On July 4, 1863, with events at Gettysburg still unfolding, Ten Eyck “Nike” Fonda wrote to his brother Douw Henry about a ride he would remember for the rest of his life. The letter survives in a transcription reproduced by the family archive, and its urgency is plain even after more than a century and a half.
Nike reported that word had reached the War Department that Confederate forces were concentrating near Gettysburg. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton wanted the information conveyed to General George G. Meade. According to Nike, he was chosen to carry the dispatch because the telegraph line had not reached the moving army. He started at about one in the morning under a bright moon, knowing neither the precise location of headquarters nor whether Confederate scouts were on the road.
He drove his horse hard. At Woodburg he stopped briefly to water it; later he encountered a uniformed rider and asked directions. At Middleburg he learned that the army had moved onward, forcing him to search again. He eventually found headquarters and stated that he delivered the message in person and obtained a receipt timed 5:15. Meade, he wrote, furnished a fresh horse and cavalry escort for the return.
Nike’s description of his own excitement is enlivened by an almost comic closing request: his brother was to destroy the letter rather than let their father show it around. He did not want to become “notorious.” The irony is that the letter and a much later 1913 newspaper account kept the ride in the family’s historical memory.
The episode is best understood as Nike’s firsthand account of delivering a consequential dispatch—not proof that one message alone caused the Battle of Gettysburg. The exact movement, recipient, and timing warrant comparison with contemporaneous military and telegraph records before any stronger claim is made.
Sources and references
- Ten Eyck Hilton Fonda, letter to Douw Henry Fonda, 4 July 1863, surviving in a family-held transcription.