Page:Confederate Portraits.djvu/106

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
72
CONFEDERATE PORTRAITS

it was naturally the duty of an affectionate lieutenant to watch for and remedy in every possible way. And Long- street watched.

From the first day Lee took command we have his subordinate's delightful accounts of the way in which he advised, suggested, as some might almost say dictated. It was Longstreet who conceived the plan by which Jackson was to be called from the Valley that McClellan might be driven from the Peninsula; and if Jackson had been at all equal to the occasion, a great triumph would have been achieved. 20 It was Longstreet who found Lee hesitating about going into Maryland on account of lack of supplies. "But I reminded him of my experiences in Mexico, where sometimes we were obliged to live two or three days on green corn. . . . Finally he determined to go on." 21 It was Longstreet who pointed out to his commander the folly of the Harper's Ferry scheme and supposed it was abandoned. But he could not be on the watch all the time and the pestilent Jackson took ad- vantage of his absence to impose on a mind always too easily led.22 Later Longstreet did his best to remedy a bad state of things. "Lee listened patiently enough, but did not change his plans, and directed that I should go back the next day and make a stand at the mountain. After lying down, my mind was still on the battle of the next day, and I was so impressed with the thought that it would be impossible for us to do anything at South Mountain . . . that I rose and, striking a light, wrote a