Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 08.djvu/396

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Southern Historical Society Papers.

As above stated, I was Cleburne's Adjutant-General and on duty with him during the operations of 20th July. He habitually kept me at his side during a march and in action—rarely sending me away when another staff officer was available. I remember that he and General Hardee met with their respective staffs on one or two occasions that day. One of them is impressed on my mind by the fact that they were examining to see whether a battery of the enemy was playing on our party, or its fire was being drawn by one of our own batteries. The third shot killed one of the group (Sergeant Marshall, one of our orderlies) and solved the doubt.

General Hardee neither then nor at any time, that I heard or remember of, made any remark of caution against breastworks or the like; and such a thing, under the circumstances, would have led to such wide-spread remark as must have brought it to my ears. The first intimation of such alleged occurrence I find in General Hood's book.

As you are aware, the division made no assault that day, and its action could not have been affected by such alleged caution; and its conduct on the 22d July, two days later, when it carried at the point of the bayonet successive works, some of them protected by almost impenetrable abatis, ought sufficiently to show that neither the division nor its commander had been cautioned against breastworks.

My personal relations with General Cleburne were close and confidential. I habitually messed with him and shared his tent, and often his blankets. I think I may safely say that I knew more of his private thoughts and feelings than any one living, and I had abundant means of knowing that throughout all this period his devotion to General Hardee as a man was only equaled by his confidence in him and admiration for him as a soldier and commander, and no one at all acquainted with General Cleburne's real feelings could believe him capable of making any imputation against General Hardee.

Very respectfully,

Irving A. Buck.

The following is from Hon. Walter L. Bragg, during the war a soldier and officer in Cleburne's division and an intimate friend of Cleburne and now a leading member of the bar of this State:

Montgomery, Alabama, March 15th, 1880.

Colonel T. B. Roy, Selma, Alabama:

Dear Sir—Yours of the 10th received, in which you call my attention to certain criticisms of General Hardee in General Hood's book entitled "Advance and Retreat," and request me to give such information as I may have respecting these matters, and particularly the allusions to General Hardee on pages 185-186 of that