To the right of General Meade, his chief and friend, stands Major-General
John Sedgwick, commanding the Sixth Army Corps. He wears his familiar
round hat and is smiling. He was a great tease; evidently the performances
of the civilian who had brought his new-fangled photographic apparatus
into camp suggested a joke. A couple of months later, on the 9th of May,
Sedgwick again was jesting--before Spotsylvania Court House. McMahon of
his staff had begged him to avoid passing some artillery exposed to the
Confederate fire, to which Sedgwick had playfully replied, "McMahon, I
would like to know who commands this corps, you or I?" Then he ordered
some infantry before him to shift toward the right. Their movement drew
the fire of the Confederates. The lines were close together; the situation
tense. A sharpshooter's bullet whistled--Sedgwick fell. He was taken to
Meade's headquarters. The Army of the Potomac had lost another corps
commander, and the Union a brilliant and courageous soldier.
[Illustration: SPOTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE