The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1896-07-02

as to allow time for me to reach the
field, and make cooperative attack
upon or by our right"
1t is useless to discuss here how diff
ferent the result might have been had
Gen. Longstreet moved his two divis-
ions to the front at dawn of day on
the I'd. The only question l propose
the troops of cen. Longstreet reach
cen. Lee? For, as will be shown later,
there appears to be contradiction in
Gen. Longstreet's own statements
about this.
In his book, page 362, General
Longs,reet says: "The stars were
shining brightly en- the morning of the
I'd, when l reported at Cen. Lees
headquarters, and asked for orders.
| After a time Generals McLaws and
Hood, with their stats, rode up, and
at sunrise their commands filed off the
road to the right and rested.
Sunrise, in that locality and at that
date, is about ABS o'clock a. m. cen.
| McLaws, in speaking of the move
ments of his division on that occasion,
says:
"My division camped at Willoughby
Run, about four miles from Gettys-
burg, On the night of July 1st, about
IL o'clock, perhaps II was later. While
there received an order to move at
a. m. of I'd; bu, that order was
countermanded and l was directed to
move early. Not long after sunrise l
moved forward and before 8 a. III. the
head ofmy division reached Seminary
| Ridge where cen. Lee was in person.
But propose to put Gen. Longstreet
| himself in evidence to contradict the
statements just now quoted from his
| book. have now in my possession
an autograph letter from him written
from New Orleans on the goth of
April, 1S75,in which he wrote: alt
occurs TO me that if cen. Lee had any
such idea as an attack at sunrise you
must surely be advised of it. Right
sure am that such an order was never
| delivered to me, and it is not possible
! for me to believe that he ever enter
tanned any idea that | was to attack
at that hour. My two divisions, nor
myself did not reach Cen. Lee until 8
a. m. on the ed, and if he had in
tended to attack at sunrise, he surely
would have expressed some surprise or
made some allusion to his orders. {"
The point here made by Gen. Long
street, is that he had received no order
to attack at sunrise, nor had he such
orders; but, as the matter is now pre-
sented, the defense is purely technical.
He had been made to know full we'll
the importance to cen. Lee for the
presence of his troops at the front, and
he failed to meet the occasion and
have his command available for the
very CO operation with Cen. Ewell by
an early attack by our right, of which
he wrote in his letter of May 81, 1875.
"In other words had he placed his
troops at cen. Lees disposal at the
proper time, it was unquestionably the
purpose of the latter to have ordered
an attack at sunrise or soon thereafter.
His troops not being in position of
course the attack could not be made.
! The two statements made by cen.
| Longstreet as to the tile that he re-
ported with his division cannot be rec
onciled. In 1875, when he wrote the
letter from which have quoted, he
claims that neither he nor his divisions
reached cen. Lee until s o'clock a. m.
In his book, published twenty years
later he claims that he reported at
Cen. Lees headquarters before day;
'the stars were shining brightly" and
that his two divisions reached the front
at sunrise, say, at ABS a. m. The
preponderance of the contemporaries
Gus evidences goes to prove that Cen.
Longstreet inaccurately described the
facts in his letter of April, 1875; the
"star light scene, with which chapter
xvii, Of his book opens is too finely
drawn for "Old Pete" (rather early
you know, and its accuracy is not Wis
IDLE to the naked eye.
"The war record of Gen. Longstreet
was brilliant one. That he should
have made mistakes was but natural
and inevitable, but these did not serve
to make his case an exception; and
such was the story of his heroic
achievements they could not mar its
brilliancy. 1t is much to be regretted
that in the attempt to ptove himself
invariably right he should have found
it necessary to assail Gen. Lees motive
and defame his character while claim
ing for himself qualities as a soldier
and leader superior to those possessed
by his old commander.
Very respectfully yours,
WALTER H. TAYLOR.