Lee and Longstreet at High Tide: Gettysburg in the Light of the Official Records

by Helen Dortch Longstreet

TRIBUTES FROM THE PRESS

(Washington, D. C., Post.)

“His are as noble ashes as rest beneath the sod of any land.”

We think it safe to say that there is something in the suggestion that these late attacks on General Longstreet’s action at the battle of Gettysburg have for their inspiration a political bitterness of more than thirty years’ standing. Certainly, it is true that up to the close of the Civil War, and, indeed, for several years afterwards, no one ever heard a question raised as to his military ability. On the contrary, it was everywhere conceded, especially by his immediate comrades and associates, that he stood almost at the top of the list of Confederate warriors, not only in the matter of professional equipment, but in that of personal integrity and character. With the exception of Robert E. Lee, Longstreet was regarded as the very prince of the fighters, strategists, and great commanders of that heroic episode. If any one had hinted, even as late as 1869, that there was the smallest flaw in his fame, either as a soldier or a gentleman, the author of the intimation would have had enough quarrels on his hands to last him to his dying day.

Along in the later sixties, however, Longstreet was a resident of New Orleans. He had engaged in business there, having as his partner Colonel Owen, another Southern soldier of high standing and distinguished service. The shadow of reconstruction was then brooding over the South, and thoughtful men, who had accepted the result of the war in loyal faith, consulted together as to the best means of averting its evils, which were at that time sufficiently defined. Finally, in 1870 or 1871, the so-called “Unification Movement” was launched. At its head were numbers of the most prominent and influential men in Louisiana, and conspicuous among them was Beauregard. The project was discussed by the newspapers and generally approved in the more substantial and responsible circles. At last a meeting was called for the purpose of bringing together the best representatives of both races and arranging, if possible, a course of action which would make for peace and order and avert the turmoil that afterwards succeeded to the irruption of the carpet-baggers and the consequent régime of chaos. Before the appointed day, however, Longstreet’s coadjutors experienced a change of heart. They abandoned the experiment which they themselves had devised, and Longstreet was left almost without countenance or sympathy. With characteristic determination, he adhered to the policy his judgment and conscience had originally approved. Of course, it came to nothing, and he, stung by what he regarded as the desertion of the others, and still more deeply hurt by criticisms showered on him, often from the ranks of his quondam associates, went on as he had begun. Then began the breach which in time widened to animosity, ostracism, and lifelong alienation. He may have been mistaken. At least he was courageous and consistent. But we feel sure it cannot be successfully denied that doubts as to his military genius were cradled in that unhappy episode.

We have no idea of participating in any controversy over the details of Gettysburg. That may be left to the survivors who were in a position to form intelligent opinions. For our part, we think of Longstreet now as all of his compatriots thought of him up to 1870​—​that he was one of the finest figures on the stage of the Civil War; a spectacle of perfect gallantry; an example of warlike force and splendor. We do not believe he ever received an order from Lee which he did not execute with instant energy. We do not believe he failed in anything, either there or elsewhere, that became a valorous and brilliant soldier. He is dead now, and cannot answer his accusers, but nearly forty years have elapsed since he sheathed his stainless sword in 1865, and, in our calm, dispassionate opinion, his are as noble ashes as rest beneath the sod of any land.

*****

(Jacksonville, Florida, Times-Union.)

“Peace and honor to his storm-driven soul.”

Now that James Longstreet is no more, the South should forgive the estrangement that followed long years of service. Perhaps he was wiser than we​—​perhaps to-day we are not very far from the position he took a generation ago. Perhaps his greatness as a soldier was largely due to the same qualities which set his people in opposition to him in civil life​—​he had utter confidence in his own judgment, and he went straight for what he thought was right regardless of all prudential considerations.

We have accepted the result of the war in good faith​—​let us accept all that goes with it in our hearts and minds. Others advised while Longstreet acted​—​once we hated him because he headed our foes to make us keep order; were the riots against which Longstreet stood in New Orleans to be repeated in Atlanta, we know Gordon or Wheeler would head the regulars to restore peace and order if their counsels were disregarded. The time makes a difference to the sufferers​—​but not to the historian through whose glasses we can now afford to look. Longstreet is dead​—​weave violets and amaranth in his wreath of laurel​—​peace and honor to his storm-driven soul.

*****

(Shelby, North Carolina, Aurora.)

“Hero of two wars punished for his politics in days of peace.”

A camp of United Confederate Veterans at Wilmington, at a regular meeting, declined to send resolutions of condolence and sympathy to the family of General Longstreet on his death.

And yet General Longstreet was a

Hero of two wars.

He was the “War-Horse of the Confederacy.”

He was in the thickest of the fight from Manassas to Appomattox.

He was familiarly known throughout the army as “Old Pete,” and was considered the hardest fighter in the Confederate service.

He had the unbounded confidence of his troops, and “the whole army became imbued with new vigor in the presence of the foe when it became known down the line that ‘Old Pete’ was up.”

Why, then, did not the Wilmington camp pass those resolutions?

Because General Longstreet was a Republican. For this reason he was

Hated,

Abused,

Slandered.

He was charged with disobeying General Lee’s most vital orders at Gettysburg, causing the loss of the battle and the ultimate destruction of the Confederacy.

*****

(Biblical, North Carolina, Record.)

“So long as Lee lived no one attacked Longstreet’s military honor.”

General Longstreet was a great general. He was an able strategist, a hard fighter, and a faithful soldier. So long as Lee lived no one charged Longstreet with failure to make the fanciful sunrise attack on the second day at Gettysburg. But when Lee had died, this calumny was started, and it was used in hounding him to the day of his death​—​on that day certain misguided Daughters of the Confederacy refusing to send flowers for his bier. Longstreet was the victim of a foul persecution by a partisan press​—​the like of which we see nowadays at ever-increasing intervals. They did not approve his ideas, and they ruined him. He advised the South to accept the results of the war; his business was taken from him, his friends were estranged, and his life was made a burden.

His magnificent services deserved better reward. But history will give him his place; intolerance even now is departing; and as for Longstreet himself, he stands to-night before the Judge of all the world.

*****

(St. Louis Globe-Democrat.)

“Republicanism does not necessarily involve treason to the South.”

One aspect of General Longstreet’s career from Appomattox till his death the other day brings out a very unlovely attribute which was obtrusive in the South during these years. That was the ostracism to which he was subject because he joined the Republican party and accepted two or three offices from Republican Presidents. This antagonism towards him by a large portion of the old Confederate element gradually diminished as a new generation in the South appeared on the scene. Some of the feeling, however, remained to the close of his days, and evinced itself in the obituaries of many of the Southern papers.

A few facts are sufficient to expose the absurdity of this Southern antagonism to Confederates who cast their fortunes with the Republicans after the Confederacy fell​—​this feeling that an adherent of the lost cause must cling everlastingly to the Democratic party through evil and good reports under the penalty of eternal proscription. In the score of years from Longstreet’s graduation from West Point to his resignation, shortly after Sumter’s fall, he was in the army, and a participant in the wars in Mexico and along the frontier in which the army was engaged. The probability is that until after Appomattox he never cast a ballot in his life. Moreover, at the time of his graduation, many of the South’s most prominent statesmen​—​Tyler, Brownlow, Toombs, Legare, Bell, Clayton, Upshur, Henry T. Wise, Botts, Alexander H. Stephens, and others​—​were Whigs. The Whig, Zachary Taylor, of Louisiana, carried more Southern States than did his Democratic antagonist, Cass.

What warrant had the South for proscribing Longstreet, because he, a soldier who never had any politics in the old days, joined the Republican party just as soon as he became a civilian and got a chance to exercise his privileges as a citizen? Mosby, Mahone, and many other ex-Confederates who had been civilians before the war, and who, presumably, had taken some part in politics, also joined the Republican party, though they did not do this quite so promptly as did Longstreet. When Foote, of Mississippi, and Orr, of South Carolina, both of whom had been prominent in Democratic politics before the war, the latter of whom had been Speaker of the House in part of Buchanan’s days in the Presidency, and both of whom had been in the Confederate service, became Republicans soon after the Confederacy collapsed, their neighbors ought to have grasped the fact that there must have been something in this party which appealed to intelligent public-spirited men of all localities, and that membership in it by a South Carolinian, a Georgian, or a Louisianian did not necessarily and inevitably involve treason either to the South’s interests or to its traditions. Mixed in with the many shining virtues of the people below Mason and Dixon’s line, there was, as shown in their attitude for many years towards Longstreet, one very unattractive trait.

*****

(Vicksburg, Mississippi, Herald.)

“There was no more magnificent display of heroism during the entire war than at Gettysburg.”

As truly as Warwick was the last of the barons of the feudal era, was Longstreet the last of the great Confederate commanders. He rose to prominence in the early engagements of the war​—​his was a household name as one of the chief hopes of the cause, when those of all the remaining survivors of like rank were colonels and brigadiers. At the first Manassas, Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Seven Days’ fight, the second Manassas, Sharpsburg, and Fredericksburg he was the chief subordinate figure except where he divided the honors with Stonewall Jackson. And after the death of that very Napoleon of war, until the ultimo suspiro at Appomattox, Longstreet was Lee’s right hand; or, as our great commander fondly called him, “my old war-horse.” How highly he was held at head-quarters and the war department was shown in his being made the senior lieutenant-general, even over Jackson, after the 1862 test by fire.

At Gettysburg Longstreet was in charge of the fighting line, of placing the divisions in action, on the second and third days of that Titanic struggle. Whatever may be said of the result,​—​of the errors which misinformation and sycophancy have attempted to make him the scapegoat of,​—​there was no more magnificent display of heroism during the entire war.

