Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1876-04-07
Confederate Criticlsm

General Longstreet writes a long
letter to the New Orleans Republi-
can in reply to letter to General
Fitzhugh Lee, asking for all the
facts relative to the report that
General LongStreet had suggested
to General Lee a plan of battle diff
ferent from the one followed at
Gettysburg, and which, had it been
adopted, would have probably pro-
duced a different result. General
Longstreet says he hopes to pre-
pare soon a complete history of the
facts connected with the battle Of
Gettysburg, which will fully prove
not only that he proposed plan of
battle, but that on the second day
of the fight he suggested a change
whereby the main column of the
attack would be of equal strength
with the others. In one respect, at
least, every Confederate soldier will
agree with General Longstreet, and
that is in saying that the First
Corps of the Army of Northern
Virginia needs no defender, so vel
is its fame established.
General Thomas Jordan, Beaure
regards chief of staff, in a letter
to the Springfield Republican, ex
poses many glaring inaccuracies
and inconsistencies in the details
of the "History of the American
Civil War;" written by the Comtt
de Paris. The letter discusses
principally the battle of Bull Run
and revindicates for General Beau
regard the credit of that victory
which the Comte de Paris gives tC
others. The statement that Gen
Beauregard was responsible for thu
failure of the Confederates to taxi
the offensive Immediately after thl
battle, is met by a counter state
ment that Beauregard advocated
this very measure, but was over
ruled. General Jordan also con
tradicts the assertion that the re
signation of the Southern officer
of the regular army embraced 26l
names out of about 600, which tn,
regular army contained, The fac
is that there were within a Fraction
of 100 officers at that time, ant
that among the list of resignation
were those of 0. o. Howard, W. II
Emory, Sill and others who Tough
in the Federal army, and of other
who were never within the Oonfed
crate lines. OF the higher grade
only T6 of 352 officers entered tn
Confederate service, of whom onl
ten of sixty-fye were field officers
The attempt to show that the Fed
eral army was bereft of officers a
the outset of war is thus disproved
The subsequent record Of Genera
Beauregard in the West is also de
Tended from the aspersions Of tn
Comte de Paris.
Colonel A. R. Chisolm, ex-aid-dt
r camp to General Beauregard, ha
/ written letter to the New Yor
Herald, in which he mentions som
of the lost opportunities of Genera
| Sherman. He shows that, at tn
. end of the famous march to the sei
Sherman lost an easy opportunit
of capturing General Hardee
whole command of about ten thor
sand men, in Savannah. Generi
Slocum proposed to push a whol
corps to the South Carolina banl
and thus intercept the Confederate
: Sherman, however, went by sea
Hilton Head to cooperate wit
Foster, and Beauregad, in I'll
meantime, by an adroit and skillfl
retreat, saved the entire comman
General Sherman committed
blunder in leaving sixty thousar
men cautiously concentrated on Il
Georgia side of the river, and goir
| in person to Hilton Head, He ell
deavors to excuse himself for th
blunder by attributing the failu
q to capture Hardee to intervenil
t obstacles. These obstacles consist,
% of some light artillery and a We
= thin line Of the thin cavalry
which Sherman, in his Memoir
= alludes in most disparaging tern
8, Colonel Chisolm notes the remar
y able circumstance, that while Ge
K eral Sherman's report to the Ool