The state chronicle., 1893-06-25
Lee, LoDgstreet aud Gettysburg.
Communicated.

liable paper that are to constitute
part of the life of the coming gen.
Grafton. They should not be mis-
led or imposed upon. Thousands
of your adult readers in this and
other States, and veteran Confed-
crates all ever the South, will be
shocked to read the opinion ex-
pressed in the article in the New
Orleans Times Democrat, copied in
your paper of the 2lst inst. Your
scrupulous care in regard to the &C
curacy of matter appearing in your
columns is we'll known and appre-
ciated by the public, General
Longstreet in that article expresses
opinions that are not sustained by
the voice of impartial history, nor
by a single one Of his contempora-
ries so far as I have been able to
find by Neutrality-suspicious.. Please
give me space to present the oppo-
site view, by calling some of the
great actors and witnesses of the
Wd& HcIiOu W OAO oudAO.
All North Carolinians have great
love and admiration for the General
Longstreet of the war. He was in
their opinion second only to Gen.
Lee after the fall of Stonewall Jack
son. We thank him for these splendid
words Il can truthfully attest that
the Old North State furnished as
brave and gallant troops as we're in
the Confederate ranks, and that is
| saying as much as can be said for
soldiers" But we cannot allow the
following statement in his article to
go unchallenged. Says he:
General Lee displayed his great
est weakness as tactical COM
mander at Gettysburg. The tactics
there wero weak, and fatal to sue
cess. His attacks we're made in
detail, and not in one co-ordi-
nate, overwhelming rush as they
should have been. The first coils
sion was an unforeseen accident.
We failed at Gettysburg because
We had undertaken too great a con-
tract and went about it in the
wrong way" II his statement is
true it is blur upon General Lees
military genius, if false, it reflects
no credit upon either Gen. Bong
streets motive or intelligence. It
is not true. Longstreet lost the
battle OF Gettysburg by not obey
ing General Lees orders. To
sustain this statement I pre-
sent part of the article pub
lished in the Century Magazine
for 1887, which Was in reply
to General Longstreet's article in .
former number, in which he ex-
pressed substantially the same SEN
timents as those expressed above:
"Gen. Longstreet would have US
| infer that he was not ordered by
Gen. Lee to attack early On the
second day; but that his memory is
ct fault on this point has been
abundantly shown by Gems. Fitz.
hugh Lee, Pendleton, Early, Viii
COX and many others. No testi'
mony on this point is more direct
and conclusive than that Of Gen
A. L. Long, military secretary te
Gen. Lee He says in his recently
, published memoirs of r. E Lee
{page 27T, that on the evening O
, the 1st, when Gen. Lee had decided
rot to renew the attack on Gene
terry Hill that day, hs said (ir
| Longs presence) to Longstreet an6
/ Hill, "Gentlemen, We will attack tn
] enemy in the morning SIS early a
practicable" Long continues: Il,
: the conversation that succeeded b.
+ (Lee) directed them to make tn
: necessary preparations and oe read.
r for prompt action the next day.
: Long shows plainly that Gen. Lee
! design was to attack the troops il
a front before the whole Federal arm
a could get up, and he describe
: graphically the impatience LIE
!. showed next morning, as early as
J. a. M, at Longstreet's delay. Ger
g Longstreet is wrong too, in givin
J. the impression that his division
were fifteen or twenty miles ava
n on the night of the 1st, for in hi
Il official report he says that "McLaw
# division X reached Mars
!. Greek, four miles from Gel
, tysburg, little after darl
4 The fact is that Gen. Longstree
"a though knowing fully the conditio
of things on the night of the frs
o knowing that Lee had decided t
4 attack that part of the Federal arm
h in his front, knowing that ever
% hour strengthened Meade and d
It minished the chances of Confede
ID ate success, and knowing that b
corps was to open the battle and q
n liver the main assault, consume
k the time from daylight to nearly
IA p. m, on July I'd, in moving h
as troops about four miles, over no S
k rious obstacle, and in getting the
- into battle. Meantime on the Fe'
at eral side Hancock's corps, which hs
nt camped three miles from Getty
o. burg, reached the field by 6 OR 7
re m. Sickles' two brigades that he
Va been left at Emmettsburg came ,
IN by 8 a. N. the rear of the Fiji
in Corps by midday, and the Six
al Corps, after march of 32 miles
n. 30 hours, by 2 p. m. Had Lon