It’s been over a year since young Lt. Cortlandt Parker, a member of Meade’s staff and the nephew of a family friend, vanished. (See here.) Now word has arrived that Parker had been captured by Confederate guerillas who killed him when he attempted to escape. There’s more about Parker here. His story is just one small tragedy in a nation engulfed by them.

We have at last heard of the fate of poor young Parker, who was on my staff. An officer recently returned from Richmond says he was captured by guerrillas near Bristol Station, a few days after Parker’s disappearance; that when they were taking him off they cautioned him not to attempt to escape, for if he did they would be obliged to serve him as they had done General Meade’s aide a few days before, who in spite of their cautions tried to get away, and they were forced to shoot him. I have no doubt this is a true statement of the poor fellow’s fate. I have sent it to Cortlandt Parker.

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. 233. Available via Google Books.