Gen. Meade and the battle of Gettysburg
The points made before the
War Investigating Committee against
Gen. Meade, who is substantially on trial before this congressional Commission, by the testimony of
Gens. Sickles and
Doubleday, are, that he gave and promulgated an order to his army to retreat from
Gettysburg at the close of the first day's fight, when his superior strength, his advantage of position, and the honor and interests of the country, required him to give battle; that, in the forenoon of the second day's fight—Thursday—he gave another order to retreat, but which was not promulgated in writing; that he had made no dispositions for battle that day, had no plan for fighting, and seemingly no purpose to fight, but that the battle was precipitated by
Gen. Sickles, and forced on
Meade in part by the enemy, but principally by
General Sickles, that
Meade did not know on Friday night that our men had whipped
Lee, or distrusted the fact that night, and was so uncertain of it on Saturday that he dared not pursue the beaten enemy, and weakly and ignorantly threw away the certainty of capture or destroying the entire Rebel army; that for a few moments he yielded to persuasions to let the 3d Corps pursue, but countermanded the order to do so in ten minutes after it was given, saying, alluding to the
Rebels, ‘Oh, let them go;’ that
Meade's subsequent representation that he was not in condition to pursue was not true; that his army was abundantly able and in condition to make immediate pursuit, and, if necessary, to fight and crush
Lee's disordered columns; that the 6th Corps was fresh and substantially intact; it had lost only 100 men, the 12th Corps had lost only 700 and had about 12,000 left, the 3d Corps had 6,000 men left and prayed to be permitted to pursue; the whole of the cavalry, 10,000 was intact and fresh.
Gen. French had at
Frederick 10,000 veterans in perfect condition, and
Couch's great force was also at
Meade's call.
That, in a word, he had over 40,000 effective and ardent troops with which to pursue and destroy
Lee's flying and demoralized army, but refused to use them and suffered the enemy to escape.
It is upon the question of the issuance of the second order to retreat that
Gen. Butterfield has been summoned.
In the committee room it is understood that the origin of the effort made by
Gen. Meade to break up the Third Corps to the waste of its
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esprit, and the discontent of every man and officer in it, and dissatisfaction with the service, was the refusal of the corps to subscribe to the
McClellan testimonial.
It is stated that testimony can be added to convict
Gen. Meade of expressing the opinion that we cannot subdue the
Rebels.
Gens. Birney and
Pleasonton, examined before the War Committee to-day, told the remarkable story of the war councils called during and after the
battle of Gettysburg, and exhibited the strength and efficiency of the army the morning after the last day's fight.
The testimony of both these
Generals was very damaging.
