Big Island, Bedford, Va., May 31st, 1875.
Dear General-Your letter of the 20th ultimo, referring to an assertion of General Pendleton's, made in a lecture delivered several years ago, which was recently published in the Southern historical Society magazine substantially as follows: “That General Lee ordered General Longstreet to attack General Meade at sunrise on the morning of the 2d of July,” has been received.
I do not recollect of hearing of an order to attack at sunrise, or at any other designated hour, pending the operations at Gettysburg during the first three days of July, 1863. ...
Yours, truly,
I add the letter of Colonel Venable, of General Lee's staff, which should of itself be conclusive. I merely premise it with the statement that it was fully nine o'clock before General Lee returned from his reconnoissance of Ewell's lines:
Dear General-Your letter of the 25th ultimo, with regard to General Lee's battle order on the 1st and 2d of July at Gettysburg, was duly received.
I did not know of any order for an attack on the enemy at sunrise on the 2d, nor can I believe any such order was issued by General Lee.
About sunrise on the 2d of July I was sent by General Lee to General Ewell to ask him what he thought of the advantages of an attack on the enemy from his position. (Colonel Marshall had been sent with a similar order on the night of the 1st.) General Ewell made me ride with him from point to point of his lines, so as to see with him the exact position of things.
Before he got through the examination of the enemy's position, General Lee came himself to General Ewell's lines.
In sending the message to General Ewell, General Lee was explicit in saying that the question was whether he should move all the troops around on the right, and attack on that side.
I do not think that the errand on which I was sent by the commanding general is consistent with the idea of an attack at sunrise by any portion of the army.
Yours, very truly,
I add upon this point the letter of Dr. Cullen, Medical Director of the First Corps:
Dear General-Yours of the 16th ult. should have received my immediate attention, but before answering it, I was desirous of refreshing my memory of the scenes and incidents of the Gettysburg campaign by conversation with others who were with-us, and who served in different corps of the command.
It was an astounding announcement to the survivors of the First Army Corps that the disaster and failure at Gettysburg was alone and solely due to its commander, and that had he obeyed the orders of the commander-in-chief that Meade's army would have been beaten before its entire force had assembled, and its final discomfiture thereby made certain.
It is a little strange that these charges were not made while General Lee was alive to substantiate or disprove them, and that seven years or more were permitted to pass by in silence regarding them.
You are fortunate in being able to
