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[671] the hearts of his companions-in-arms,—Sickles, now lying mutilated on his bed of sickness, is lost to the Army of the Potomac; and Butterfield, although only slightly wounded, is for the present unfit for active service. Besides, nothing has been prearranged for the offensive. If Pleasonton, who has neither command nor responsibility on the battlefield, exhorts Meade to seize this opportunity to show himself at one stroke a great leader, on the other hand hesitation is marked upon the countenances of many—a hesitation very natural, for some months afterward a number of general officers come forward to declare under oath before the Committee of Congress on the Conduct of the War that in their opinion any attack would have failed. They are under the impression of having escaped from a terrible danger, and of having done enough for the occasion. The invasion is repulsed; by attempting any further effort everything might be compromised. In short, they are all paralyzed by the common error of the Union chiefs, who believe the enemy to be much stronger numerically than he is in reality. The aggressive audacity of the Confederates has achieved the result, always so important in war, of deceiving the enemy regarding their real strength, thus protecting them at the critical moment. Under this impression Meade is desirous of feeling them before making a serious attack. He gives Sedgwick no instructions, merely directing Sykes to push a reconnoissance on the left over the ground which should have been occupied in great force, without even pointing out the importance of such movement. This operation is thus entrusted to a single brigade of Crawford's division, which, under McCandless, has held since morning that portion of the Trostle wood adjoining the right bank of Plum Run. Leaving Bartlett to keep guard over this wood, Crawford and McCandless advance across the wheat-field on which hundreds of dead, dying, and wounded soldiers have been lying since the day before. Without stopping to contemplate this sad spectacle, the Federals penetrate about five o'clock into the wood situated west of this field. As we have before observed, the position of the Confederates is very much exposed on this side. Law, having sent Anderson's
Philadelphia, Jos. H. Coates and co., 1883.
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