It has not been the Southern fashion of late years to praise, or even practise justice towards, Longstreet. But now that the stout warrior is dead and gone to eternal judgment, all should speak of his virtues, his glorious deeds of arms, without thought or reference to that sad error of judgment that, no smaller in its intent and inception than “a man’s hand,” grew to a dark cloud between Longstreet and his people. This will be appreciated by survivors of the old First Corps, no good soldier of which has ever failed to repeat with pride, “I followed Longstreet.” As one of that band the editor of the Herald has always left criticism of our old chief’s politics to others. If ever the inclination came to us, there rose up two pictures of the past that forbade,​—​the heroic and inspiring figure of Longstreet as he rode up to Colonel Humphreys of the Twenty-first Mississippi, towards the close of that grand “centre rush” of Barksdale’s brigade that swept Sickles and his Third Corps off of the “Peach-Orchard Hill,” at Gettysburg, to tell him that Barksdale was killed and to take command of the brigade; and Longstreet as he was borne from the front at the Wilderness, all faint and bloody from what seemed a death wound.

Longstreet is now no more. But there is a thrill in the name that carries his surviving followers backward forty years​—​recalling the roar of cannon, the charging column, the “rebel” yell, the groans of wounded and dying comrades. For,

“There where Death’s brief pang was quickest,
And the battle’s wreck lay thickest​—​
There be sure was Longstreet charging,
There he ne’er shall charge again.”

*****

(Bainbridge, Georgia, Searchlight.)

“Robbed of the laurels won in peerless campaigns.”

The death of General Longstreet at his Gainesville home the other day removes one of the few grand actors of the war drama of the sixties. He was known as the “old war-horse of the Confederacy,” and perhaps in point of military ability he ranked next to the great Lee himself. His soldiers had the most remarkable confidence in him, and he it was who could inspire them to deeds of valor unparalleled. At times since there have been those who have attempted to cast aspersions on his illustrious name, saying that he disobeyed Lee’s orders at Gettysburg. A timely article has just been published, and curiously in the same paper that conveyed the sad intelligence of his death, from the pen of Mrs. Longstreet, presumably composed with the aid of the General in his last feeble days, that answers completely and satisfactorily all charges of stubbornness or disobedience at that famous battle. It is a pity that so great a soldier and military genius should not have been allowed to have worn the laurels of so many peerless campaigns undisturbed and without envy. Now that he is dead his memory should be enshrined in the hearts of a grateful people for whose cause he did battle, and the remembrance of his illustrious deeds should be handed down to future generations as those of the knights of the round table.

*****

(Thompson, Georgia, Progress.)

“Would have been court-martialed for disobeying orders at Gettysburg.”

It is passing strange that any one should make such a charge against General Longstreet, in view of the fact that General Lee never made any such charge; and any sane man knows that he would have made the charge had it been true, and no doubt General Longstreet would have been court-martialed for such an offence, especially as it is charged that this probably lost the battle to the Confederates.

General Longstreet was one of the greatest and bravest of the Confederate generals, and no man should endeavor to dim the lustre of his brilliant military record or cast reflections upon his good name as a citizen or doubt his loyalty to the South. No hero that wore the gray deserves more honor and thanks than this gallant Southern hero, who, like Lee, Jackson, Johnston, and a long list of other loyal Southern sons resigned a position of prominence in the army of the United States and cast his fortunes with his Southern brethren in defense of Southern rights, homes, and firesides, and many of whom died for Southern honor. Sleep on, noble and illustrious soldier and patriot! Thy good name and record as a soldier is safe from the attacks of politicians, rivals, and so-called Daughters of the Confederacy of Savannah!

*****

(Houston, Texas, Chronicle.)

“He was superior to human vanity or ambition.”

It should not be forgotten that when the war began General Longstreet, like General Lee and many others of the South’s illustrious leaders, was an officer in the army of the United States. Had he adhered to the Union, high command awaited him; the siren voice of ambition whispered to him of a splendid future of fame and honor and rich reward, while he knew more doubtful was the issue if he heeded the call of duty and offered his sword to the South. Yet he did not hesitate. To his mother’s cry he responded like the faithful son and hero that he was, and proved superior to human vanity or ambition.

This being true, it is but fair to presume that whatever step he took afterwards was inspired by the high sense of duty, and that he took it only after having taken counsel with his conscience and with due regard for the requirements of patriotism and honor.

In every position in civil life, many and responsible as they were, he bore himself with ability, dignity, efficiency, and with stainless honor; there was never a spot upon his official record, but the civilian, as was the soldier, was without reproach.

If any man or woman doubts or calls in question the record of James Longstreet as a soldier, let him or her ask the veteran Southern soldier who followed him (and there are a number in Houston) what they think of him, and with one voice they will say, “He was Lee’s ‘war-horse.’ When we heard Longstreet was in the lead or in command, or was coming, we knew that victory would follow the fighting; we trusted him; Lee trusted him; the army trusted him.”

“Where beyond these voices there is peace,” the old hero is at rest. Little it recks whether men praise or blame him now​—​“The peace of God which passeth all understanding” is upon him, and history will write him down as he was, a brave, able, faithful soldier, who so loved his native land as to pour out his heroic blood in its defence. Than this he asks no higher praise.

*****

(Atlanta, Georgia, Constitution.)

“Truth will take hold upon the pen of history.”

A great soldier, in the ripeness of years and yet enduring to the latest breath the pangs of the wounds of four decades ago, has fallen upon earth’s final sleep.

In the brave days of his earlier soldiership, and then in the strenuous years of one of the world’s most tragic wars, wherein his genius lifted him to the next highest rank of generalship, General James Longstreet was a conspicuous figure and always a force to be reckoned with. The finest and justest military critics of America and Europe have pronounced him a commander in whom were combined those abilities of initiative, strategy, and persistent daring that make the historic general of any age or people.

While to others who were concerned in the great campaigns and battles of which he was a distinguished factor there may have appeared in his acts some incidents for criticism, yet to his immediate officers and men he was ever the ideal soldier and the peerless commander. But in the presence of his shrouded frame, in the revived memories of his loyalty and his heroism, and in the knowledge that the seeming errors of men in pivotal crises are often the misunderstood interferences of the Supreme Ruler, judgments cease and reverence, gratitude, and honor form the threnody at the tomb.

The war record of General Longstreet will always remain a theme of laudation by the sons of Southerners. For the reward of it thousands refused to sanction the rebukes his subsequent career sometimes engendered among his compatriots. Who that witnessed it can forget the embrace given Longstreet by ex-President Davis here in Atlanta and the tremendous ovation that greeted the old hero in his veteran gray uniform as he joined in the gala-day made in honor of his disfranchised chief?

General Longstreet’s taking of office under President Grant has been always a misunderstood transaction. It was not a surrender of his Southern sentiments or an act of disloyalty to the Southern people. At the time when General Grant, feeling the impulses of former comradeship, tendered an office and its emoluments to General Longstreet, whose fortunes were in sore straits, the old soldier refused to consider acceptance of the offer until urged to it by his later fellow-soldiers in New Orleans, including Generals Hood, Beauregard, Harry Hayes, Ogden, and even Jefferson Davis himself. He accepted it in the belief that it was his duty to take any occasion for public service that otherwise would be held in the hands of alien carpet-baggers and haters of the Southern people. But the occasion was too soon​—​the passions of the people yet too inflamed. Without full knowledge of the inwardness of his conduct the people whom he loved heaped upon him a penetrating scorn and livid coals of indignation. He was too brave to complain; too considerate to expose his advisers, and his heroism was never more chivalrous than the long patience with which until now he has endured the misjudgments of his Southern fellow-men.

But these things are naught now to the flown spirit. Hereafter truth will take hold upon the pen of history and rewrite much that has been miswritten of this great son of the South. His stainless integrity, his devotion to the cause of his militant people, his incomparable bravery in battle, his superb generalship on campaign, and his later chivalry in the calm conduct of his citizenship and public service remain as wholesome memories of a world-acclaimed Southern hero.

*****

(St. Paul, Minnesota, Pioneer Press.)

“Ostracised by men who did no fighting.”

The pestiferous pertinacity with which certain women of the South seize every opportunity to fan the embers of a dying sectional animosity, and to blazon their adherence to the principles of the “Lost Cause,” is again illustrated in the refusal of the Savannah Daughters of the Confederacy to send a wreath to be laid on General Longstreet’s grave. Next to Robert E. Lee, Longstreet had the reputation of being the ablest of the officers who fought on the Southern side in the Great Rebellion. But at the close of the war, satisfied that the Lost Cause was lost forever, and that it was useless to attempt to keep alive a spirit of revenge,​—​heart-won, too, by the splendid generosity of Grant in his dealings with the defeated army of Lee,​—​he “accepted the situation;” accepted, too, from the Republican soldier-president the office of surveyor of the port of New Orleans, and addressed all his powers to the work of healing the wounds of war and of reuniting the sections. For this he was ostracised by the ultra element of Southern irreconcilables​—​an element made up principally of women and of men who did no fighting, and which nurses its bitterness with the unsatisfied spirit of the child who, not having finished his cry yesterday, inquires to-day, “What was I crying about?” in order that he may indulge in the luxury of tears once more. The men who fought under and with Longstreet honor his later loyalty to the Union as much as they do his steadfast courage and ability under the “Stars and Bars” in the bloody sixties. The women who refuse his bier a tribute dishonor only themselves.

*****

(Atlanta, Georgia, Journal.)

“One of the most gallant spirits of the century.”

With the death of General James Longstreet, who was the first ranking general of the Confederate army, passes one of the most gallant spirits of the nineteenth century.

Of all the men who fought with conspicuous valor and prowess for the Confederate cause, there was none who possessed more leonine courage or inspired in his men a greater degree of enthusiastic affection than this chieftain whom Lee dubbed with the title of “My Old War-Horse” on the battle-field. That remark of Lee’s was like the touch of an accolade upon his shoulders, and no subsequent misunderstandings or criticisms have ever been able to rob him of the place among the chivalrous souls of the South to which he was elevated by their irreproachable King Arthur, General Lee.

And, in view of the fact that the most choice and master military spirits of his age esteemed him to possess tactical ability and military judgment equal in degree to his undisputed qualities of persistent bravery, such criticisms as there were are scarcely worthy of mention and demand no refutation now in any backward glance at his brilliant career. The South can point to his record with pride, as his military associates have ever pointed to the man himself with a quick and affectionate appreciation. No note of apology should mingle with the praise and grief of those who look to-day with tear-blurred eyes upon the soldier’s bier.

