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Stuart could have done no more.

All that Stuart could have done if he had been there would have been to tell Hill and Heth that if they went to Gettysburg they would be sure to precipitate a battle before the army was concentrated and where Lee did not intend to fight one.

A body of cavalry could have done no more. But Hill and Heth were not blind — they knew the enemy held Gettysburg; so they did not need cavalry to tell them. They evidently expected to bag a few thousand Yankees, return to Cashtown, and present them to General Lee that evening. But to use a common expression ‘they bit off more than they could chaw.’ They left Cashtown at 5 in the morning in as gay spirits as John Gilpin's when he started off to Edmonton to have a wedding feast.

It was after all not much of a feast.

Richmond, VA. 1909.

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