rn down by four weeks of constant forced marching or
battle, in the midst of heat, mud and drenching showers, burdened with
arms, accoutrements, blankets, sixty to a hundred cartridges, and five
to eight days' rations. What such weariness means few save soldiers
know. Since the battle the army had been constantly diminished by
sickness or prostration and by more straggling than I ever saw before.
Poor fellows--they could not help it. The men were near the point when
further efficient physical exertion was quite impossible. Even the sound
of the skirmishing, which was almost constant, and the excitement of
impending battle, had no effect to arouse for an hour the exhibition of
their wonted former vigor. The enemy's loss in battle, it is true, had
been far heavier than ours; but his army was less weary than ours, for
in a given time since the first of the campaign, it had marched far less
and with lighter loads. These Rebels are accustomed to hunger and
nakedness, customs to which our men do not take readily. And the enemy
had straggled less, for the men were going away from battle and towards
home, and for them to straggle was to go into captivity, whose end they
could not conjecture. The enemy was somewhere in position in a ridgy,
wooded country, abounding in strong defensive positions, his main bodies
concealed, protected by rifle-pits and epaulements, acting strictly on
the defensive. His dispositions, his position even, with any
considerable degree of accuracy was unknown, nor could they be known
except by reconnoisances in such force, and carried to such extent, as
would have constituted them attacks liable to bring on at any moment a
general engagement, and at places where we were least prepared and least
likely to be successful. To have had a battle there then, Gen. Meade
would have had to attack a cunning enemy in the dark, where surprises,
undiscovered rifle-pits and batteries, and unseen bodies of men might
have met his forces at every point. With his not greatly superior
numbers, under such circumstances had Gen. Meade attacked, would he have
been victorious? The vote of these generals at the council shows their
opinion--my own is that he would have been repulsed with heavy loss with
little damage to the enemy. Such a result might have satisfied the
bloody politicians better than the end of the campaign as it was; but I
think the country did not need that sacrifice of the Army of the Potomac
at that time--that e