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

About 5 or 6 o'clock in the afternoon of the 30th of November, I think, General Sedgwick, on my extreme right, reported to me, through General Wright, that there was a point of the enemy's left which he thought weak and assailable; that the enemy evidently had not expected an attack there, and had not prepared it with the same degree of care that they had prepared other portions of their lines.

About this time Major Ludlow, one of my aides-de-camp, and whom I had sent with General Warren, returned from his column and reported to me that General Warren had taken a position on the plank road extending from what was called Catharpin road, by which we had outflanked the enemy's line of works; that he had distinctly seen them prolonging their line of battle to meet his movement; that General Warren was on high ground which commanded the enemy's line, and that everything was most favorable for an attack from his position. This was about 6 o'clock in the afternoon, about sunset. I had also received a report through my engineers that in front of the 3d corps, commanded by General French, they thought was an opportunity more practicable for making an attack than upon other portions of the line, although they considered it pretty desperate there.

I therefore determined that the next morning at daylight I would assault the enemy at three points—on the extreme right, where General Sedgwick had found a weak point; on the extreme left, where I had understood there would be no difficulty in General Warren's attacking; and in the centre, in front of General French. Before these orders were issued, however, General Warren himself came to my headquarters about 8 or 9 o'clock at night. He confirmed all that Major Ludlow had said to me, and was even stronger and more emphatic in the opinion which he gave of the facility of making an attack upon the enemy's right; and indeed so confident was he that he expressed the opinion that the enemy would not be found there the next morning; that they would be compelled to fall back.

Under these circumstances, having great confidence in General Warren's judgment, and inasmuch as General French had given his opinion against attacking in his own front, I changed my plans so far as to take two of General French's divisions, amounting to over 10,000 men, and send them over to General Warren, thus making his force some 25,000 or 26,000 men, and abandoned my centre attack. I then issued the orders that the next morning at the designated time the assault should be made on the extreme right by General Sedgwick, and on the extreme left by General Warren, and that when those assaults were reported successful, which I had reason to believe they certainly would be, then the force which I retained in the centre to hold the centre should be advanced, and so have the whole army in the battle. Everything was arranged for this purpose.

The next morning, however, at the time designated for the assault, which was after our batteries had been opened for some time, and just before General Sedgwick was to make his assault, which was directed to be made about one hour after General Warren's attack, as General Warren's