And the memory of his actions on the boisterous stage of battle and of the single-hearted, loyal rôle he played through all the shifting scenes of that greatest war-drama of the century should in itself constitute a rebuke to those who have sought to rebuke him for certain generally misunderstood actions in his subsequent career. He became an office-holder under General Grant, a very, very human thing to do. It was a very, very natural thing that General Grant, who had married the cousin of the “Old War-Horse,” and who was, besides, actuated by the spirit of a remembered, youthful comradeship, should give his friend, comrade, and relative an office when Longstreet was walking along thorny financial paths. And his acceptance, urged as he was to accept by his Confederate comrades, was, under the circumstances, very human and very natural. He made a good public servant​—​where could Grant have found a better in those reconstruction days, which were not noted for the excellence of their public servants? Where could Longstreet have better served his own people than by taking an office which might otherwise have been given to men who were still so inflamed by partisan prejudice as to hate those people? His motives were of the highest in this acceptance, and his attitude of silently bearing the remarks of those who criticised him under a misapprehension stamps his moral courage with the golden seal of a serene nobility.

He was misjudged, but he happily lived to see most of those who misjudged him silenced by an exposition of facts which he was too proud to set forth himself.

The debtor years have rendered back to him the refined coin of a fixed fame for his life labor. He is dead, and his place​—​a high one in the world’s history​—​is enduring.

*****

(Newport, Virginia, News.)

“The bravest of the brave.”

The Savannah Daughters of the Confederacy, whose custom it is to send a laurel wreath for the tomb of deceased Confederates, refused to send one upon the death of General Longstreet a few days ago.

The Daughters at Savannah have, we suppose, satisfactorily to themselves, settled the mooted question of the Gettysburg controversy, but we do not believe their action will find applause generally among the ex-Confederate soldiers. Whatever may have been the fact at Gettysburg, it is beyond dispute that his actions there did not estrange his loyal soldiers, nor impair the esteem in which he was held by General Lee. The close of the war found him in command of the left wing of the army, and he joined General Lee on the way to Appomattox. In referring to his death the Richmond Times-Dispatch says,​—​

“We recall General Longstreet as one of the bravest of the brave, one who struck many blows for the Confederacy, and one on whom General Lee often leaned and whose name is identified with world-famous battles. These are things we cannot forget, nor do we wish to.”

Whatever may be said of the attitude of the South since the war towards General Longstreet, the fact remains that his espousal of the Republican cause in politics did most to invite criticism, and this he always felt was unjust to him.

It seems strange that General John B. Gordon should have so bitterly attacked General Longstreet, and it is charity to say that he did it from political reasons, and not by way of challenging war records.

With his fresh grave denied its laurel wreath at the hands of the Savannah Daughters, and his lifeless lips beyond reply to carping critics, it is refreshing to see that the loyal wife, who walked with him in the evening of life, brings her own wreath of the roses of love, dewy with her tears, and places it upon the grave that holds his valiant dust.

*****

(Birmingham, Alabama, Ledger.)

“In the military annals of the Anglo-Saxon race there is nothing finer than his fighting record.”

The author of the article on Longstreet, which recently appeared in the Ledger and which we republish below, has been a close student of military history, and was personally observant of great movements in Virginia during the war:

“Men of Southern blood who recall the days when the civilized world was thrilled with the renown of those great Confederate captains, ‘Lee, Longstreet, and Jackson,’ can scarcely realize that the grave has just closed over all that is mortal of the stoutest, the steadiest, the most practical, pushing, resolute, and stolidly unimaginative fighter of that goodly and immortal group. In the military annals of the Anglo-Saxon race there is nothing finer than the fighting record of this Old Lion of the South. It does not need the formal observances of official commemoration to perpetuate the memory of a man who led the stanch legions of the Confederacy in victorious fellowship with Jackson and Lee. Tradition alone will uplift and applaud his name long after monuments have crumbled and Camps and Chapters have ceased to exist. None knew better than the great Virginian leader that the neck of the ‘Old War-Horse’ was always clothed with thunder when the shock of battle came. Lee never dreamed that Longstreet was faithless.

“Every American who is proud of our common race must deplore the openly manifest disposition of Southern veterans and sons of veterans to discredit for all time the great historic soldiers of the South. It needs not the perspicacity of a Verulam to inform us that the highest virtues are not visible to the common eye. The disposition to suspect and besmirch a glorious soldier​—​a man whose leadership immortalized the armies that he led​—​not only betokens a radical change in popular ideals, but apparently marks the decadence of that traditional sentiment of chivalry which is truly ‘the unbought grace of life,’ and that generous martial spirit which for generations has characterized the great Southern branch of the Anglo-American race.

“The humblest citizen of this republic has an inalienable interest in the heroic memories of the South. Let the Dead Lion sleep in peace. Nothing is alien to the true American heart that in the least degree concerns the glory of the Old South or the interest of the New. It is precisely this sentiment that was expressed in the fine chivalry of Grant at Appomattox and won for that iron conqueror the lasting affection and respect of the men that he had fought. The heroic Longstreet needs no higher eulogy than the single phrase, He was the friend of Grant and Lee.”

*****

(Macon, Georgia, Telegraph.)

“No reproach can be cast upon his bravery and devotion.”

The Savannah Chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy has made itself ridiculous by throwing a brick at the dead lion at Gainesville!

It seems a pity that the enterprising news gatherers in the Forest City should have given out to the public the silly action of these young women. Their offence was a resolution “refusing” to send a wreath to lay upon the grave of General Longstreet “because he disobeyed orders at Gettysburg.”

The causes for the drawn battle at the critical point in the history of the struggle of the ’60’s will be debated while time lasts. So will the causes for the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo. This debate has been and will be participated in by the great commanders of the world. But no reproach has been, can, or will be cast upon the bravery or devotion of the famous old fighter whose courage knew no abatement in the hundreds of engagements participated in during the trying experiences of three wars. Alexander and Cæsar and Napoleon and Grant and Lee made their mistakes. So did Longstreet. But how does it seem for a bevy of young women to pounce upon the cold remains of this battle-scarred veteran and hero lying in state and attempt to punish him for an alleged mistake made forty years ago in the midst of the roar and clash of the greatest battle in history! Their mothers knew better.

We are not surprised that veterans in Savannah feel aggrieved, as they must feel everywhere that the action is known.

General Gordon believes that Longstreet made a mistake at Gettysburg, but Lee said, “It is all my fault.” The great chieftain in command made no charge against his great fighting arm. Touching this controversy, Colonel McBride, writing to the Atlanta Constitution, says, “Longstreet, although a prudent and cautious fighter, was not only always ready to fight, but he was always anxious and wanted to fight. On the second day he was not slow, but was simply putting himself in shape to do the bloodiest fight of the war. At least two-thirds of the casualties in America’s greatest battle happened in front of Longstreet’s corps. Reports show this. The records also show that he only obeyed Lee’s orders to the letter.”

Grant, however, that Longstreet made a costly mistake, there are times other than those at the grave to discuss them; there are persons other than young women unborn in those days to administer rebuke or punishment.

If these young women who sit in judgment at the tomb could not lay a flower on the new-made grave of an old war-horse of the Confederacy, it seems as if they might have restrained their tongues while the muffled drum passing by rolled its last tattoo.

*****

(New York Journal.)

“After a while Southern capitals will be adorned with statues of Longstreet; upon his grave ‘his foeman’s children will loose the rose.’”

At the age of eighty-three General Longstreet has passed away​—​a noble character, a good soldier, one of the hardest fighters of the Civil War. General Longstreet was pretty badly treated by the people whose battles he fought with so great courage and capacity. He was no politician​—​just a soldier, and at the close of the war committed the error of “fraternizing” with all his countrymen. He “accepted the situation,” not wisely, but too early. With a fine and generous unwisdom he laid away the animosities of the war-time and put himself at once where all stand now,​—​on the broad, high ground of American citizenship. No part had he in the provincial conceit of the thing that has the immodesty to call itself a “Southern gentleman.” It probably never occurred to him that the qualities distinguishing a gentleman from a pirate of the Spanish Main had so narrow a geographical distribution as the term implies. He paid for his breadth of mind​—​became a kind of social outlaw and political excommunicant in “the land once proud of him.” Briefly, his shipmates marooned him. Well, he has escaped​—​he has “beaten the game,” as, sooner or later, we all conquer without exertion. After a while Southern capitals will be adorned with statues of Longstreet and upon his grave posterity will see “his foemen’s children loose the rose.”

*****

(New York Tribune.)

Lee and Longstreet.

The death of General James Longstreet, as was to be expected, has revived to some extent the controversies which have raged over certain memorable incidents in his military career. For the last twenty-five years persistent efforts have been made to throw on General Longstreet’s shoulders responsibility for Lee’s defeat at Gettysburg. Not a few Southern writers have gone so far as to accuse him, if not of insubordination, at least of culpable inattention to orders given him by the Confederate commander-in-chief. General John B. Gordon, in his recently published reminiscences, revived and amplified these charges against Longstreet, stating explicitly​—​as his own conclusion and as that of impartial military critics generally​—​that Longstreet’s blunders had blasted Confederate hopes at Gettysburg, and that General Lee “died believing he had lost by Longstreet’s disobedience.” Strangely enough, General Longstreet’s wife had prepared an elaborate refutation of General Gordon’s theories, and had arranged for its publication on January 3​—​the day following General Longstreet’s death.

