November 29, 1864
I did not have room to tell you of the ingenious inventions of General Butler for the destruction of the enemy. He never is happy unless he has half a dozen contrivances on hand. One man has brought a fire-engine, wherewith he proposes to squirt on earthworks and wash them all down! An idea that Benjamin considered highly practicable. Then, with his Greek fire, he proposed to hold a redoubt with only five men and a small garden engine. “Certainly,” said General Meade; “only your engine fires thirty feet, and a minie rifle 3000 yards, and I am afraid your five men might be killed, before they had a chance to burn up their adversaries!” Also he is going to get a gun that shoots seven miles and, taking direction by compass, burn the city of Richmond with shells of Greek fire. If that don’t do, he has an auger that bores a tunnel five feet in diameter, and he is going to bore to Richmond, and suddenly pop up in somebody’s basement, while the family are at breakfast! So you see he is ingenious. It is really summer warm today; there are swarms of flies, and I saw a bumble-bee and a grasshopper.1,2
***
- LT: June 12, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: June 13, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: June 15, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: June 16, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: June 17, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: June 18, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: June 19, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: June 23, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: June 24, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: June 25, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: July 1, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: July 4, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: July 5, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: July 6, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: July 7, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: July 10, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: July 12, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: July 13, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: July 20, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: July 22, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: July 24, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: July 30, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: July 31, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: August 1, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: August 4, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: August 6, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: August 8, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: August 9, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: August 11, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: August 12, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: August 13, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: August 14, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: August 16, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: August 18, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: August 19, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: August 20, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: August 21, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: August 23, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: August 24, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: August 25, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: August 26, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: August 27, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: September 28, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: September 29, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: September 30, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: October 2, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: October 3, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: October 4, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: October 6, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: October 7, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: October 10, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: October 11, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: October 14, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: October 17, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: October 27, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: October 28, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: October 29, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: October 30, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: November 6, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: November 10, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: November 11, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: November 12, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: November 13, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: November 14, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: November 16, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: November 18, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: November 19, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: November 22, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: November 24, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: November 27, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: November 28, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: November 29, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: November 30, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: December 1, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: December 3, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: December 5, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: December 6, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: December 8, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: December 9, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: December 10, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: December 11, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: December 12, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: December 13, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: December 14, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: December 15, 1864 Theodore Lyman
- LT: March 1, 1865 Theodore Lyman
- LT: March 2, 1865 Theodore Lyman
- LT: March 3, 1865 Theodore Lyman
- LT: March 4, 1865 Theodore Lyman
- LT: March 5, 1865 Theodore Lyman
- LT: March 6, 1865 Theodore Lyman
- LT: March 8, 1865 Theodore Lyman
- LT: March 10, 1865 Theodore Lyman
- LT: March 11, 1865 Theodore Lyman
- LT: March 13, 1865 Theodore Lyman
- LT: March 18, 1865 Theodore Lyman
- LT: March 25, 1865 Theodore Lyman
- LT: March 26, 1865 Theodore Lyman
- LT: March 28, 1865 Theodore Lyman
- LT: March 29, 1865 Theodore Lyman
- LT: March 30, 1865 Theodore Lyman
- LT: March 31, 1865 Theodore Lyman
- LT: April 1, 1865 Theodore Lyman
- LT: April 2, 1865 Theodore Lyman
- LT: April 3, 1865 Theodore Lyman
***
Source/Notes:
- Editor’s Note: Theodore Lyman was General George G. Meade’s aide-de-camp from the fall of 1863 through Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. An intelligent and outspoken individual, Lyman’s letters to his wife provide great insight into the happenings at Meade’s headquarters. These letters, taken from the now public domain book Meade’s Headquarters, 1863-1865; Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness to Appomattox and written by Lyman to his wife, appear here at the Siege of Petersburg Online exactly 150 years to the day after they are written. Since this site is concerned solely with the Siege of Petersburg, the letters start on June 12, 1864 and end on April 3, 1865. See the bottom of this and every other letter for a list of all the letters which have appeared to date. ↩
- Agassiz, George R. Meade’s Headquarters, 1863-1865; Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness to Appomattox. Boston: The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1922, p. 284 ↩