Lee by Douglas Southall Freeman

Author:Douglas Southall Freeman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scribner

CHAPTER X

Gettysburg

DURING the two weeks following the battle of Chancellorsville, Hooker made a few moves of no consequence, but he seemed to be receiving reinforcements as if the Washington government were determined to utilize his army for the major eastern offensive of the year. Around Vicksburg the front of the Federals was slowly advancing. In Tennessee Rosecrans was defying Bragg. In North Carolina a force appeared to be preparing for another drive against the railroads, and from Hampton Roads a small army was threatening the Peninsula of Virginia.

In what manner could the dwindling Confederate armies best be employed against the hosts that were concentrating as if to cut the South into bits that could be devoured at leisure? Longstreet maintained that Bragg should be strengthened to club Rosecrans; Secretary Seddon favored the dispatch of two of Longstreet’s divisions to the Mississippi; Lee explained that, in his opinion, the Confederacy had to choose between maintaining the line of the Mississippi and that of Virginia. If he could procure sufficient troops and could draw General Hooker away from the Rappahannock, he proposed to assume the offensive and to enter Pennsylvania. He believed that the best defensive for Richmond was at a distance from it; he did not think it desirable to fight again on the Rappahannock, where he could not follow up his victory. Neither did he wish once more to carry his army into the ravaged counties near Washington. Even had Lee been willing to give battle in Virginia, he did not think he could subsist his troops there, whereas, if he marched into Pennsylvania he would find provisions in abundance. By crossing high up the Potomac he could draw the enemy after him, clear Virginia of Federals, and perhaps force the enemy to recall the forces that were troubling the south Atlantic coasts and threatening the railroads. Contact with the realities of war, moreover, might increase in the North the peace movement which seemed to be gathering strength. Of all the arguments that weighed with him, the most decisive single one was that he could no longer feed his army on the Rappahannock. He had to invade the North for provisions, regardless of all else.

While he was developing this plan, he was summoned to Richmond for conference. He spent May 14–17 there. Mr. Davis was much troubled at the time by calls for troops at Vicksburg, but when it came to a final choice between advancing into Pennsylvania or detaching troops from Lee to do battle on the Mississippi, the President favored a new invasion of the North.

Back on May 18 at his old headquarters near Hamilton’s Crossing, Lee began to develop the details of his new adventure. He met with opposition from one man only—Longstreet. Longstreet insisted that if a campaign was to be undertaken in Pennsylvania it should be offensive in strategy but defensive in tactics. The event was to show that it would have been better if Lee had stood Longstreet before him and had bluntly reminded him that he and not the chief of the First Corps commanded the Army of Northern Virginia.

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