xt7qv97zm46n https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7qv97zm46n/data/mets.xml Page, Thomas Nelson, 1853-1922. 190618  books b92-230-31280747v18 English C. Scribner's sons, : New York : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Novels, stories, sketches, and poems of Thomas Nelson Page (vol. 18) text Novels, stories, sketches, and poems of Thomas Nelson Page (vol. 18) 1906 2002 true xt7qv97zm46n section xt7qv97zm46n 











PLANTATION

  EDITION



VOLUME XVIII

 














































General Robert E. Lee.

 




'- THE NOVELS, STORIES,
SKETCHES AND POEMS OF
THOMAS NELSON PAGE -



ROBERT I. LEE
  MAN' AND SO)LDIER
         11


0 felve 6y-yeLXov AaKoat4ovloms 6TL rdE
KeluEca TOEs KelvvW jIH1a7L  mret06/epeot.



CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
NEWYORK + + + + 1912



I

 

































Copyright, 1911. 1912, by
CHARLES SCRTIJNEP.'S SONS

 








CONTENTS



THE WILDERNESS CAMPAIGN   .. . . . . .

SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE. . . . . . .

NORTH ANNA AND SECOND COLD HARBOR. .

LEE'S STRATEGY AND TH:_ FIRST ATTACK ON
PETERSBURG . . . . .. . . . . . ..  .

THESIEGEOFPETERSBURaAND RICHMOND .

LEE AND GRANT . . . . . . .. . . . . .

THE LAST DITCH. . . . . . . .. . . .  .

THE RETREAT TO APPOMATTOX . . . . . .

GENERAL LEE AND THE CONFEDERATE GOV-
ERNMENT  . . . . .. . . . . . . ..  .

LEE'S CLEMENCY. . . . . . .. . . . . .

LEEIN DEFEAT  . . . . . . .. . . . .  .

AFTER THE WAR . . . . . . .. . . . . .

LEE AS COLLEGE PRESIDENT. .. . . . . .

SOURCES OF CHARACTER . . . . . . . . .



APPENDIX A. . . . . . . . .. . . .
  Lee's Order for the Battle of Gaines's Mill.
                       V



CHAPTER
  Xv.

  XVI.

  XVII.

XVIIL


XIX.

  XX.

  XXI.

XXII.

XXIII.



XXIV.

  XXV.

  XXVI.

XXVII.

XXVIII.



PAGE
  3

  30

  47


  72

100

127

161

198



241

288

311

319

341

370

381



.. . . . .

 


                      CONTENTS
                                                         PAGE
APPENDIX B ....     .  . . . .  . . .  . .  . . .  .   . 384
   Extracts from Letter to Author from General Marcus J. Wright.
   Extract from Letter to Author from Colonel Thomas L. Liver-
      more.

APPENDIXC .................. .                            391
   Lee's Report of the Gettysburg Campaign.

APPENDIXD .4.0.5............... . 45
   Extract from Letter to Author from Andrew R. Ellerson, Esq.,
     of Ellerson's, Hanover County, Va.

APPENDIX E ....     .  . . . .  . . .  . . .  . .  .   .  408
   Report of the Surrender at Appomattox.

INDEX   .  . . .  . .  . . .  . . .  . . .  . . .  . . .  413



Vi

 




















                   ILLUSTRATIONS


GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE .......     ...  ..  ..   . Frontispiece

                                                  FACING PAGE
GENERAL LEE'S SURRENDER AT APPOMATTOX COURT HOUSE . . 234
From a drawing by B. West Clinedinst


MONUMENT TO GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE. RICHMOND. VIRGINIA . 372

 This page in the original text is blank.

 



















                        MAPS


THE WILDERNESS .          ......... ... ........     16


UNION AND CONFEDERATE WORKS AROUND SPOTTSYLVANIA
  COURT HOUSE .... . . .. . . . . . .. . . . ..   .  32


UNION AND CONFEDERATE WORKS AROUND PETERSBURG . . . . 102


GENERAL MAP OF BATTLE-FIELDS AROUND RICHMOND . At end ofbook

 This page in the original text is blank.

 














ROBERT E. LEE
MAN AND SOLDIER

       II

 This page in the original text is blank.

