Edward Porter Alexander, Military memoirs of a Confederate: a critical narrative

[366] campaign should be such as would force the enemy to attack our army in position. Jackson had once said, and it was ever afterward an article of our steadfast faith and confidence, ‘We sometimes fail to drive the enemy from position, but they always fail to drive us.’

Lee fully appreciated the over-anxiety of the enemy for the safety of Washington, and proposed, for this occasion, a special feature, which he hoped would play upon and exaggerate these fears. Two of Pickett's five brigades had been temporarily left,— Jenkins's at Petersburg, and Corse's at Hanover Junction. Lee proposed that when his column of invasion crossed the Potomac, these two brigades, reenforced by whatever could be drawn from lower Virginia and the Carolinas, should form a column commanded by Beauregard, who should come from Charleston for the purpose. This column, with some parade of its intention, should advance from Culpeper and threaten Washington. Hooker's army would have been drawn by Lee north of the Potomac. The prestige of Beauregard's name would doubtless exaggerate the numbers in his command, and Lee hoped that the sudden danger might lead the enemy to call troops from the West, particularly if his army could win a battle north of the Potomac. The weak feature was that Lee did not have under his own control the troops which he desired to move. Davis had, indeed, proposed to him to control all troops on the Atlantic slope; but Lee insisted even on being relieved of the department south of the James, under D. H. Hill. He did not take the War Dept. into his confidence at first, hoping to accomplish his purpose by gradual suggestion and request. The process was too slow, and the result was unfortunate. Only on June 23 from Berryville, Va., did he fully explain to the President his wishes. On the 25th, from Williamsport, he followed the matter up with two letters, urging ‘the organization of an army, even in effigy, under Beauregard, at Culpeper C. H.’ Meanwhile, some demonstrations by the enemy from the York River had excited apprehensions at Richmond, and neither Corse's or Jenkins's brigades were sent forward, as had been planned.

A reply was despatched on June 29, saying,—