The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-01-10
Om tho [l6G@pa00y W@000d]u

"REMINISCENCES OF THE CIVIL
WAR, with Portraits, by General John
B. Gordon, of the Confederate Army.
Price, SO. Publishers: Charles Serb
ner's Sons, New York.
Il will write a small book in which you
will figure largely is what Senator
Foote is reported to have said to his col
league, Thomas H. Benton, during their
controversy. Benton is credited with this
reply: And l will write big book in
which you shall not figure at ALL
This is recalled by the recent appear
ance of General John B. Gordon's book,
"Reminiscences of the Civil War from
the presses of Charles Scribner's Sons,
New York. 1t is a beautiful volume, and
one of the most, charming series of war
"reminiscences that has appeared. The Au-
gusta Chronicle says that some years
ago General Longstreet wrote book on
the war I'm the two bulky, but inter
esting volumes, General Gordon practical
" did not figure at all. In General Cor
don's book, Longstreet figures promin-
emily, but in a way that he might have
been spared, seeing that it is debatable
question, at least whether he had orders
from Lee to attack the heights early in
the morning.
General Gordon tells the story of the
war as he saw it, from the beginning to
the end. He was young then, brave, gal
liant, daring He makes every incident
he records life-like. AS you read the de-
scriptions, you almost feel that your eyes
rest upon the scene he is describing. No
body has written of the war in a manner
more delightful His stories are from
his own experience. He is telling what
he saw, and telling it as he would tell his
own children gathered about him. The
book is fascinating and will hold ones in
terest as rivetted upon its glowing
pages az Lorna Doone," and that Is say
ing that it equals in interest the best
novel ever penned by the hand of man.
The recent difference of opinion about
the course of the late General Longstreet
at Gettysburg makes the following ex-
tract from General Gordon's book of Pc
culiar interest at this time:
ut row seems certain that impartial
military critics, after thorough investiga-
ton, will consider the following as es-
tablshed:
Il. That General Lee distinctly ordered
Iongstreet to attack early the morning
VI Tic SCIOuu Ooys dAA IL AO A6u uOuc oO,
two of the largest corps of Meades army
would not have been in the fight; but
Longstreet delayed the attack until four
o'clock in the afternoon, and thus lost his
opportunity of occupying Little Round
Top, the key to the position, which he
might have done in the morning without
firing shot or losing a man.
80. That General Lee ordered Long
street to attack at daybreak on the morn
ing OF the third day, and that he did not
attack until two or three o'clock in the
afternoon, the artillery opening at one.
"3. That General Lee, according to the
testimony of Colonel Walter Taylor, Col
onel c. ). Venable, and General A. l..
Long, who were present when the order
was given, ordered Longstreet to make
the attack on the last day, with three
divisions of his corps, and two divisions
of A. P. Hills corps, and that instead of
doing so he sent fourteen thousand men
to assail Meade's army in his strong po-
sition, and heavily intrenched.
~. That the great mistake of the halt
on the first day would have been repaired
on the second, and even on the third day,
if Lees orders had been vigorously exc
cuted, and that General Lee died believ-
ing (the testimony on this point is over
whelming) that he lost Gettysburg at last
by Longstreet's disobedience of orders"