“It seemed, indeed, that irretrievable disaster was upon us; but in the very torrent and tempest of the attack it suddenly ceased and all was still. What could cause this surcease of effort at the very height of success was then wholly unknown to us.”[198]
Some years after the affair on the Plank road, General Hancock said to me,—
“You rolled me up like a wet blanket, and it was some hours before I could reorganize for battle.”
He explained that reinforcements crowding up through the wood, the retreating troops, and confusion caused by mixing in with wagon-trains and horses, made a troublesome tangle, but it was unravelled and his troops at rest when the final attack was made. He had sixty thousand men in hand.
Bad as was being shot by some of our own troops in the battle of the Wilderness,—that was an honest mistake, one of the accidents of war,—being shot at, since the war, by many officers, was worse. Fitzhugh Lee wrote of me in the Southern Historical Society papers, vol. v., No. 4, April, 1878, saying, among other things, “He lost his way and reached the Wilderness twenty-four hours behind time.”
Now, from Mechanicsville to Parker’s Store by our line of march was thirty-four miles,—by the Plank road, thirty-five; from Parker’s Store to the battle, three miles. From the time of our march to going into battle was thirty-six hours, including all of two nights. Deducting twenty-four hours alleged as lost leaves twelve hours, including all night of the 4th, for the march of thirty-seven miles!
His logic and method of injury remind one of the French teacher who, when out of patience with the boys, used to say, “I will give you zero and mark you absent.”
Another report started by Fitzhugh Lee as coming from his cousin, G. W. C. Lee, was that General Lee said that he “sent an officer to Longstreet to stay with and show him the roads.”
This, like all other reported sayings of General Lee in regard to me, was not published until after General Lee’s death. When it was first published I wrote General G. W. C. Lee for the name of the officer sent. He referred me to the members of General Lee’s staff. Not one of them knew of the circumstance or the officer, but referred me to General Lee’s engineers. After long search I found the engineers and applied for information, but not one of them knew anything of the alleged fact. I had the letters published as an advertisement for the officer who was claimed as my guide. No response came. I inquired of the members of the staff, First Corps; not one had seen or heard of such a person. The quartermaster, Colonel Taylor, who was ordered to secure a competent guide at the first moment of receipt of orders to march, reported of the matter thus:
“Meadow Farm, Orange Court-House,
“July 1, 1879.