We do not think that history will sustain the contentions of General Longstreet’s critics. They are interesting enough as post-mortem demonstrations of what might have been. But they ignore actual conditions. They picture a situation which could have existed only as a military after-thought. General Longstreet cannot be made a scapegoat for all the sins of hesitation or omission chargeable to Confederate commanders at Gettysburg. General Gordon is himself disposed to censure General Lee for not vigorously attacking the Federal forces in their new position on the evening of July 1. He condemns utterly Longstreet’s failure to assault the Federal left wing early in the morning of July 2. But he waves aside entirely the exhaustion of A. P. Hill’s corps at the conclusion of the first day’s battle and the physical impediments to forming and executing an attack on the Federal left wing before noon of July 2. That Longstreet’s assault suffered in effectiveness from the delays of July 2 is greatly to be doubted. The fighting done by his corps far excelled in dash and brilliance anything done at Gettysburg by Ewell’s corps or A. P. Hill’s. Longstreet bore the brunt of both the second and third day’s struggle and emerged from the conflict with his reputation as a corps commander unimpaired. There is no reason to think that he could have fought more brilliantly or more successfully if he had attempted the attack which General Gordon philosophizes about in the early morning of the second day.

General Lee at the close of the battle justly and honorably assumed entire responsibility for the Confederate defeat. Lee lost at Gettysburg because on the offensive he seemed incapable of rising to the full height of his military talent. His generalship in his two brief invasions of Northern territory was commonplace.

In Lee’s own lifetime not a word of criticism was aimed at Longstreet. It is needless to inquire what influences have conspired to foist on him the blame for the Confederate failure at Gettysburg. Another generation of Southern writers will do him more impartial justice. He will certainly be classed hereafter by open-minded critics as one of the ablest and most intelligent of the commanders who fought under the South’s flag in the Civil War.

*****

“No Southern man suffered more or deserved it less.”

The death of General Longstreet removes from the world’s stage of action one who in time of war had his name and his deeds sounded by the trumpet of fame throughout the civilized world. He was a conspicuous figure in the eyes of the world, and his name was at one time familiar to and honored in every Confederate household. He was Lee’s Rock of Gibraltar that never failed to stem the tides of assault, and when he led, in his turn, the attack, he was a thunder-bolt of war that never failed to strike with terrible effect. In council he was calm and calculated well and closely all the chances of conflict, in scales well balanced, and, as a rule, with almost unerring exactness.

He was essentially a soldier, whose education, training, and services for a generation in years made his enforced change to civil life practically the adoption of a new life at total variance to that in which he has always been a conspicuous and a noted figure. His was a lovable nature, loyal to principle and to truth, and when his confidence was secured his trust was sure to follow.

That trait in his character was the cause of the ban under which he suffered for such a long period from the Southern people, and, as many an old Confederate veteran will now say, with such injustice.

At the time the storm of ostracism first burst in fury over his head I was an official of the State of Mississippi and resided at Jackson, the State capital, and I was then, as I am now, familiar with the cause of the outbreak of public sentiment against him. Let me explain that there had been on the part of the Southern people a practical nullification of the Federal laws regarding the negro and his rights so recently conferred, and it was hard for Southern people to swallow the doctrine of equality in anything where the negro was concerned.

The entire South was in a tempestuous turmoil that threatened the very foundations of society, by rising like the storm-tossed waves of tempestuous seas and sweeping away the barriers that had been erected against the domination of the Southern whites. At this juncture prominent and influential leaders of public thought, who saw the coming storm, at a conference held in New Orleans explained the situation to certain popular and influential ex-Confederate generals then residents of that city, and represented to them that an appeal by them to their old soldiers to accept the situation, obey the Federal laws, and maintain peace and order would result in great good and assist in allaying the suppressed, indeed often open, excitement of the people. They were appealed to as patriots to come to the rescue of their people and lead them in peace as they had in war.

The text of a letter to be written by each was then outlined, and at a second conference each submitted his letter. The substance of all the letters was identical, each with the others. They were published in the New Orleans papers simultaneously to insure the object in view, the influencing of public opinion. Their publication aroused a storm of reproach and denunciation that was without measure.

Instead of acting like oil on the troubled waters, they provoked the fury of the tempest, and the authors of the letters were overwhelmed with letters of protest and reproach.

Explanation after explanation by the authors (save General Longstreet) that amounted to public retraction, followed. Longstreet, firm as the rock of Gibraltar, bared his breast to the storm and proudly declared that he had nothing to retract. He explained the circumstances under which he had written the letter, cited its approval by leaders of public thought, and declared that the sentiment of the letter but expressed his honest convictions, and he stood by it. Every old veteran of Longstreet’s corps who reads this will say, “That’s just like old Pete.” He could have saved his popularity had he sacrificed principle. But like the noble Roman that he was, he could, in weighing one against the other, defiantly proclaim

“These walls, these columns fly
From their firm base as soon as I.”

I was among the few who saw nothing then in any of the letters to merit the disapproval of the Southern people; and looking through “the vista of time” back to those days, I can say in all candor and sincerity that had the seed of Longstreet’s advice fallen in ground ripe for it, reconstruction would have been shorn of many of the evils that accompanied it and blighted the land. Some time after these occurrences General Longstreet made a trip through territory in Mississippi from which his mercantile firm derived much business. One day Governor Humphreys said to me, “General Longstreet is coming this way. If he comes here, what would you do?” Instantly I replied, “I would not wait for him to come, but I would insist on his coming, and tell him that he would be welcomed at the governor’s mansion.” He directed me to write the invitation, saying, “I had made up my mind to so act, for nothing could make me turn my back on ‘old Pete.’ I served under him too long to do that.” He accepted the invitation and was the guest of the governor. In honoring him the governor set an example that the whole town followed, and the period of his stay was almost a constant levee. On me was placed the special and agreeable duty of attendance upon him. I was with him much of the time and participated in conversations in which the letter that brought to him only woe was discussed. Never did a bitter word pass his lips in denunciation of those who led him to the slaughter and themselves stepped aside and raised no hand to help him. He declared that the letter expressed his true sentiments, and that it was written after deliberate thought. It proved to be unfortunate, and though he was then reaping only thorns from it, time would vindicate him and his course. He bore his fate like an ancient Stoic. I count my association with him at this time as among the most pleasant of a checkered life. I never saw him again.

General Joseph E. Johnston, of whose staff I was a member, told me with his own lips that the plan by which the army of Stonewall Jackson was withdrawn from the valley and hurled on the flank of McClellan was first suggested to him by Longstreet. He said that the idea had occurred to him, but at a time when it was not feasible. But just previous to the battle of Seven Pines, Longstreet submitted a plan that he had matured, that met his favor and determined him to adopt it. At the battle that almost immediately occurred he was incapacitated by wounds and General Lee assumed command. Shortly after, Jackson’s force was transferred from the valley and hurled on the Federal flank. We know with what result. The plan was communicated to General Lee shortly after his accession to command. The plan which General Lee adopted may have been his own, but the idea first originated in the soldierly brain of Longstreet. Again, at the second Manassas, when Longstreet, to the rescue of Jackson, debouched through “Thoroughfare Gap,” a glance at the field showed him Jackson’s peril, and his masterful, soldierly ability needed no general in command to direct him as to the placing of his battalions. Like a thunder-bolt of war his command struck the Federal army. Jackson was saved and the victory was won. Space forbids further prolixity, while the theme invites it. Let me say that no Southern man suffered more at the hands of the Southern people and deserved it less. I uncover my head in honor to his memory and bid him “all hail and farewell!” Little cares he now for the plaudits of the world or the censure of his critics. When a chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy refused a wreath to his remains, Jeff Davis, Lee, Stonewall Jackson, the two Johnstons, and a host of others gone before, were giving him brotherly welcome in the city of the living God, and his old corps who have crossed the river joined in shouts of welcome to his knightly soul. Let us all feel that

“After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well.”

Jas. M. Kennard,

Ex-Colonel and Chief Ordnance Officer, Army of Tennessee, C. S. A.

*****

(New Orleans Picayune, Special.)

“The Confederates had no better fighter than Longstreet.”

New York, January 4.​—​“Longstreet fought hard enough to suit me​—​he gave me all I wanted. I was perfectly satisfied when the second day’s fight was over.” This was General Sickles’s comment to-day at the city hall with reference to criticism by General John B. Gordon, who seems to think that the defeat of the Confederates at Gettysburg was due to General Longstreet.

“Gordon is a gallant gentleman, and he was a gallant soldier,” continued General Sickles, “but he commanded a brigade, while Longstreet commanded a corps. Lee told Longstreet afterwards that he had done as well as he could. He had no criticism to make. Gordon was in no position to judge the merits of the case. Longstreet was on my front. I led the Third Corps on the second day. The fighting was on Hancock’s front on the third day. He was in the centre. I guess every one who was there knew that Longstreet fought brilliantly. Longstreet was practically in command of the Confederate fighting on both the second and third days. If Lee had been dissatisfied on the second day, he would not have let Longstreet command on the third day. As a matter of fact the Confederates had no better fighter than Longstreet.”

*****

(Macon, Georgia, Telegraph.)

“His record needs no defence.”

To The Editor of the Telegraph:

The able editorial in your issue of several days ago touching the Savannah incident in which the Daughters of the Confederacy refused to send flowers to the funeral of General Longstreet, assigning as the reason “that General Longstreet refused to obey the order of General Lee at Gettysburg,” met a responsive chord in the hearts of many old veterans of the Confederate army.

Longstreet’s war record, like that of Stonewall Jackson’s, needs no defence. History is replete with his grand deeds of chivalry, and places his name high in the ranks of the great commanders of the Civil War. The rank and file who fought under this great and intrepid commander know that he was incapable of such conduct, and the only tongue that could convince them otherwise was forever stilled when our peerless Lee passed over the river.

In the first battle of Manassas, at Seven Pines, when he lead the main attack, at Gaines Mill, Frazier’s Farm, Malvern Hill, and at second Manassas, when the illustrious Stonewall Jackson was being sorely pressed by the entire army of General Pope, he hurried to Jackson’s relief, and together gained one of the greatest victories of the war. He commanded the right wing of our army on the bloody field of Sharpsburg, and was in the thickest of the fight during the entire battle. At the battle of Fredericksburg he commanded the left wing of the army, where the assault proved most fatal to the enemy. In all of these battles, and others I do not now recall, General Longstreet participated, winning fresh laurels in each fight.

