THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 A Soldier of the Civil War
 
 
 EDWARD PICKETT
 
 A Soldier of the 
 Civil War 
 
 BT A MEMBER OF THE VIRGINIA 
 HISTORICAL SOCIETT 
 
 A modern type of the Chevalier Bayard sans peur et sans 
 reproche. . . In all time to come the proud boast, " I am 
 descended from one of Pickett's men," will be held equiva- 
 lent to the words in France ' ' One of the Old Guard 
 which dies but never surrenders. ' ' General George B. 
 McClellan(U.S.A.). 
 
 A limited number privately printed for the 
 Author, by The Burrows Brothers Company, 
 Cleveland, Ohio, 1900 & ^ J J <* J* &
 
 Copyright, 1900 
 
 by 
 The Burrows Brothers Co
 
 -PS 
 
 Illustrations 
 
 GEN. GEORGE EDWARD PICKETT . Frontispiece 
 
 From photograph taken shortly after the Civil War. 
 
 THIRD DAY AT GETTYSBURG PICKETT'S CHARGE 29 
 
 P5 Essentially, an exact reproduction of the diagram in Gen. 
 
 ^ Norman Hall's official report. 
 
 JH "THE TURNING POINT" OF THE BATTLE ON THE 
 
 RIDGE . . . . .41 
 
 Reproduced from ibid.
 
 Preface 
 
 WE have received a handsomely-bound copy of 
 a military biography which is the production 
 of a Southern writer and bears the imprint of a 
 Southern house. It revives familiar memories of 
 the Southern struggle for independence and relates 
 with scholarly exactness, in a clear and brilliant 
 style, and with no touch or trace of partisan bitter- 
 ness or exaggeration, the story of a Southern 
 soldier's life; the strange, eventful history of a 
 Confederate leader who in all that he did and all 
 that, lucklessly, he tried to do, seemed, like the 
 Vergilian hero, to be directed by an inexorable des- 
 tiny and to become, in spite of instinct and volition, 
 an unconscious helper in founding an Empire* 
 
 greater than the one he lost. " Every man," says 
 alzac, "takes the color of his time." Of this 
 historic soldier it may be said that if he took from 
 his surroundings a touch of contemporary color, 
 he was also moulded in no small degree by forma- 
 tive influences from the past. To comprehend the 
 conditions he was called to confront, we must con- 
 sider, in each instance, the historic influences which 
 created the conditions he found to exist. His 
 military career, splendid and inspiring as it was, 
 must be regarded as a mere episode in, a vast and 
 comprehensive movement, or migration, of a con- 
 quering race. The sweeping and resistless advance 
 of a branch, or of branches, of the great Teutonic 
 stock across the North American continent has been 
 characterized by a modern writer himself a daring 
 and sagacious explorer as the most dramatic spec- 
 tacle in the history of man ; a march often inter- 
 rupted, but never checked, by desperate struggles
 
 x PREFACE 
 
 with alien or aboriginal races, by intercurrent civil 
 conflicts, and by international rivalries and ambi- 
 tions which to this day have not ceased to disturb 
 the social and political amities of a common race. 
 Very recently, as we know, they have provisionally 
 adjusted a diplomatic difference over the line of the 
 Chilkat pass. 
 
 The movement of these warrior races reached its 
 limit when it touched the Pacific slope, and the 
 closing incident of .that transcontinental march is 
 vividly described in the military biography which 
 we are asked to review. The American branch of 
 the race, having completed its cycle of conquest and 
 colonization, halted for a moment on the shores of 
 the Pacific Ocean, and then resumed the imperial 
 movement, with resistless impetus, among the de- 
 crepit civilizations of the East upon the islands 
 of the Pacific Ocean, and upon the shores of Manila 
 Bay. 
 
 The salient and essential features of the story 
 which the faithful and accomplished biographer has 
 told so well we shall attempt to reproduce in the 
 compass of a brief review. It is a modern story 
 with the thrilling charm of old romance.* 
 
 * A Review of " Pickett and His Men." By La Salle Corbell 
 Picket! (Mrs. G. E. Pickett). Atlanta, Ga. The Foote & Davies 
 Company. The Review, of which this is a reprint, was first 
 published in November, 1899.
 
 I 
 
 AT Warwick Castle, in one of the chambers 
 overlooking the peaceful Avon, there hangs 
 the portrait of a cavalier of the Cromwellian 
 period. The countenance has a marked individu- 
 ality, a certain patrician air of resolution and self- 
 restraint, and that settled cast of thought which is 
 supposed to mark an excess of devotion to habits 
 of scholastic or scientific research. The features 
 are not of Cromwellian proportions, but they are 
 finely balanced and firmly moulded, and in the 
 deep, dark eyes there is an expression of calmness 
 and concentration that denotes a masterful force of 
 intellect and an abiding sense of power. Is it the 
 face of a statesman, or of a scholar? of a sagacious 
 civil administrator, or of a prudent and sedate 
 member of the Privy Council? or, simply, of a coun- 
 try gentleman of scholarly tastes and quiet habits 
 who loves his country and is loyal to the king? 
 Strange as it may seem from the description, it is 
 the portrait of a dashing cavalier of the fiery 
 Prince Rupert, famous in the annals of the House 
 of Stuart as commander of the Royal Horse, and 
 infamous during the Cromwellian Protectorate as a 
 buccaneer upon the Spanish Main ; of varied and 
 proved capacity in public affairs ; one of the ablest 
 soldiers that ever served a despotic prince, and one 
 of the most brilliant and versatile savants of his 
 day. It was the peculiar destiny of this reckless 
 cavalier, who flung away a kingdom at Marston 
 Moor, to give his name to an empire of which 
 the ambitious despots of his house had never 
 dreamed. 
 
 Cromwell was in his grave and the Stuart was 
 again on the throne; and Prince Rupert, then
 
 12 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 absorbed in his studies at Paris, was selected as the 
 governor of "a company of gentlemen adven- 
 turers," organized to exploit the resources of the 
 vast region which pours its waters into Hudson's 
 Bay. For nearly two hundred years this organiza- 
 tion, known as the "Hudson's Bay Company," 
 bore the ineffaceable stamp of its founders, and 
 pursued with inflexible determination the despotic 
 methods of the house from which Prince Rupert 
 sprang. This chartered monopoly was in effect a 
 colonial agency of the British crown ; it was the 
 embodiment of the characteristic claims and preten- 
 sions of the English race; it embraced within its 
 imperial circle of administration a domain of conti- 
 nental dimensions one-third larger in territorial 
 area than the entire continent of Europe; and, 
 under the liberal charter granted by the second 
 Charles, it possessed exclusive commercial rights in 
 that vast and undefined region for all time, holding 
 it by the same title that an Englishman holds the 
 farm or the homestead that he calls his own. It 
 was a conveyance of chartered rights almost without 
 parallel in the history of the New World, and this 
 privileged domain this game preserve of a char- 
 tered monopoly was as free from trespass or 
 intrusion as the garden of an English duke. It 
 was truly Rupert s Land. The charter was Ru- 
 pert's; the informing spirit was Rupert's; the 
 centralized and aggressive system was Rupert's; and 
 every detail of practical administration bore the 
 impress of Rupert's iron hand. The company's 
 operations extended from ocean to ocean ; from the 
 tide-waters of the Mackenzie to the head-waters of 
 the Yellowstone and the Mississippi. Its powers 
 were ample and its resources potentially without 
 limit. Its factories were fortified posts; its agents 
 were ubiquitous and innumerable; its scouts were 
 sagacious and indefatigable ; its trappers and woods- 
 men penetrated every nook that could be reached 
 with the dog-train, the pirogue, or the birch-canoe.
 
 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL IV A R 13 
 
 Its aggressive movements were as stealthy as a 
 Huron's on the warpath; its territorial encroach- 
 ments as noiseless as the footfalls of a wolf on the 
 snow ; its leaders as daring, rapacious, and insatiable 
 as the viking race from which they sprang. " It 
 was the very embodiment," says Barrows, "of 
 Great Britain in America; a monopoly that, grow- 
 ing bolder and more grasping, became at last conti- 
 nental in sweep, inexorable in spirit, and irresistible 
 in power. " At this day such a monopoly would 
 be characterized as a " trust, 'J- a " Credit Mobilier " 
 fur company, organized upon a semi-military basis 
 and controlling half a continent through an army of 
 factors, commissioners, trappers, traders, scouts, 
 Indians, and mixed-breed retainers of varied hue. 
 Every energy of this vast organization was directed 
 to the collection of furs. There were military trad- 
 ing stations by the score. Every wigwam was an 
 agency. Every redskin was a purveyor of peltries 
 to the imperial monopoly established by Rupert, 
 and plied his vocation as collector through every 
 foot of this vast dominion of forests and snows. 
 The boundaries of Rupert's Land were practically 
 without limit, perpetually expanding with the 
 monopoly's desires. Its progress was that of the 
 glacier, moving without haste in the darkness and 
 silence of an arctic world. 
 
 Every rival save one had gone down under the 
 pressure of its advance. Speaking to American 
 senators, Rufus Choate exclaimed: "Keep your 
 eye always open, like the eye of your own eagle, 
 upon the Oregon. Eternal vigilance is the condi- 
 tion of Empire as it is of liberty." 
 
 The warning was not lost. When the encroach- 
 ing monopoly sought to appropriate the Territory 
 of Oregon, it stood face to face with a republic 
 which had also been peopled by men of English 
 blood. The States were at once aflame. The 
 voice of Senator Benton thrilled the popular heart. 
 It was like the blast of a trumpet. "Thirty
 
 14 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 thousand rifles," he cried, "are wanted in the valley 
 of the Oregon." The wild spirits of the Western 
 frontier awakened at the call and by armed coloniza- 
 tion kept the rapacious monopoly at bay. Since 
 the days of the Stuarts it had encountered no such 
 opposition as this, and the daring intruder paused. 
 Even the bold spirit of Rupert would have recoiled 
 from another conflict with the spirit of republican- 
 ism that had swept over his columns at Marston 
 Moor. The fur monopolist was subtle, as well as 
 strong and bold. He again has recourse to diplo- 
 macy, to the slippery methods of negotiation that 
 had served him in the past; but the crack of the 
 frontiersman's rifle is heard in the valley of the 
 Oregon, and the southward advance of the great 
 fur monopoly is forever stayed; it not only ceases 
 to advance, but it recoils possibly for another 
 spring. Wherever found, the British colonist is a 
 desperate and formidable fighter ; he has the fire of 
 the Scandinavian, the stuboornness of the Saxon, 
 and the craft of the Celt. With the trait which 
 is peculiar to each, he has the courage which is 
 common to all. 
 
 At last the Oregon treaty, drawn under the eye 
 of the English ministry by an English hand, was 
 proclaimed by President Polk to be the law, and 
 the settlement of the vexatious boundary question 
 was supposed to be complete. But this was a mis- 
 take. A full decade of exasperating delays vexed 
 the popular heart before a commission could be ap- 
 pointed to run the lines. Meantime it was found that 
 the phraseology of one provision of the treaty was 
 ambiguous and inexact. An error in archipelagic 
 geography, a diplomatic error had established 
 the claim of "the Company " to the possession of 
 the splendid island of San Juan. Lord Russell was 
 emphatic and defiant. The treaty could not stand 
 except the island of San Juan be reserved to the 
 British crown. Governor Douglas declared the 
 sovereignty of the island to be in the crown, and
 
 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 15 
 
 soundingly protested under hand and seal against 
 the occupation of the island by aliens or pretenders 
 from abroad. When the island was subsequently 
 seized and occupied by American troops, the com- 
 manding officer was informed by a servant of the 
 monopoly that the ground on which the American 
 camp was pitched was the property of the Hudson's 
 Bay Company. Having appropriated half the con- 
 tinent, the company was now about to seize the 
 islands along the coast. The island of San Juan 
 was included by territorial legislation in a county of 
 the State of Oregon. The company refused to 
 pay taxes to the State and the Oregon sheriff spld 
 enough of its property to liquidate the dues. 
 Hence mutual recrimination and bitter local con- 
 flicts, trespass, retaliation, and deep-seated discon- 
 tent. The island, already occupied by American 
 settlers and forming part of a county of the State 
 of Oregon, was seized and used by the servants of 
 the company as a sheep-ranch, and American soldiers 
 in actual possession for the protection of American 
 citizens were coolly informed by a subordinate agent 
 of the company that they " must immediately cease 
 to occupy the same." The English premier, 
 Lord Russell, Governor Douglas of Vancouver, 
 and the company's imperious servant were plainly 
 of one mind upon this point, and it was evident 
 that the day for diplomacy was past. 
 
