Retreat From Gettysburg  "Not In The Least Discouraged"  July 4 - 14, 1863

On July 5, 1863, as the long columns of Gen. Robert E. Lee's battered Army of Northern Virginia streamed southward toward the Potomac River from the bloody battlefield at Gettysburg, PA, Union Gen. George G. Meade unleashed his cavalry to attack and harass the retreating Rebels. The blue-clad troopers attacked the long wagon train of Southern wounded and harassed the rear of the infantry column, capturing many wagons, but doing little to delay the retreat.

On July 7, President Abraham Lincoln learned that the Union forces had captured Vicksburg, Miss. He promptly wrote to General in Chief Henry W. Halleck: "Now, if General Meade can complete his work, so gloriously prosecuted thus far, by the literal or substantial destruction of Lee's army, the rebellion will be over." But by that same day, as the Confederates were arriving at the rain-swollen and unfordable Potomac, Meade had advanced only as far as Frederick, MD, just 35 miles from Gettysburg. Halleck wired Meade from Washington: "Push forward and fight Lee before he can cross the Potomac... The President is urgent and anxious that your army should move against Lee by forced marches."

The fact was that Meade was simply exhausted. In a letter to his wife, Meade wrote: "From the time I took command till today, now over ten days, I have not changed my clothes, have not had a regular night's rest and many nights not a wink of sleep, and for several days did not even wash my face and hands, no regular food, and all the time in a great state of mental anxiety."

High water still prevented the Confederate army at Williamsport from crossing the Potomac. While the wounded were carried across on two small flatboats, the rest of the soldiers furiously dug a formidable six-mile-long line of entrenchments from which they hoped to be able to fight off the expected Union attack. Lee reported to President Davis that though he could not yet cross back into Virginia, his men were in good spirits and he was "not in the least discouraged."

Fascinating Fact:  Many of the Rebels retreating from Gettysburg actually wanted the Union soldiers to attack. "We hope soon to get up another fight", one of them wrote.


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