 






       ROBERT E LEE
          MAN AND SOLDIER


                     xv
          THE WILDERNESS CAMPAIGN
I F Grant had harbored any delusion that Lee
   was a general strong only in defensive opera-
tions, he had reason quickly- to be undeceivecd.
Lee, who, for reasons of his own, had permitted
him to cross the river unopposed, prepared to
strike him arnid the tangles of the Wilderness,
where his superiority in men and arms might prove
less preponderant, and two lays later, having
called in his widely separated divisions-separated
for the want of subsistence-though he was out-
numbered two to one-threw himself upon himt,
inflicting upon him losses before which any other
general who had yet commanded the Army of the
Potomac would have recrossed the river, and even
Grant recoiled. For two day, (the 5th and 6th)
 flhodes's "Historv of the United Stites," IV, p. 480. Hurri-
phreys' "Virginia Campaign of 1864 and 1865," n. 17.
                      3

 
ROBERT E. LEE



the battle raged, and Lee forced Grant, with
losses of 17,666 men, from his direct line of march
and led him to call on his government for rein-
forcements. "Send to Belle Plain," he wrrote on
the 10th, "all the infantry you can rake and
scrape." And he needed them all. On the even-
ing of the second day an attack similar to Jack-
son's at Chancellorsville was made on Grant's
flank, and his left taken in reverse was driven, back
when an accident similar to that which changed
the issue of that day changed this day's issue. As
Longstreet, who commanded the advancing troops,,
rode down the Plank Road accompanied by (len-
erals Kershaw and Jenkins, a volley was poured
into them by his own men. Jenkins was killed
and Longstreet dangerously wounded. It stopped
the movement which otherwise might have forced
Grant back across the Rapidan. Lee's forces were
largely outnumbered, but to make good the differ-
ence Lee offered at more than one critical moment
to lead them in person. Officers and men alike
refused to advance while he remained at a point
of danger, and he was forced to the rear. But not
onlly in the battle of the 6th, but also in the battle
of the 10th and in the furious fight at the "bloody
 The Century Co.'s 'Battles and Leaders of the Civil War,"
IN, p. 182.
                       4

 
THE WVILI)ERNESS ( CAMPAIGN



angle,' where, when his army was imperilled, he
again rode forward to inspire his straining troops
and was again driven by them to the rear, the
fact that he had felt it necessary to place him-
self at their head called forth new efforts from
the, jaded soldiers and stirred them to redoubled
valor.
  "These men, General," said Gordon, as he rode
with him down the lines at Spottsylvania, where
they rested for a moment prior to the final charge,
"are the brave Virginians."  Lee uttered no word.
He simply removed his hat and passed bare-headed
along the line. I had it from one who witnessed
the act. "It was," said he, '"the most eloquent
address ever delivered." And a few minutes later
as the men advanced to the charge, he heard a
youth, as he ran forward crying and reloading his
musket, shout through his tears that "any man
who would not fight after what General Lee said
was a     coward."
  In no battle of the war did Lee's genius shine
forth more brightly than in the great battle of
Spottsylvania Court House, where, after the
bloody battle of the Wilderness, he divined Grant's
plans, and again cutting him Off from the object
of his desire, threw himself upon him in a contest
whose fury may be gauged by the fact that the
                       5

 
ROBERT E. LEE



musketry fire continued in one unbroken roar for
seventeen hours, and trees were shorn down by
the musket balls.
  By the evening of the 7th, while his staff were
yet in darkness as to Grant's next move, Lee, with
his unerring sense of the soldier, had divined it,
and he sent General Anderson with his division to
relieve Stuart at Spottsylvania. His adjutant-
general, who was sent to apprise Stuart of the ap-
proach of the infantry, found him already engaged.
The supports arrived just in time; for the cavalry
had been driven back, and Grant believed that he
already occupied the Court House, as he reported
in his despatch of the 8th. But Lee's prompt-
ness "deranged this part of the programme,"
driving him back and holding him off during a
week's fierce fighting, when Grant, having lost
40,000 men, finding his enemy too obstinate and
ready to die in the last ditch, drew off by the flank
toward the southward, whereupon Lee again
headed him and, facing him at Hanover Junction,
forced him down the north bank of the Pamunkey
to Hanovertown.
  "Before the lines of Spottsylvania," says Swin-
ton, "the Army of the Potomac had for twelve
days and nights engaged in a fierce wrestle in
            Taylor's "General Lee," p. 238.
                       6