 The officer in command of the American troops 
 (a mere handful of regulars) was a young captain 
 of infantry who had served with distinction in the 
 brilliant Mexican campaign of General Winfield 
 Scott, having led a forlorn hope at the siege of 
 Chapultepec and planted the American colors on the 
 castle heights ; and among all the officers of the 
 regular army that had participated in this advance 
 upon the Aztec capital there was none more con- 
 spicuous for personal gallantry than George Edward 
 Pickett, the young Virginian now selected by General 
 Harney, the commander of the Department of
 
 16 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 Oregon, for the military occupation and defense of 
 the island of San Juan. 
 
 When the underling of the company at San Juan 
 issued his peremptory notice to quit, a British 
 frigate of thirty guns was lying broadside to the 
 American camp. The American commander, in 
 spite of a certain constitutional impetuosity of tem- 
 per, had learned to parley as well as fight. With 
 the courtesy and self-restraint which seemed to be 
 instinctive with the West Pointer of the old school, 
 he quietly took his position, and there he stayed. 
 " I do not acknowledge," he said in response, " the 
 right of the Hudson's Bay Company to dictate my 
 course of action. I am here by virtue of an order 
 from my government and shall remain till recalled 
 by the same authority." 
 
 Four days after he had been "warned off " by 
 the agent of the company, Captain Pickett was sum- 
 moned to appear before an official of her Britannic 
 Majesty. "I am here by authority, " he replied 
 courteously, "and will retain my position if pos- 
 sible. " To a demand of the English commander, 
 Hornby, he said, " I cannot allow any joint 
 occupation until so ordered by my commanding 
 general." Three British men-of-war were lying 
 there to enforce the English demand. 
 
 " I have one thousand men on board the ships," 
 said Captain Hornby, "ready to land to-night." 
 
 "If you undertake it," said Pickett, "I will 
 fight you as long as I have a man." 
 
 "Very well,' answered Hornby, "I will land 
 them at once." 
 
 " Give me forty-eight hours, until I can hear 
 from my commanding officer," said Pickett, "or 
 accept the responsibility for the bloodshed that will 
 follow." 
 
 " Not one minute," was the Englishman's reply. 
 
 At once Pickett ordered his command (sixty-eight 
 men) to fall into line on the hillside facing the 
 beach. " We'll make a Bunker's Hill of it, he
 
 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 17 
 
 said to his men, "and don't be afraid of their big 
 guns." 
 
 The sequel is told by General Harney in his re- 
 port to General Scott. " The senior officer of three 
 British ships of war threatened to land an over- 
 powering force upon Captain Pickett, who nobly 
 replied that whether they landed fifty or five thou- 
 sand men, his own conduct would not be affected 
 by it; that he would open fire and, if compelled, 
 take to the woods fighting." The British officer 
 was satisfied that Pickett meant precisely what he 
 said and indefinitely postponed the execution of the 
 threat. The hand and the will of Rupert were not 
 there; but the spirit of Cromwellian republicanism 
 stood incarnate and undaunted upon that island 
 shore. The "Company" of Rupert had played 
 the long drama of imperial aggression to a close. 
 
 On the 5th of August Governor Douglas and 
 Captain Hornby proposed to Captain Pickett a 
 conference on board a British man-of-war. " I have 
 the honor to say in reply," writes Pickett, "that I 
 shall most cheerfully meet you in my camp at what- 
 ever hour you may designate." Captain Hornby 
 at once responds: "I shall do myself the honor 
 of calling on you at 2 P. M., in company with the 
 captains of her Britannic Majesty's ships." This 
 conference was immediately followed by a satisfac- 
 tory settlement of the San Juan affair. 
 
 President Buchanan, in his third annual message, 
 says that the chief object of General Harney 's order 
 to Pickett was to extend protection to American 
 residents of the island against oppressive interfer- 
 ence from the officers of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
 pany. The President also commends the thought- 
 fulness and discretion of the British admiral. 
 
 The news of the threatened collision upon the 
 Pacific coast stirred the national heart as it had not 
 been stirred for years. It was like a declaration of 
 war. The name 'of the young Virginian was upon 
 every lip, and the fame of the San Juan incident
 
 18 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 flew swiftly across the sea. For a moment the 
 clamors of faction were hushed in the national 
 councils, and there was a lull in the wild storm of 
 controversy raging between the slave states and the 
 free. Sedition for a season ceased to ply its devil- 
 ish trade. There were no longer strange voices in 
 the air; no auguries of public ill upon prophetic 
 lips; no disastrous portents in the political sky. 
 The whole nation was rallying as one man to the 
 support of the lone soldier upon the Pacific coast; 
 and many a patriot hoped that the jarring and dis- 
 cordant states might again be brought together and 
 swept by a wave of enthusiasm into a war of resis- 
 tance to the territorial aggressions of the British 
 race. It has transpired in recent years that not 
 only had many patriots desired such a result, but 
 some, in the interest of national unity, had actually 
 planned to precipitate a foreign war. The conspir- 
 acy was the very desperation of patriotic impulse, 
 the wildest excess of patriotic zeal. "Evil,' they 
 said, "be thou our good. " If war with England 
 must come, let it come at once. It will at least 
 avert impending civil war. "For this purpose," 
 says General McClellan, "Captain Pickett volun- 
 teered to risk his life." He would gladly have 
 sacrificed himself to save his country from the civil 
 conflict which was to immortalize his name. But, 
 happily, the sacrifice was not required. However 
 reckless, the sagacious Englishman never quite 
 loses his head, and where nothing is to be accom- 
 plished he has but little stomach for a fight. " One 
 month of war," said Sir Robert Peel, "would have 
 cost more than all the land in dispute." 
 
 The island of San Juan was afterward awarded 
 to the United States by the Emperor William of 
 Germany, and with this award the Hudson's Bay 
 Company as a great imperial agency practically 
 ceased to exist. Its policy and methods were antago- 
 nistic to the normal development of civilization in 
 British America, and a Parliamentary Commission
 
 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 19 
 
 soon furnished ample proofs of the fact. The 
 propagation of beavers has since given place to the 
 cultivation of wheat. Witness the golden grain- 
 fields of Manitoba, which once figured as an irre- 
 claimable wilderness in the company's official 
 reports. Even Oregon, said Governor-General 
 Simpson, was worthless for agricultural uses. 
 
 $ 9ft $ 4 
 
 Events were developing with startling rapidity 
 in the States, and Captain Pickett soon passed to 
 another field of service, upon another coast, under 
 another flag, and in support of another cause.
 
 II 
 
 WHEN Virginia was swept into the move- 
 ment of secession ana proudly took her 
 position at the head of the column of 
 seceding states, it was but natural that Captain 
 Pickett, as a native of Virginia, should follow her 
 leading, and should feel too that the path of honor 
 and duty lay that way. So far as he was concerned 
 there was no pretense of justification for the step 
 upon constitutional grounds, although he was per- 
 fectly familiar, by virtue of his West Point training, 
 with the principles of constitutional interpretation 
 laid down in Rawle. He simply said, " Proud as 
 I am of the great name of American citizen, I can- 
 not raise my arm against my own kith and kin." 
 But if fight they must, it was his earnestly expressed 
 hope that they would fight under the old flag. He 
 wanted the stars and stripes to float over the armies 
 of the South. 
 
 In February, 1862, General Pickett was assigned 
 by the Confederate government to the command of 
 a Virginian brigade of infantry. With characteristic 
 promptitude he pushed at once to the front, and, 
 upon ground made historic by the surrender of 
 Cornwallis, maintained unbroken a line of defense 
 against the advancing forces of McClellan. At 
 the battle of Williamsburg his command not only 
 checked the advance of that magnificent army, but 
 actually drove it back. At Games' Mill he led the 
 assault which broke the enemy's line. The situa- 
 tion, near sunset, was extremely critical. "Some- 
 thing must be done," said Lee to Longstreet, "or 
 the day is lost." The Federal line extended from 
 Chickahominy to Cold Harbor. The position was 
 naturally strong, and powerful batteries were planted
 
 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 21 
 
 at every dominant point. To save the day, the 
 brigades of Pickett and Anderson were ordered to 
 an assault upon the formidable line of defenses in 
 front. The battle was raging furiously ; the enemy 
 were holding their entrenchments with the tenacity 
 of desperation, and one hundred and twenty guns 
 were hurling a destructive fire upon the column of 
 advance. But nothing could resist the determined 
 and impetuous fury of the assault. Pickett, shot 
 from his horse, paused but a moment, and pressing 
 forward on foot still led his dauntless brigade, the 
 riderless horse following close, as if the animal's 
 master still held the rein. The charge was resist- 
 less, and the field was won. The strong blue line 
 recoils; the reserves give way; the faithful gunners 
 are swept from their guns ; the contested ground is 
 seized and held by the Confederate column of 
 assault; McClellan's disciplined legions are driven 
 tumultuously into the Chickahominy swamps, and 
 Lee with his whole army is in hot pursuit. The 
 Federal commander, whose patient genius for war 
 was even then preparing the way for ultimate suc- 
 cess, was only saved from utter rout by the roads 
 and bridges which he had constructed for a victori- 
 ous Federal advance. Pickett's and Anderson's 
 brigades had not only saved the day but had shed 
 imperishable glory upon the Confederate arms. 
 The attack in front was made by these brigades 
 alone. 
 
 General Pickett's wound was severe enough to 
 keep him from the field for several months, and 
 when he rejoined his brigade, in September, he was 
 still unable to bear the pressure of a sleeve. In 
 the fight at Frazier's Farm, three days after the 
 battle of Games' Mill, the general's brother, Major 
 Charles Pickett, was shot down while carrying the 
 colors at the head of the advancing brigade. He 
 "wanted to be in at the finish,' he said, and 
 he almost realized his wish. The gallant young 
 soldier was disabled for life.
 
 Ill 
 
 GENERAL Pickett was assigned to the com- 
 mand of a division in September, 1862, 
 and on the loth of the following month was 
 promoted to the rank of major-general. In the 
 reorganization of the army which followed the return 
 from the Maryland campaign, the brigades of 
 Pickett, Kemper, and Jenkins were consolidated 
 into a division, to which, later, Armistead's brigade 
 was attached, and Major-General Pickett was as- 
 signed to the permanent command, the division as 
 now constituted forming part of Longstreet's corps. 
 Its first appearance upon the field was at the battle 
 of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862, when -it 
 was held in reserve with instructions from Long- 
 street simply to "hold the ground in defense 
 conjointly with the division of Hood, unless they 
 could see an opportunity to attack the enemy while 
 engaged with A. P. Hill on the right. At the first 
 moment of the break on Jackson's lines (says Long- 
 street) Pickett, eager to strike the Federal column 
 as it advanced in the open field, rode to Hood and 
 urged that the opportunity anticipated was at hand, 
 but Hood "failed to see it in time for effective 
 work." His failure was a subject of critical remark 
 and even reported in the official accounts. Hood 
 stood in high favor with the authorities at Rich- 
 mond, and the biographer of President Davis says 
 that he was " the noblest contribution of the chivalry 
 of Kentucky to the armies of the South." 
 
 The division of Pickett was held in reserve, 
 therefore, but straining at the leash and impatient 
 for the signal to advance. The gallant division 
 waited long many months, indeed, but it did not 
 wait in vain. The opportunity came at last.
 
