The New Orleans daily Democrat., 1878-01-06

general IN Jna6 battle gives an apparent
Importance to their assaults" brings to
mind very forcibly the fable Of the wolf
and the lamb.
In February, 1876, he made bitter
assault on myself, among others, in q
paper, the gravamen OF his complaint
against me being the remarks about
Gettysburg contained in my address
which have given.
1 replied to him, and I think demon
strated beyond all question that he was
responsible for the loss Of the battle Of
Gettysburg.
I did not in either of my articles in
reply to him assert that an order was
given him to attack at sunrise on the
I'd. AS before stated, l do not know
what orders were given him, nor when
they were given. | only know the
[ cannot believe that he did
carry that purpose into effect, as every
consideration required the attack on
the morning of the I'd to be made at the
very earliest hour practicable.
The testimony Gen. Longstreet has
adduced Is very far from establishing
the fact that Gen. Lee did not direct
the attack to be made by him at much
earlier hour than that at which 1t was
made.
Before referring to that testimony,
desire to say that the statement CON
tained in the article in the Times, that
the Information of the crossing of the
ceived from scout on the night of
the 29th of June Is erroneous. Gen.
Longstreet's own report, as well as Gen.
Lee 8 detailed one, show that the infor-
nation was received on the night of the
28th. 1t it had not been received until
the night of the goth, it would have
been impossible for the order to return
to reach me at York by the way Of Car
Isle in time for me to begin my march
back early enough on the 3Oth to reach
Gettysburg in time for the fight on the 1st
of July. The fact was that I received
the order on the evening of the goth at
York, with the information that the
enemy had crossed the Potomac and
was moving north.
The statements Of Coils. Taylor and
Marshall, and of Gen. Long, as given by
Gen. Longstreet, that they knew moth
ing Of an order to attack at ''sunrise,"
amount to nothing. They had no per-
sonal knowledge of the orders that were
given, or of the time when they were
given. That is all their testimony
amounts to. But Gen. Longstreet omits
very important and significant part of
Gen. Longs letter That letter, copy
of which / have, goes on to say, imme-
diately after the part given by Gen.
Longstreet:
"As my memory now serves me, it
was Gen. Lees intention to attack the
enemy on the I'd Of July as early as
practicable; and it Is my impression
that he issued orders to that effect.
inferred that such was the case from
the instructions that Gen. Lee gave me
on the evening of the 1st and very early
on the morning Of the I'd of July"
See, also, Gen. Longs letter to me
in the August number of the Southern
Historical Society Papers.
The letter Of Dol. Venable Is as fol-
lows:
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, May IL. 1877.
Gen. James Longstreet:
Dear Sw-Your letter of the 25th ult.,
with regard to Gen. Lees battle order
on the 1st and I'd of July, at Gettys-
burg, was duly received. l did not
know of any order for an attack on the
enemy at sunrise on the I'd, nor can
believe any such order was issued by
July I was sent by Gen. Lee to Gen.
Ewell to ask him what he thought of
the advantages Of an attack on the
enemy from his position. (Col. Mar
shall had been sent with similar order
on the night Of the 1st) Gen. Ewell
made me ride with him from point to
point of his lines, SO as to see with him
the exact position Of things. Before he
got through the examination of the ene-
my's position Gen. Lee came himself to
Gen. Ewell's lines. In sending the mes
sage to Gen. Ewell Gen. Lee was explicit
in saying that the question was whether
he should move all the troops around
on the right and attack on that side. !
do not think that the errand on which [
was sent by the commanding general is
consistent with the idea of an attack at
sunrise by any portion Of the army.
Yours, very truly,
CHAs. s. VENABLE,
Can Col. Venable or any one else be-
lieve that Gen. Lee had formed no
definite opinion as to how he should at
tack the enemy until after his return at
9 a. m. on the I'd from Ewell's line?
That, in fact, he did not make up his
mind how to begin the attack until II q.
M, when Gen. Longstreet says the
order was given to him ? IL
that was the case, then he exhibited
degree of indecision and
vascillation, and the responsibility for
the proorastination and delay that oc-
cured must rest on him alone.
That Col. Venable is sincere in his
opinions do not doubt, but think his
is illogical and his deductions
That Gen. Lee made up his mind
to attack the enemy in his
position on the Gettysburg Heights
there can be no doubt.
Gen. Longstreet says:
"When / overlook Gen. Lee at 5
o'clock that afternoon he said, to my
surprise, that he thought of attacking
Gen. Meade upon the heights the next
day. | suggested that this course
seemed to be at variance with the plan
Of the campaign that had been agreed
upon before leaving Fredericksburg.
He said. If the enemy is there to-mor-
row we must attack him."
He then goes on to give a long list of
the, reasons he urged against the attack,
and says Of Gen. Lee:
\: Il