 
THE AVlLDEI' ANESS CAMIPA-kIGN-



which it had done all that v.-Jor mayn do to carry
a position by n-ature and art impregnable. In this
contest, uinparalleled in its continuous fury and
s-ellinig to the proportions of a campaign, kIn-
(Ur1qoe is inadequate to conlv P an impression of
the labors, fatigues, and sufferings of those who
fought by day, only to march by night from point
to point of the long line anld renew the fight oil
the morrow. Above 40,000 men had already
fallen in the bloody encounters of the Wilderness
aniil pottsylvania, and the e.haustecd army began
to lose its spirits."
  Such was the defence whiz h Lee presented to
his able antagonist and his great army after the
exhaustion of the hungry- whiter of '64. Had he
not been ill and half delirious in his ambulance
when Grant attempted to cross the North Anna
and failed to get his centre over after his two
wings were across, Grant's star might have set on
the banks of the North Anna instead of rising to
its zenith at Appomattox. But Lee was suddenly
stricken down, and while lie was murmuring in
his semi-delirium, " We must sitrike them-we must
uever let them pass us again," Gramit, after the
most anxious night of the war, drew back his
wings and slowly moved down the Pamunkey to
find Lee still across his path at the historic levels of
                      7

 
ROBERT E. LEE



Cold Harbor, where valor and constancy rose to
their highest point.
  "I stood recently in the wood where Gregg's
Texans put on immortality," wrote a Southern
historian, "where Kershaw led three of his bri-
gades in person to compensate them for the
absence of the fourth."  It was this need to
compensate their troops for want of reserves or
equipment which so often led the generals of the
Confederacy to the firing line. But it was a
costly expedient. Four times, in what appeared
the very hour of complete victory, the prize was
stricken from the hand by the commander being
shot from his saddle. First, when General Albert
Sidney Johnston was slain at Shiloh, in the mo-
ment of victory. Next, when, at Seven Pines,
Joseph E. Johnston was struck from his horse,
and what might have proved a crushing defeat
for McClellan was turned into an indecisive battle.
Again, when Jackson was driving all before him
at Chancellorsville, and fell, like Wolfe, victorious.
And finally, when in the Wilderness, Longstreet
was wounded and incapacitated at the critical
moment when victory hovered over hi, arms.
  It is related that on one occasion during a battle
   Leigh Robinson's Address on the Wilderness Campaign,
Memorial Volume, Army of Northern Virginia.
                       8

 
THE WILDERNESS CIA.MPAIGN



Lee, being asked by his staff to 'leave one spot after
another where he had posted himself, finally ex-
claimed, "I wish I knew where my place is on the
battle-field. Whlerever I go some one tells me it
is not the place for me."
  In fact, so far from Lee being chiefly good in
defence, the quality of his miliitary spirit appears
to one who studies his career to have been dis-
tinctly agg essive, possibly even too aggressive.
This is Longstreet's charge against him. No cap-
tain ever knew better the value of a quarter of an
hour or the importance of striking first when the
enemy was preparing to deliver his blow. In
truth, he was, as Henderson declares, an ardent
fighter, and possessed in an extraordinary degree
the qualities of both physical and moral courage.
Lee's personal daring was the :alk of his army.
"I hear on all sides of your exposing yourself,"
wrote one of his sons during the Wilderness cam-
paign, urging him to be more careful for the sake
of the cause. And again and again, at some mo-
ment of supreme crisis, as at the Wilderness when
Longstreet's van appeared at the critical moment,
and as at the "bloody angle" at Spottsylvania,
which Grant had seized and where he was massing
his picked troops to the number of 50,000, he rode
forward to put himself at the head of his exhausted
                      9

 

ROBERT E. LEE



soldiery to lead them in a charge on which hung
the fate of his army. Yet, as Henderson says, in
discussing Lee's audacity in attacking with an in-
ferior force McClellan's well-equipped army,, secure
in their intrenchmnents, "he, was no hare-brained
leader, but a profound thinker, following the high-
est principles of the military art." That this will
be the final verdict of history there can be little
doubt.
  After crossing the Rapidan the advance of
Grant by the flank was under almost continuous
attack by, Lee. "'Measured by casualties," sass
Rhodes, in his history of this campaign, "the ad-
vantage was with the Confederates."   This far
from expresses the real fact that Grant received
a mauling which, as Lee's adjutant-general, Colo-
nel Walter H. Taylor, said the next day in his
note-book, would have sent any other general
who had hitherto commanded the Union army
back in haste across the river. It was Grant's
fortitude which saved him, and led him to tell
General James H. Wilson that he would fight again.
As Lee had assaulted at the Wilderness, so again
at Spottsylvania he barred the way of his indom-
itable antagonist, and again and again forced the
fighting, until, after holding him at the North
Anna, where he offered battle, he had wedged
                      10

