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waggons.
It was a strange spectacle, to see the officers laughing and giving each other $500 notes of a government that has been considered as firmly established by our English friends!
About five came Major Pease. βThe Army of Northern Virginia has surrendered!β
Headed by General Webb, we gave three cheers, and three more for General Meade.
Then he mounted and rode through the 2d and 6th Corps.
Such a scene followed as I can never see again.
The soldiers rushed, perfectly crazy, to the roadside, and there crowding in dense masses, shouted, screamed, yelled, threw up their hats and hopped madly up and down!
The batteries were run out and began firing, the bands played, the flags waved.
The noise of the cheering was such that my very ears rang.
And there was General Meade galloping about and waving his cap with the best of them!
Poor old Robert Lee!
His punishment is too heavy β to hear those cheers, and to remember what he once was!
My little share of this work is done.
God willing, before many weeks, or even days, I shall be at home, to campaign no more!
April 17, 1865
How wicked we are in this world!--Now, when I should be only overflowing with joy and thankfulness at these great results, I keep finding myself boiling and fuming over the personal neglect of General Meade and the totally undeserved prominence given to Sheridan.
Yet Meade is really of no more consequence in this vast question of all time, than a sailor, who pulls a good oar, compared with the Atlantic Ocean.
The truth will stand out in sober history, even for him β in the future Motleys and Prescotts.
The plain truth about Meade is, first, that he is an abrupt, harsh man, even to his own officers, when in active campaign; 