PROFESSOR THADDEUS LOWE
THE CIVIL WAR YEARS
Letter from Major General A.A. Humphreys - July 23, 1862
WAR OF THE AERONAUTS - Page 245
In the aftermath of the Seven Days' battles the potential of success for General McClellan's once grand scheme to destroy the heart of the Confederacy was seriously in question. Even though the last engagement at Malvern Hill had resulted in significantly more Confederate casualties than Union, from June 26, McClellan had begun to withdraw to Harrison's Landing, which would become the Union army's new supply base. The base of operations was now the ancestral home of former U.S. president William Henry Harrison and was situated on the James River, where the army could continue to be supplied and still protected by Union gunboats.
While McClellan's "strategic withdrawal" was soundly criticized in the North, in Virginia the action signified a temporary respite from war. Both Union and Confederate forces had suffered considerable losses, but the psychological damage inflicted by General Lee's fierce counterattack was a shock to the system as far as the Army of the Potomac was concerned. Moreover, the unseasoned Yankees proved to be even more vulnerable to the native maladies of the Virginia peninsula, such as salmonella from contaminated food and water, dysentery, typhoid fever, and malaria.
As a casualty of this latter group, Thaddeus Lowe returned to the National Hotel in Washington, D.C., to recover from the malarial fever he contracted in the weeks prior to the Seven Days' battles.
Webmaster Note: At some point Lowe returned to Pennsylvania to be with his wife Leontine.
(Webmaster Collection)
Prof. T.S.C. Lowe
Philadelphia, Pa.
Camp on James River, July 23d./62
Dear Sir:
I am glad to learn you are getting better - I have
no doubt that (there may only) your leaving here was a
matter of urgent necessity and that you could not have
recovered had you remained.
Your father I understand, left
here with the steamboat a week ago for a further supply
of materials which were urgently needed. He said nothing
to me concerning his intentions, plans, etc. I informed him
by note that I understand the supply of materials on hand
would last only ten or 15 days and that you were
responsible for heat making.
Thank you for the account of your voyage to
South Carolina.
Very respectfully
Your obedient servant
AA Humphreys
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