 
THE WILDERNESS CIAMPAIGN



Grant from his direct imarch on Richmond and
forced him down the left bank of the Pamunkev
to Cn(1 at last his direct march on Richmond on
the doulyv bloody field of Cold Harbor, the only
battle which Grant declared a-terward he would
not have fought over again under the same cir-
cumistances.
  Foiled in that campaign of his immediate ob-
ject, and having lost more men than Lee had at
nov time in his entire army, Grant adopted a new
line of attack, and secretly crossings to the south
side of the James, which he inight at any time
havxe reached byv water without the loss of a man,
attempted to seize Petersburg, as MlcClellan had
planned to do, by a coup, but; failing in his object,
began to lay siege to that place with a view to
cutting off Richmond from the South, a feat which
he only accomplished after eight months' fightiing,
in which he lost over (30_000 more men.

  Such in general terms was the last and, possibly,
the greatest campaign of Lee. But as so much of
Lee's fame as a soldier must rest on this final cam-
palgn in which he showed new powers and resisted
the mighty forces thrown against him until the
South collapsed from exhaustion, it is proper to
give for those who may be interested in his mili-
                      1.1

 

ROBERT E. LEE



tary career a more detailed account of his masterly
defence of Richmond and show clearly the reason
of its ultimate failure.
  When Grant, on the evening of the 4th of May,
11864, found the last of his four army corps on the
south side of the Rapidan without a shot having
been fired save by the pickets alone the stream,
he undoubtedly felt that he had taken a long step
toward Richmond. Unlike McClellan, he did not
overestimate his opponent's strength, nor did he,
like Hooker, falter in the presence of his masterly
ability. He had supreme self-confidence based
on rare courage and rare ability to command and
to fight, and he knew that he outnumbered Lee
more than two to one, and that in his army were
the flower of the North, men as valorous as ever
drew breath. He knew that Lee's forces were
dispersed over a considerable extent of country
in the open region about Orange and Gordonsville
from twenty to thirty miles to the westward, and
that they were ill-clad, ill-shod, and ill-fed. It
was, accordingly, without a tremor that, having
crossed the river unopposed, he boldly commit-
ted himself to the narrow roads that led south-
ward through the western part of the Wilderness,
in the assurance that Lee would throw his army
across his path somewhere beyond the Wilderness,
                      12

 
THE WILDERNESS CIAMPAIGN



and that in the battle which would thus be joined
he would defeat him. Lee, however, had other
plans than those Grant assumed he would follow.
He had divined Grant's plans as well as if he had
sat with him at his council board, and he had
formed his own. lIe had predicted to his gen-
erals that Grant would soon move and would cross
the Rapidan at the very fords he selected. Ac-
cordingly, he had given his orders, and on the day
that Grant crossed the river ar:.d headed for Rich-
mond, Lee struck his headqciuarters tent, and send-
ing, orders to Anderson at Rapidan to follow with-
out delay with his division, and to Longstreet at
Gordonsville to follow with his two divisions there,
he himself took Ewell's Corps--two brigades-and
two of Hill's Divisions, with artillery and cavalry,
and struck straight for Grant's army. Mlarching
in two columns, Ewell to the left on the Turnpike
and Hill on the old Plank Rcad, he pushed for-
ward, and that night, while (rrant supposed Lee
was still about Orange or moving southward,
Ewell's advance guard bivouacked within four
miles of Warren's corps, which bivouacked at the
old Wilderness tavern at the intersection of the
Germana Plank Road and the Orange Turnpike.
Still unsuspecting Lee's approach, Grant, on the
5th, moved on through the Wilderness toward
                      13

 

