Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 39.djvu/124

 112 Southern Historical Society Papers.

implies that General Lee, and General Lee alone, was responsi- ble for the delay. But there is a mass of evidence which goes to show that General Lee considered Longstreet responsible ;, and this evidence the latter has certainly not refuted. In the first place, there can be no cjuestion whatever that he was well aware that Lee expected him to attack as early as practicable on the morning of July 2. In the second place, it is certain that Lee explained his wishes, although he gave no definite orders, soon after sunrise, that he even pointed out the ground to be taken up by Longstreet's division ; and that, riding off afterwards to the left, he expressed much uneasiness, shortly after 9 o'clock, when he found that Longstreet made no move. In the third place, General Longstreet himself, in a letter which he wrote some years ago to the Philadelphia Weekly Times, has cited evi- dence which .shows that he took upon himself to resist the ex- pressed wishes of the commander-in-chief.

Xot one of these points is touched upon in the memoirs. Gen- eral Longstreet is content with the assertion that until 11 o'clock he had received no definite order to attack. But it was never Lee's practice to issue definite orders to his corps commanders. He was accustomed to explain his general intentions, and to leave the execution in their hands ; and if on this occasion he departed from his usual custom it was because Longstreet de- clined to move without -explicit orders to that effect. More- over, Longstreet had not waited for orders to call up his troops the night before, nor, as he tells us in the memoirs, had he waited for orders to make the great counter-stroke which was decisive of the second battle of Manassas. On both these occasions he acted in accordance with the wishes of the commander-in-chief, and even anticipated them. Why did he not do the same on the morning of July 2?

On that morning there can be no question but that Lee's wishes were very clearly expressed. General McLaws, commanding a division of the First Army Corps, says that he reached the field at a very early hour : that he went to Lee, who pointed out to him on the map the road across which he was to place his di-