 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 23 
 
 a The renowned legions of Longstreet and Ewell 
 t(the latter in command of Jackson's old corps) 
 abandoned their position near Fredericksburg on 
 the third day of June, leaving A. P. Hill on guard 
 along the line of the Rappahannock, watching 
 ford and ferry and vigilantly confronting the 
 forces of the Federal commander, General Hooker, 
 who has signally failed to grasp the strategic sig- 
 nificance of the situation in front, and, wholly oblivi- 
 ous of the campaign in progress, is meditating with 
 the solicitude of a true soldier upon the prospective 
 operations of General Lee. Days elapse, and on 
 the 22nd of June, General Hooker is still in quest 
 of information concerning the movements of his 
 great antagonist, and the electric wires are flashing 
 his notes of interrogation to every point. " Have 
 any of the enemy s infantry," he asks General 
 Tyler, in command at Maryland Heights, 
 "marched north from the Potomac?" "Do they 
 continue to cross?" he asks again on the follow- 
 ing day. He is clearly not satisfied with the assur- 
 ance given by his chief of staff that Lee's movement 
 upon the Potomac is a mere cover for a cavalry 
 raid; nor with the scandalous suggestion of Pleas- 
 anton a stout fighter that they are still in the 
 Shenandoah Valley, and will remain there as long 
 as they are permitted to "steal supplies" from 
 the adjoining states. Still less can he be induced 
 to believe that the movement is simply a wild dash 
 of Confederate foragers, and that the "whole 
 population of the country generals and all " 
 are crazed with a panic and " stricken with a heavy 
 stampede. 
 
 When Tyler received Hooker's telegram on the 
 22nd, the Confederate camp-fires were already ablaze 
 upon the banks of the Potomac. Ewell boldly 
 leading the old Stonewall corps, has crossed the 
 river and is marching northward with Imboden's 
 cavalry on his left wing, the cavalry of Stuart on 
 his right, and the first division of A. P. Hill's
 
 24 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 corps moving up rapidly in his rear. Hooker may 
 have been slow in his perceptions, but he was 
 prompt to act; when the emergency was pressing 
 none could be more alert or bold. He was a soldier 
 upon instinct. His cavalry were "out," he said, 
 " feeling up to the enemy and hard at work. " He 
 ordered Heintzelman to seize the South Mountain 
 Pass and hold it at all hazards ; the first corps was 
 ordered to seize and occupy Crampton's Pass; and 
 Stand's command was directed to move at once 
 toward Gettysburg and Frederick, and " drive from 
 the country every rebel in it." 
 
 On the 24th day of June the chief engineer of 
 the Army of the Potomac (Warren) submitted to 
 the Federal commander some cogent strategic rea- 
 sons for moving the army immediately to the neigh- 
 borhood of Harper's Ferry. " It is the straightest 
 line to reach Lee's army," he said, "and will 
 enable us to paralyze his movements by striking his 
 flank and rear." In the orders which Hooker gave 
 he seems to have adopted these views at once. The 
 mountain passes were directed to be seized and held. 
 The possibility of such a movement had been antici- 
 pated by Lee. On the I9th of June he writes to 
 Ewell. "Longstreet, ' ' he says, " is maneuvering to 
 detain Hooker east of the mountains until A. P. 
 Hill can come up in support of the Confederate 
 advance. Should the enemy force a passage through 
 the mountains you would be separated from A. 
 P. Hill, and it is this separation of forces that 
 Longstreet is striving to prevent." Not knowing 
 what force is at Harper's Ferry, and having no 
 definite information as to the movements of General 
 Hooker, the Confederate commander does not feel 
 that he is in position to advise ; but should Hooker 
 be drawn across the river by Ewell' s advance, he 
 assures Ewell that Longstreet will follow at once. 
 It is evident that the strategic conceptions of 
 Hooker and his chief of engineers were anticipated 
 in the reflections of General Lee.
 
 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 25 
 
 The report of Warren to Hooker advising the 
 movement upon Harper's Ferry was dated at 
 Stafford Court-House, June 24. Hooker lost no 
 time in moving upon the lines indicated in the 
 report of his engineer. On the 2Cth and 26th of 
 June he crossed the Potomac at Edward's Ferry. 
 He marched at once to Frederick, and arranging to 
 reinforce Slocum with the troops at Harper's Ferry, 
 he expected to push rapidly through the western 
 passes and fall upon the flank and rear of Lee 
 precisely as Lee had hypothetically prognosticated, 
 and as Warren had actually proposed. <c Troops 
 from Harper's Ferry! No," was the peremptory 
 response of Halleck; "the troops must not be 
 taken from Harper's Ferry; the Maryland Heights 
 must be held as the key to Maryland." "But 
 why hold the key," said the injudicious Hooker, 
 "when the door has been smashed in?" The 
 only response to this felicitous counter-stroke was 
 the official announcement from Washington that 
 General Hooker had been relieved from his 
 command. 
 
 On the day that Hooker was relieved, the 2yth 
 of June, the vanguard of Lee under Ewell moved 
 from Chambersburg to Carlisle. Sixty thousand 
 Confederate veterans were now upon Pennsylvanian 
 soil, seeking a decisive conflict upon a Northern 
 field with the magnificent army which had been 
 trained by the disciplinary genius of McClellan, 
 and after many reverses was now rallying with 
 incredible swiftness under the leadership of the 
 intrepid and soldierly Meade. 
 
 It is worthy of special remark that one of the 
 first acts of the new commander-in-chief was an 
 incidental vindication of his gallant predecessor. 
 He ordered the immediate withdrawal of the ten 
 thousand troops from Harper's Ferry. They were 
 withdrawn and placed in active service at once. 
 Hooker was vindicated; the army was seasonably 
 reinforced; and Halleck was apparently justified in
 
 26 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 his estimate of the military capacity of Meade the 
 latest Federal protagonist projected into the arena 
 of war. 
 
 The commands of Longstreet and Ewell, as we 
 have seen, abandoned the line of the Rappahan- 
 nock on the 3rd day of June. 
 
 On the 1 8th of June, 1863 (a notable anniversary 
 in the annals of war), Lee with sixty thousand dis- 
 ciplined veterans and two hundred effective guns 
 crossed the Potomac and swept northward, pouring 
 a tide of invasion directly into the heart of the loyal 
 states. The field of conflict was transferred at 
 once to Northern soil, as yet untouched by the 
 hand of war. In less than ten days the Southern 
 army was threatening an advance upon the capital 
 of the state possibly upon the capital of the 
 United States ; but wherever it went and whatever 
 it did, or failed to do, this is certainly true, that 
 the hand of the spoiler was stayed by a strong and 
 peremptory order from Lee. No retaliation, he 
 said, no robbery, no spoliation, outrage or waste. 
 "We make war only upon armed men." If the 
 needy invaders paid for supplies in Confederate 
 scrip, it was with the conscientious assumption that 
 ultimately the discredited paper would be made 
 good by Confederate success. 
 
 Not the least, then, of the glories of the Gettys- 
 burg campaign was the famous General Order No. 
 73. It registers the high-water mark of modern 
 civilized war. 
 
 On the 28th day of June, General Lee issued an 
 order directing an immediate concentration of his 
 forces at Cashtown, which lies east of the moun- 
 tains and near the northern extremity of the valley 
 where the battle of Gettysburg was fought. At 
 the entrance of this narrow valley lies Gettysburg 
 itself a natural strategic center to which all roads 
 seem to lead; and toward this compelling center 
 gathered the converging forces as by the operation 
 of a natural law. Among the roads radiating from
 
 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL W 'A R 27 
 
 the mountain village is a broad thoroughfare lead- 
 ing toward the northwest. It is the Chambersburg 
 road, and it was at or near the town of Chambers- 
 burg that Pickett's division was left to guard the 
 trains and secure the rear. There it remained until 
 the 2nd day of July. 
 
 It is told that when this gallant division was 
 moving northward through the prosperous farming 
 regions of Southern Pennsylvania, they were 
 greeted at one of the pretty villages in an old Ger- 
 man settlement through which they passed by an 
 enthusiastic little maid, who stood with the national 
 flag in her hand, defiantly waving it at the advanc- 
 ing column and flaunting it directly under the eyes 
 of the Confederate commander who was riding 
 ahead. Instantly the Southern leader wheeled 
 from the line, doffed his cap with easy grace, and 
 bowing to the little patriot, respectfully saluted the 
 flag she bore. Turning, he lifted his hand, and as 
 the splendid column passed every veteran doffed 
 his cap in chivalric salute to the national banner 
 and the heroic little maid. When afterward asked 
 how he could bring himself to salute the enemy's 
 flag, the Confederate leader replied: <c No, not the 
 enemy's flag; I saluted the glorious banner of my 
 youth, and the heroic womanhood in the heart of a 
 young girl." 
 
 For two mortal days the eager and impatient 
 veterans of Pickett lay within a few hours' march 
 of the battle that was imminent or raging upon the 
 mountain ridges to the east; and it was not until 
 the morning of the 2nd of July that the division 
 which was to become exceptionally conspicuous 
 upon that field received orders from Gettysburg to 
 join its corps. A march of twenty-four miles 
 under a burning July sun brought Pickett's divi- 
 sion within three miles of Gettysburg, where they 
 halted at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, their com- 
 mander promptly reporting their arrival to General 
 Lee, and asking but two hours' rest to put them in
 
 28 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 thorough readiness for service in the field. He 
 then rode at once to meet Longstreet, the com- 
 mander of the corps noting the little town of 
 Gettysburg on the left as he passed into the valley, 
 and the two parallel ridges upon which the contend- 
 ing armies were encamped the Federal forces 
 upon "Cemetery" Ridge looking west, the Con- 
 federates upon "Seminary" Ridge looking east, 
 the town of Gettysburg lying between. He 
 found Longstreet in the midst of oattle, and greatly 
 relieved by the arrival of his Virginian brigades. 
 " I always feel certain and sure," said the gallant 
 old warrior, "of Pickett and Picked:' s men." 
 Over the ridge they rode thoughtfully together, 
 watching the fight in front of Little Round Top, 
 and studying the field for the fight tomorrow. 
 Lee had achieved, as he said in his report, " partial 
 successes;" he had gained some ground; the 
 enemy had suffered heavy losses ; his own army was 
 still formidable and well in hand ; and, with that fatal 
 contempt for a luckless and awkward adversary 
 which infected even the soul of Lee, the Confeder- 
 ate commander was ready for another and final 
 assault upon the following day. Everywhere 
 throughout the army it was understood that Pickett 
 and his splendid division would make the assault; 
 and as early as 3 o'clock on the morning of the 
 3rd it was under arms behind the crest and form- 
 ing a line of battle facing Cemetery Ridge, a little 
 to the left of Meade's center; Kemper on the 
 right, Garnett on the left, Armistead directly in 
 the rear a division of less than five thousand 
 men. When the attacking column was complete 
 the division of Pettigrew was on the left of Pickett's 
 division; to the left and rear of Pettigrew were the 
 two brigades of Trimble. Anderson and Wilcox 
 were ordered to support the column of assault. 
 The line formed, the men were ordered to lie down 
 in the deep grass and keep still. And there they 
 lay until deep in the shadows of the westering sun.
 
