entrenched and Meade and Grant’s orders for a frontal attack proved profoundly ill advised. Union forces suffered approximately 10,000 casualties, with the vast majority occuring during the principal assault on 3 June, the day prior to this letter. Grant would later write of that assault: “I have always regretted that the last assault at Cold Harbor was ever made … no advantage whatever was gained to compensate for the heavy loss we sustained.” Nevertheless, it was the final major victory for Lee and signified a change in Confederate tactic, from elusive manoevering to entrenched warfare. The renewed assault ordered by Meade with this letter never occurred.