Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 04.djvu/273

Rh I trust I will not be considered discourteous to the gallant comrade and friend of Stuart, whose bright sabre ever flashed in the very front of battle by the side of his chivalrous leader, when the ringing voice of the latter summoned him to action, and as to whom there was no need of his own assertion to give assurance that he was always one "to count on," if I remind him that he is not, perhaps, the very best judge of how much marching and fighting in one day an infantry command is capable, and that his remark is a rather harsh criticism on the footmen who had preceded the cavalry to the banks of the Susquehanna.

Nor to the very accomplished and efficient chief of ordnance of the Second corps, to whose worth and services I have testified officially more than once, if I tell him that he has not shown on this occasion his usual research and discrimination, by ascertaining and weighing all the facts before pronouncing his judgment.

Nor to the very worthy and competent Adjutant-General of the Army of Northern Virginia, who justly possessed the confidence of its commander and the esteem of the whole army, if I suggest to him that it would have been more discreet for him to have confined himself in his account of the battle of Gettysburg to a narrative of the facts and events coming within his knowledge, and not essayed a criticism on the conduct of those engaged in the battle. His book will prove a most valuable contribution to the material for a correct history of the campaigns of the Army of Northern Virginia—marred, however, to the extent he has departed from the rule his position demanded of him to pursue—that is, to stand aloof from the disputed questions, and give an impartial narrative of facts and events of which necessarily he had fuller and more exact knowledge than most others, leaving the future historian to form his own opinions and conclusions from the facts given, without being forestalled by a judgment, which by some might be regarded as ex cathedra.

General Ewell had been the victim to some extent of a miscarriage somewhere in the sending or delivery of an important order at the first battle of Manassas, and there had been some annoying remarks in some papers in the extreme South about the matter. He was a soldier possessed of "that chastity of honor which felt a stain like a wound," and he was very keenly sensitive in regard to the imputations then cast on him. He had, as I know, the