The leaders of both the North and the South continued their substantial body of writing by July 21, 1863. While lamenting George Meade’s lack of pursuit of Lee’s army after Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln in a letter to General O.O. Howard nevertheless described George Meade as “a brave and skillful officer, and a true man.”
Writing his Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, the president encouraged the continuing recruitment of Negro troops along the Mississippi River.
Lincoln’s counterpart, President of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis, also busied himself with correspondence, writing Robert E. Lee of his concerns over Gettysburg and the necessity of reorganizing units and commands because of losses recently suffered on the battlefield. Davis also solicited Lee about what could be done against the growing Union threat to Charlestown Harbor.