Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/217

 Reunion of Virginia Division, A. N. V. Association. 211

Now let us turn to the other: When the army was passing through Pennsylvania, the ladies frequently came out of their houses to show their feelings of hostility to us and to display some evidence of it. At one place a beautiful girl ran down the steps of an elegant man- sion, and standing on the terrace in front, waved a miniature United States flag in the face of our troops. Behind her, applauding her act, was grouped a party of ladies, all richly and fashionably attired, evi- dently belonging to a family ol some note. The troops passed by quietly, offering no insult to the flushed beauty, as she flaunted her flag in their faces. At that moment General Lee rode up. His noble face and quiet reproving look met her eye, and the waving flag was lowered. For a moment she looked at him, and then throwing down the miniature banner, exclaimed audibly, as she clasped her white hands together, " Oh! I ivish he was ours!" *

It is true, however, that the volunteer company organization, or rather the clan system of our organization, together with the want of drill, had some evil effects which remained with the army until the end. I recall a conversation with an English officer, who had joined us just after the Maryland campaign and had been assigned to General A. P. Hill's headquarters, and who had taken part with us in the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg, which struck me very forcibly. He was extolling, in what even to me seemed extravagant terms, the glorious conduct of our little bat- talions, as they would hurl themselves upon divisions of the enemy^ when suddenly he paused and said: "But they will never do it again ! " I resented this, and asked him why he thought we would turn cowards all at once. He begged me not to take offence, but to think for a moment and count up with him the number of officers who had fallen in Jackson's corps, and especially in the Light Division since he had joined us, and then to think who these men were whom we had lost. He went on to recount the list, including Jackson himself, Gregg, Pax ton, and Pender, and many regimental officers with whom he had become well acquainted, and then he said, don't you see your system :eeds upon itself? You cannot, he said, fill the places of these men. Your men do wonders, but every time at a cost you cannot afford.

The Army of Northern Virginia did even greater wonders after this conversation, for it fought through Grant's campaign of 1864 in which it placed hors de combat a number of the enemy equal to


 * Marginalia, page 21.