Meade finally learns that he will not be replaced–but he gets that news from a newspaper. John W. Forney was the Chronicle’s editor and was close to the president, so close that opponents called him “Lincoln’s dog.”

The mail has just come in and brings to-day’s Washington Chronicle, which announces I am not to be relieved. As this paper is edited by Forney, who is supposed to have confidential relations with the Administration, I presume this announcement may be considered semi-official.

Meade’s correspondence taken from The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Major-General United States Army, Vol. 2, (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1913), p. 161. Available via Google Books.