Major-General George G. Meade, commanding the Federal Army of the Potomac in northern Virginia, was under fire from Radical politicians who wanted him removed from command. Meade’s fears of dismissal increased when Ulysses S. Grant became general-in-chief, and rumors swirled that he would be replacing Meade with a western commander. But by March 23, Meade’s fears had dimmed, as he wrote his wife, “I don’t think I have at any time been in any danger. It would be almost a farce to relieve the man who fought the battle of Gettysburg…”
Nevertheless, Meade still had enemies in high places, and his superiors had urged him to reorganize his army because of attrition and, according to Meade, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton told him that “there were several officers in my army that did not have the confidence of the country, and that I was injuring myself by retaining them.” These were mainly anti-administration Democrats.
Meade responded by ordering a massive restructure of the Potomac army. Major-General Winfield Scott Hancock returned to active duty after being wounded at Gettysburg and resumed command of the Second Corps. The former commander, Major-General Gouverneur Warren, was moved to the head of the Fifth Corps. The current Fifth Corps commander, Major-General George Sykes, was ousted.
Major-General Alfred Pleasonton was replaced as head of the Cavalry Corps by Brigadier-General David M. Gregg. Stanton urged Meade to remove Major-General John Sedgwick as head of the Sixth Corps because Sedgwick had never been particularly loyal to the administration or the Republican Party, and he made no secret of his loyalty to George B. McClellan. Meade finally agreed to give Sedgwick command of the Army of West Virginia, but President Abraham Lincoln had already earmarked that job for Major-General Franz Sigel. Unwilling to just let Sedgwick go, Meade insisted on keeping him in charge of the Sixth Corps.
The hardest blow to the troops came when Meade disbanded the First and Third corps. These units had been virtually destroyed at Gettysburg and had not recovered since. And their commanders, Major-Generals John Newton (First) and William French (Third) were considered the weakest of the army’s corps commanders. Newton and French were sent west, and although their troops could keep their corps insignias, they would be absorbed into the Second and Fifth corps. This caused much bitter feeling among the rank and file, especially in the Third Corps, where many men were still loyal to their old commander (and bitter rival of Meade), Major-General Daniel E. Sickles. “Indignation” meetings were held to protest the move.
The Army of the Potomac was therefore reorganized as follows:
- The Second Corps under Hancock
- The Fifth Corps under Warren
- The Sixth Corps under Sedgwick
- The Cavalry Corps under Gregg
- The Artillery Corps remained under Major-General Henry J. Hunt
Because this order went into effect at about the same time that Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant returned to the army from his western trip, word spread among the troops that this was Grant’s doing. But in truth, Meade had been planning to make these changes since before Grant took over. Nevertheless, when Grant arrived at Culpeper Court House, the Army of the Potomac transferred from being Meade’s army to being known as “Grant’s army.”
Before reaching Culpeper, Grant had stopped at Washington for a day to consult with President Abraham Lincoln one-on-one for the first time. Grant had been warned before the meeting not to divulge any of his plans to Lincoln because the president could not keep a secret. Lincoln affirmed this to Grant himself and acknowledged that “there was always the temptation to leak.” Lincoln therefore assured Grant that he did not want to know what he was planning.
Grant settled into a modest house at Culpeper on the 24th, just down the Orange & Alexandria Railroad line from Meade’s headquarters at Brandy Station. Grant wrote his wife, “I arrived here yesterday well but as on my former trip brought wet and bad weather. I have not been out of the house today and from appearances shall not be able to go out for several days. At present however I shall find enough to be indoors. From indications I would judge the best of feelings animate all the troops here toward the changes that have been made.”
But many of the troops in the Potomac army, having endured a long line of unsuccessful commanders before Meade, looked upon Grant with skepticism. Colonel Charles S. Wainwright, commanding artillery in the Fifth Corps, wrote:
“It is hard for those who knew him when formerly in the army to believe that he is a great man; then he was only distinguished for the mediocrity of his mind, his great good nature and his insatiable love of whiskey… From what I heard at corps headquarters this evening there was no enthusiasm shown by the men on the arrival of their new commander.”
The army observed Easter Sunday on the 27th with sermons from renowned Episcopalian Bishop Henry B. Whipple. Meade, who had been married by Whipple, invited him “to celebrate the Holy Communion at his headquarters on the Rapidan.” Meade wrote his wife that the Bishop delivered “two most appropriate and impressive discourses, well adapted to all classes of his hearers.”
As Meade continued getting to know Grant, he deflected his wife’s criticisms of the new general-in-chief:
“You do not do Grant justice, and I am sorry to see it. You do not make a distinction between his own acts and those forced on him by the Government, Congress and public opinion. If left to himself, I have no doubt Grant would have let me alone; but placed in the position he holds, and with the expectations formed of him, if operations on a great scale are to be carried on here, he could not have kept aloof.
“As yet he had indicated no purpose to interfere with me, on the contrary, acts promptly on all my suggestions, and seems desirous of making his stay here only the means of strengthening and increasing my forces. God knows I shall hail his advent with delight if it results in carrying on operations in the manner I have always desired they should be carried on. Cheerfully will I give him all credit if he can bring the war to a close.”
Bibliography
- Catton, Bruce, The Army of the Potomac: A Stillness at Appomattox. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1953.
- Catton, Bruce, Grant Takes Command. Open Road Media, Kindle Edition, 2015.
- Long, E.B. with Long, Barbara, The Civil War Day by Day. New York: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1971.
- Pritchard, Russ A. (Patricia L. Faust ed.), Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.
- Sommers, Richard J. (Patricia L. Faust ed.), Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.
- Stanchak, John E. (Patricia L. Faust ed.), Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.