Theodore Lyman

Theodore Lyman returns to the army. He had gone back home on leave and almost immediately fell ill. Upon his return, he noted in his journal, “Gen. Meade received me very kindly.” Lyman also mentioned the reason why the two French observers who were with the army when he left were no longer around. “The fact is, old De Chanal wrote some pretty Union letters, officially, whereof one fell into the paws of the Minister of Marine, who married a secesh,” he observed. “Thereat he raised a row and it was implied to M. le Colonel that he might as well inspect the gun manufacturies, and not write so much of politics.” It will be good to have Lyman back to share his inimitable observations about General Meade and the Army of the Potomac.

It is late; I am somewhat tired and sleepy; I must be up early to-morrow, and many friends keep coming in to say “How are you?” So you will let me off from a long letter till to-morrow. It is as “nat’ral as the hogs” here. I have just taken my supper in a tent as gravely as if I never ate in a room. I got here without delay or accident and am stronger than when I started.

Theodore Lyman’s letter is from Meade’s Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness to Appomattox, p. 229. Edited by George R. Agassiz. Boston, Massachusetts Historical Society, 1922. Available via Google Books.