Lee and His Men at Gettysburg: The Death of a Nation (50 page)

I also wish to thank Mr. Stuart Rose, ex-U.S. Cavalry, of Cheyney, Pennsylvania, for advice given across the years on the use of firepower, on the study of terrain, and on the proper function of mounted troops-specifically as relating to Jeb Stuart; and posthumously to the late Colonel John W. Thomason, Jr., for advice concerning Jeb Stuart given long ago, and for his stress on (what comes somewhat portentously under the heading of “logistics”) the vital importance of the miles of cumbersome wagon trains in considering any military movement—especially as relating to the strategy Longstreet allegedly offered on the third day.

For the list of general books consulted, some of which are extremely hard to come by, I am deeply indebted, as in all my work, to the staff of the Virginia Historical Society, and particularly to its director, Mr. John Jennings; to the staff of the Virginia State Library, and particularly to Mr. Milton C. Russell, Miss Eudora Elizabeth Thomas, Mrs. Pinkney Smith, Mrs. Lewis Causbey; to Miss India Thomas, the regent of the Confederate Museum; and to her assistant, Miss Eleanor Brockenbrough. The Confederate Museum, in the former White House of the Confederacy, contains unpublished material that would make volumes. In some of the Heth papers there, I found an item of significant information in a letter by Colonel Robert C. Mayo, 47th Virginia, of Brockenbrough’s brigade, a copy of which was generously supplied me by the thoughtfulness of Miss Eleanor Brockenbrough.

In listing these books, the same process has been followed as in culling the
SHSP,
with the difference that some books must be listed which do not specifically deal with Gettysburg. These add to an understanding of the army, the soldiers and leaders, in that period. General books on the war which make no direct contribution to an understanding of Lee’s army or Gettysburg have been omitted.

In reviewing books on the war, I have too often seen bibliographies swelled to impressive lengths by a listing of “authorities consulted” when I knew that certain of the books could not possibly have contributed anything specifically on the subject. If a bibliography is intended to serve as a guide to readers interested in the subject, in all fairness such books should be listed as “Consulted Without Profit,” and this seems a pointless device for all concerned.

For those who might wish to check the background from which the specific material was drawn, a listing of general books consulted appears in
The Land They Fought For,
by Clifford Dowdey (Garden City, 1955). The background for references to the Confederacy in general, to President Davis, War Secretary Seddon, the war office, and Davis’s relations with Lee is in
The Land They Fought For
and in
Experiment in Rebellion,
by Clifford Dowdey (Garden City, 1946). The recently published diary of the Head of the Bureau of War, Robert Garlick Hill Kean, edited by Edward Younger, while containing nothing at all about the Gettysburg campaign, is extremely valuable for the operation of the Confederate war office and appraisals of Jefferson Davis based on firsthand impressions.

The listing of other books will follow the usual alphabetical order after mentioning first, in order of its importance, the work of Dr. Freeman. For the organization and presentation of the awesome quantity of material which he distilled, for the helpful guide of his footnotes and bibliographies, his
R. E. Lee
and
Lee’s Lieutenants
are the fountainhead for all students of the Army of Northern Virginia. While it is difficult to lift his chapters on the Gettysburg campaign out of context, there is a straight sequence in the third volume of
R. E. Lee,
pages 1—161, and in the third volume of
Lee’s Lieutenants,
pages 20—189, which also contains an appendix by Dr. Tilberg and Dr. Walter Coleman, superintendent of Gettysburg National Military Park, pages 775—6, and an appendix prepared with the assistance of Dr. Tilberg, Dr. Coleman, and the Messrs. Runyon Colie and Harry W. Howerter, Jr., pages 757—60. In Volume 2, pages 683—714, there is a study of the reorganization of the army in preparation for the invasion.

Alexander, E. P.:
Military Memoirs of a Confederate
(New York, 1907). Nothing better, in general and for the third day.

Annals of the War. Written by Leading Participants North and South
(Philadelphia, 1879). Worth the culling.

