Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 23.djvu/359

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

l)ffence of <i-/ ml >'///,///. 353

on Gettysburg had not precipitated a battle. A British officer Colonel Freemantle was pn-M-nt as a spectator, and spent the night of July ist at General Lonstreet's headquarters. In his diary he

" I have the best reason for supposing that the fight came off pre- maturely, and that neither Lee nor Longstreet intended that it should have begun that day. I also think that their plans were deranged by the events of the ist."

The record shows who is responsible for the loss of the campaign, and that it was not Stuart. There were no orders to make a recon- noissance on July ist, and no necessity for making one.

The success of the first day, due to the accident of Ewell's arrival on the field when he was not expected, was a misfortune to the Southern army. It would have been far better if Ewell had let Hill and Heth be beaten. They had put the Confederates in the condi- tion of a fish that has swallowed a bait with a hook to it.

JOHN S. MOSBY.

23