Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 40.djvu/261

Rh experienced soldier had been able to look down from a balloon, or an aeroplane, upon the advancing columns of Lee's army after they had crossed the Potomac, and were moving northward toward the Susquehanna, the reason of the ultimate failure of the campaign would at once have suggested itself. He would have said, "where is the cavalry that should be marching on the right flank of the army?" And had he, a few days later, turned his eyes eastward and seen Stuart with his 5,000 horsemen marching through Maryland on the right flank of the Federal army, entirely severed from communication with the Confederate army, he could not but have been greatly astonished.

Lee's campaign in the opinion of the best European and American critics suffered from a fundamental error the absence of the larger part of his cavalry with their skillful and intrepid leader, Gen. J. E. B. Stuart. "At Gettysburg," says Col. G. F. R. Henderson, "you have an instance of this screen, the cavalry, being altogether absent; and I think the difficulties of the General arising from this absence will illustrate how completely the other arms are paralyzed wtihout the aid of the cavalry."

Again, he says: "What were the circumstances that thus paralyzed his army, and his own great skill in daring manoeuvres? Why was a flank march, possible in front of Hooker in June, impossible in front of Meade in July? The answer is simple — the absence of the cavalry."

Major Steele, in his "American Campaigns," says (p. 362): "Never did Lee so much need 'the eyes of his army' that were now wandering on a fool's errand. Without his cavalry, his army was groping in the dark; he was in the enemy's country and could get no information from the people. He did not know where Meade's army was. All he could do was to concentrate his forces and be ready for a blow on either side."

General Lee's own opinion on the subject is recorded by Gen. Long in his Memoirs, (p. 275): "Gen. Lee now exhibited a degree of anxiety and impatience, and expressed regret at the