 I 
 I 
 I
 
 30 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 During the struggle that was now in progress for 
 the possession of Culp's Hill, the rugged eminence 
 to the east which formed the right of Meade's cres- 
 centic line, Pickett stood with Longstreet and Lee 
 on the summit of Seminary Ridge, as on the previ- 
 ous day he had stood with Longstreet alone noting 
 the assault upon Little Round Top, the left of 
 Meade's compact, projecting, curvilinear front. 
 Today his own division will deliver the assault 
 upon Meade's center; and the series of indepen- 
 dent, unsupported, and unsuccessful assaults upon 
 the Federal entrenchments will be complete. The 
 scene before the opening of the battle was one of 
 idyllic peace. The morning sun was pouring a 
 flood of light into every nook of the narrow valley ; 
 the air was beginning to shimmer with excess of 
 heat, and the almost vertical rays of sunlight were 
 suffused with a reddish flame that seemed not only 
 to smite but sear. The luxuriance of midsummer 
 was crowning every summit and brightening every 
 slope, and the leafage of the woodlands was taking 
 a deeper and a richer hue. Cattle were browsing 
 peacefully upon the shaded slopes of the eastern 
 hills, or ruminating drowsily in the shadows of the 
 woodland trees ; orchards were bending and aglow 
 with their burdens of summer fruit; the golden 
 wheat fields were aflame with the radiance of the 
 morning sun; the murmurous life of midsummer 
 was in the quivering air; and, innocently oblivious 
 of impending battle, flocks of migratory pigeons 
 were circling over all. But the three Confederate 
 leaders, intent upon other thoughts, were making 
 a personal reconnaissance of the situation in front 
 the long line of lowland, the threatening slope and 
 summit stretching toward the north, and the em- 
 battled hilltops confronting their lines upon the 
 east a fine historic group for a great artist as they 
 sat upon their horses, like cavaliers in bronze, their 
 erect, soldierly figures rising boldly above the 
 summit of the ridge and sharply outlined against the
 
 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 31 
 
 morning sky. They gazed upon the scene with an 
 intentness that bespoke the interest that they felt; 
 and, if sagacity and experience in war could reveal 
 what they sought, they might easily have wrested 
 the secrets of destiny from what they saw in the 
 long reaches of the valley, upon the rugged eastern 
 slopes, upon the rocky salients frowning like 
 bastions upon the projected line of advance, and 
 upon the central convexity of the long crescentic 
 ridge entrenched to the sky-line with batteries that 
 seemed to make it almost impregnable to assault. 
 Between the Confederate line and the proposed 
 point of attack were ridges and roads and streams, 
 a strong stone wall, post-and-rail fences, streaks of 
 swale, and low, steep hills. In the shadows of the 
 distant ridge were two tiers of guns, supported by 
 soldiers of unflinching resolution and served by 
 gunners of experience and skill. The reserves of 
 infantry, the flower of the Federal host, were in 
 double columns near the crest, screened and pro- 
 tected by the solid stone wall that skirts the lower 
 slope. The line of advance was also obstructed 
 by a strong post-and-rail fence in the plain below. 
 This was the position to be taken by assault, and 
 the Confederate leaders did not underrate the seri- 
 ousness and magnitude of the attempt. Longstreet 
 had tested the practicability of the assault the day 
 before. A renewal of the attempt would require 
 close cooperation of the entire Confederate line 
 and a minimum force of thirty thousand men. 
 " The fifteen thousand men," he said, "who could 
 make a successful assault over that field had never 
 been arrayed for battle." But Lee was obstinate, 
 and Pickett was confident of success. With leaders 
 and men alike, "strong battle was in the air." 
 
 The Confederate column of assault lies in long, 
 silent ranks in the tall grass, and they rise and 
 salute silently as the commanders pass in thought- 
 ful review, honored and touched by the homage 
 they receive and proud of the source from which
 
 32 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 it comes. The assaulting column was well chosen 
 for the work. The soldiers that composed it were 
 the flower of the Virginian infantry and the pride 
 of the warlike Confederacy whose flag they bore. 
 Not surly zealots moulded into soldiers by the iron 
 discipline of Cromwellian war; far less, swaggering 
 and dissolute cavaliers clinging desperately to the 
 fortunes of a falling house. They were neither 
 profligates nor fanatics; and yet they had the sol- 
 dierly virtues of both the Roundhead and the 
 Cavalier. Offspring of a generous English breed, 
 cradled in Christian homes and reared within sound 
 of the church-going bell; with spirits finely touched 
 by the subtle influences of a Virginian environment, 
 and inspired by ideals drawn from the highest tradi- 
 tions of their race, it was a thoroughly disciplined 
 host of patient, high-bred, resolute, God-fearing 
 men, fighting, as they devoutly believed, for the 
 honor, for the rights, for the existence of that 
 ancient state to which they were as loyal as a cava- 
 lier to his king. The earliest escutcheon of the Old 
 Dominion was quartered with the arms of the Stuart 
 dynasty, but the earliest political charter of the 
 Commonwealth of Virginia was charged with the 
 principles of civil and religious liberty which drove 
 the despotic Stuart from his throne. In laying the 
 political foundations of Virginia, Sir Edwin Sandys 
 had placed a Genevan stamp upon Church and 
 State; and, building upon the lines of his ideal 
 commonwealth, had trained its people in a rigid 
 republican school.* The austere virtues of the 
 founders were transmitted to their children, and the 
 seasoned warriors who are standing upon the peril- 
 ous edge of battle at Gettysburg today are typical 
 representatives of much that was best in the genera- 
 tions of the past. They are not the Janizaries of 
 a "barbarous patriciate, ' as an eloquent Spanish 
 statesman would have had the world believe, but 
 the^military elite of a free Anglican commonwealth, 
 
 * The Genesis of the United States: Dr. Alexander Brown.
 
 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 33 
 
 which even in its cradle defied the malice and ma- 
 chinations of a Spanish king. Cromwell himself 
 would have been proud to lead the men who charge 
 at Gettysburg this day; and when it is told that 
 the favorite hymn of their daring commander of 
 the man who had led them through a tempest of 
 fire at Games' Mill was the familiar Christian 
 lyric, Guide me, O Thou Great Jehovah, that old- 
 world hymn sung over cradles by generations of 
 Virginian mothers it helps us to form some con- 
 ception of the devout and trustful nature of this 
 indomitable soldier of the South. The simple lines 
 of that old Protestant hymn are touched with the 
 true prophetic fire, and its awful imagery, <c Death 
 of Death and Hell's destruction," might well 
 appeal to the imagination of the Virginian soldier 
 who led the charge on that tremendous day. 
 
 The men are, indeed, well chosen for the work, 
 and the leader is worthy of the men ; and his gen- 
 erals are worthy of their chief Garnett, who 
 served with Stonewall Jackson ; Armistead, who' 
 charged in generous rivalry with Pickett at Chapul- 
 tepec; and Kemper, who in the Seven Days' 
 battles led the old Longstreet brigade. Pickett 
 himself was finely and generously characterized by 
 McClellan, the Federal commander, as "the incom- 
 
 E arable paladin of the far-famed infantry of the 
 outh. " "Give George Pickett an order, " said 
 a veteran Confederate officer, "and he will storm 
 the gates of hell." 
 
 The ridge upon which Meade's lines were ex- 
 tended may be likened in its general curvilinear 
 course to the outline of that familiar pastoral imple- 
 ment, an English shepherd's crook, the Federal 
 left resting upon a knobbed handle at the Round 
 Top and the right upon the terminal querl at 
 Gulp's Hill, that section of the shaft between 
 Cemetery Hill, near Gettysburg on the north, and 
 the wooded heights of Round Top on the south 
 representing Meade's main or west front looking
 
 34 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 directly westward upon Seminary Ridge and in 
 close touch at the rear with the Federal east-front 
 at Gulp's Hill, on the right. Near the left center 
 of the main or west-front is the point selected by 
 Lee for the assault. 
 
 Glancing eastward from the Confederate position, 
 we note that the distance to be covered by the 
 charging column is scarcely less than three-quarters 
 of a mile ; the distance from the Confederate bat- 
 teries to the Federal position on Cemetery Hill does 
 not exceed fourteen hundred yards ; the entire area 
 of the field upon which the drama unfolds does 
 not exceed a mile square actually limiting the 
 space upon which the column is to be developed 
 and extended for the charge. Along the crest of 
 the ledge-like elevations at the foot of Seminary 
 Ridge, corresponding to similar elevations at the 
 base of Cemetery Ridge, is a line of one hundred 
 and forty-five Confederate guns. Alexander's bat- 
 tery of seventy-five guns is on an elevation near 
 the Emmitsburg Road; Walker's sixty-three guns 
 are posted to the left of Alexander on Seminary 
 Ridge. The attacking column was ordered to 
 advance under cover of the continued fire of these 
 guns. The batteries were in position by 10 o'clock 
 in the morning. Lee had ordered batteries to be 
 pushed forward with the infantry to protect their 
 flanks and support their attacks, and Alexander 
 held nine howitzers in reserve, intending to push 
 them ahead of Pickett's line of advance nearly up 
 to musket-range. 
 
 These guns were removed just before the 
 advance without his sanction or knowledge ; other 
 guns were provided, but ammunition was scant, 
 and the assaulting column pushed forward on the 
 afternoon of the 3rd was practically unprotected 
 by guns. The Confederate artillery for the pre- 
 liminary assault on the Federal center was in posi- 
 tion on the crest of a ridge nearly parallel to the 
 enemy's line which was formed on a corresponding
 
 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 35 
 
 elevation on Cemetery Ridge, a distance of nearly 
 one mile. For a distance of two miles, the line 
 of Confederate batteries " covered," or commanded 
 the enemy's western front stretching from a point 
 opposite the town of Gettysburg to the Peach 
 Orchard which closed the view to the left. 
 "Never," said the Federal Chief of Artillery, 
 " had such a sight been witnessed on this continent, 
 and rarely, if ever, abroad." At i o'clock the 
 signal-guns broke silence and the Confederate bat- 
 teries, which were massed at the edge of the woods, 
 opened a direct, continuous, undeviating fire upon 
 the entrenched line between the cemetery and the 
 right of the Fifth Corps, which was at a distance of 
 several hundred yards from the Federal left at 
 Round Top. A hundred guns upon Cemetery 
 Ridge flashed back an instant response. Every 
 crest is clouded with smoke and aflame with flashes 
 of volcanic light; the hills and valleys are reverber- 
 ant with the deep and continuous roar of two 
 hundred guns. A storm of deadly missiles fills ^ 
 the clouded air, and the low valley is suffocating 
 with the hot breath of war; the shells from the 
 cemetery passing over the line of artillery, and 
 exploding as they pass the reclining ranks of the 
 Confederate infantry, search the sheltering coverts 
 with destructive effect. The Federal infantry on 
 Cemetery Ridge cling to the shelter of the solid 
 stone wall near the summit; but the space in the 
 rear of the crest is swept with deadly effect by the 
 fire of the Confederate guns. The Federal camp 
 is a scene of indescribable confusion. The general 
 headquarters were a hopeless wreck, the army trains 
 were in wild retreat, and a horde of frantic camp 
 followers was rolling tumultuously to the rear. 
 "Never," says the Federal General Walker, "had 
 so dreadful a storm burst upon mortal men." 
 The Federal army closely massed upon a contracted 
 ridge (a result of the recent operations of Lee) 
 were in a favorable position to test the effects oif
 
 86 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 the convergent Confederate fire, which only ceased 
 when the ammunition failed, after two hours "of 
 terrific war. A half hour of silence and deadly 
 suspense and the attacking column begins to form, 
 just below the brow of Seminary Ridge, in long 
 double lines debouching from valleys, ravines, and 
 woody coverts, and falling rapidly into a formid- 
 able column of attack, thirteen thousand strong, 
 two separate lines of double ranks, formed one 
 hundred yards apart; in the center, Pickett's 
 division (the veteran brigades of Garnett, Armi- 
 stead, and Kemper) selected to deliver the assault 
 in front, the division of Pettigrew and Trimble 
 supporting the advance upon the left; the com- 
 mand of Wilcox, in columns of battalions, follow- 
 ing on the right. 
 
 As Pickett rode up to Longstreet for orders, a 
 courier advanced hurriedly with a note. It is 
 from Alexander, the Chief of Artillery. The 
 ammunition is failing; the situation is pressing; 
 and there is no slackening of the enemy's fire. 
 " If you are coming," said Alexander to Pickett, 
 "come at once." Pickett turned to Longstreet. 
 "General, shall I advance?' There was no 
 response, and, awaiting none, Pickett said, " I will 
 lead my division forward. ' ' And the extraordinary 
 march began. For once, at least, without an 
 order, " he would storm the gates of hell." 
 