Beale,
G.W.: A Lieutenant of Cavalry in Lee’s Army
(Boston, 1918). Personalized reminiscences by Colonel R. L. T. Beale’s son.

Beale, R. L. T.:
History of 9th Virginia Cavalry
(Richmond, 1899). A standard source and collector’s item, by the colonel of the regiment, with fine details of Stuart’s ride.

Blackford, Susan Leigh, compiler:
Letters from Lee’s Army
(New York, 1947).

Blackford, William Willis:
War Years with Jeb Stuart
(New York, 1945). Valuable episodes and impressions of Stuart’s ride by a staff officer.

Borcke, Heros von:
Memoirs of the Confederate War for Independence.
2 vols. New edition (New York, 1938). Stuart’s Prussian volunteer aide, the herculean baron, had been wounded out before Gettysburg, but his ebullient, if highly colored, description is indispensable for an understanding of Lee’s mounted force, and very pleasant reading.

Bushong, Millard Kessler:
Old Jube: A Biography of General Jubal A. Early
(Boyce, Va., 1955).

Caldwell, J. F. F.:
The History of a Brigade of South Carolinians.
New edition (Marietta, Ga., 1951). One of the best books on life in Lee’s army, with a detailed description of the first day’s fighting at Gettysburg with Pender.

Casler, John O.:
Four Years in the Stonewall Brigade.
New edition (Marietta, Ga., 1951). One of the most realistic revelations of soldiers’ life in the Army of Northern Virginia. With Ewell at Gettysburg.

Catton, Bruce.:
Glory Road
(Garden City, 1952). A graphic and stirring narrative of the three days as seen from the Federal viewpoint. Mr. Catton tends to accept Union estimates of Confederate forces.

Chamberlaine, William W.:
Memoirs of the Civil War
(Washington, 1912). One of the more moving accounts of the third day by a highly intelligent soldier in Hill’s corps.

Chamberlayne, C. G., editor:
Ham Chamberlayne—Virginian
(Richmond, 1933). Extremely illuminating letters by a young Richmond lawyer who served as lieutenant with Hill’s corps artillery. Chamberlayne and four of his men were captured outside Chambersburg while foraging for horses for their battery, but his letters are valuable, as well as interesting, for a picture of Lee’s artillery and for details of the campaign up to Chambersburg.

Cockrell, Monroe F.:
Where Was Pickett at Gettysburg?
Privately printed pamphlet placed at my disposal by the courtesy of Mr. Cockrell. Cites more sources for its length probably than any other publication on the battle, and all of them specifically to the point.

——, editor:
Gunner with Stonewall: Reminiscences of William Thomas Poague
(Jackson, Tenn., 1957). The first publication of the informative memoirs of the good gunner who commanded a battalion of A. P. Hill’s artillery on Seminary Ridge.

Cooke, John Esten:
Robert E. Lee
(New York, 1871). This cousin of Jeb Stuart’s wife, an ante-bellum professional writer, had a novelist’s eye for detail, and he is one of the two sources for A. P. Hill’s appearance of illness on the first day (Fremantle is the other).

——: Wearing of the Gray
(New York, 1867).

Daniel, Frederick S.:
Richmond Howitzers during the War
(Richmond, 1891).

Dawson, Francis W.:
Reminiscences of Confederate Service
(Charleston, 1882). A frank appraisal by a British volunteer staff officer with Longstreet at Gettysburg.

Dickert, D. Augustus:
History of Kershaw’s Brigade
(Newberry, S.C., 1899). Another of the standard brigade histories.

Douglas, Henry Kyd:
1 Rode with Stonewall
(Chapel Hill, 1940). Personalized details by Jackson’s former staff officer, who served with Major General Edward “Allegheny” Johnson in the Gettysburg campaign and was one of the witnesses of Ewell’s breakdown in the Blocher house arbor on the first day.

Dunaway, Wayland F.:
Reminiscences of a Rebel
(New York, 1913). A captain with the brigade, Brockenbrough-Mayo, of Heth’s division that broke on the left flank during the third-day assault. He admits it tacitly, without lingering on the details.