At Gettysburg during the second and third days of the battle he commanded the right wing of the army, and I never saw an officer more conspicuous and daring upon the battle-field. One of the most lasting pictures made upon my mind during the war, and which still lingers in my memory, was in connection with this officer. While in line of battle during the terrible cannon duel between the two armies, when at a signal our cannons ceased firing, I saw General Longstreet as he motioned his staff back, sitting superbly in his saddle, gallop far out in our front in full view and range of more than one hundred of the enemy’s cannon, stop his horse, and, standing up in his stirrups, place his field glasses to his eyes and deliberately and for some time view the enemy’s line of battle, while shells were bursting above and around him so thick that at intervals he was hidden from sight by the smoke from exploding shells. His object having been accomplished, he turned his horse and slowly galloped back to his line of battle. No officer upon the battle-field of Gettysburg displayed greater courage than Longstreet, and his presence upon the battle-field, like that of Lee and Jackson, was always worth a thousand men.

General Lee trusted Longstreet implicitly, and every act of his from the time he assumed command of the Army of Northern Virginia to Appomattox Court-House sustains this assertion. When President Davis requested General Lee to send to the relief of General Bragg, who was hard pressed by Sherman, he sent his old “war-horse,” and, true to his mission, Longstreet reached Chickamauga in time to turn the tide of battle in favor of the South. Afterwards he was ordered to drive the Federal army under General Burnside from East Tennessee, which he ably accomplished, driving him behind his entrenchment at Knoxville, Tennessee.

When General Grant attacked General Lee at the Wilderness​—​the second battle in magnitude of the war​—​and by overwhelming numbers was driving our army back, Longstreet by forced marches reached the field in time to snatch from Grant a victory almost won. Here he received a wound which nearly cost him his life, and which, perhaps, saved Grant’s army from being driven into the Rappahannock.

At Appomattox Court-House, “where ceased forever the Southern soldiers’ hope,” General Lee asked his old war-horse, if the necessity should arise, to lead the remnant of the army out, and he was ready to do so, and would have done so had not General Grant granted honorable terms of surrender. Would General Lee have trusted General Longstreet after the battle of Gettysburg had he been in the least disloyal to his commands? Impartial history will ever link the names of Lee, Jackson, and Longstreet upon the brightest page of the history of the incomparable Army of Northern Virginia. One word more about Gettysburg. I happened to be there (but at the time would have liked to have been elsewhere), and I decided then and am still of the opinion that the Yankees are to blame for our defeat.

Respectfully,
J. W. Matthews.

*****

(Raleigh, North Carolina, Post.)

“The idol of the Army of Northern Virginia.”

If the conduct of some of our people towards General Longstreet, the great soldier, just dead, was not pitiful, it would be brutal.

He, the stubborn fighter of all our armies, the trusted arm of General Lee, the idol of the Army of Northern Virginia, dead, forty years after his many battles and the establishment of his undying fame, is refused by some of the daughters and granddaughters of the men who fought and fell under his banners, a wreath of flowers for his grave​—​a grave that makes hallowed the land that holds it; is refused a resolution of praise, by the sons and grandsons of the men who cheered his plume, as it waved them to victory. Why is this? A silly story attributed to General Lee, published after Lee’s death, by General Gordon upon the authority of Fitz. Lee. The story contained the charge that the faithful “Old War-Horse,” as General Lee affectionately dubbed him, failed, wilfully, or from other cause, to obey orders at Gettysburg.

Can this story be true? That depends upon two contingencies, neither of which the wildest of General Longstreet’s defamers have dared to formulate: first, that General Lee was lacking in candor, or, secondly, he did not know his best soldiers. Can either of these propositions be true? A thousand times no.

We all, or at least those of us who had the honor of serving in the Army of Northern Virginia, recall that in September, 1863, it became necessary to detach a portion of that army to send west to relieve Bragg, then being driven south by Rosecrans from Chattanooga; we also remember that, with all of his general officers to select from, including Gordon and Fitz. Lee, General Lee selected General Longstreet to lead his immortal battalion, and the fame of how well he performed that proud duty is still ringing in the ears of all who love honor and glory.

Would General Lee have selected General Longstreet, miscalled by malice and envy “the slow,” “the disobeyer of orders,” “the loser of the battle of Gettysburg,” and so of the Southern cause, if he could have found in all his army one general braver or more competent? Surely not. This fact established, and established it is (and it also establishes General Lee’s unshaken confidence in his “Old War-Horse”), what becomes of the improbable story of Fitz. Lee? It is a matter of common history that the fighting soldiers of 1861–65 have been silent since. This at least is true of the Southern soldiers, and pity ’tis true, because our own General R. F. Hoke, fighting then, silent since, could add rich chapters to the history of those Titanic days, if he would only speak.

With this conclusive evidence of General Lee’s faith in General Longstreet, how pitiful is the unearned slander that has made the reputation of so many babblers. Longstreet a traitor or imbecile! Out upon it!

One other equally conclusive refutation of this miserable story is: In 1866 General Lee, it seems, determined to write the story of his campaigns,​—​“his object to disseminate the truth” (would his example had been contagious),​—​at the close of an affectionate letter to General Longstreet uses these words​—​words which General Longstreet might have claimed as a charter of nobility, had he not already had his glorious war record to ennoble him:

“I had while in Richmond a great many inquiries after you, and learned you intended commencing business in New Orleans. If you make as good a merchant as you were a soldier, I shall be content. No one will excel you, and no one can wish you more success or more happiness than I. My interest and affection for you will never cease, and my prayers are always offered for your prosperity.

“I am most truly yours,
“R. E. Lee.”

*****

Does any sane man, or silly woman either, believe the noble heart that inspired these words could have asked its tongue to utter the things of General Longstreet that have been falsely attributed to it. Can argument be more cogent or conclusion more conclusive?

General Gordon is, I hope, with General Longstreet. Both are at rest, and I know the “Old War-Horse” of the Army of Northern Virginia, in the presence of his grand old chief, has forgiven his comrade the wrongs done him here. Peace to the ashes of both, the wronged and the wrong-doer.

W. H. Day,
Formerly of First N. C. Infantry.

*****

(Washington, D. C., Star.)

“Longstreet came out of the war with a record for courage and loyalty second to none.”

General Thomas L. Rosser, of Virginia, who commanded a regiment at Gettysburg, and who was with the Army of Northern Virginia from the first battle to the surrender, bitterly resents the criticism of General Longstreet’s course at Gettysburg. General Rosser was appointed an officer in the Spanish War by President McKinley, and in recent years has been acting with the Republican party. Reviewing the work of some of the great Confederate generals, General Rosser said to a reporter for the Star:

“With the death of General Longstreet passes the last of the great soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia. He fought alone the battle of the 18th of July, 1861, and won the first victory of that splendid army. He shared in the glory of the great battles that army fought.

“Longstreet and Lee, as soldiers, were similar in many respects. Both were great defensive generals, but neither can be classed among the successful offensive generals of history.

“Take Jackson, for instance. His campaign from Kernstown to Port Republic, in the Valley of Virginia, in 1862, was as brilliant as the first Italian campaign of the great Napoleon. He drew McDowell from Fredericksburg. He left Shields, Fremont, and Banks confused as to his whereabouts, dashed across the mountains, joined Lee on the 26th of June, striking McClellan the surprise blow, forced him to the James, and raised the siege of Richmond. With the despatch of lightning he wheeled around, met Pope at Cedar Mountain, stopped his advance upon Lee’s rear and flank, held him until Lee could arrive with reinforcements, passed to his rear, and fought the battle of the 28th of September at Groveton Heights; opened the way for Lee to press on with his army, and crowned the campaign with the successful battle of the second Bull Run. He crossed the Potomac with Lee, was detached, sent back, captured Harper’s Ferry, and joined Lee at Sharpsburg in time to stop McClellan and save Lee’s army. In May, 1863, when Lee was hesitating in the Wilderness, believing that Hooker’s movement below Fredericksburg was a serious one, with the foresight of genius Jackson pronounced it a feint, urged Lee to allow him to move around Hooker’s right, which, in audacity, boldness, and brilliancy seemed to paralyze Lee, and while on this wonderful march Sickles got between him and Lee with an army nearly equal his own. Jackson pressed on, turned Hooker’s right, as he contemplated, dissipated the Eleventh Corps and all its support, and was within a half-mile of his goal, the Bullock house, had he gained possession of which Hooker’s retreat would have been impossible and he would have been at the mercy of the Confederate army, when he was shot and mortally wounded by his own men.

“Lee, then in command of an army that knew no defeat, and not realizing that his great offensive general had been taken from the army, committed the fatal blunder of attempting an invasion of the North. At no time during that campaign did he move with celerity, manœuvre to the surprise of the enemy, or do anything of a brilliant character marking him with the genius of war. The battle of Gettysburg was lost the first day, although the Confederates claimed a victory, and it might have been turned into a victory had Lee been a master of the art of aggressive warfare. But he followed up the first day with a stubborn attack of the enemy in an intrenched position, and, failing to dislodge him, seemed to hesitate and his plans seemed to be confused. Finally he committed a great error in attacking a superior enemy in an intrenched position at the strongest point.

“In the history of battles very few generals have ever made an attack of the centre of the enemy’s position, and history gives only one example of where such an attack has been successful. That was the battle of Wagram, where the great Napoleon deceived the Archduke Charles by so threatening his flank as to cause him to weaken his centre, when, quick as a flash, Napoleon struck the centre of the enemy with MacDonald and his reserves. But then the world has only given us one Napoleon, and the Western hemisphere has given us only one Jackson.

“When Lee’s army was beaten from the fatal attack which he ordered on the 3d of July, he rode among his fleeing soldiers, begging them to rally and reform on Seminary Ridge, telling them that it was his fault that they had failed and not their own. No criticism was made of Longstreet at that time. Longstreet was retained in the most important corps of Lee’s army and served honorably and faithfully under Lee to the end.

