While the Federal Army of the Potomac remained in winter quarters above the Rapidan River in northern Virginia, their commander, Major-General George G. Meade, was summoned to Washington to testify before the Congressional Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. The committee, dominated by Radical Republicans, was still not completely sold on the idea that Meade should remain army commander after aborted campaigns at Bristoe and Mine Run last fall.
In early March, Radical committee members Zachariah Chandler and Benjamin F. pushed President Abraham Lincoln to reinstate Major-General Joseph Hooker as Potomac army commander, due “to the incompetency of the general in command of the army.” But Lincoln was happy with Meade, and he was just about to appoint Ulysses S. Grant to become Meade’s superior, so he saw no reason for a change.
The committee pressed on nevertheless, as many members were still critical of Meade’s performance at Gettysburg last July. Two of Meade’s subordinates at Gettysburg, Major-Generals Daniel E. Sickles and Abner Doubleday, were friends of the Radicals and had testified that Meade initially planned to retreat rather than stay and fight. Senator Morton Wilkinson delivered a scathing speech based on Sickles’s allegations, in which he declared, “I believe it can be proven that before the fight commenced at Gettysburg, the order went forth from the commander… to retreat.”
In his testimony before the committee on the 5th, Meade directly addressed the accusations: “No order to retreat was at any time given by me.” Meade also pointed out that Sickles had ignored orders and marched his Third Corps forward from Cemetery Ridge on July 2, which nearly decimated the corps and cost Sickles a leg. Meade stated, “I maintain that subsequent events proved that my judgment was correct, and his judgment was wrong.”
Asked about his failure to attack the Confederates at Williamsport following Gettysburg, Meade answered that “blindly attacking the enemy without any knowledge of his position” would have made his victory at Gettysburg meaningless. When asked if he had anything else to add, Meade replied, “I would probably have a great deal to say if I knew what other people have said.”
Afterward, Meade wrote his wife, “I was greatly surprised to find the whole town talking of certain grave charges, that had been made against me in the testimony before the Com. on the Conduct of the War of Genls. Sickles & Doubleday. I then occupied 3 hours in giving a succinct narrative of events & you may rest assured I did not spare Genls S or D… (but) the ultra-radicals are determined to have me out.”
Several of Meade’s subordinates voiced support for their commander, including corps commanders Gouverneur Warren and Winfield Scott Hancock, and artillery chief Henry J. Hunt. But a week after testifying before the Joint Committee, Meade was hit by an article in the New York Herald written by an author known only as “Historicus.” The article reiterated Sickles’s allegation that Meade had planned to retreat after the first day of Gettysburg. It also praised Sickles for saving the Potomac army by ignoring orders and marching forward on July 2.
Historicus wrote that Sickles’s advance was “made in the very face of the enemy, who were advancing in columns of attack, and Sickles dreaded lest the conflict should open before his dispositions were completed. At this juncture he was summoned to report in person at headquarters, to attend a council of corps commanders.” The article clearly suggested that Sickles sacrificed his men to save Meade from blundering into defeat.
Historicus also accused Meade of being an “inglorious failure” for refusing to follow up his victory at Gettysburg by attacking at Williamsport. The article concluded, “It will be a singular indifference to public opinion on the part of the government if he is allowed to remain longer in that important post.”
Meade sent the article to President Lincoln with a letter stating that “the character of the communication enclosed bears such manifest proofs that it was written either by some one present at the battle, or dictated by some one present and having access not only to official documents, but to confidential papers that were never issued to the Army, much less made public.”
Meade charged, “I cannot resist the belief that this letter was either written or dictated by Major General D.E. Sickles,” and he asked for “the interposition of the (War) Department, as I desire to consider the questions raised purely official.” Meade demanded that the department “take steps to ascertain whether Major General Sickles has authorized or endorses this communication, and in the event of his reply in the affirmative I have to request the President of the U.S. a court of inquiry that the whole subject may be thoroughly investigated and the truth made known.”
Meade’s supporters quickly wrote rebuttals to Historicus’s article. Meade wrote his wife, “I think Historicus after awhile will be sick of his only true and authentic account of the battle.” Finally, Meade received Lincoln’s reply on the 29th:
“It is quite natural that you should feel some sensibility on the subject; yet I am not impressed, nor do I think the country is impressed, with the belief that your honor demands, or the public interest demands, such an Inquiry. The country knows that, at all events, you have done good service; and I believe for you to be engaged in trying to do more, than to be diverted, as you necessarily would be, by a Court of Inquiry.”
Meade then asked Stanton to force Sickles to either admit his involvement or repudiate the Historicus article. After receiving Stanton’s response, Meade wrote his wife “that it was concluded submitting the letter to Sickles was only playing into his hands; that a court of inquiry, if called at my request, although it might exonerate me, yet it would not necessarily criminate him; and that, on the whole, it was deemed best not to take any action.”
Historicus continued writing more articles, leaving no doubt that Sickles was the true author, but Meade publicly ignored them. He instead lamented to his wife: “Is it not too bad that one’s reputation should be in the hands of such men?”
Bibliography
Sears, Stephen W., Lincoln’s Lieutenants: The High Command of the Army of the Potomac (Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books, Kindle Edition, 2017), p. 613-15