ROBERT E. LEE



Richmond, his army in two columns-on the
right Warren's and Sedgwick's corps, heading for
Parker's store, on the Plank Road toward the
western edge of the Wilderness, while Hancock's
corps (the Second) took the route to Shady Grove
Church, to the south-eastward. It was not long,
however, before Lee made known his intention to
attack without waiting for Grant to emerge from
the Wilderness. Ewell, ada ancing on the Turn-
pike at right angles to the Federal line of march,
cquickly came in contact with Criffin's division,
which W\arren had posted on the Pike to cover his
flank during his march, and was soon heavily en-
gaged. WVaxren, finding Ewell's Corps on his right,
formed line of battle, and Sedgwick forming oin his
right, they advanced and attacked Ewell in heavy
force. Meanwhile ('tetty's division was sent by
Sedgwick to hold Hill, who was advancing on the
Plank Road toward Parker's store, until Hancock
could arrive with the Second Corps. Warren's
sharp attack on Ewell was at first successful, for
the Confederates had not on the field more than
half the number of the Federals who attacked
them. But rallying, the Confederates swept
forward, and not only regained the ground they
 Humphreys' "Virginia Campaign of '64 and '65," p. 17.
Rhodes's "History of the United States," IVT, p. 440. Nicolay
and Hay, VIII, p. 352.
                      14

 

THE WILDERNESS CA MPAIGN



had lost, but captured four guns and a large num-
ber of prisoners. But as the fight slackened on
the left, wvhere Ewell was pushing Warren bakl-
along the Turnpike, it began to increase iIl fury
alonlg Lee's right, where, OIL the Plank Road.
Ileth's and Wilcox's Divisions of Lee's Second
Corps were holding back the masses of Grant's
Second Corps. This they did all the afternoon,
stLubbornly maintaining their ground against the
repleated assaults of Hancock's wvell-led divisions.
1h1appily for Lee's army, the ground he had se-
le Ceti on1 which to bring Grtant to bay was well
adapted for his purpose. As in the battle of
(hancellorsville, he had chosen the Wildemness
for his battle-ground, because its tangles of far-
stretching forest, intersected by)V only a few roads
and broken by but a few openings, prevented
thle )reponderanit numbers of the enemy in men
and guns fromi being availe(. of by his antag-

  Lee, however, when he marched straight for
(Iraint's army with his Second Corps and part of
his Third Corps, had expected that Longstreet,
who was at Gordonsville, little more than ten
miles further away from his object of attack than
he himself was, would follow immnediately and join
himii not later than the afternoon of the 5th. To
                      15

 

ROBERT E. LEE



insure this he had sent him as guide an officer
who knew the roads. to pilot him. But Long-
street was incurably slow. A large, heavy, pon-
derous man, his movements were correspondingly
slow, and possibly his mental operations partook
of the same deliberateness. Whether it was at
Seven Pines or at Malvern Hill, at Second Ma-
nassas, or Gettysburg, or the Wilderness, he was
late; and in this instance, as in those which had
preceded it, he came near causing the most seri-
ous consequences to Lee's army. Had Longstreet
been up when Ewell made his gallant attack, or
even when Wilcox and Heth, in the afternoon,
were holding on with desperation to the lines
against which Hancock was dashing his straining
brigades, an advance might have been made which
might possibly have driven Grant back toward the
Rapidan and have saved the carnage of the suc-
ceeding weeks. Longstreet had, however, sent off
the guide furnished him and had subsequently
missed the road. So, when darkness fell on Wil-
cox's and Heth's exhausted divisions in the Wil-
derness woods, the First Corps of the Army of
Northern Virginia was going into bivouac at Ver-
diersville, some ten miles away. Fortunately,
Longstreet was fully awake now to the urgency
of the situation, of which Lee had apprised him,
                      16

 




     - CALE

  ,_   Union Works
a    Comndarat wok



THE MILDERNE-S

 This page in the original text is blank.

 
THE WILDERNESS CIAMPAIGN



and, breaking camp soon after midnight, he pushed
forward for the Wilderness, within whose western
tangles the armies of Grant and Lee lay confront-
ing each other. Had he been two hours later it
might have been too late to save the situation.
As it was, he was barely in ti-Me to save the rest
of Lee's army from, possibly, irretrievable disaster.
Lee's plan was that which he so often adopted
with success: to assail one w :lng of the enemy--
this time Grant's right-and while doing so to
mass his forces on the enemyv's other wing and
overwhelm it. When night fell on the 5th, each
commander knew that the next day's sun would
rise on a great battle, and each prepared to take
the offensive. Grant, whose plan was to use his
preponderant numbers and attack along his whole
line, prepared to move to the attack at five. Lee
was so sure that Longstreet and Anderson would
both be in place that the exhausted divisions of
Wilcox and Heth had been told they would be
withdrawn and their places taken by the fresh
troops. Lee was obliged by ILongstreet's absence
to wait before advancing his r".ght, and on the left,
where Gordon was eagerly urging Ewell to give
him permission to turn Grant' l right, which he had
discovered to be exposed, Ewe'll had felt compelled
to refuse his assent and content himself with with-
                      17