“At Appomattox Longstreet, with Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia, at the close of a most glorious achievement, honestly surrendered. The Southern Confederacy was eliminated from the map of the world, its flag was forever furled, and all soldiers who surrendered there had either to return to the Union and become loyal to the flag of their country or remain hypocrites and traitors, which they could not do if they had honestly surrendered and accepted the terms that Grant had given them.

“Longstreet came out of the war with a record for courage, devotion to the cause he had espoused, and loyalty to the Stars and Bars second to none. Disabled by wounds, his right arm hanging lifeless and helpless at his side, his profession, that of a soldier, gone, he turned his attention to civil pursuits, and was struggling for a living when his old friend Grant, the President of the United States, offered him service in the government. Lee was dead. Southern politicians had expected Longstreet to keep the fires of Southern antipathy to the North alive, and as they were seeking to inflame the passions of the people as a basis upon which to unite the South and to fuse with the copperhead party in the North, as a means for repossessing themselves of a government they had lost by the results of the war, this action of Longstreet in accepting the offer of Grant tended to break their influence with the old soldiers of the South.

“To counteract that they brought up the charge of disloyalty and disobedience to Lee at Gettysburg, never having thought of it before, and never, in fact, having had a foundation for it. This, in a measure, served their purpose, because the old soldiers and their sons in the South are always ready to resent anything said or done unfavorable to Lee. Now, I am mortified to see that even the ladies have taken this matter up, and the Daughters of the Confederacy at Savannah refused to lay a wreath of laurels on the tomb of the great hero. I was surprised that Fitzhugh Lee should have charged Longstreet with disobedience, for I don’t believe that General Lee ever made such a charge himself. After the war I went to Lexington and studied law and saw Lee every day and every night. Our comrades and enemies were often discussed, but I never heard him speak of Longstreet but in the most affectionate manner. Colonel Venable was professor of mathematics when I moved back to Charlottesville eighteen years ago, and my relations with him up to his death were close and intimate. I never heard him suggest the idea that Longstreet disobeyed orders or failed to do his duty at Gettysburg or anywhere else. General Lee relieved General Ewell, one of his corps commanders at Gettysburg, from duty with his army. He criticised A. P. Hill severely for his failure and mismanagement at Bristow station, but no man ever heard him say one word against Longstreet.

“Now that Longstreet is laid away to rest, all old and true soldiers of the Southern Confederacy will kneel around his tomb and pray that they may stand at the great reveille with Lee, Jackson, and Longstreet.”

*****

(Macon, Georgia, Telegraph.)

“On the historic page is blazoned his glory.”

From the lips of Lee no word of censure ever fell upon the military renown of his great corps commander, the intrepid and immovable Longstreet. However men may differ as to that last fateful day at Gettysburg, on the historic page there is blazoned the military glory of James Longstreet. No earthly power can blot it out. Longstreet’s corps is as inseparable from the glory of the veterans of Lee as the Old Guard from the army of Napoleon. And when a week ago with the last expiring sigh of its aged commander the blood of his fearless heart broke from the wound which laid him prone on the first day at the Wilderness, at the moment when he had restored the shattered lines and saved the Army of Northern Virginia, each ruddy drop, a protest against the censure of his comrades, was like the blood of Cæsar,​—​

“As rushing out of doors to be resolved,
If Brutus so unkindly knocked or no.”

Judge Emory Speer.

*****

(McRae, Georgia, Enterprise.)

“Only necessary to refer his critics to the official reports.”

It is rather significant in the life of General Longstreet that under the storm of anathemas which have been hurled upon him, both by private tongue and public pen, he always observed that silence commensurate with his dignity of character and magnanimity of soul. It is furthermore significant, that whenever an attack was made upon his official conduct at any time, it was only necessary that he point to the official report of the matter as made of it at the time. In every case where unfair criticism was indulged in, where there was no foundation for such, and, of course, no official data to which recourse could be had, the kind offices of some distinguished friend was invariably volunteered.

It is also rather a singular fact, that although he took a prominent part in numberless engagements, among which could be mentioned some of the most sanguinary of the ’60’s, he never suffered serious defeat, and almost invariably bore off the laurels. This statement applies to Longstreet more truthfully than to any other general of either side. It was characteristic of him, and at the same time evincing his great military skill and genius, that he very often manipulated his forces as emergencies suggested in the absence of orders from his superior. In no instance where this was done does it appear that he ever received a reprimand, but the approval, rather, of the commanding officer.

After the war, his course seems to have met with some disapprobation on the part of some of his admirers South. This is a matter which seems rather best decided by an appeal from the arena of individual judgment to the forum of justice and right.​—​Old Veteran.

*****

(Chattanooga Times, Special.)

“Punished for his Americanism.”

Huntsville, Alabama, January 8.​—​General Samuel H. Moore, a brave ex-Confederate soldier of this city, claims to know inside history concerning the career of General Longstreet after the close of the Civil War, and in a communication written for the public he calls upon General Joseph Wheeler and Colonel W. W. Garth to tell what they know in justice to the departed chieftain. General Moore writes:

“It is due General Lee’s old war-horse, who was familiarly known to the Army of Northern Virginia as ‘Old Pete’ Longstreet, that a statement should be made which will vindicate his actions soon after the surrender and reinstate him in the hearts of those who always felt safe in battle when he was at their head, and who would have been proud to shed their last drop of blood to shield his fair name if they had only been cognizant of the facts which impelled him to pursue the course he did​—​as he believed for the benefit of his Southern people.

“In 1866, when reconstruction hung over the South like a sword of Damocles, five lieutenant-generals of the Confederate army held a meeting in New Orleans, in General Hood’s room, to discuss the situation and publish to the South the easiest way to bear the yoke sad fate had placed upon their necks.

“After discussing all the pros and cons, they unanimously decided to accept the situation as it was, return to the Union like good and loyal citizens, and be the recipients of the offices of trust which were being given to carpet-baggers because the government could not find in the Southern States men willing to accept the offices that would have gladly been given them.

“In this caucus of generals, Longstreet was selected to write and publish a letter. He did it. There was a howl of protest from the ill-informed people. The men who advised Longstreet to do this did not face this opposition, avoided this martyr, let him bear the odium alone. I ask General Joseph Wheeler to say what he personally knows of this. I call upon Colonel W. W. Garth to say what he knows and the source of his information.

“Let the South beg pardon for the wrong it has done our greater soldier, General James Longstreet.”

*****

“Did he do his duty as a soldier? Let Williamsburg, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, and the Wilderness make reply.”

We are here to-day to pay our tribute to James Longstreet, the soldier who faithfully and ably served, the fighter who fiercely fought, the leader who bravely led, the sleepless, watchful, persistent, valorous captain of a glorious host, whom his great chief implicitly trusted in every hour of supreme and dangerous service, and who on many a bloody field hurled his bold and devoted followers like an avalanche on the serried ranks of his country’s foes, and who, when valor could avail no more, bore with him from the field of strife the passionate love of the legions he had led, and the unstinted praise and tearful benediction of his great commander, who knew him best, and had trusted him in many an “imminent and deadly breach.”

Every man capable by reason of environment, character, or ability of exerting an influence upon affairs in any important field of human endeavor, is called upon at some time to act under such circumstances that his decision must infallibly indicate the character of the man and forever fix his place in the estimation of his contemporaries and of posterity.

That time came to James Longstreet in 1861. He was then an officer in the army of the greatest and most powerful republic on all the earth, and had won high and deserved honor in battle beneath its flag.

High commission in that army awaited him if he but adhered to that flag, and the future held in store for him exalted rank which his reputation and ability easily assured him.

On the other hand was a young nation, scarcely emerged from its chrysalis stage and without moral or physical support among the nations of the earth. His training and education as a soldier, and his knowledge of the power and resources of that great government in whose service he had been so long enlisted, enabled him to appreciate and realize the odds in its favor in the rapidly approaching struggle.

The conditions which confronted him required the exertion of all the virtues of courage, honor, consistency, and fidelity to conviction. He was called upon to illustrate the loftiest qualities of human character, and immolate self on the shrine of duty, or give heed to the siren voice of ambition, and, lured by the selfish hope of high reward, turn his sword against the land of his birth in the hour of her sorest need.

As Daniel, Virginia’s great orator, has so fitly said of Robert E. Lee: “Since the Son of Man stood upon the Mount and saw ‘all the kingdoms of the earth and the glory thereof’ stretched before him and turned away from them to the agony and bloody sweat of Gethsemane, and to the Cross of Calvary beyond, no follower of the meek and lowly Saviour can have undergone a more trying ordeal or met it in a higher spirit of heroic sacrifice.”

In that hour of supreme test, trial, and temptation, James Longstreet did not hesitate. He dallied not with dishonor. He was deaf to every call save that of duty. Obedient to the conviction that his first, highest, and holiest obligation was to the land of his birth, he responded to her call, and for four long years “feasted glory till pity cried no more.” His gleaming sword flashed in the forefront of the fighting, till when stricken and scarred with many a wound and with honor unstained he bowed to the stern arbitrament of battle.

When he made his choice and upon bended knee offered his sword as a loving and loyal son to his native South, he thereby avouched himself unto all the ages as one who in every hour of trial and in every sphere of duty would keep his “robes and his integrity stainless unto heaven.”

He then and there gave to the world perpetual and irrefutable proof that his every act since that day, whether as soldier or civilian, was prompted by an exalted sense of duty, performed in obedience to the convictions of an intelligent and deliberate judgment, and approved by a clear conscience, and standing on that high vantage ground he courted truth and defied malice.

No man who rises superior to temptation, and offers his life as an offering upon the altar of duty, and freely sheds his blood in testimony to the sincerity of his convictions, is called upon to explain his conduct “in any sphere of life in which it may please God to place him.”

The exercises of this occasion take color and purpose from that tragic era in which James Longstreet was so conspicuous and honorable a figure; and his record as a soldier is absolutely beyond impeachment. Did he do his duty as a soldier brave and true? Did he bear himself as became a man in the hour of battle? Let history unroll her proud annals and say! Let Williamsburg, Sharpsburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, and the Wilderness make reply.

