With the Dead Still on the Battlefields of Gettysburg, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton Chastises General George Meade For His July 3 Urgent Dispatch That He Was Unable to Receive Coded Telegrams

On July 3, 1863, Robert E. Lee, having failed on the right and the left at Gettysburg, planned an assault on Meade’s center. A 15,000-man column under General George Pickett was organized, and Lee ordered a massive bombardment of the Union positions. The 10,000-strong Union force answered the Confederate artillery onslaught, and for more than an hour the guns raged in the heaviest cannonade of the Civil War. At 3 p.m., Pickett led his force into no-man’s-land and found that Lee’s bombardment had failed. As Pickett’s force attempted to cross the mile distance to Cemetery Ridge, Union artillery blew great holes in their lines. Meanwhile, Union infantry flanked the main body of “Pickett’s charge” and began cutting down the Confederates. Only a few hundred Virginians reached the Union line, and within minutes they all were dead, dying, or captured. In less than an hour, more than 7,000 Confederate troops had been killed or wounded.

The principal telegraph operator for Meade and at Gettysburg was A.H. Caldwell. It was to Caldwell that Lincoln addressed his famous telegram to Stanton expressing frustration that Lee had not been followed and destroyed after Gettysburg.

On the morning of July 3, just prior to Pickett’s charge, Meade learned that enciphered communications from General Halleck in Washington were unintelligible because the civilian telegraph operator, A.H. Caldwell, had left the scene and gone to Westminster without notification. Since only civilian operators were authorized to hold the cipher key, Meade instructed Gen. Seth Williams to notify Caldwell that his immediate presence was required at Gettysburg. Gen. Daniel Butterfield contacted Union chief of telegraphy Maj. Thomas T. Eckert in Washington inquiring who controlled the telegraph operators. On July 3, in the thick of battle, Butterfield wrote, ”General Meade desires to know under whose or­ders and authority the telegraph operators possessing the cipher are appointed and controlled,” and inquired irately at one point, “The operator, Mr. Caldwell, at these headquarters presumes to act in an inde­pendent manner and has left headquarters for Westminster, selecting his own location, without authority or permission. The commanding general is unable to send dispatches from the headquarters in cipher.”

At this point Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton intervened to take responsibility, defend Caldwell, and rather pointedly chastise Meade for the complaint.

Autograph letter signed, War Department, Washington, July 6, 1863, to Major General Meade. “A telegraph of General Butterfields purporting to make an enquiry in your name respecting Mr. Caldwell the telegraph operator at your Headquarters and complaining of his conduct has just been shown me. The operator Mr. Caldwell is appointed by this department. He has by long service proved himself one of the most useful and trustworthy officers in the service. The absence complained of was under instructions with a view to select a location for more direct communication with your headquarters. If there is any ground of complaint against him I would be glad to it directly from yourself and the evil shall be promptly corrected. The effort by staff officers to control the telegraph has required frequent check and has occasioned groundless complaints against valuable officers. But any complaint by you will receive prompt correction.”