Chapter 18: Campaign of 1864-the Wilderness
- Grant -- his rough chivalry -- his imperturbable grit -- his theory of attrition -- its effect upon the spirit of Lee's Army -- an artilleryman of that Army in Campaign trim -- sundown prayer-meetings -- the Wilderness an infantry fight -- a cup of coffee with Gen. Ewell in the forest -- Ewell and Jackson-Longstreet struck down.
Without recanting the statement that Chancellorsville is the most brilliant of Lee's single battles, I do not hesitate to say that in my opinion — that is, if and so far as I am entitled to an opinion on the subject — the campaign of 1864, from the Wilderness to Cold Harbor, inclusive, is the greatest of all Lee's campaigns-incomparably the greatest exhibition of generalship and soldiership ever given by the great leader and his devoted followers. Manifestly, one of the indispensable elements in any estimate of this campaign is the man now, for the first time, opposed to us. I do not propose to enter upon any extended discussion or analysis of General Grant's powers. In common with the majority of the more intelligent soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia, I thought and think well of him as a soldier, both as to character and capacity. We all felt that he behaved handsomely, both to General Lee and to his men, at Appomattox, and that, later, in standing between Lee and his leading officers and the threatened prosecutions for treason, he exhibited strong manhood and sense of right. Many of us, too, have heard of other instances in his career of a rough chivalry always attractive to men. Just before the surrender, on my way to Petersburg as a prisoner of war, I was standing on the roadside near General Custis Lee when he was shocked by a report of the death of
