Life of Robert Edward Lee . ll my experience as a soldier. Soonthe Potomac rose before us—we were in Maryland—Hagerstown—then we were on the soil of the , Chambersburg, Carlisle, all rise to mem-ory, and on the morning of July, as we were resting leis-urely by the roadside, the distant rumble and roar of ar-tillery fell upon the ear. We at once moved rapidly tothe front—I did not even have time to finish eating myapple-butter—and in two hours the battle of Gettysburgin its first days stage, as fought by the commands of Hill and Ewell, was fairly begun. A library of contr
Life of Robert Edward Lee . ll my experience as a soldier. Soonthe Potomac rose before us—we were in Maryland—Hagerstown—then we were on the soil of the , Chambersburg, Carlisle, all rise to mem-ory, and on the morning of July, as we were resting leis-urely by the roadside, the distant rumble and roar of ar-tillery fell upon the ear. We at once moved rapidly tothe front—I did not even have time to finish eating myapple-butter—and in two hours the battle of Gettysburgin its first days stage, as fought by the commands of Hill and Ewell, was fairly begun. A library of controversy has gathered around thestory of Gettysburg—why we did not win it; who wasto blame for our failure; why the success of the first daywas not immediately followed up to its final and assuredresult. My own explanation is simple—it has been madebefore and is not designed to be absolute or of all, the failure of our cavalry to keep General Leeadvised as to the movements of the enemy was a grave. General W. H. F. Lee, Son of General Lee FACING TAGE 84 LEE AS A SOLDIER 85 and nearly fatal error. It was said at the time that had sent out a wagon train from Washington toattract Stuarts attention and divert him from his imme-diate object—keeping pace with the movements of theenemy. Stuart, it was understood, fell into the trap, forthe train was a mere decoy, and when secured was of novalue to the army. The two opposing forces, neither aware of the othersposition, fell upon each other at Gettysburg rather as theoutcome of accident than of intention. Yet, despite theformidable drawback involved in our ignorance of theenemys whereabouts, the first days encounter was abrilliant and assured success for the Army of NorthernVirginia in the heart of the enemys territory. The sec-ond and the irretrievable cause of our disaster was ourfailure to follow up the results of our victory of July I,take possession of the heights that overlook and commandGet
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectleerobe, bookyear1906
