The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1893-07-06
LONGSTRBET'S ESTIMATES
OF SOMEOFTHE OTHERGEN-
ERALS.
Lee Strong in Defensive But
Equalled by Grant in Offensive
Battle---What He thinks of
jackson, Ewell, and Others.
Richmond Dispatch.l


IRichmond Dispatch.l
Mr.. Leslie ]. Perry has published
under his own signature, notes Of CO.
pious conversations which he had with
General Longstreet when the general,
in company with other ex-officers, re-
Gently visited the battle field Of Get
tysburg.
These notes, which, he says, have
been revised by Longstreet's own hand,
fill four or five newspaper columns,
and consist for the most part of criti-
cisms of the prominent generals of the
war.
Longstreet points out what he con-
ceives to have been the weakness of
each one. His judgment may be un-
preiudiced, but his remarks do not
always furnish evidence OF it. About
some of his old comrades-in- arms of
the Confederate army he says some
hard things, and his modesty does not
prevent his pointing out that if his
own advice had been adopted here
and there the result of the war might
have been different.
Often during the war it was said of
Lee by our impatient public that he
was "too Slow" "too much on the
detensive.'' This is not Longstreet's
opinion. OF Lee he said: "When
blow was struck Lee wished to re-
turn it on the spot. He chafed at in
action. He was too pugnatious. This
trait led him to take too many
chances" etc. Longstreet declares
that he tried to dissuade Lee from
ordering the charge on the third day
at Gettysburg, "but Lees blood was
up and he determinedly replied that
the enemy was there and that he must
be attacked"
Longstreet states positively that
I" Lee personally never criticised or
found fault with his (Longstreet's) OPP
erations on that field" and subse-
quently to Gettysburg his relations
with Lee were " as cordial and conf
dental as before" They continued
to be of the closest and most affection
ate character until long after the close
of the war;" Lee, he said, recon-
mended him as Bragg's successor in
the cn.nm,nd Of the consolidated
forces il. the West against Rosecrans.
"On the defensive Lee was abso
lutely perfect, but" added Longstreet,
"of the art of war, particularly that
of giving offensive battle, l do not
think Lee was master. l have no
doubt that in this Grant and several
other officers were his equals"
The following brings out the opinion
of the comparative merits of the East
ern and Western armies:
"Do you think, General, the troops
you took from Virginia behaved any
better at Chickamauga than the West
ern Confederate troops? And were
the Western Federal troops you met
at Chickamauga any braver than the
Federals you habitually met in Vir-
ginia?"
General Longstreet thoughtfully an
swered: "My troops were better dis
ciplined than most of Bragg's, but l
can not say they were better fighters.
l am positive that the Western Fed
erals were no better fighters than their
Eastern brethren, and they were not
nearly so we'll disciplined.
AS for Stonewall Jackson, Longstreet
said that "no man in either army
could accomplish more with 10000 or
10000 men in an independent COM
mand," but sin joint movements he
was not 50 reliable" Longstreet urged
that Jackson be sent to the Trans
Mississippi Department, but Lee was
unwilling to give him up" Said
Longstreet:
He was the very man to organize
great war over there. He would
have marched all over Missouri, in
vaded Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa. In
fact, the very vastness of the theatre
was we'll calculated 10 sharpen his
faculties and give scope to Jackson S
peculiar military talents. His rapid
!. campaigning, suddenly appearing at
remote and unexpected points, would
have demoralized the Federals."
In Longstreet's opinion neither
Ewell nor A. P. Hill "sized up any
where near Jackson" as a leader of an
, independent command. Johnson and
Beauregard he rated high, but both,
he said, had aroused the displeasure OF
the president. Hood lacked expe-
rience for high command" but was a
"splendid fighting soldier, without
: guile" President Davis, said Long.
street, ruined everything by his med
dlesomeness, and "was secretly jealou:
of Lee" Davis "Did not like Stone
. wall Jackson and called him cranky"
Davis, LongstRet declared, was un
, popular when the war closed, but al
, hearts went back to him when the,
= saw him prisoner and in bonds.
General Longst.eet is no longer the
). robust looking man that he was when
: he was favorite lieutenant of Lees
e One of his arms-,hat in which he
, was wounded-hangs almost useless
by his side and he is so deaf that h,
can not hear without the aid of /:
e speaking tube. But yet more lament
: able change has come over him-h.
a sees the men and battles of the wa
:, through glass colored by subsequent
/ events. We have no doubt that hi
). military opinions have become biasee
!. by his political opinion. The cnang'
has been in him, rather than the &C
QUESTION of new facts justifying amend