Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 40.djvu/300

296

GENERAL CRAIGHILL'S TESTIMONY.

Bishop Lucien Lee Kinsolving gives me the following record of a conversation with that officer: General Wm. P. Craighill's conversation with me was as follows:

"Have you never stood at High Water Mark at Gettysburg and seen how near that wedge came to splitting this country in two parts? Whenever I stand there I catch my breath at the thought of it." When I said that I had heard it stated that there were forces in reserve to support the fierce charge of Pickett, General Craighill replied: "Had that charge been properly supported, as General Lee had planned, it would have gone through. That is my opinion as a military engineer."

November 5, 1915. Dr. R. H. McKim, Washington, D. C. Dear Sir:— You ask me to write you of my conversation with Captain Fitzhugh of the Federal Artillery, who was in the battle of Gettysburg, and took part at the most critical point in that engagement on the third day.

I met Captain Fitzhugh, whose initials I have forgotten, in Pittsburgh many years ago. He asked me why it was that Pickett's charge was not supported. I told him Mahone's and Posy's brigades were formed, behind where Longstreet was sitting, but for some reason were not sent to the support of the brigades which took part in this famous attack. I then asked him what would have been the result if the two brigades had been thrust into the gap made by Armistead. He said he thought there would have been little resistance, because the men for a quarter of a mile near where Armistead fell, were retiring from the field. He said General Hunt, who commanded the Federal Artillery, sent for him to bring his battery. He rode on in front and when he looked over the field, he said to General Hunt, "If I put my guns in there, I will lose them." General Hunt thereupon ordered him to put them in and take the risk. He said the charge of Pickett's division had completely paralyzed the part of the line near what was known as the "high water mark." He said he put his guns in action, and the Confederate line, for some unaccountable reason, withdrew, retiring to the position from which they had charged. Captain Fitzhugh was an officer in the regular army of the United States. Yours truly, R. P. CHEW.

STRENGTH OF THE OPPOSING ARMIES AT GETTYSBURG.

Major-General Meade, commander of the Army of the Potomac, in his testimony before the Congressional Committee, (1866) stated that in his opinion, General Lee's army was about 10.000 or 15,000 larger