Ask those who met him and his dauntless legion on many a bloody field, and they will tell how often he swept down upon them like an avenging whirlwind. Ask his “boys,” who for four years followed him with unquestioning devotion and with ever-increasing love and admiration, and they will with one accord and with voices tremulous with emotion answer that he never lagged, failed, or faltered.

Hear the testimony of Robert E. Lee, his great commander, who, though dead, yet speaketh: “General Longstreet (at Gaines Mill) perceived that to render the diversion effectual the feint must be converted into an attack. He resolved with characteristic promptness to carry the heights by assault.” After Chickamauga, he says, “My whole heart and soul have been with you and your brave corps in your late battle. Finish your work, my dear General, and return to me. I want you badly, and you cannot get back too soon.”

Let Joseph E. Johnston bear witness to the world of his great subordinate at Williamsburg: “I was compelled to be a mere spectator, for General Longstreet’s clear head and brave heart left no apology for interference. The skill, vigor, and decision of General Longstreet (at Seven Pines) was worthy of the highest praise.”

We have yet further testimony, which in pathos and convincing power excels all speech or written language. It is an historic truth that when the end had come at Appomattox, and those who had so long shared the hardships of the camp and the peril and the glory of the battle-field were about to separate, General Longstreet and his staff proceeded to where General Lee and his staff had gathered for the last time before their final parting, and General Lee grasped the hand and spoke a few kindly words to each member of the group until he reached General Longstreet, when each threw his arms about the other, and as they thus stood clasped together both sobbed like children. When General Lee had recovered his composure, turning to a member of the party who is now in this presence, he said, “Captain, into your care I commend my old war-horse.”

Robert E. Lee, standing on the fateful and historic field of Appomattox, amid the gathering gloom of that awful hour of defeat and disaster, with his arms about James Longstreet, while his majestic frame shook with uncontrollable grief, was a scene worthy to have been limned by genius on immortal canvas.

The tears of Robert E. Lee falling upon the symbol and insignia of Longstreet’s rank converted it then and there into a badge of honor, grander than the guerdon of a king.

It is known to countless thousands that only a few years before he passed away Jefferson Davis moved out from the midst of a mighty throng, which was acclaiming him with every manifestation of earthly honor, to greet with open arms General Longstreet. Turning aside for a time from the thousands who pressed about him in a very frenzy of love and enthusiasm, he advanced and folded the great soldier to his bosom, thus testifying before God and a multitude of witnesses to his faith in the fidelity to conviction and to duty of the old hero.

Davis! Lee! Johnston! Immortal triumvirate of heroes! Glorious sons of a glorious land! Fortunate indeed is that man who by such as they is avouched unto posterity. When Lee and Davis laid their hands in blessing and benediction upon James Longstreet, he was then and there given passport unto immortality.

The brevity of the time properly allotted me wherein to perform my part in the exercises of this occasion makes impossible any discussion or analysis of the campaigns of General Longstreet, even if such discussion were necessary, which it is not. His fame is securely fixed, and the faithful historian of the future will assign him to his due and fitting place in the annals of his age. The history of that great struggle, in which he was so majestic and forceful a figure, which does not bear tribute to his fidelity, skill, and valor will be manifestly and unjustly incomplete; and if any page thereof be not lighted with the lines of glory reflected by his heroic deeds, it will be because the truth has not been thereon written.

In the galaxy of the glorious and the great, James Longstreet will stand through all the ages enshrined with his great companions in arms in the pantheon of the immortals.

Over such a life as his, bravely, nobly lived on lofty levels, death has no dominion. More than fourscore years were upon him, and his kingly form was somewhat bowed, but the dauntless and indomitable spirit which had never quailed before danger, however imminent or dire, shrank not before the coming of that conqueror to whom the lofty and the lowly alike must yield, but, soothed and sustained by the holy faith of the mother church, he passed to his eternal rest​—​

“While Christ, his Lord, wide open held the door.”

To those who loved and honored him the thought is comforting that after all the battles and trials and hardships of his arduous and eventful life he has found that rest reserved for the faithful in the realm of eternal reunion.

We can believe that when, clothed with the added dignity and majesty of immortality, he drew near to that eternal bivouac where are pitched the tents of the comrades who preceded him to rest eternal, two, conspicuous for kingly grace, even in that immortal throng, advanced to meet him and clasp him once again to their bosoms, and that as he stood in their arms enfolded there fell upon his ears the voice of the Master saying,​—​

“Well done, thou good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of thy Lord.”​—​Judge Norman G. Kittrell, Houston, Texas.

*****

“No soldier of Longstreet’s corps ever doubted his loyalty.”

No soldier of Longstreet’s corps during the war, whether he was one of the boys in the trenches, or wore the stars upon his collar, ever doubted either the courage, or the capacity, or the loyalty of James Longstreet. No man ever heard an insinuation of that kind. No, he was entitled to the splendid name the immortal Lee gave him of “old war-horse,” and he held in the very highest degree the implicit confidence of the men he commanded and who loved him.

I love to think of Lee and Jackson and Longstreet and Hill as the “Big Four” of the Army of Northern Virginia.

Many years have passed since that bloody conflict; we are now one people, with one common flag and one country and one destiny. But we ought not to forget, how can we forget! the glorious names which became as familiar as household words to us during that trying time. Among all the other great names, that of James Longstreet, the ranking lieutenant-general of the Confederate army, who earned that title in the field and worthily wore it to the end, must shine forever in that noble galaxy.​—​Captain John H. Leathen, Second Regiment Virginia Infantry, Stonewall Brigade.

*****

(Gainesville, Georgia, Eagle.)

“Always a plumed knight without reproach.”

Nothing but sickness and a cold drive of twenty-five miles could have prevented me from attending the funeral obsequies of my old friend and great military chieftain and placing my humble tribute of flowers upon his grave.

And now, in the quiet of a sick-chamber, I undertake to weave a little garland to his memory. I know that nothing I may write will add any lustre or greatness to a name that has become immortal in the annals of a people who more than a third of a century ago, and for four long years, performed deeds of heroic valor that would have shed glory upon the military renown of any country or people that have ever lived or had a place in history.

I have never permitted any criticism or detraction that has been written or uttered against General Longstreet, no matter by whom or for what purpose the same may have been written or uttered, to have a feather’s weight in varying my love and veneration for this almost incomparable commander.

I watched him in his course from Bull Run to Appomattox, and to me he was always a plumed knight, without reproach. I have seen him on the field of battle, and I have seen him at his quiet tent. The very first order I heard given to “fire,” was delivered by Longstreet at Bull Run on the 18th day of July, 1861. It was the prelude to the great victory on the bloody field of Manassas, three days after.

Bull Run may have been the beginning of battles in Northern Virginia​—​introductory to greater performances, but it was nevertheless a finished battle. A flag of truce came in and asked for a suspension of hostilities, and that the Federal dead be buried. The Union forces had fallen back to Centreville, three miles. Detachments from Bonham’s South Carolinians and Early’s Louisianians were called for to bury the dead. Longstreet’s brigade had done the principal fighting, and Longstreet’s brigade rested.

The dead were buried by those who had been fighting them only a few hours before. The day’s battle was over, and the sun went down with the victors in possession of the field and its dead.

The battle of Bull Run (18th of July, 1861) will always remain in my memory a separate picture, and, like a diamond, however small it may be when compared with greater jewels, will retain its own halo and its own setting of gems. Longstreet was the hero of that historic field. Beauregard was higher in command, but Longstreet began and ended the fight.

I hope to be pardoned for this reference to an almost forgotten engagement, wherein nearly four thousand South Carolinians and an almost equal number of Virginians and Louisianians received their “first baptism of fire.”

I will relate an incident that occurred after the war, to illustrate the inward character of General Longstreet, and how this great man desired to be on friendly terms with every one, especially old friends whom the accidents of war had estranged. It had come to my knowledge that in some way or other during the war General Longstreet and General Lafayette McLaws, lifelong friends and fellow-officers in the old United States army, had become separated in their friendships. Seventeen years and more had passed, and yet no healing balm had been poured upon these two proud hearts. General Longstreet was a patron of the N. G. A. College. He had two sons, Lee and James, at this military institution. General McLaws was contemplating sending a son to the school. Knowing that there was estrangement between these great military heroes, I induced Governor A. H. Colquitt to place these two men on the Board of Visitors to the College in the hope that they might meet each other in the quietude of my mountain home and become reconciled. They both came, and I arranged that they might be my guests, with others, and in some way I hoped to bring them close together. Their meeting was quite formal, and I thought they were very cold to each other. But after the supper was over, and getting my other guests to seats on the piazza, where they might smoke and talk, I gently asked the two to walk into the parlor with me, and seated them within easy distance of each other. I then began the conversation by alluding to some affair of the war with which they were familiar, for both of them had commanded Kershaw’s brigade, to which I belonged. It was not long before the clouds began to roll away, as these old warriors passed from one scene to another, and their voices became friendlier. I then thought I could be excused and passed from the room, and kept others from disturbing them, and when they came out together, shook hands, and bade each other “good-night,” I thought then that they were friends again. That night I called at General Longstreet’s room and knocked, but heard no response. I pushed the door gently and peered in, and discovered that the General was kneeling and praying. I went away as softly as I could, and the next day General Longstreet thanked me for the quiet way in which I had brought them together. “For,” said he, “we are friends again.” If I ever knew, I have long since forgotten the cause of the estrangement. It might have occurred at Gettysburg.

It was my pleasure to have witnessed the meeting between General Longstreet and President Davis, so often alluded to as occurring at the unveiling of the Ben Hill statue in Atlanta. I had been given by Colonel Lowndes Calhoun on that occasion the command of several hundred one-armed and one-legged Confederate veterans. When these two great heroes met and embraced, my command “went wild,” and they never got into line any more. Longstreet was almost a giant in stature and always attracted attention and produced enthusiasm. Whatever his political views were after the war was over, he honestly and fearlessly entertained them, but he never offensively presented them to any one, and it remains yet to be seen whether he was not right in many matters concerning which he was perhaps too harshly judged by some people.