 The veteran Longstreet, deeply moved, said 
 nothing. He could only bow assent to the impera- 
 tive orders of Lee. Writing thirty-four years after- 
 ward, he still sees in memory the gallant soldier 
 as he rides into battle on that memorable day, 
 glorious as young Harry with his cuisses on, of 
 medium height, of graceful figure, of magnetic 
 presence, and incomparable in all the accomplish- 
 ments of war. Doubtless, too, the veteran recalls 
 another day, in another land, and a desperate 
 assault under another flag, when a young lieutenant 
 seized the colors which a wounded comrade had
 
 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 37 
 
 dropped, and under a deadly fire, triumphantly 
 planted them on the captured heights. The young 
 Lieutenant was Pickett, and the wounded comrade 
 Longstreet. To-day, too, when Longstreet falters, 
 Pickett seizes the drooping colors and bears them 
 in triumph to the flaming crest of Cemetery Ridge. 
 
 There is a passing flutter along the line, and the 
 magnificent column begins to move launched 
 straight at the Federal center. Near the middle 
 of Hancock's line is a clump of trees. This had 
 been indicated by Lee as the objective point of 
 attack, and toward this point the column is now 
 moving as if each soldier were a center of resistless 
 force. The strong individuality of the Southern 
 soldier is manifest at every step. The tall, lithe, 
 erect figure; the bold, resolute air; the strong, 
 spare, sinewy physique; the leopard-like elasticity 
 of frame ; and the calm, penetrating intelligence of 
 the eye all bespeak the evolution of another type. 
 It is the Anglo- Virginian type evolved by condi- 
 tions antedating the war. Sir Charles Dilke 
 "looked instinctively for baldrick and rapier" 
 when he saw these Confederate veterans in the 
 piping times of peace. 
 
 As soon as Pickett, emerging from the woods on 
 the reverse slope, passes the crest of the hill, the Fed- 
 eral batteries open fire ; and a strong continuous 
 flight of shell, passing over the line of Confed- 
 erate batteries, falls upon the advancing column with 
 deadly effect. As he descends the eastern slope 
 of Seminary Ridge, the column encounters a com- 
 bined fire from Round Top on the Federal left 
 and from the batteries directly in front. As the 
 column passes the marshy tract in the field below, 
 a line of infantry moves down upon the left flank. 
 Beyond this point they encounter a destructive 
 fire from the Federal sharp-shooters; and this is 
 followed, as the field opens, by a terrific fire of 
 musketry from the front, and a deadly enfilade 
 from the rifled guns on Round Top. Two- 
 
 321102
 
 38 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 armies are watching with breathless interest every 
 step of the awful march. From the moment the 
 glorious column takes shape upon the wooded crest 
 of Seminary Ridge, until it disappears in the lurid 
 clouds of battle in the east, not a detail of the 
 magnificent movement is lost. On, on they come : 
 a double line of skirmishers; the line of battle for 
 the charge; another line of battle in reserve. 
 Shells from the Federal batteries on Cemetery 
 Ridge drop destructively on the advancing column ; 
 and, as it descends the slope with stately, measured 
 tread, it is torn by round shot plunging through 
 its ranks; the Emmitsburg road is reached, the 
 Federal skirmishers fall back, the fire of the Con- 
 federate batteries ceases; and, as the unwavering 
 column advances, a concentrated fire is poured from 
 ridge and Round Top directly upon flank and 
 front. Half-way over the field they halt in a 
 ravine to rest, and reform for the final charge. 
 As it resumes the advance, a clear ringing order 
 of Pickett, "Left oblique," changes the direction 
 of the column from the front to the left, and at 
 once from the batteries on Cemetery Ridge, a fire 
 from forty cannon is poured upon the exposed right 
 flank. It is like the scythe of death. " Front 
 forward ! ' ' again comes a clear, trumpet-like com- 
 mand, and in an instant the indomitable column is 
 sweeping upon the center as before, but now, in 
 the midst of a concentrated fire from the Federal 
 guns on Cemetery Ridge, from the infantry 
 behind the Federal works, and from the enfilading 
 batteries on Round Top, a wild, destructive storm 
 of round shot, shells, shrapnel, canister, and 
 grape. The slaughter is appalling. Kemper falls 
 desperately wounded. Garnett Keeps his head, 
 and raising his mighty voice, in vibrant tones 
 steadies the shattered column, and cheers the 
 unfaltering advance. From behind the stone wall 
 a withering fire of musketry is pouring into the 
 devoted column, which promptly responds, with a
 
 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 39 
 
 deadly precision of aim. "Cease firing," cries 
 Garnett, "save your strength." At once the 
 disciplined veterans reload their guns and shoulder 
 arms, yet not for one instant slackening the pace 
 of that triumphant advance. The post-and-rail 
 fence gives but a moment's pause. The entire 
 column glides over it as lightly as a sportsman 
 in quest of game. On, on they press, the move- 
 ment quickened by the concentrated fire of a 
 hundred guns. " Pickett moved among his men," 
 says an eyewitness, "as if he courted death by his 
 reckless daring." The rain of deadly missiles 
 never ceases, and the Federal parapet on the 
 heights is fringed with fire from end to end. In 
 the midst of the wild tempest beating from the 
 hilltop, these incomparable soldiers preserve their 
 company formation, and respond to commands as 
 if upon parade or review, halting, aligning, 
 reforming their thinned and bleeding ranks ; and, 
 at last, in perfect line, pressing steadily forward, 
 Armistead's brigade closing up in staunch support, 
 they suddenly dash with a wild cry, at a double- 
 quick, and under a deadly cross-fire, upon guns 
 shotted to the muzzle, and charged with destruction 
 for the advancing ranks. "Here," says General 
 Gibbon, "the contest raged with almost unparal- 
 leled ferocity for nearly an hour. ' ' At point blank 
 range, the Federal commander with perfect delib- 
 eration, gives the command to fire, and the Con- 
 federate Tine seems "literally to melt" under the 
 crash of eighteen thousand guns. But the second 
 line moves steadily up; every gap in the line of 
 attack is closed as soon as made; the shattered 
 division sweeps relentlessly over the fiery crest; 
 the enemy, lifted from their feet by the impetuous 
 rush, fall back from their smoking guns, and, for 
 one inspiring quarter of an hour, the blue flag of 
 Virginia is seen floating from the summit of 
 Cemetery Ridge ! 
 
 But it was a fleeting triumph. The resistless
 
 40 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 wave of battle which sweeps over the entrenched 
 front of the ridge, clings for an instant, as if 
 lapping the blood-stained crest, and rapidly recedes 
 when its initial force is spent. The Federal 
 infantry held their position with desperate tenacity, 
 and the heroic .gunners handled their batteries with 
 consummate skill.* The Federal commanders 
 divide the bloody honors of the battle with the 
 leaders of the bold assault. Hancock f and 
 Gibbon were wounded while personally directing 
 the defense; and Gushing, from the old Bay State, 
 was killed while pushing his last gun to the front 
 and driving the last canister into Armistead's ad- 
 vancing ranks. Armistead dies with his hand rest- 
 ing upon one of Cushing's guns, and the two heroes 
 fall together, immortalized by their mutual an- 
 tagonism and linked in an eternal embrace. 
 
 For a time, consternation reigned in the Federal 
 camp, and organization was almost wholly lost. 
 The line of General Webb was crumpled up on the 
 right, and many men belonging to other commands, 
 says the Federal Commander Hall, "were mak- 
 ing to the rear as fast as possible, while the enemy 
 were pouring over the rail fence." Finding two 
 regiments of another command on the left, he 
 tried to move them by the right flank to the break in 
 the line, but coming under a hot fire, they crowded 
 to the slight shelter of the rail fence, refusing to 
 come out and reform. He was then forced to 
 order his own brigade back from the line and move 
 
 * Colonel Andrew Cowan, whose battery was with General 
 Webb on the right, says in his report: 
 
 ' ' The rebel line advanced in a most splendid manner. The 
 infantry in front of five of my pieces and posted behind a slight 
 defense of rails, some ten yards distant, turned and broke, but 
 were rallied by General Webb ... in a most gallant man- 
 ner. It was then I fired my last charge of canister, many of the 
 rebels being over the defenses and within less than ten yards of 
 my pieces." They were "literally swept," he says, from the 
 Federal front. 
 
 f General Hancock says that he was "wounded with a ten- 
 penny nail," an indication, he thought, that the Confederate 
 ammunition was getting short.
 
 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 41 
 
 forward by the flank under a heavy fire. "The 
 enemy," he says, "was rapidly gaining a foot- 
 hold; organization was mostly lost; in the con- 
 fusion commands were useless." But, finally, by 
 desperate efforts, the threatened retreat was stayed. 
 
 "THE TURNING POINT" 
 
 OF 
 THE BATTLE ON THE RIDGE 
 
 GETTYSBURG 
 JULY 94 
 
 (This diagram is, in its essential features, an exact reproduc- 
 tion of the diagram in Gen. Norman Hall's official report.) 
 
 The Federal veterans rallied gallantly on the 
 second line, steadily reformed, poured a destruc-, 
 tive fire into the captured works, and closed with 
 their daring assailants in a deadly hand-to-hand 
 fight. The invincible division of Pickett soon 
 lapsed into a forlorn hope. Generals, colonels, 
 and officers of all grades went down in the unequal 
 fight, and a score of Confederate battle-flags were 
 captured in a space of one hundred yards square. 
 A mere remnant of the division clung to the\ 
 bloody ridge. Wilcox had failed to support the 
 advance; Pettigrew's men had fled; and Anderson 
 only moved when the assault had failed. Even 
 when Wilcox moved forward (thirty minutes after 
 Pickett' s advance) there "was no longer anything 
 to support." The gallant Trimble advancing 
 under a destructive cross-fire in front and on both 
 flanks, opened fire upon the enemy when in easy 
 range, drove the artillerists from their guns, and 
 only gave way when the whole force on his right 
 was gone. The troops that wavered in the 
 advance, soon broke ranks and fell back in
 
 42 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 disorder, and at once an overwhelming force is 
 thrown upon Pickett's flanks and front. The 
 time for effective support was past; and. Long- 
 street ordered Anderson's advancing division to 
 halt. Stuart's resolute and well-sustained dash 
 upon Meade's right was almost lost sight of in the 
 overshadowing interest of Pickett's charge; and 
 his repulse though decisive, is even now scarcely 
 included among the disasters of the day. It was 
 neither helpful as a diversion nor seriously embar- 
 rassing as a defeat. But the leadership was brilliant 
 and the fighting superb. 
 
 It is said that on. the third day at Gettysburg 
 the Confederates lost sixty per cent of the assault- 
 ing forces. But it is hardly possible to give 
 arithmetical expression to the statement of an 
 irreparable loss. It furnishes some conception, 
 however, of the desperate character of the charge 
 to say that of fourteen field officers, but one 
 remained. The men lay dead in heaps. " Look- 
 ing around for his supports " says a contempo- 
 rary chronicler "Pickett found himself alone." 
 His gallant comrades had helplessly fallen in an 
 unequal conflict, and the appealing blasts of the 
 paladin's bugle are still echoing among the passes 
 of the hills. Who was it that had failed to respond 
 when honor and duty were calling in this crisis of 
 a people's fate? This we cannot say; nor is it 
 needful that we should know that which Lee 
 declared should remain unknown ; but certain it is 
 that Pickett's magnificent division the pride of 
 Virginia, and the glory of the South was hope- 
 lessly shattered in one brief hour. In that im- 
 mortal charge glory and disaster rode arm in arm. 
 It was a bloody repulse for the division of Pickett; 
 it was a serious reverse for the army of Lee ; it was 
 an irretrievable disaster for the cause of the South. 
 
