The Annals of the Civil War Written by Leading Participants North and South
Alexander Kelly McClure, Ed.

“ [442] soon as was expected. ... General Ewell, who had orders to co-operate with General Longstreet, and who was, of course, not aware of any impediment to the main attack, having reinforced General Johnson, during the night of the 2d, ordered him forward early the next morning. In obedience to these instructions, General Johnson became hotly engaged before General Ewell could be informed of the halt that had been called upon our right.”

Let us look at the facts of this. Instead of “making this attack at daylight,” General Ewell says: “Just before the time fixed for General Johnson's advance, the enemy attacked him to regain the works captured by Stuart the evening before.” General Meade, in his official report, says: “On the morning of the 3d,. General Geary, having returned during the night, attacked, at early dawn, the enemy, and succeeded in driving him back, and reoccupying his former position. A spirited contest was maintained along this portion of the line all the morning, and General Geary, reinforced by Wharton's Brigade, of the Sixth Corps, maintained his position, and inflicted very severe loss on the enemy.” Now to return to my end of the line. At about sunrise General Lee came to me and informed me that General Pickett would soon report to me, and then ordered that his troops were to be used as a column of assault, designating the point of assault, and that portions of the Third Corps were to be used in support. About seven o'clock General Pickett rode forward and stated that his troops would soon be upon the field, and asked to be assigned his position. Colonel W. W. Wood, of Pickett's Division, in his account of the day, says: “If I remember correctly, Pickett's Division and the artillery were all in position by eleven A. M.” Hence, we see that General Geary attacked General Ewell at least one hour before I had received my orders for the day; that at the very moment of my receiving these instructions General Ewell was engaged in a “spirited contest;” that this contest had continued several hours before General Pickett's troops came upon the field, and that the contest was virtually over before General Pickett and the artillery were prepared for the battle. When these arrangements were completed, and the batteries ordered to open, General Ewell had been driven from his position, and not a footstep was made from any other part of the army in my support. That there may have been confusion of orders on the field during the second and third days, I am not prepared to deny; but there was nothing of the kind about the headquarters of the First Corps.

I have not seen the criticism of the Comte de Paris upon the campaign, but I gather from quotations that he adduced as one of