 

ROBERT E. LEE



standing most of the day Sedgwick's fierce as-
saults. On the right Wilcox and Heth had not
even replenished their ammunition chests and
cartridge boxes, and when Hancock with his corps,
Getty's division of Sedgwick's corps, and Wads-
worth's division of the Fifth Corps attacked them
in the early morning, the two Confederate divi-
sions, unable to make an effectual resistance, were
swept back in confusion. It looked as though
Lee's right wing would be crushed. At this crit-
ical moment Longstreet arrived on the field.
Whatever his dulness in preparation, or his sloth
on the march, on the field of battle all his senses
were quickened. As a fighter he had no superior
in either army. 'Making his dispositions swiftly,
he promptly threw his men across the space
where the lines had given way and where men were
now streaming to the rear, and, with Kershaw on
the right of the Plank Road and Field on the left,
pressed forward to meet the advancing Federals.
The change was instant and complete, and as the
fresh troops struck the long line of Hancock's
men, who had supposed that they had overcome
all opposition, they gave way under the shock and
were pressed back to their original lines of intrench-
ment. The presence of Lee himself added to the
ardor of the charge that swept back the advanc-
                      IS

 
THE WVILDERNESS CAMIPAITN



irg Federal divisions and changed a reverse into
a victory.
  The Confederate commander must have felt dur-
irig the early hours of the contest much more anx-
iety than he displayed, for the delay of Longstreet
completely paralyzed his plans; and now as the
troops advanced to the attack which was to re-
establish his lines, Lee rode fcorward and put him-
self at their head. The effect was instantaneous.
The cry arose, " General Lee, to the rear!" and as
the men passed to the front he was called to, " G(o
back, General Lee; this is no place for you. Go
back, we'll settle this."  And they did settle it.
The lines of gray swept forwaLrd and Lee's broken
line was re-established.
  An account of this episode was given afterward
by an eve-witness, General Lee's chief of artillery.
After speaking of posting some guns in a clearing
he continues:
  "All night Heth, Hill, and Wilcox remained at
their posts in the thicket, with their men really
under arms and not only ready for a night en-
counter, but occasionally exchanging shots with
the enemy. By those guns I bivouacked that
night and General Lee very near. Early next
morning (the 6th) the fight was renewed by Hill
               Taylor's "Lee," p. 234.
                      19

 
ROBERT E. LEE



with his brave division commanders and their
sternly enduring soldiers. Before long, however,
they sent word to General Lee-by whose side I
was on horseback-that they were much worn
and even harder pressed than on the previous day,
and must inevitably fall back if not reinforced.
General Lee sent exhorting them to hold on and
promising support; he also sent to hasten Long-
street to the rescue.... Not long after, our ex-
hausted fellows came back in numbers and the
occasion arrived for the grape from those guns to
stem and shatter the hastening bluecoats. It was
at this critical moment that General Lee, deeply
anxious for the appearance of Longstreet's column,
greeted a score or two of gray boys who rushed
double-quick into the little opening occupied by
our guns and ourselves. The general called out,
'Who are you, My boys' They immediately
cried out, 'Texas boys.' The general instantly
lifted his hat and waved it round, exclaiming,
'Hurrah for Texas! Hurrah for Texas!' By this
nearly a regiment had gathered, and at word
from the general to form, they at once did so.
The general placed himself at their left with the
shout, 'Charge!' Many voices cried, 'General
Lee, to the rear!' But he kept his place at the
left, square up with the line, repeating with his
                      20