In 1896 General Longstreet’s name was on the McKinley electoral ticket. He came to Dahlonega to address the people on the political issues of the day. Although not a member of his political party, I had the honor of introducing him to the people of my native county in the following words, as published in the Eagle, October 29, 1896:

“Fellow-Countrymen and Ladies,​—​A few of the survivors of that gallant band who rushed to arms in defence of the Sunny South more than a third of a century ago, without regard to past or present affiliation with political parties, have with only a few moments’ notice met to pay an humble tribute to one who, with dauntless and conspicuous bravery, led the Southern cohorts through many bloody battle-fields. Like the plumed knight, Henry of Navarre, his sword always flashed fiercest where the fighting was the hottest. His was the first voice of command to ‘fire’ when the Army of Northern Virginia was receiving its ‘baptism of fire’ at Bull Run on the 18th of July, 1861. And from the following Sunday, the memorable battle of Manassas, to Appomattox our comrades followed him. From Gettysburg to Chickamauga with unfaltering step they went wherever he led them, and from Chickamauga to the Wilderness they unswervingly obeyed his commands. His fame has become the common heritage of us all. No longer the sole cynosure of Southern hearts and eyes, he is the beloved citizen of a restored country and a reunited Union. His patriotism, his history, his name, are the common property of all the people, both North and South. He is with us to-day for only a few hours. Possibly our eyes may never look into his again, nor our hands clasp his on earth, nor ever hear that voice once so potent to thousands of his countrymen. That voice is feeble, but he raises it now only for the purpose of guiding his friends into what he deems to be the paths of peace and prosperity. Listen to him with patience. I now have the honor of introducing to you, my fellow-countrymen, that distinguished soldier and statesman, General James Longstreet.”​—​W. P. Price.

*****

(Washington, D. C., Star.)

“Would have won battle. Never disloyal to his commander.”

Major J. H. Stine, historian of the Army of the Potomac, has this to say of General Longstreet:

“It would be unjust in me to keep silent after enjoying General Longstreet’s confidence, especially in regard to that great battle in which the blue and the gray met at Gettysburg. A quarter of a century after that great battle I had Longstreet invited here as the guest of the First Corps of the Army of the Potomac. He came to Washington some two days in advance, and was a member of my household during that time. We occupied a room together at Gettysburg and went over the whole field, when he gave me a full description of the Confederates’ movements.

“He was never disloyal to Lee, but he feared the Pickett charge would not be as successful as MacDonald’s at Wagram. Longstreet attempted to persuade Lee not to order it, but rather a retreat at night and take up a position on the south bank of Pipe Creek, where Meade wanted to fight the battle.

“He says, in his history: ‘I was following the Third Corps as fast as possible, and as soon as I got possession of the road went rapidly forward to join General Lee. I found him on the summit of Seminary Ridge, watching the enemy concentrate on the opposite hill. He pointed out their position to me. I took my glasses and made as careful a survey as I could from that point. After five or ten minutes I turned to General Lee and said,​—​

“‘“If we could have chosen a point to meet our plans of operation, I do not think we could have found a better one than that upon which they are now concentrating. All we have to do is to throw our army around by their left, and we shall interpose between the Federal army and Washington.”’

“‘“No,” said General Lee, “the enemy is there, and I am going to attack him there.”’

“Lee was a great military student. He had before him Napoleon’s great victory at Wagram, when he ordered MacDonald, with sixteen thousand men, to charge the enemy’s centre. But few of that number were alive when success crowned that daring military movement. If Pickett’s charge had been successful, it would have crowned the Southern Confederacy as one of the nations of the world, for it would not only have had foreign recognition, but valuable assistance. Upon every field except one Lee had been successful, and that was a drawn battle.

“He had great confidence in himself, and thought that it was impossible to defeat him with his Southern legions under his command. Longstreet differed from him on that charge, and I am truly glad, for the sake of my country, that Lee did not listen to him. They are both gone forever, but it seems strange to me that any military mind cannot recognize the foresight of Longstreet at Gettysburg.”

*****

(Lost Cause.)

“Pendleton’s charge a discharge of hot air.”

The recent death of the gallant old war-horse of the Army of Northern Virginia, General James Longstreet, has again revived some of the slanderous and unfounded reports of his lack of duty, unfaithfulness, and disobedience of orders at the battle of Gettysburg. I want to offer some thoughts in regard to this matter, and the first thing I want to say is that General Longstreet retained the love and confidence of the soldiers of Lee’s army up to the surrender at Appomattox, on the 9th of April, 1865. His soldiers never for one moment questioned his loyalty, his courage, or his patriotism. If these late reports of his default of duty at Gettysburg be true, is it not passing strange that he retained the love and confidence of General Lee until the close of the war? If Longstreet had disobeyed Lee’s orders at Gettysburg, thereby causing the battle to fail of success to Southern arms, does any one pretend to believe that General Lee would have continued to place faith and confidence in him (his first lieutenant) until the close of the war? No man who has a proper conception of the character of Robert E. Lee as a soldier and as a great military commander will believe it. Another remarkable circumstance in connection with these grave charges against General Longstreet is, that the men composing the Army of Northern Virginia never heard a word of them until long after the death of General Lee, who could and would have refuted or confirmed them. The fame and character of General Lee as a great military chieftain does not need that the fame and reputation of another great and gallant soldier of the Confederate army shall be besmirched. Another remarkable fact is, these charges came from men that were only brigadier-generals at the battle of Gettysburg. Brigadier-General Pendleton, it seems, first made this charge against General Longstreet in a public speech at Lexington, Virginia, in 1873, in which he said that General Lee told him that he had ordered Longstreet to attack at sunrise on the 2d of July. Longstreet emphatically denied that General Lee ever gave him any such orders, and Colonel W. H. Taylor, Colonel C. S. Venable, Colonel Charles Marshall, and General A. L. Long, all of General Lee’s staff, testified, after this charge was made by Pendleton, that they never heard of any such orders. Colonel Venable, replying to General Longstreet, said, “I did not know of any order for an attack on the enemy at sunrise on the 2d of July, nor can I believe any such order was issued by General Lee. About sunrise on the 2d I was sent by General Lee to General Ewell to ask him what he thought of the advantages of an attack on the enemy from his position. I do not think that the errand on which I was sent by the commanding General is consistent with the idea of an attack at sunrise by any portion of the army.”

It seems clearly by the testimony of these eminent officers and soldiers who were at that time members of General Lee’s official family and were active participants in that supreme struggle of Gettysburg, that this charge by General Pendleton was only a discharge of hot air. I think the general view taken by the best authority upon the history of the fighting at Gettysburg on July the 2d, which was the second day of these battles, that up to 11 A.M. General Lee was undecided as to whether he would attack on the right or left. No matter in what eloquent words we may clothe our admiration for him as a soldier, the soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia would regard all these eloquent words of praise as inadequate to express the admiration we feel for the brave deeds in war, and the unselfish and gallant service rendered the Confederate army by this grand old hero, General James Longstreet. General Lee told General Pickett and the Army of Northern Virginia that the lack of their success at Gettysburg was his fault. This man of glorious and immortal fame, as the greatest military leader of modern times, realized that he himself had overrated the ability of his army, and underrated the army of his enemy, who had the advantage of numbers and of far better position. General Lee realized then, as the world has since, that he made a mistake in attacking the Union army at Gettysburg after General Meade had secured and to some extent had fortified an almost impregnable position. Grant made the same mistake when Lee caught him on the fly in the Wilderness, at Spottsylvania, and at Cold Harbor, with this difference, Grant was depending upon his superior numbers and equipment, while Lee was depending upon the morale and fighting qualities of his army. And while the morale and fighting qualities of Lee’s army were never equalled in the history of modern warfare, even they could not accomplish the impossible. And the traducers of General Longstreet’s fidelity are strangely oblivious of the fact that General Longstreet at the battle of the Wilderness made a forced march that taxed his soldiers to their utmost capacity to get there in time, and when he arrived on the field he found the Southern line was being driven back by superior numbers, and throwing his troops into line and with his accustomed impetuosity drove the Federal line rapidly back and saved the day and gave the Southern army the victory at the Wilderness. In this fight he was severely wounded, and the gallant Jenkins of South Carolina at the same time was killed. Pendleton said that General Lee died believing that but for the disobedience of Longstreet at Gettysburg that battle would have been a victory for the Southern army. How did he know that Lee died with that belief? Did General Lee ever tell any one so? If so, whom? It is one thing to make an assertion, but quite a different thing to prove it. I have seen men in my day look pretty cheap in court when called on to prove some things they had said on the streets.

In conclusion, I want to say that while we all regretted and were grieved when General Longstreet joined the Republican party, that fact ought not to have created prejudice sufficient to have caused us to ignore, and belittle, and cast any reproach upon his character, or unjust reflection upon his long and brilliant career as a soldier. He was a soldier by profession, and, according to his own testimony, he never cast a ballot in civil life prior to the Confederate war. He and General Grant were warm personal friends. They were school-mates at West Point, comrades in the Mexican and some Indian wars. General Grant clasped his hand and called him Jim at the surrender at Appomattox. Grant at Appomattox was a Democrat and a slave-holder, and he went over to the Republican party and was elected President of the United States. What influence General Grant brought to bear upon General Longstreet may have been very great, for all the outside world knows. Be that as it may, we do know that up to the close of the war he had taken no active part in politics in any party. We also have every reason to believe that if General Longstreet had espoused the Democratic party, and become a strong partisan in that party, we never would have heard a word of this imaginary default at Gettysburg.

The soldiers of Longstreet’s corps do not believe he disobeyed General Lee’s orders at Gettysburg, or at any other time. We don’t believe it now; we never did believe it, and we never will believe it.​—​W. H. Edwards.

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