Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/482

 476 Southern Historical Society Papers.

I trust that nothing in the foregoing expressions passes the Hmit of military propriety, and that plainness of statement will be pardoned to one who, even under the weight of superior military censure, feels that both he and his command have deserved well of their country.

Having met the Commanding General repeatedly on the field, and on three occasions in council during the progress of the operations, without receiving from him the least indication of dissatisfaction with my conduct, I was not prepared to see a report, bearing a subsequent date, containing representations at variance with these significant facts. Nor was my surprise lessened when I observed that it was written after a correspondence with his corps and division command- ers (I being one of the latter), in which he invokes their aid to sus- tain him, and speaks of them as officers " upon whom I (he) have ever relied as upon a foundation of rock."

The Commanding General having written and forwarded his re- port before receiving those of his subordinate commanders, could have derived no assistance in its preparation from those usual official aids to the Commander-in-Chief, and since his position on the field prevented him from seeing many of the movements, especially those of Friday, the 2d of January, it much concerns all affected by his statements to know something of those other, and to them unknown, sources of information to which he has given the sanction of his in- fluence and rank as the head of the army.

I have felt that it would be improper, in a paper of this character, to enter upon a detailed vindication; yet, in view of the fact that the casualties of war may at any time render an investigation impossible, I hope that it has not been improper for me to place on record this general protest against the injurious statements and inferences of the Commanding General, particularly since, not anticipating his cen- sures, I may not have been sufficiently minute in portions of my report.

And in regard to the action of Friday, the 2d of January, upon which the Commanding General heaped so much criticism, I have to say, with the utmost confidence, that the failure of my troops to hold the position which they carried on that occasion was due to no fault of theirs or of mine, but to the fact that we were commanded to do an impossible thing. My force was about forty-five hundred men ; of these, seventeen hundred heroic spirits stretched upon that bloody. field, in an unequal struggle against three divisions, a brigade, an overwhelming concentration of artillery, attested our efforts to obey the order.