 Slowly and sullenly the bleeding and tattered 
 remnant of the command retires from the disas- 
 trous field; but the sentiment of American citizen-
 
 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 43 
 
 ship in its highest sense forbids us to say that, 
 even for the vanquished, that day was lost. In 
 the heart of the Confederate leader there was sor- 
 row enough, but there was none of the bitterness, 
 or the rancor, or the hopelessness of defeat. 
 "Would that we had never crossed the Potomac," 
 he said, "or that our splendid army had not been 
 fought in detail." Confronted at the opening of 
 the civil conflict by a divided duty, he had met an 
 imperative demand and had met it in a manly and 
 resolute way. In a purely dramatic aspect, his 
 career as a soldier was now rounded and complete. 
 But he did not exalt himself. He gave the true 
 measure of his greatness when he said: "I have 
 done nothing; my men have done it all."* If 
 mere eulogy could add to the glory of Pickett 
 and his men, what can exceed in pathetic eloquence 
 the simple speech of Lincoln as he stood at the 
 foot of Cemetery Ridge? Some one had reverently 
 said: "Think of the men who held these 
 heights." "And think," said Lincoln, "of the 
 men who stormed these heights." Standing upon 
 the same consecrated spot, and, speaking words 
 that in solemn and impressive beauty recall that 
 diviner discourse upon the Mount, Abraham Lin- 
 coln declared that the dead of Gettysburg had not 
 died in vain and that, under God, there would be 
 "a new birth of freedom for all." Even while he 
 spoke, he must have felt, as his thoughts recurred 
 to the past, how strange and mysterious had been 
 the ways of Providence in the selection of instru- 
 ments for the work to which he himself had dedi- 
 cated his life. Scarcely a quarter of a century had 
 elapsed, since a young Virginian with an hereditary 
 bent toward the profession of arms, had been 
 appointed through the influence of Mr. Lincoln, 
 a friend of his family, to the military academy at 
 
 * An officer who was on the staff of General Rhodes says that 
 when he saw Pickett falling back from the charge, he was walking 
 beside General Kemper gently fanning the wounded brigadier as 
 he was carefully borne from the field.
 
 44 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 West Point. "You see," said Mr. Lincoln, writ- 
 ing familiarly to the boy, " I should like to have 
 a perfect soldier credited to dear old Illinois." 
 And writing again, after his admission to the 
 academy, Mr. Lincoln said: "The only victory 
 that we can ever hope to call complete, will be the 
 one which proclaims there is not a slave on God's 
 green earth." 
 
 The young cadet thus carefully launched into a 
 military career was George Edward Pickett, who 
 was then preparing, under the eye of Lincoln him- 
 self, to enact a part upon the stage of American 
 affairs, of which the great Emancipator little 
 dreamed. With a depth of affection that to the 
 common mind passes all understanding, the heart 
 of the great statesman went out to his wayward 
 protege to the very end. The Southern Con- 
 federacy was crumbling under the ceaseless and 
 crushing assaults of Grant, and the stupendous 
 drama of civil war was hastening rapidly to a close. 
 With the surrender of the Confederate capital 
 came the proclamation of peace. After the sur- 
 render of Richmond, there stood one morning at 
 the door of the old Pickett home, a tall, strong- 
 visaged stranger, with careworn features, and a 
 kindly light in his large, melancholy eyes. In 
 the street, before the door, is a carriage with 
 retinue and guard. It is apparently a visitor of 
 note. A servant responds to the bell, but the 
 visitor's inquiry is answered by a lady who comes to 
 the door with an infant in her arms. " I am George 
 Pickett's wife," she said. "And I," said the 
 stranger in a deep, sympathetic voice, "am Abra- 
 ham Lincoln." "The President?" she asked. 
 "No," was the prompt response, "Abraham 
 Lincoln, George's old friend.' And then some 
 kindly words to George's child, which touched the 
 mother's heart. A few days later, George Pickett 
 received the announcement of the President's 
 tragical and untimely death. The indomitable
 
 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 45 
 
 spirit of the Confederate veteran was crushed, and, 
 remembering only the Lincoln he had loved, he 
 cried out from his very heart, "My God! My 
 God! The South has lost her best friend." 
 
 To say that Abraham Lincoln was not faultless 
 is merely to say that he was not divine ; to insist 
 that he was not far-sighted and sagacious, is to 
 suggest that he was divinely inspired. If he some- 
 times erred in his conceptions of the military situa- 
 tion, he erred with men who were presumed to 
 be masters in the art of war. In vain we look 
 among the children of men for infallibility either in 
 statesmanship or the strategic art. Imperial Caesar 
 sometimes slept. The greatest captains sometimes 
 err. Nothing is more fickle than the fortune of 
 war. Nevertheless, Abraham Lincoln was an 
 incomparable leader of men ; and, while McClellan 
 and Grant could' direct more or less successfully 
 the operations of a hundred thousand men in the 
 field, it was Abraham Lincoln alone that could hold 
 in hand the vast and turbulent electorate of eighteen' 
 Northern States. This was the host, in its more 
 dangerous aspects a coalition of fanaticism and greed, 
 which the South was called to confront; and it was 
 Lincoln's consummate generalship, happily for the 
 South, that held these radical and aggressive ele- 
 ments in check. From a disciplined army in the 
 field, the populations of the seceding States had 
 far less to fear, even when its soldiers were embit- 
 tered by disaster or inflamed by success. The 
 attitude of Lincoln in the contest was that of the 
 famous warrior whose sagacious policy of procrasti- 
 nation baffled the Carthaginian invader, flushed 
 with successive victories over the consular armies 
 of Rome. As it was felicitously said of the one, 
 so most fitly it may be said of the other: 
 
 UNUS HOMO NOBIS CUNCTANDO RESTITUIT REM. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln was, politically, the highest 
 embodiment of the ideas, the aspirations, the
 
 46 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 impulses of his time. He was the incarnation, 
 too, of the sovereign will which made him chief. 
 Popular clamors wearied his ear and vexed his 
 heart; but they could not affect the convictions of 
 a lifetime, his profound sense of administrative 
 duty, or the settled policy of the pending war. 
 He was leading the forces of the loyal States ; he 
 was assailing the forces of the seceding States ; he 
 endeavored to be faithful to the fundamental 
 interests of both. When the end of the Con- 
 federacy came, he was standing as a tall, strong 
 pillar of support for the broken and exhausted 
 South; and when he fell, the vanquished Con- 
 federates felt that their cause was indeed lost. 
 They looked forward to the inauguration of his 
 successor with a natural sentiment of dread. This 
 sentiment of apprehension was not realized at 
 once. Though an iron policy of reconstruction 
 was subsequently adopted in the subjugated States, 
 they were happily relieved from immediate appre- 
 hension by the heroic interposition of Grant. It 
 is, nevertheless, true that at this particular juncture 
 " the South had lost her best friend." And many 
 a generous Southerner grieved honestly for the 
 loss. 
 
 The echoes of that great battle among the 
 Northern hills have long since died away; thou- 
 sands of heroic combatants are sleeping their 
 eternal sleep in the peace of Pennsylvanian fields, 
 and the convictions which drove them to conflict 
 no longer dominate the thoughts of men, nor, in 
 an economic epoch, direct the policies of States; 
 but the lesson of the battles that they fought will 
 not be wholly lost so long as the souls of men are 
 thrilled by memories of the charge that Pickett 
 made, or are inspired by the sentiment of the 
 immortal words that Lincoln spoke.
 
 IV 
 
 THE still powerful army of Lee was now 
 moving southward a stricken and shattered 
 host, but as dauntless and defiant in retreat 
 as in advance; with its morale unimpaired, its 
 confidence in its leaders unabated, its military 
 prestige increased. *'We failed, comrades," said 
 Lee, "but it was all my fault. " In anticipation 
 of prospective dissensions and a possible war of 
 recrimination among his disaffected chieftains, he 
 had requested General Pickett to suppress, or with- 
 hold, a part of his official report. Pickett com- 
 plied promptly and without complaint. He simply 
 lamented the wanton destruction of his gallant 
 command and the absence of the two brigades 
 whose presence in the battle would have absolutely 
 assured success. Before leaving Virginia, he had 
 said to General Lee that he wanted a complete 
 division; since as much would be expected of a 
 weak division as of a strong one. But, even now, 
 fresh from the disastrous field, there is no diminu- 
 tion of confidence in the intrepid leader or in his 
 staunch and splendid command. Writing to 
 General Pickett, a few days after the battle, General 
 Lee says: " I still have the greatest confidence in 
 your division, and feel assured that, with you at 
 its head, it will be able to accomplish any service 
 upon which it may be placed." The subsequent 
 history of the division shows that this was not 
 merely the formal commendation of a military 
 order or report. The applause of his own com- 
 rades was not less grateful than the commendation 
 of Lee. After the battle, says Colonel Fremantle 
 (an English officer who witnessed the charge), the 
 plucky Confederate cannoneers were open in their
 
 48 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 admiration of the advance of Pickett's superb 
 division, and of the skillful manner in which Pickett 
 led the assault. But there was no applause more 
 generous than that of the men who repelled the 
 apparently resistless advance. "The lines were 
 formed," said General Hancock, " with a precision 
 and steadiness that extorted the admiration of the 
 witnesses of that memorable scene. " " The enemy 
 advanced magnificently," said General Hunt, 
 "unshaken by shot and shell." " The march was 
 as steady," said the gallant General Hays, "as if 
 impelled by machinery." " The perfect order and 
 steady, rapid advance," said Colonel Hall, "gave 
 the line the appearance of being fearfully irresist- 
 ible. " Many impulsively expressed their admira- 
 tion even as they braced themselves against the 
 impending assault; and "Magnificent!' was the 
 utterance of many warrior-lips that closed and 
 spake no more. "Magnificent!' 1 is still the 
 exclamation of all who read the deathless story of 
 that day. The heroic Lee, with all his outward 
 calm, seemed to be profoundly stirred, and hastened 
 without staff or other attendants to the front, 
 looking as if he would personally rally the broken 
 columns to a supreme and desperate defense. 
 "No soldier," says Alexander, the bold artillerist 
 who launched the column, "could have looked 
 on at Pickett's charge and not burned to be in 
 it." And what a cloud of witnesses hovered over 
 the scene a lowering cloud charged with latent 
 fires and ready to burst upon the field below. A 
 camp-rumor had stirred the Confederate heart, 
 and apparently settled the question of supports. 
 * Lee,' it was said, "was going to send every man 
 he had, upon that hill;" and every slope and crest 
 of Seminary Ridge was alive with expectation and 
 eager for the signal to advance. Unhappily there 
 was but little concert of action in that long strag- 
 gling Confederate line, and there came no order for 
 a general advance upon that disastrous day.
 
 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 49 
 
 But the failure was it the fault of Lee? Who 
 shall decide but Lee himself, who assumed the 
 whole responsibility at once? And yet, even 
 Lee's decision cannot stand against conclusive 
 facts ; especially where the assumption of respon- 
 sibility was determined in some measure by a 
 generous desire to screen subordinate officers from 
 attack, to compose the susceptibilities of some, 
 and to repress the savagely critical instincts of 
 others. His motive is sufficiently apparent in his 
 letter to General Pickett. But as a matter of fact 
 it would seem that Lee had done all that he could 
 personally be expected to do as commander of a 
 veteran well-disciplined organization, to ensure the 
 success of Pickett' s assault. Granted that Long- 
 street's sound military advice, to move by the 
 enemy's left flank, would have assured the desired 
 results, it does not follow that the failure to 
 support Pickett was attributable to any unsoldierly 
 neglect or oversight on the part of Lee. The 
 general order for attack was well understood; and 
 every man in the ranks believed, and every subordi- 
 nate officer knew, that under the commander's 
 order to assault, ample provision must be made 
 for a prompt and effective support. It is not pos- 
 sible for the greatest captain to supervise the 
 arrangements or tactical details. A meddlesome 
 disposition in the matter of military administration 
 has been imputed as a reproach to Napoleon him- 
 self; and in no other army than Napoleon's, it 
 has been said, would a subordinate officer be held 
 justified for neglect, because of a failure to receive 
 orders from his chief. An English officer (Fre- 
 mantle) who carefully noted, while at Gettysburg, 
 the military habits of Lee says it was evidently 
 his system to arrange the plan thoroughly with his 
 three corps commanders and "then leave to them 
 the duty of modifying and carrying it out to the 
 best of their abilities." On the second day, 
 Fremantle had remarked that General Lee sent
 
 60 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 but one message and received but one report. It 
 is said that the most remarkable point m Von 
 Moltke's strategic method was the self-restraint he 
 practiced in giving free scope to his subordinate 
 commanders. Von Moltke might have learned this 
 from Lee ; if, indeed, he had not already learned 
 that it is the fundamental maxim of modern 
 administration select competent and responsible 
 agents and trust the man that is on the spot. 
 
