Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 23.djvu/351

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Tin- I smystreet-Gettysburg Controversy. 345

by his subordinates, < irneral Early said: " If Mr. Swinton has told

the truth in repeating in his hook what is allrgi-d to have been said to him by ( ieneral Longstreet, there was at least one of General Lee's corps commanders at < it ttysburg who did not enter upon tin execution of his plans with that confidence and faith necessary to success, and hence, perhaps, it was that it was not achieved."

These were all of General Early's criticisms upon (ieneral Long- Mivet, and it is obvious that, under the provocation of (ieneral Long- strret's previously published criticisms of (ieneral Lee, they were very mild for (ieneral Early.

GENERAL PENDLETON's SPEECH.

The next year, January 19, 1893, General W. N. Pendleton, General Lee's chief of artillery and his beloved friend and pastor during his residence in Lexington, made the anniversary address, in which he made the statement about General Lee's orders for the early attack which you have published, and in which, while pointing out his tardiness and its result, he spoke of General Longstreet in very complimentary terms as a brave and sturdy soldier.

This address General Pendleton repeated at a number of points in the South, and then published in the Southern Magazine, Balti- more.

General Longstreet next published in the New Orleans Republican of February 27th, 1876, a very bitter attack on General Fitz. Lee (whose offence was that he had respectfully asked him to publish the whole of a letter from General R. E. Lee, from which he had pub- lished a single sentence), General Pendleton, and General Early, but was especially bitter against General Early.

Of course "Old Jubal " replied, there were several papers from each, and General Early used him up so badly that General Long- street's warmest friends very much regretted that he had gone into the papers.

THE NEXT PHASE.

The next phase of the controversy was the publication of General Longstreet's paper in the Philadelphia Times of November 3, 1877, a very full account of the campaign and battle of Gettysburg, in which he criticised General Lee more severely than ever, and under- takes to show nine distinct mistakes which Lee made, and he (Long-