 
THE WTILDERNESS CAMPAIGN



thrilling tole, 'Charge, boys!' Then a tall gray-
bearded man very near him-n stepped from the
ranks and grasped the bridle of General Lee's
horse near the bit and said to him respectfully,
yet resolutely, 'General Lee, if you do not go
back, we will not go forward.' The general
vielded. But the gallant Texans sprang forward
with a shout and the enemy's advance was driven
back.
  Lee was not now able to carry out his plan as
originally conceived. A reconnoissance to the
right disclosed the fact that Hancock's left might
be assailed with promise of gcod success, and of
being turned by a movement a:Around his extreme
left south of the Plank Road. WAith R. H. Ander-
son's Division, now arrived on the field, added to
his command, Longstreet attacked Hancock in
front with three of his brigades (Gregg's, Ben-
nings's, and Laws's) and sent a strong force of four
brigades under Mahone (G. T. Anderson's, of
Field's Division; AMahone's, of R. H. Anderson's
Division; Wofford's, of Kershaw-'s Division, and
Davis's Brigade) to assail and turn his flank.
"The movement was a success, as complete as it
was brilliant." The enemy was swept from their
front on the Plank Road, where his advantage of
 S. P. Lee's "Life of william,- N. Pendleton, D.D.," p. 326.
                      21

 
ROBERT E. LEE



position had been already felt by Lee's lines. The
Plank Road was gained and the enemy's line.
were bent back in much disorder. In the advance
General Wadsworth, whose division, with that of
Stevenson, had been fighting Field's Brigades on
the north of the Plank Road, was mortally
wounded and fell into the hands of the Confed-
erates. The advance of the Confederates was im-
peded by the fire which had caught in the woods
and was now raging furiously; 'out Hancock had
been driven back nearly a mile to a second line of
strong breast-works which had been erected along
the Brock Road at right angles to the Plank Road.
  Everything had gone in favor of the Confed-
erates to this point, and now Lee prepared to dis-
lodge Hancock by again turning his left. Long-
street, pressing his advantage, made his disposi-
tions to turn his flank again while he threw against
him his victorious brigades. His advanced bri-
gades were already in action when again the same
accident occurred that had befallen on the fatal
2d of -May a year before in almost the same place
and manner. Longstreet, riding along the Plank
Road with his staff and a number of other officers
to direct the advance of his ardent troops, received
a volley that swept across the highway from a
body of his own men lying in the woods less than
                      22

 
THE WILDERNESS CAMNIPAIGN



a hundred yards away. The gallant Jenkins was
killed outright and Longstreet was so badly
wounded that he was borne from the field and was
incapacitated for many montihs. To those who
have studied the history of war it is not necessarv
to explain the fatal effects of the loss of a com-
in(lnder. In all history the story of battles is full
of the tragic consequences of such a loss, from the
tille of Antony, in the moment of victory fliinging
a world away by turning his back on the field and
follow ing Cleopatra in her flight. The conse-
quences that follow the relaxation of the comn-
niander's grasp are scarcely less dire in modemn
war fare. Three times already, as heretofore
noted, the Southern armies hal suffered from this
far-reaching fatality-at Shiloh, at Seven Pines, at
Chancellorsville, and now  in the Wilderness-
when the victorious soldiery of the South were
sweeping forward in the full tide of victory with
an ardor which would have bceen irresistible, the
mnind that directed them as one organic whole was
suddenly removed; the carefully planned movenment
lost its directing force and the power that, contin-
uoulsly applied, would haive been irresistible spent
itself futilely in general but undirected application.
  This catastrophe of Longstreet's wound and
disablement brought to a stop a movement which
                       23

 

ROBERT E. LEE



bade fair to rival Jackson's famous flanking move-
ment at Chancellorsville a year before. R. H.
Anderson was assigned to the command of the
First Corps, as Stuart had succeeded Jackson on
the earlier field, and Miahone took Anderson's
Division of Hill's Comrs; but the time consumed
was precious, and the impulse which might have
swept Hancock from his stoutly held breastworks
was lost. Portions of the line were carried, but
time had been given to mass sufficient troops to
retake and hold them. On Lee's left, Gordon
having at last secured consent from Ewell to at-
tempt a turning movement after Ewell had per-
sonally reconnoitred the ground and verified the
report of the scouts that Grant's right was suffi-
ciently exposed to promise good results, moved
forward with three brigades about sunset, and, in
a gallant attack, carried Sedgwick's lines, and,
rolling back his right flank, drove him from his
intrenched position for a mile, capturing some 600
prisoners, including two brigadier-generals, Sey-
mour and Shaler. It was, however, too late to
accomplish more; and as darkness fell the combat
died away in the thick tangles of the forest, each
army glad to gain the merciful respite of the
night's rest.
            W. H. Taylor's "Lee," p. 237.
                      24

 
THE WILDERNESS CAMPAIGN



  The darkness had settled down with Grant's
lines driven back on both wings far beyond the
points they had held in the morning, and with the
Confederates attacking on both wings with marked
succ