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[110] same spot, when the Texans yelled, ‘You go back, General Lee, to the rear,’ as they plunged into the masses of the enemy and hurled them back at the point of the bayonet. But I saw him again that day, just a few minutes after Longstreet had been wounded, May 6th. I had come across the Wilderness from Stuart. I dismounted and delivered a verbal message to General Lee. He motioned me to follow him, and retiring on foot to an old dead tree, he sat down on the ground, and taking out his field map, ordered me to show him where Stuart was fighting. I pointed out the spot on the map, away off to our right flank, and said: ‘General Stuart has struck a heavy line of battle, held by infantry and artillery, and cannot break through them.’ And here for the first time I experienced what I afterward learned was almost a habit with General Lee--to think aloud. He murmured to himself as if addressing me: ‘Well, Captain, what shall we do?’ To which inquiry I am pleased to say I had sense enough to make no reply, and, indeed, to appear as if I had not heard it.
Richmond, VA. 1900.
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