Adam Badeau, Military history of Ulysses S. Grant from April 1861 to April 1865. Volume 2

Meade was full of fire on this occasion. Everything he said and did was in splendid soldierly spirit. ‘The troops will be put in motion,’ he said in his order, ‘regardless of every consideration but the one of ending the war. . . . The major-general commanding impresses on all, officers and men, the necessity of promptitude, and of undergoing the necessities and privations they are herein enjoined to. The major-general commanding feels he has but to recall to the army of the Potomac the glorious record of its repeated and gallant contests with the army of Northern Virginia, and when he assures the army that, in the opinion of so distinguished an officer as Major-General Sheridan, it only requires these sacrifices to bring this long and desperate contest to a triumphant issue, the men of his army will show that they are as willing to die of fatigue and of starvation as they have ever shown themselves ready to fall by the bullets of the enemy.’

Meade himself was willing to make his own sacrifices. He was the senior of Sheridan in rank and service, but he sent him word: ‘The Second and Sixth corps shall be with you as soon as possible. In the meantime your wishes or suggestions as to any movement other than the simple one of overtaking you will be promptly acceded to by me, regardless of any other consideration than the vital one of destroying the army of Northern Virginia.’ This was the stuff of which commanders should be made.

Humphreys moved between one and two o'clock,