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Chapter 23: campaign of Gettysburg
Probably there was no gloomier period during our great war than the month which followed the disasters of
Chancellorsville.
Then I entered with fuller understanding into the meaning of “the valley of the shadow of death.”
On May 26, 1863, an officer, high in rank and claiming to be a warm personal friend, wrote me with great apparent frankness and urged me to leave the Eleventh Corps.
I have his letter before me, in which occur these remarkable words: “The first thing they [the men, Germans and
Americans] will do when placed in position will be to look behind them, and the accidental discharge of a musket in the rear will produce another panic, another disaster, another disgrace to yourself, to the troops, to all of us,” etc.
I would not believe it; I courted another trial for the command other than that of the terrible
Wilderness.
I was then obliged to raise my eyes above the criticisms and well-meant advice of my companions in arms; I looked to the Great Shepherd for his care and guidance.
As a result, in the end, nay, in the very campaign so soon to begin, my judgment was justified.
The feeling of the country at that time, North and South, was far from satisfactory to those patriots who had struggled the hardest and suffered the most.