Durkin, Joseph T., S. J., editor:
John Dooley, Confederate Soldier
(Georgetown University Press, 1945). Brief, graphic, though not wholly accurate personal impressions of a captain with Kemper.

Early, Jubal A.:
Autobiographical Sketch and Narrative of the War between the States
(Philadelphia, 1912). Largely a compilation of his articles in
SHSP.

Eckenrode, H. J., and Conrad, Bryan:
James Longstreet: Lees Warhorse
(Chapel Hill, 1936).

Eggleston, George Cary: A
Rebel’s Recollections
(New York, 1875). With nothing on Gettysburg or any battle, this curiously neglected book by one of the best and most engaging of Southern writers on the war is invaluable for the impression it gives of the formation, personnel, and character of Lee’s army. The sketches of Stuart and Ewell are particularly sharp.

Fletcher, W. A.: A
Rebel Private, Front and Rear.
New edition (Austin, Texas, 1954). Another realistic account of soldier life, by a member of Hood’s Texas Brigade. Contains a good description of the Gettysburg campaign, particularly the second day.

Fremantle, Arthur James Lyon:
The Fremantle Diary.
New edition, edited by Walter Lord (Boston, 1954). This much quoted standard by a visiting colonel of Her Majesty’s Coldstream Guards is extremely valuable for observations of personalities in the campaign, particularly of Longstreet, with whose entourage the sharp-eyed Britisher rode.

Gordon, John B.:
Reminiscences of the Civil War
(New York, 1903). Not much on Gettysburg, but a helpful book.

Hamlin, Percy Gatling:
Old Baldhead: General R. S. Ewell
(Strasburg, Va., 1940). The fullest portrait of the strange personality, done tenderly, with fine episodes.

Harrison, Walter:
Pickett’s Men
(New York, 1870). This division history by its inspector general contains useful details of the personnel and of the campaign, particularly helpful on the forming of the troops and the wait before the charge.

Hay, Thomas Robson,
see
Sanger, Donald Bridgman.

Henderson, George F. R.:
Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War.
American one-volume edition (New York, 1936). The standard work on the lost leader whose absence at Gettysburg was a determining factor in the campaign; valuable for Colonel Henderson’s study of warfare and the manner in which it was waged by the Confederate forces during Jackson’s brief span of war life. Probably more than any other single book it shows by implication the hopelessness of Lee’s attempt to apply the techniques he had used with Jackson.

Hoke, Jacob:
The Great Invasion of 1863
(Dayton, Ohio, 1877). Graphic impressions of the Confederate army by a citizen of Chambersburg. Its violently anti-Confederate bias might be partially explained by the merchant’s losses to Ewell’s confiscations.

Hood, John B.:
Advance and Retreat
(New Orleans, 1880). Its brief account of Gettysburg is a source for Longstreet’s actions on the Confederate right on the second day, especially for Longstreet’s insistence on a literal obedience of Lee’s order to attack across the Emmitsburg road. (Hood is corroborated in detail by Law in
Battles and Leaders, III,
321—2.)

Howard, McHenry:
Recollections of a Maryland Soldier and Staff Officer
(Baltimore, 1914). An old reliable as a source on the Second Corps.

Hunton, Eppa:
Autobiography
(Privately printed, Richmond, 1933). A colonel in and later commander of Garnett’s brigade who was wounded in the charge. Contains an informative account of the brigade’s formation by a thoughtful observer who, with dispassionate flatness, charges Longstreet with responsibility for the failure of the second and third days.

Irby, Richard:
Historical Sketch of the Nottoway Grays.
A soldier who went up the hill with Garnett.

Jacobs, M.:
Notes on the Invasion … and Battle of Gettysburg
(Philadelphia, 1863). Another anti-Rebel account by a Pennsylvania native with well-developed powers of observation.

Johnston, David E.:
The Story of a Confederate Boy in the Civil War
(Portland, Ore., 1914). Among the best accounts of Pickett’s men, by a young sergeant major with Kemper who, severely wounded during the cannonade, lived to become a judge.