Showing Lee and Longstreet at high tide; Gettysburg in the light of the official records by Helen D. Longstreet

This brief story of a gigantic event, and General Longstreet’s part therein was arranged for publication in book form in the fall of 1903, before his death, which occurred January 2, 1904. It is the carefully sifted story of the records and contemporaneous witnesses, and for clearness I have here and there introduced General Longstreet’s personal version of some of the disputed points. But the reader will perceive that at last it is the story of the records.
For my undertaking I drew liberally from General Longstreet’s memoirs of the war, “Manassas to Appomattox;” from his stores of knowledge in the military art, and his treasure-house of memories of the Titanic encounter on the field of Gettysburg. The war-pictures included herein are also from the above-mentioned volume. And I am gratefully indebted to Captain Leslie J. Perry, formerly of the War Records Office, Washington City, for valuable assistance.
An appendix, added since General Longstreet’s death, includes a small selection from the thousands of tributes from every quarter of the republic.
One of the last of the brilliant generals of the Civil War, whose valor and skill in the command of great armies, is to-day the common glory of the restored Union, has contributed an introduction. No survivor of the great struggle has a better right to speak of Gettysburg than General Daniel E. Sickles. In this connection the following letter is appreciatively reproduced.
“Washington, September 19, 1902.
I am glad to write an introduction to a memoir of Lieutenant-General Longstreet.
If it be thought strange that I should write a preface to a memoir of a conspicuous adversary, I reply that the Civil War is only a memory, its asperities are forgotten, both armies were American, old army friendships have been renewed and new army friendships have been formed among the combatants, the truth of history is dear to all of us, and the amenities of chivalrous manhood are cherished alike by the North and the South, when justice to either is involved. Longstreet’s splendid record as a soldier needs neither apologies nor eulogium. And if I venture, further along in this introduction, to defend him from unfair criticism, it is because my personal knowledge of the battle of July 2, 1863, qualifies me to testify in his behalf. It was the fortune of my corps to meet Longstreet on many great fields. It is now my privilege to offer a tribute to his memory. As Colonel Damas says in “The Lady of Lyons,” after his duel with Melnotte, “It’s astonishing how much I like a man after I’ve fought with him.”
CONTENTS
LEE AND LONGSTREET AT HIGH TIDE
THE STORY OF GETTYSBURG
LEE CHANGES PLAN OF CAMPAIGN
PICKETT’S CHARGE
GORDON’S “ESTABLISHED FACTS” AND PENDLETON’S FULMINATIONS
LONGSTREET’S VERSION OF THE OPERATIONS OF JULY 2
PENDLETON’S REPORT
PENDLETON’S UNRELIABLE MEMORY
GENERAL LONGSTREET’S AMERICANISM
FINALE
LONGSTREET THE MAN
HIS BOYHOOD DAYS
LIFE-LONG FRIENDSHIP OF GRANT AND LONGSTREET
HIS FIRST ROMANCE
HEROIC CITIZEN OF THE RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD
THE CHRISTIAN PATRIOT LOVED THE SOUTH TO THE LAST
WORSHIPPED BY THE SOLDIERS OF THE CONFEDERACY
HIS COUNTRY HOME IN PICTURESQUE NORTH GEORGIA
LONGSTREET ON THE FIELDS OF MEXICO
THE WINNING OF OUR WESTERN EMPIRE
PECULIARITIES OF SCOTT AND TAYLOR
UNPRETENTIOUS LIEUTENANT GRANT
PLEASANT INCIDENTS OF CAMP LIFE AT CORPUS CHRISTI
INTO THE INTERIOR OF MEXICO
FROM CONTRERAS TO CHAPULTEPEC
LONGSTREET’S HONEYMOON
GREAT BATTLES BEFORE AND AFTER GETTYSBURG
THE FIRST MANASSAS
WILLIAMSBURG
FRAYSER’S FARM
MARCH AGAINST POPE AND THE SECOND MANASSAS
THE INVASION OF MARYLAND AND THE BATTLE OF ANTIETAM
FREDERICKSBURG
CHICKAMAUGA
IN EAST TENNESSEE
THE WILDERNESS
THE CURTAIN FALLS AT APPOMATTOX