 None understood better than the sagacious and 
 experienced chieftains of the South, the absolute 
 necessity of concerted action in that great Northern 
 campaign. Nevertheless, for an apparent lack of 
 that initiative, which is a characteristic mark of the 
 modern soldier, in all ranks, a momentous and 
 decisive assault upon the Federal left center was 
 allowed to fail. It is possible, too, that the bonds 
 of discipline were beginning to relax ; though many 
 thought that in this matter Stonewall Jackson had 
 
 fiven the Confederacy a lasting lesson in the early 
 ays of the war. When Secretary Benjamin sus- 
 tained Loring in his insubordination at Romney, 
 Jackson resigned his position and demanded relief 
 from "duty" at once. But whatever the explana- 
 tion, the fact remains. The pending campaign was 
 manifestly lacking in concerted action and cohesive 
 force. In the attack upon the center the Confeder- 
 ate commander applied the final and conclusive test. 
 It was the last battle and upon the last day the 
 Confederate commander's last desperate play for 
 success. Lee was calm and confident ; Pickett was 
 eager and sanguine; and the assault only failed for 
 lack of timely support; lapsing into a spectacular 
 butchery under the astonished eyes of the chival- 
 rous legions of the South. The gallant division 
 had done all that human valor and endurance could 
 do ; it had actually pierced the Federal center, and 
 in defect of promised support, had literally been 
 crushed by the Federal reserves. 
 
 But would it not have been better, say the
 
 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 51 
 
 critics, to move by the left flank, as Longstreet 
 advised? No one could be more competent to 
 advise in such a situation than the masterly lieu- 
 tenant of Lee, a soldier of almost matchless 
 courage, sagacity, and resource. He is sustained, 
 too, in his contention by the accepted maxims of 
 war; by the circumstances of the situation; and by 
 the confessed apprehensions of the enemy, as well 
 as by the declared object and scope of the cam- 
 paign as originally projected by Lee. If Napoleon 
 operated by the flank in preference to the front, 
 it is certainly no discredit to other commanders 
 to do the same. But Napoleon himself ruthlessly 
 violated the academic maxims of war when he suc- 
 cessfully launched Krazinski's squadron of cavalry 
 up the long narrow pass of Samosierra against an 
 almost impregnable position defended by powerful 
 batteries and twelve thousand disciplined men. 
 Energy and genius, says Clausewitz, will easily 
 "rise superior to the beggardom of rules." 
 
 The reasons assigned by Longstreet were in a 
 sense unanswerable ; nor did Lee attempt to answer 
 them. As Longstreet says, the Confederate com- 
 mander "had fixed his heart upon the work," and 
 the fighting instincts of every soldier sympathize 
 with the daring commander in this fixed intent. 
 The proposed assault looked practicable to the 
 experienced eye of Lee, and proved to be tactically 
 successful even as delivered by Longstreet' s reluc- 
 tant hand. The Virginians had done all that they 
 were commanded to do ; they had captured the 
 enemy's works. That they could hold the works 
 against an entrenched force of thrice their strength, 
 the most sanguine had not ventured to predict. 
 If Pickett could have stayed where he planted his 
 flag, Lee would have completely realized the 
 object of the assault; he would have had full com- 
 mand of the elevated ground beyond the point of 
 attack, and with abundance of ammunition for the 
 artillery, the position would have become the point
 
 52 
 
 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 for a still more successful advance. The important 
 point "beyond" was Gulp's Hill, where rested 
 the Federal right. It was one of the characteristic 
 miscalculations of this campaign that E wall's 
 assault upon that position should cease, before 
 Pickett's assault upon the center began. But, if 
 we may credit the observations or Fremantle, 
 General Lee was certainly not accountable for a 
 tactical contretemps so disconcerting as this. 
 Doubtless the most judicious military critics will 
 agree that the worst that can be said of the great 
 Virginian leader, is simply this, that he had been 
 made over-confident by the loyalty, the energy, 
 and the skill of his generals ; by the incomparable 
 fighting capacity of his men; and, as the Con- 
 federate commander, by an almost unbroken career 
 of military success. While the result did not fully 
 realize his reasonable expectations, it cannot be 
 affirmed that in a strict military sense it discredited 
 his judgment or skill. General Hunt, the com- 
 mander of the Federal artillery, pays tribute to the 
 generalship of the Confederate leader when he says 
 that the Confederates " were almost always stronger 
 at the points of contact." It was precisely here, 
 however, that Pickett's assault had failed. The 
 assaulting column was not strong enough at the 
 point of contact, and was incontinently crushed by 
 the reserves, who, rallying on the second line, 
 recaptured the crest. 
 
 But in regard to the great operations of war there 
 can be no one more competent to speak with critical 
 authority (if he can speak without prejudice or 
 prepossession) than the man that is competent to 
 conduct them ; and in such a case at least it would 
 be sheer effrontery for a subordinate soldier or a 
 simple reviewer to dispute with the commander of 
 twenty legions. Incontestably, such a critic was 
 Lee himself. After the repulse of Pickett's divi- 
 sion, he said in the presence of the English colonel, 
 Fremantle: "All this has been my fault." On
 
 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 53 
 
 the same day he said to the Confederate general, 
 Imboden, his voice trembling with emotion: "I 
 never saw troops behave more magnificently than 
 Pickett's division of Virginians did today. Had 
 they been supported as they were to have been, but 
 for some reason not yet fully explained to me 
 they were not, we should have held the position 
 they so gloriously won;" presently adding in an 
 almost agonized tone: "Too bad! Too bad! 
 Too bad! " In the winter of 1863 64 he wrote 
 to General Longstreet: "Had I followed your 
 advice . . . how different all would have 
 been." The adoption of Longstreet' s admirable 
 plan would certainly have ensured that perfect 
 cooperation, which, under any plan, was essential 
 to success. In considering the point in dispute 
 (it is only for an inspired commander to decide it) 
 it must always be remembered that the artillery 
 reserved for the advance that day unaccountably 
 disappeared at the critical moment; that the sup- 
 plies of ammunition for the available artillery unex- 
 pectedly fell short; and that the promised columns 
 of support were, practically, at the proper moment 
 for advance, disinterested spectators of the distant 
 fight. The mere possibility of such complications 
 was certainly not contemplated in the original plans 
 of Lee. Neither is it to be supposed that the Con- 
 federate leader could foresee the failure of President 
 Davis to make a demonstration against Washington 
 coincidently with the Confederate advance into 
 Pennsylvania under Lee. Davis pleaded "impos- 
 sibility, ' ' and the dispatch, which was intercepted by 
 a Federal scout, was a positive inspiration to General 
 Meade. It was an assurance that no peril lurked 
 in the rear. Lee's theory was that even a single 
 brigade, with Beauregard to lead it, had been ample 
 force for the end in view. By a demonstration 
 similar to the one proposed, Stonewall Jackson, 
 with a single division, had paralyzed the move- 
 ments of an army of 70,000 men in 1862.
 
 64 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 The brilliant commander had staked everything 
 upon one bold throw; there was a prodigal expendi- 
 ture of valor, of skill, and blood, but everything 
 was not lost. The great movement had failed 
 and the tide of battle was reversed; but the Con- 
 federate leader was still in condition to effect a 
 masterly retreat and the enemy was too badly crip- 
 pled to venture a counter-assault. " Our own line 
 was in disorder," said the brave commander of the 
 Federal artillery, "and in no condition to ad- 
 vance." In darkness and storm, the Confederate 
 forces silently withdrew from the field that had 
 been made glorious by their arms. The com- 
 mander entrenched a line from Peach Orchard to 
 Oak Hill, covering the line of retreat, pushed his 
 long column of prisoners, and his military impedi- 
 menta to the front and moved his army to the 
 Potomac by interior lines, compelling the Federal 
 commander to seek circuitous routes through the 
 lower passes, if he felt inclined to pursue.
 
 V 
 
 ON the return to Virginia the war was renewed 
 upon the old lines, but with a modification 
 of Grant's favorite method of "attrition." 
 Instead of flinging his disciplined veterans in wild 
 assaults upon the Confederate entrenchments, the 
 Federal commander had resolved to drive the 
 enemy into the "open," if possible, and "make 
 the work of attrition mutual." Lee accepted 
 the challenge and arranged for an immediate 
 advance placing the staunch and intrepid Pickett 
 at one end of the line, and himself at the other. 
 The initial advance was brilliantly successful. 
 Three divisions of the Fifth Corps recoil under 
 the powerful assault of Lee ; and Picket!, pressing 
 his advance upon the other flank, drives Sheridan 
 back to Didwiddie Court-House, where, night 
 coming on, the battle rests, and Sheridan appeals 
 to Grant for help. At midnight there is an urgent 
 dispatch from Meade to the commander of the 
 Fifth Corps, "Sheridan cannot maintain himself 
 at Didwiddie without reinforcements." Duly 
 warned, Pickett falls back to Five Forks, where 
 he receives a peremptory order from Lee, "Hold 
 Five Forks at all hazards." It was an imperative 
 order to do an impossible thing; and Pickett 
 habituated by years of service to this sort of work, 
 cheerfully accepted the task. "Hatcher's Run," 
 was more defensible, but the order was imperative 
 to hold Five Forks, a low, flat, marshy, wooded 
 tract, softened by the winter frosts and flooded 
 by the spring rains; a clayey soil mixed with sand 
 upon which it was difficult or impossible to impro- 
 vise defensive works and where the very artillery 
 was floated into position upon a corduroy roaa
 
 56 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 actually laid under the advancing wheels, a notably 
 different terrain from the rocky slopes at Gettys- 
 burg. Having ordered Sheridan to be reinforced 
 by the Fifth Corps, General Grant sends a dispatch 
 to Warren: " rickett's division is developed to- 
 day along the White Oak Pond, its right at Five 
 Forks and extending toward Petersburg." Here 
 Pickett formed his line of battle behind a hastily- 
 constructed breastwork, W. H. L. Lee's cavalry 
 on the right flank, Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry on the 
 left, infantry and artillery between ; in all not more 
 than six thousand men, under an imperative order 
 to hold the position against thirty-five thousand 
 fresh, well-fed infantry and cavalry, supported by 
 heavy guns. Pickett's cavalry, in spite of express 
 orders to be on the alert, had given no notice of 
 the enemy's advance. The Federal general, War- 
 ren, remarked this apathy of the Confederate 
 scouts, and attributed it to a growing conviction of 
 the hopelessness of their cause. The first attack 
 upon Pickett's position was along the whole front 
 and upon the right flank, which was quickly 
 repulsed; but was immediately followed by an 
 overwhelming assault on the left and rear. Here 
 the gallant Pegram fell. Warren's infantry corps 
 swept down upon the left flank, while Sheridan's 
 cavalry was engaging the front and right. The 
 effect was simply crushing. Scarcely a trace of 
 organization could be seen. Like Dick Wild- 
 blood's cavaliers, the Confederate fighters were 
 without front, flank, or rear. There was wild con- 
 fusion ; but no serious panic followed the surprise. 
 The grand old division amply sustained its well- 
 earned reputation. Charge after charge was re- 
 pulsed, and it might have held on until night had 
 not the ammunition failed. Even then they made 
 a desperate stand, fighting hand to hand, and at the 
 last, compelled a rally and a stand on Corse's brigade, 
 "which was still in perfect order and had repelled 
 every assault." General Pickett, as if bearing a
 
 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 57 
 
 charmed life, rode through the whirling storm of bat- 
 tle, rallying and reforming the broken ranks, battle- 
 flag in hand. His men were singing, Rally round 
 the flag) boys; rally once again^ and Pickett, still 
 waving his flag of battle, joined in the rallying 
 song. Sheridan's men rush tumultuously over the 
 crumbling parapet, and plunge into a deadly 
 hand-to-hand fight. The combatants were so 
 closely intermingled that for a time (says General 
 Grant) it was almost a question which one was 
 going to demand the surrender of the other. 
 Though outnumbered five to one, the Confederate 
 soldiers fought desperately until night fell upon the 
 disastrous field, closing the bloody scenes of the last 
 great battle of the South. Again the Confederate 
 commander stands alone; and again the reinforce- 
 ments arrive too late to reinforce even with hope. 
 The glorious leader, though the last to leave the scene 
 of conflict, was not quite alone. As he rode from 
 the ghastly battle-field, a band of devoted followers 
 in slow retreat, drew upon themselves the enemy's 
 fire. They did it to save their commander's life ! 
 
