Meade receives word that Congress has finally confirmed his promotion to major-general in the regular army. This good news is tempered by that knowledge that his eldest son, John Sergeant, lays dying of tuberculosis back in Philadelphia.

Grant sent me a note this morning, saying a telegram from Washington announced my confirmation yesterday by a heavy majority; thus I have gained another victory, and have found that I really have more friends than I had any idea of.

There have been some English officers here this evening from the frigate Galatea, and they have kept me up so late that I cannot write as much as I would wish.

I thought my last visit was, excepting dear Sergeant’s sickness, most happy, but I cannot be happy and see my noble boy suffering as he does. I think of him all the time, and feel at times like asking to be relieved, that I may go home and help you nurse him. May God in his infinite mercy restore him to health, is my constant prayer!

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. 260. Available via Google Books.

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