WAR AND DISCOURAGEMENT 111 
again. From this end of the room came excellent music all the 
evening. 
I was made quite happy by General Meade’s condescension in 
speaking to me twice. We had four hours’ sleep that night, or 
rather the next morning. The whole of Tuesday was given to a 
great review—that of the Second Corps. General Meade reviewed 
the troops. There were 7000 infantry and 3000 cavalry; these 
last were Kilpatrick’s, and they showed us a cavalry charge; this 
was very exciting, and their shrieks in rushing upon the supposed 
enemy so overcame us that we clung to each other in terror. The 
day was more than May, it was June. Far away rose the Blue 
Ridge (well named, we thought), while all over the country in 
every direction were marching the infantry, or the artillery was 
rumbling, or the cavalry dashing about in the soft Virginia 
breezes. When General Meade reviewed the army, as he rode with 
his staff past each brigade the general and officers joined the cav- 
alcade of the commander-in-chief, the band playing and colors 
flying and bayonets glistening, all in the bright sunlight of that 
perfect day. I cannot tell you how touching was the sight of those 
regiments that have been long in the service, and have but two 
or three hundred left. They march so firmly, carrying their torn 
banners, with the names of the battles in which they have fought 
written upon them. 
During the review we received an invitation from the general 
to dine with him, which we accepted. I must reserve a detailed 
account of this dinner for another letter. 
The next morning we bade good-bye to our friends, and re- 
turned to the restraints of city life. 
After Field returned to New York in September of 1863, 
he and his wife gave a reception for Sir Alexander and Lady 
Milne, who had arrived with several British warships at New 
York. ‘This act of hospitality was of more than ordinary conse- 
quence, because the tense relations between the United States 
and England had at one time prompted an official order from 
London to the naval commander-in-chief of the North At- 
lantic and West Indies fleet to abstain strictly from entering 
any United States port “unless absolutely compelled to do 
so by the necessities of the service.” ‘There had been several 
