The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-29 00:00:00

Lee and Longstreet.

(From the article entitled "A Visit to the Cities end
Camps of the Confederate States," in Blackwood s Maga-
zine for December.)
I went out to the camp again, and was presented to
General Lee, who invited me to dinner. It was a frugal
meal, and simply served. The General has little of the
glorious pomp and circumstance of war about his person. A
Confederate flag marks the whereabouts of his headquarters,
which are here in a little enclosure of some couple of acres
of timber. There are about half a dozen tents, and as many
baggage waggons and ambulances. The horses and mules
from those, besides those of a small escort, are tied up to
the trees, or grazing about the place. The General has
a private carriage, or ambulance, as it is called, of his own,
but he never Liana it, ..It formerly belonged to the Podorai
General Pope. I remained some time at headquarters, and
had a good'deal of conversation with the officers of General
Lee's staff. Major Marshall mentioned to me, as ens of the
greatest misfortunes which has happened to them dur:og
the war (greater, he thought, than the fall of New Orleans),
the accidental loss last year, through carelessness by a
general of div;bion, of a very important order of General
Lee's. M'Clellan, who had been slowly and carefully feel-
ing his way, totally ignorant of General Lee's plans, and the
whereabouts of his main force, is said to have ex-
claimed, on finding this order, " Well, if I don't de-
stroy Lee this time, you may call me what you
like;" and he immediately pushed on as fast as he could
march, and caught the Confederates before they were ready.
The drawn battle of Sharpsburg or Antietam Creek fol-
lowed ; and Lee, not destroyed, but thwarted in the main
object of his campaign, soon afterwards recrossed the Potc-
mac. In the meantime, however, Jackson had captured
Harper's Ferry, with its garrison of 12,000 men, and im-
mense stores, so that Lee still reaped some advantage from
his ably-conceived plan of campaign. M'Clellan alludes
to this matter in his evidence before Congress on the con•
duct of the war.
* * •

At about 3 o'clock in the afternoon we rejoined Genera!
Longstreet, who, after a long consultation with the Com-
mander-in-Chief, was at this moment riding down with his
Staff towards the front. We found his corps already forming
for the attack in a wood.
Longstreet rode up the line and dovin again, occasionally
dismounting and going forward to got a better view of the
enemy's position.
The ground just before us was plain and open, but be-
yond were those hills, since so celebrated, covered with
Federal breastworks and rifle-pits, and bristling with can-
non. The Federals had also possession of the open ground
below in front of their works, and their foremost guns were
about a quarter of a mile from the wood we were in.
I especially remarked a battery in a peach orchard, which
was blazing away at one of ours not far off.
As we passed Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade the Ge-
neral came up eagerly to Longstreet ; " I wish you would
let me go in, General ; I would take that battery in five
minutes." Wait a little," said Longstreet; "we are all
going in presently."
The won were as eager as their leader, and those in the
front line began to pull down the fence behind which they
were crouching.
"Don't do that, or you will draw the enemy's fire," said
Longstreet, who sees and observes everything.
We passed on, and very soon afterwards the General
called for his horse, mounted, dashed to the front of the
line, gave the word, and led them on himself. We all
followed him.
It was a glorious sight. The men who had been lying
down sprang to their feet, and went in with a will. There
was no lagging behind, no spraining of ankles on the
uneven ground, no stopping to help a wounded comrade.
Not oue fell out of the line unless he was really hurt. On
swept the line, breaking out with an occasional yell when
they came face to face with the foe, but on the whole
silently. The guns in the pea= orentiid 'were pou6crod-
. upon, and half of them taken in a trice, whilst the others
limbered up and made off. Hundreds of prisoners were
captured, and everything was going so satisfactorily that
for a time we hardly doubted that the enemy would be
driven from his very strong position on the hills in front.
But at a critical moment General Hood was severely
wounded, General Barksdale killed, and their men at the
very moment of apparent victory, when they had overcome
almost all difficulties that lay between them and entire
success, hesitated, halted, and at length fell back, losing
thereby far more men than they would have done if they
had continued their advance.
But still we gained decided advantages, taking prisoners
and getting possession of the ground up to the foot of the
hill.