A SALT AND BATTERY

[MajGenl.Meade]

A SALT AND BATTERY


To Mrs. George G. Meade

CAMP AT MANASSAS JUNCTION, April 16, 1862.
As to ourselves, we are in statu quo. You have seen in the newspapers that before our long-awaited grand advance through Centerville to this place, the rebels had quite vanished, leaving behind them quantities of cannon which were manufactures of pine wood, not brass or iron. It remains uncertain for how long McClellan may be delayed by real cannon.

It is surmised that we are kept here for fear the Merrimac may run the gauntlet and pen McClellan in on the peninsula, and then they could detach a force to threaten Washington. I guess they will, as Woodbury said, find after a while that McClellan is not going to move until he is ready, and then not in the direction they want him, which Mr. Greeley and Mr. Lincoln may vouchsafe.

The disastrous naval conflict at Newport News, and the loss of the Cumberland and Congress, was a very serious blow, not only to our material interests, but to our pride and naval forces. Our naval neighbor, Lt. Dahlgren believes that, had his own outdated ordnance regulations not forbade the use of sufficient powder in the monitor guns, the enemy would have been quite sunk in the first exchanges. He designed the guns himself and is confident they would have held up.

He says that Ericsson, who designed the ironclad, is immobilized by fear of the bursting of guns. Twenty years ago, Stockton, the same man that became a senator, designed a gun that was tested alongside another of Ericsson’s invention. Stockton’s gun exploded, killing the Secretaries of State and of the Navy, and the late President Tyler’s prospective father-in-law, yet somehow he was able to blame the entire affair on the unfortunate Ericsson! His Accidency was less than pleased at the loss of his fiancee’s papa, and ensured that the Swede was never paid for his excellent work. Entre nous, Mr. Ericsson is rumored to suffer from premature explosions of another nature, the issue of which is kept secret and well hid in Scandinavia.

During Ericsson’s Washington travails, his fiercest champion was Stephen Mallory of Florida, who was then on the Senate Naval Affairs Committee, and who now sits in Richmond as Secretary of their navy. It is supposed that he is responsible for the rebel ironclad, and thus perhaps Ericsson’s work influenced both combatants at Hampton Roads.

I hope McClellan shall be successful in driving them from Yorktown. Owing to the fear of the Merrimac, the gunboats will not leave Fortress Monroe to ascend the York River and take their batteries in the rear. This is a mirror to McClellan’s concern that, owing to the obdurate refusal of the rebels to surrender at the sight of his horse, neither should those same batteries be assailed from the front.

It is the reverse to the battle at Pittsburg Landing, where it would appear the plan of the rebels would have been successful, but for the presence of our gunboats. Finding they could not get to the river in consequence of these vessels, they very properly retired to their fortifications at Corinth. Had the gunboats not been present, they would have destroyed Grant the first day and Buell the second, but as it was the latter was enabled to rescue the former. Buell has learned the risk of surprise while separated from one’s brigades, and will probably now become the lion of the federal armies, while Grant fades into obscurity.

I have not time to write you much. I have been in the saddle all day, posting troops and pickets, and making all the preparations to meet the enemy, though, from the reports in existence and believed, there is not much probability of his showing himself about here. I fear it probable that General Magruder is reporting in a similar vein, from Yorktown to his masters in Richmond.

[Rick]

See you have John mixed up with his brother Nils.

It came about after a series of off color jokes someone asked him how he lasted in the game, thinking they said name he said Nils