The daily gazette., 1877-09-26
Why Lee FAILED at Gettysburg.
NO Caoalry-1he Great Importance ofthis
AIm Of the SerDlce.

NO Caoairy-1ne Great Importance of this
.I. arm Of the Serulce. 81 ... D..
Gen. II. Heth. O. 8. A., In Philadelphia
WEEKLY TIMES.
Train giant for an encounter and he
can be whipped by pigmy-if you put
out his eyes. The eyes of an army are
it's cavalry. Before Eweli crossed the
Potomac General. Lee wrote to General
Stuart. commanding the cavalry, in sub
stance. as follows: "Ewell will cross the
Potomac on a certain day, at certain
point. Hill will follow Eweu, crossing
on given day at Ger tain point Long
street will hold the gaps in the moun>
tains and protect the crossing Of these
two corps; after Hill has crossed Long,
street will vacate the gaps, and follow
Hill ON Longstreet vacating the gaps
in the mountains, you will seize them
and protect Longstreet's crossing; then
follow Longstreet, throw, yourself on the
right Hank of the army, watch the enc
my, give me ell the information you can
gather OF his movements, and collect
supplies" General Stuart, probably
thinking he could carry out General
Lees orders, and at the same time make
| brilliant dash toward and threa tenine
Washington, worked by his right flank,
separating himself from Longstreet,
crossing the Potomac between the enemy
and Washington City-making a swoop
toward Washington, then turning west
to, join the Army Of Northern Virginia,
when he found the enemy had crossed
| the Potomac and were between him and
that army. This necessitated his riding
entirely around the Federal army, and
brought him, whether from ecessity or
not cannot say, to Carlisle, Pa. From
this pointhe struck south and Joined
the Army of Northern Virginia, being
late in the evening of July second. 1t is
thus evident that 80 far as deriving any
assistance from his cavalry from the -
of June to the evening OF July 2, it might
as well have had no eKistance. Every
officer who conversed with General Lee
for several days previous to the battle of
Gettysburg, well remembers having
heard such expressions as these: "Can
you tell me where General Stuart is P"
"Where on earth is my cavalry ?" "Have
you any news Of the enemy's move
ments p "What is the enemy going to
do?" "If the enemy does not find us,
we must try and find him, in the absense
of our cavalry, DIS best we can % The
eyes OF the giant were out he knew not
where 10 strike movement in any di-
rection might prove disastrous blun>
der.
Had our cavalry been in position, Gen
eral Lee would have known of Reynolds
approach in the direction of Gettysburg
twenty-four hours before this corps
reached Gettysburg. General Lee could
and probably would, had he known the
enemy were in motion, have occupied
Gettysburg on the Goth or Both of June,
and rendered his position impregnable.
Had our cavalry been in position, Cen
eral Lee, if he saw proper, could have
permitted Reynolds Corps to have occu-
pied Gettysburg as 1t did-but instead
Of this corps being unmasked by two
brigades of my division, it would have
been attacked by Longstreet, Ewell and
Hills corps, In that case the fate of
this corps no one can doubt and had
the enemy thrown forward reinforce-
ments as he did, they would have been
crushed in detail.
Had our cavalry been in position, the
chances are that the battle never would
have been fought at Gettysburg but
whether there or elsewhere, the battle
would have been planned and digested
with that consummate skill and bold
ness which characterized the plans of
the greatest of American soldiers in his
seven days fights around Richmond, his
discontinue of Pope, his Chancellors-
vile fight, and his series of battles in
l864.from the Wilderness to Cold Harbor.