the part of the Rebel leader, to
disparage our victories and to wipe out of his record, with a sort of
legerdemain, the disgraceful and disastrous denouement of his invasion.
In the following important statement General Meade confirms his position
by incontestable facts, and shows how the matter stood:

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
Aug. ----, 1863.

_Major-General Halleck, General-in-Chief_:

My attention has been called to what purports to be an
official despatch of General R. E. Lee, commanding the Rebel
army, to General S. Cooper, Adjutant and Inspector-General,
denying the accuracy of my telegram to you, of July
fourteenth, announcing the result of the cavalry affair at
Falling Waters.

I have delayed taking any notice of Lee's report until the
return of Brigadier-General Kilpatrick, absent on leave, who
commanded the cavalry on the occasion referred to, and on
whose report from the field my telegram was based. I now
enclose the official report of Brigadier-General Kilpatrick,
made after his attention had been called to Lee's report.
You will see that he reiterates and confirms all that my
despatch averred, and proves most conclusively that General
Lee has been deceived by his subordinates, or he would
never, in the face of the facts now alleged, have made the
assertion his report claims.

It appears that I was in error in stating that the body of
General Pettigrew was left in our hands, although I did not
communicate that fact until an officer from the field
reported to me he had seen the body. It is now ascertained,
from the Richmond papers, that General Pettigrew, though
mortally wounded in the affair, was taken to Winchester,
where he subsequently died. The three battle-flags captured
on this occasion, and sent to Washington, belonged to the
Fortieth, Forty-seventh, and Fifty-fifth Virginia regiments
of infantry.

General Lee will surely acknowledge these were not left in
the hands of stragglers asleep in barns.

GEORGE G. MEADE, _Major-General Commanding_.

Kilpatrick, in his letter of explanation, referred to in the above
despatch, gives the following graphic account of this last scene in the
great drama of the invasion:

HEADQUARTERS THIRD DIVISION CAVALRY CORPS,
Warrenton Junction,