Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 38.djvu/215

Rh Colonel Stribling calls attention to the fact that it was the want of prompt information of this change of plan by the Federal commander that caused Lee to fall back from before Harrisburg, for he says:

"But on the 28th, General Hooker was displaced and General Meade placed in command of the army. He immediately drew back the corps from Middletown to Fredericktown, so that they might be prepared to join in the general advance of the whole army towards the Susquehanna, on the east side of the mountain range, which advance was to be put in motion on the morning of the 29th. Of this change of arrangement, General Lee had no intimation until the two armies came into collision near Gettysburg. Had he known that General Meade had withdrawn the corps from Middletown on the 28th, as he should have known if his cavalry had been watching those gaps, and was advancing as rapidly as possible east of the mountains as it advanced, the probabilities are that he would not have ordered the concentration of his army east of the mountain, for he so distinctly states: 'To deter him from advancing further west and intercepting our communications with Virginia, it was determined to concentrate the army east of the mountains.' "

Again Colonel Mosby says:

"The letter of June 22d was sent to Longstreet, to be forwarded if he thought 'Stuart can be spared from my (his) front.' Longstreet did forward the instructions, and, referring to General Lee, said, 'He speaks of your leaving via Hopewell Gap (the Bull Run Mountain) and passing by the rear of the enemy.' At the same time, Longstreet, who was at Millwood, wrote to General Lee, 'Yours of 4 o'clock this afternoon received. I have forwarded your letter to General Stuart with the suggestion that he pass by the enemy's rear if he thinks he may get through.' This was notice to Lee of the route Stuart was to go. So the cavalry movements around Hooker's rear had the approval in advance of both General Lee and General Longstreet."

Here again, as in his book, Colonel Mosby ignores General Lee's final instructions to General Stuart of June 23d, when, as Dr. McKim has explained, the reason for Longstreet's