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to fight the next day, if the enemy was there?’
The greater portion of the two corps of
Generals A. P. Hill and
Ewell had been hotly engaged during the 1st July, with about an equal force of the enemy; the result was a great victory for
General Lee's troops, and the enemy had been driven back some distance through the town of
Gettysburg, to the heights beyond.
It was of the first importance to follow up this success promptly.
General Longstreet, with two of his divisions, camped at a point but four miles distant on the night of the 1st.
He was made aware of what had occurred; he had received orders to hasten the march of his troops with ‘the announcement that
General Lee intended to fight the next day, if the enemy was there.’
When should he and his two divisions have reported to
General Lee for orders?
At what hour on the morning of the 2d could
General Lee have reasonably expected him?
At what hour would
General Jackson have saluted
General Lee and pointed to his divisions just behind him?
I have claimed, and still contend, that
General Longstreet was fairly chargeable with tardiness on that occasion.
He was fully aware of the importance of joining
General Lee at the earliest possible moment.
In a letter to me under date of May 31, 1875, he wrote: ‘An order was given, as soon as the fight of the first day was over, for
General Ewell to attack, or rather prepare to attack, at daylight in his front, but was almost immediately changed so as to allow time for me to reach the field and make a cooperative attack upon or by our right.’
It is useless to discuss here how different the result might have been had General Longstreet moved his two divisions to the front at dawn of day on the 2d.
The only question I propose to consider now is, at what hour did the troops of General Longstreet reach General Lee?
For, as will be shown later, there appears to be a contradiction in General Longstreet's own statements about this.
In his book, page 362, General Longstreet says: ‘The stars were shining brightly on the morning of the 2d, when I reported at General Lee's headquarters and asked for orders.
After a time Generals McLaws and Hood, with their staffs, rode up, and at sunrise their commands filed off the road to the right and rested.’
Sunrise in that locality and at that date is about 4:35 o'clock A. M. General McLaws, in speaking of the movements of his division on that occasion, says: ‘My division camped at Willoughby Run, about four miles from Gettysburg, on the night of July 1st, about 12 o'clock, perhaps it was later.
While there I received an order to move on at 4 A. M. of 2d; but that order was countermanded, and I ’
