engaged at the point where Armistead's men broke through the Federal line. He said that the ammunition (of his battery) was almost exhausted; only two or three rounds left. In his opinion, if the charge had been supported, it would have proved disastrous to the Union army. All the artillery would have fallen into our hands. Their horses were nearly all killed or disabled. Their support, a New York regiment, 200 yards in rear, had taken to flight and left them alone.
I give a third testimony from the Federal side on this point.
The late General W. P. Craighill (of the Union army) said that he had often reflected with a feeling of awe on the fact that that great charge on the third day was a wedge that almost split the Union in two. In his opinion, if the charge had been supported, as Lee ordered, it would have wrecked the Union line and given the Confederates a decisive victory.
Thus we have concurrent testimony from a private artilleryman, from the captain of a battery, both at the salient when the shock of the charge broke over, and from a general officer—an accomplished engineer.
I hold therefore in the light of this testimony that our great commander was justified in ordering that grand assault on July 3d, and that had his orders been carried out, as they might and should have been, it would have resulted in a decisive victory.
Mr. Jesse Bowman Young, in his careful, painstaking and valuable study of "The Battle of Gettysburg," says, p. 306, that "there is no evidence on record in the reports of the battle that General Lee had in mind any larger force than this (the 42 regiments mentioned in the text) for the movement, or that orders were issued for any troops at other portions of the line to co-operate simultaneously with this charge, except Stuart's cavalry attack." Mr. Young is only another example of the exceeding tenderness of Federal writers for the reputation of General Longstreet.
Yet General Longstreet, himself, tells us that Lee's plan was "to assault the enemy's left centre by a column composed of McLaws' and Hood's divisions, reinforced by Pickett's brigades." And Young quotes Anderson's orders that Wilcox and