 <c It has always seemed to me," says General 
 Humphreys, the Federal Chief of Engineers, "to 
 have been a grave mistake to require General 
 Pickett to fight at Five Forks. ' ' He should have 
 been placed where he could be promptly reinforced 
 from Lee's right. At Five Forks he was hope- 
 lessly isolated. 
 
 On the morning of April 2nd, the Federal Sixth 
 Corps broke the Confederate line of defense at a 
 point southwest of Petersburg, and A. P. Hill was 
 slain. The lean, gray lines were breaking fast; 
 their gallant commanders were falling one by one ; 
 and the proud Confederacy was at last beginning 
 to crumble under the ponderous hammer of Thor. 
 
 General Longstreet says that George E. Pickett' s 
 greatest battle was really at Five Forks. His 
 operations, he declares, were masterly and skillful, 
 and, if they had been executed as he designed
 
 68 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 them, there might have been no Appomattox ; that 
 if any soldier could have snatched victory from 
 defeat, it was Pickett, and that it was cruel to 
 leave that brilliant and heroic leader, as at Gettys- 
 burg, without reinforcements or support. The 
 casualty list of the battle bears eloquent and 
 impressive testimony to the desperate character of 
 the defense. "He lost more men in thirty 
 minutes," says Longstreet, "than we lost from 
 all causes, in the recent Spanish-American war." 
 The unsupported^veterans had been butchered in 
 a sort of strategic" battue in which brigades were 
 trapped and slaughtered instead of beasts. There 
 followed a crashing echo of this bloody conflict at 
 Sailor's Run, after which (as the biographer hap- 
 pily remarks) there occurred the first reunion of 
 the Blue and the Gray: Sheridan's soldiers shared 
 their rations with Pickett' s men. 
 .; :,The military situation in the South during the 
 past three months had become so critical that 
 General Lee and President Davis urged the adop- 
 tion of a measure which had been proposed in 
 1862;* which had been favored by General Pickett 
 in 1863; and which had been warmly advocated 
 in the Confederate Congress in the winter of 
 1865, to wit: The emancipation and enlistment 
 of tne slave. The proposal was peculiarly offensive 
 to the non-slaveholding whites of the South, and 
 the measure, as recommended by General Lee and 
 the Confederate Executive, was rejected in the 
 popular branch. But the necessity for some strong 
 and effective measure was pressing, and the legisla- 
 tive body finally proposed to meet the exigency 
 the immediate demand for new armies by the 
 incredible chinoiserie of proclaiming a dictator and 
 adopting a new flag. 
 
 * Vide Granier de Cassagnac's History of the Working Classes. 
 Translated by Benjamin E. Green. Diplomatic memorandum by 
 Colonel Pickett, the Confederate Commissioner to Mexico, Feb., 
 1862. Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger, publishers, Philadelphia, 
 1872.
 
 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 59 
 
 Within sixty days from that time the broken and 
 dispirited army of Lee surrendered to Grant at 
 Appomattox Court House, Lee having less than 
 ten thousand effective soldiers in his ragged and 
 famished ranks. 
 
 In summing up the characteristics of George E. 
 Pickett as a soldier, it may be said that he per- 
 fectly realized in his brilliant military career the 
 Napoleonic conception of un grand homme de 
 guerre^ a phrase which Napoleon sometimes saw 
 fit to apply to a marshal of the armies of France. 
 He was in truth, "the perfect soldier" which Lin- 
 coln hoped that he might be; he was the incom- 
 parable soldier of Longstreet; he was the great 
 soldier and paladin of McClellan, who generously 
 characterized him as "the best infantry soldier 
 developed by the war." There is an old French 
 proverb which says that a great warrior must be a 
 sleuth-hound' in assault, a^wolf in pursuit, a wild 
 boar in defense; which is merely a medieval way 
 of saying that the true soldier is an embodiment of 
 all the qualities that give success in military opera- 
 tions: -"initiative," promptitude, audacity; en- 
 durance, stubbornness, inbred Satanic grit; above 
 all, he must have an infallible coup d' ceil, or eye 
 for war. As Sovoroff's maxim puts it briefly 
 and characteristically, "A correct eye, rapidity, 
 dash," the other qualities being assumed to 
 exist. In a battle, as in a boxing-match (to com- 
 pare great things with small), it is the eye that 
 determines the result. Instinctively, it detects 
 the opening, and, almost involuntarily, it directs 
 the blow. 
 
 George E. Pickett was a soldier to the manner 
 born. "A military bent of mind was hereditary," 
 says his biographer, "in the Pickett family." 
 The very surname, a' familiar variant of an ancient 
 Norman;; form, attests the existence of a certain 
 Berserker quality in the blood; and this combative 
 instinct was notably manifest in the Virginian
 
 60 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 scions of the original English stock.* Thanks to 
 Abraham Lincoln the young Virginian received at 
 the National Academy a training in perfect keep- 
 ing with his tastes. In the Mexican campaign the 
 young soldier showed at once the stuff of which 
 he was made. The daring exploit at Chapultepec 
 was the beginning of a brilliant career. In the 
 Indian war that followed he maintained the repu- 
 tation he had won in the Mexican campaign ; and 
 added largely to it, in the estimation of scholars, 
 by studying in the occasional lull of conflict the 
 dialects of the various tribes he was called upon to 
 fight; and so strong was the linguistic penchant 
 that came with his blood that he actually translated 
 the Lord's Prayer into the Indian tongue, and 
 patiently impressed it upon Lo's untutored mind. 
 Nor meantime was he idle in the field. He 
 actively participated in a two years' campaign in 
 which fourteen hundred regulars and two thousand 
 volunteers effectually subdued the savage tribes upon 
 the Pacific coast, the Filipinos of their day. We 
 next see him standing for the imperial interests of 
 his country upon the island of San Juan. His 
 seizure of that disputed territory was executed, as 
 McClellan says, "by a masterly movement in the 
 night," anticipating the arrival of the British fleet 
 just forty-eight hours. At "Camp Pickett," a 
 fortified post on the island of San Juan, he continued 
 in command until the beginning of the Civil 
 War. We have followed him through his Virginian 
 campaigns and found him everywhere exhibiting the 
 
 *The military lists, preserved at Washington, show that the 
 Picketts of Piedmont, Virginia, were fighters as far back as the 
 " Old French War " ( Va. Mag. Hist.). They fought in the war 
 of the Revolution; in the war of 1812; in the war with Mexico; 
 in Cuba; in the Civil War; and one of the same stock, as we 
 have seen, was uncommonly willing to try conclusions with the 
 British Empire on the island of San Juan. They are known in 
 Virginian tradition as "the fighting Picketts of Fauquier" 
 (Greene's Historic Families): Not Tybalt's, however, nor 
 truculent tavern-brawlers; but in war, or peace, a grave, silent 
 race men of reserved manners, simple habits, pacific inclina- 
 tions, and quiet tastes.
 
 61 
 
 same high qualities for command. At Fair Oaks, 
 a Confederate general, in undue haste ordered a 
 retreat under fire. "Pickett, the true soldier," 
 says Longstreet, grasping the situation at once, 
 wholly ignored the order, pressed the enemy 
 harder, and fought the apparently failing battle to 
 a brilliant and successful finish. At Games' Mill 
 he signally defeated Casey's division; at Fred- 
 ericksburg he urged an assault upon Franklin's 
 flank, and effectively answered the enemy's fire at 
 the south angle of Marye's Hill; unsupported by 
 the authorities at Richmond, he repelled the ad- 
 vance of Butler and his 30,000 men; he recaptured 
 the outer line of breastworks at Bermuda Hundred ; 
 he saved the town of Petersburg, "the citadel of 
 the Confederacy;" and prolonged the existence 
 of the Confederacy itself. It was at this time that 
 Grant telegraphed to Lincoln: " Pickett has bottled 
 up Butler at Bermuda Hundred." This pointed 
 telegram became at once a popular epigram. It 
 stung the ambitious warrior of Bermuda Hundred 
 to the quick. After the war, Butler intrigued to 
 try Pickett by a military commission "organized 
 to convict;" General Grant not only interposed 
 for the protection of Pickett, but offered him the 
 marshalship of the State of Virginia which he 
 declined. The Confederate veteran was "poor 
 and broken," but he keenly realized the difficulties 
 of Grant's position as well as of his own. "You 
 cannot afford to do this," said Pickett, "and I 
 cannot afford to accept it from you." "I can 
 afford to do as I choose," said the generous 
 Soldier-President. And so it passed. 
 
 General McClellan has said that " Pickett was 
 the purest type of the perfect soldier; that his 
 mind was large and capable, and his courage of 
 that rare proof that rose to the occasion, and his 
 genius for war so marked that his mind worked 
 more clearly under fire than even at the mess-table 
 or in the merry bivouac, where his perfect breeding
 
 62 A SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 as a gentleman made him beloved by his friends. 
 No man of his time was more beloved of women 
 and of men." 
 
 There can be no higher praise than this ; not the 
 praise commended by the old Campanian bard, 
 laudari a laudato viro, but the applause of one 
 who, worthy of all praise, was as fit to bestow as 
 to receive it. It is no slight tribute to this modest 
 and matchless Soldier or the Civil War, that he 
 should take captive the affections of the men he 
 fought, and receive countless proofs of the devo- 
 tion of such admirers as Lincoln, McClellan, 
 and Grant. In spite of military hardships that 
 would have racked a frame of steel, and of shocks 
 in battle that only a dauntless soul could endure, 
 the "Bayard of the Confederacy," the hero of 
 Chapultepec, San Juan, Games' Mill, Gettysburg, 
 and Five Forks, for a decade of peaceful and 
 honored years survived the desolating war which 
 gave him a deathless name. The speech of the 
 veteran warrior in the old tragedy might well have 
 fallen from this Southern soldier's lips: 
 
 "For I have fought where few alive remained, 
 And none unscathed."
 
 VI 
 
 BEFORE riding into battle on the third day 
 at Gettysburg, General Pickett hastily pen- 
 ciled a note of farewell to a lovely Virginian 
 girl: "Good-bye and God bless you, little one!" 
 This note was entrusted to General Longstreet, 
 who wrote upon the cover: " As I watched him, 
 gallant and fearless as any knight of old, riding 
 to certain doom, I said a prayer for his safety, and 
 made a vow to the Holy Father that my friendship 
 for him, poor as it is, should be your heritance." 
 A few days after the battle on Cemetery Ridge, 
 Pickett wrote again to the "little one " in Virginia : 
 "We were ordered to take a height. We took 
 it, but under the most withering fire that, even in 
 my dreams, I could have conceived of; and I have 
 seen many battles. . . . How any of us 
 survived is marvelous, unless it was by prayer." 
 A few days later he again writes: "1 thank the 
 
 freat and good God that he has spared me to come 
 ack and claim your promise." 
 
 This charming and accomplished Virginian girl 
 lived to describe the battles that Pickett fought. 
 Her book is entitled "Pickett and His Men." 
 It is full of instruction and charm ; it reconstructs 
 the period of which it treats, and gives many 
 glimpses of that idyllic Virginian life, which, even 
 in the midst of war, was still touched with the old 
 colonial grace. There is nothing careless or com- 
 monplace in the style and the writer seems to be 
 especially solicitous of fairness and accuracy in the 
 statement of historic facts. The dedication is 
 eloquent and touching: "To my Husband and 
 the Brave Men whom he led."
 
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