Did General Meade Desire to Retreat At the Battle of Gettysburg

mpletely broken down under its own collated weight, and that the charge, so far as this testimony is equal to sustaining it. must perforce with it fall to the ground. Continuing to comment upon Mr. Swinton's statements regarding the point which has now been exhaustively discussed, General Double- day says:? " By way of rebuttal, Mr. Swinton parades the following declara- " tion of General Meade. A very slight examination will show that " it refers to a different period of the battle ; to the morning of the " 2d, and not to the evening. General Meade says : ' I utterly deny, " under the full solemnity and sanctity of my oath, and in the firm " conviction that the day will come when the secrets of all men shall " be- made known?I utterly deny having intended or thought for one " instant to withdraw that army, unless the military contingencies " which the future should develop during the course of the day might " render it a matter of necessity that the army should be withdrawn? " The italics are mine." This purports to be a passage from General Meade's testimony before the Committee on the Conduct of the War, as printed in the report of the Committee, and also in the appendix to Mr. Swinton's " Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac." And he who pretends to quote it is he who, in a preceding clause of his letter, only a few lines back, speaks of himself, impliedly, " as a faithful historian." The italics, he says, are his; let that pass, although the meaning did...