I see General Grant’s assuming command and announcing that his headquarters will be with the Army of the Potomac, is in the public journals, and by to-morrow will be known in Richmond. Of course this will notify the rebels where to look for active operations, and they will prepare accordingly.

You need not think I apprehend any trouble about my being relieved. I don’t think I have at any time been in any danger. It would be almost a farce to relieve the man who fought the battle of Gettysburg, nine months after the battle, not for retreating, not for ordering a retreat, but for preparing an order, which was never issued; for such is the last and most serious charge against me.

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. 181. Available via Google Books.