George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Major-General United States Army
George Gordon Meade, Ed.

After writing to you on the 6th, I went to Williards', where I met Willie¹ and his wife. I dined with them, and returned to camp, where I found orders to march. We marched all night and most of the next day, reaching this point, some ten miles north of Washington, yesterday afternoon. We have been here one day, and are to move again to-morrow, and will be, I suppose, kept moving now until something decisive is done with the enemy, who have invaded Maryland. Hooker has been placed in command of McDowell's corps, to which we belong, and Burnside has been placed in Pope's position as commander of an army.

We are here as part of Hooker's (late McDowell's) corps, forming a portion of the right wing of the army, under the command of Burnside. I do not know who commands the left wing, nor am I able to ascertain the strength and position of the different corps. The enemy are believed to be at Frederick and behind the line of the Monocacy River; all reported as entrenching themselves and are estimated in various numbers, from two hundred thousand to fifty thousand. I have no doubt myself they are in large force and in strong position. We have always thus found them, and I have no reason to expect a different state now. As I said before, I do not know McClellan's force, or their position, except what immediately surrounds us. We are on the old National Road, connecting Frederick City with Baltimore, and are in a position to cover either that city or Washington. I suppose that in a day or two we will have a chance to tell what the enemy mean and what we can do. I must confess I am not very sanguine of our power. The morale of the army is very much impaired by recent events; the spirits of the enemy proportionately raised.

Tell Sergeant² I have received his letter, and that he did right to publish what I said of the Reserves, as it was true. There was a portion of the division that was overwhelmed and fell back in good order on the 30th, but there was no truth in the report that they ran or fled without cause.

I wrote you yesterday. My letter had hardly left, when orders came, directing General Reynolds to proceed immediately to Harrisburg,