Lee's Tarnished Lieutenant

3 "The Best Fighter in the Whole Army"

3- "The Best Fighter in theWhole Army'' Lsweeping far west of the main Federal forces in Virginia, using the Shenandoah Valley to cover his advance into Maryland and Pennsylvania. Ewell's Second Corps spearheaded the advance, capturing Winchester, Virginia, on the fifteenth. Ewell then moved into Pennsylvania, turning east at Chambersburg, dispersing his corps to capture York and Carlisle. Longstreet and Hill followed a few days behind, reaching Chambersburg on the twenty-seventh.1 Although Lee had ignored Harpers Ferry, byJune 28 his army was as widely scattered as it had been during the Antietam campaign. Nonetheless, Lee felt secure, for Jeb Stuart, his trusted cavalry commander , had been instructed to protect the army's flanks and to bring word if the Union army left Virginia.Exercisingthe discretion granted in his orders, Stuart had broken free of Lee's army,passingcompletely around the Armyof the Potomac. Ashe had not yet heard from Stuart, Lee naively assumed that he was in no danger.2 This assumption was rudely dispelled on June 28 when Henry Thomas Harrison, a spy in Longstreet's employ, accurately reported the position of the Federals, also bringing the news that Hooker had been replaced by Major General George Gordon Meade. The enemy was actually dangerously close, some units being as near as South Mountain, only a few days' march away. Lee therefore issued orders for a concentration at or near Gettysburg, a small village where the roads from Chambersburg, York, and Carlisle converged.3 46 EE BEGAN HIS PENNSYLVANIA campaign on June 3, "The Best Fighter" 47 Lee was not panicked, however. Indeed, it would be difficult to exaggerate the confidence he felt in the Army of Northern Virginia. Only a month before he had written in a private letter: "The Country cannot overestimate its worth. There never were such men in any Army before & there never can be better in any army again. If properly led they will go anywhere & never falter at the wofk before them."4 Lee took steps to prevent the sort of looting and pillaging that marked the Maryland campaign, and according to legend the behavior of the Southerners in Pennsylvania was almost saintly. Whilewanton destruction was rare, individual soldiers nevertheless foraged freely. Hood's Texas Brigade lived up to its reputation for collecting everything edible for miles around. An officer in the Third Corps confessed that there was "a general uprooting of gardens and depopulation of hen houses." A Maryland soldier was more explicit in a letter home: "We gave the old dutch in Penn. fits. Our Army left a mark everywhere it went. Horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, chickens, spring Houses suffered alike."5 Such activities were expected, given Lee's intention of living off the country. There was certainly no shortage of food at Longstreet's headquarters , which was always noted for the quality of its mess. Perhaps as a result, a number of foreign visitors more or less attached themselves to the First Corps during the campaign. The memoirs of these men provide an invaluable objective view of Longstreet during his most controversial campaign. The most prominent visitor was Arthur Fremantle, a British lieutenant colonel, who found Longstreet "a particularly taciturn man." He noted that Longstreet was "never far from General Lee, who relies very much upon hisjudgement. By the soldiers he isinvariably spoken of as 'the best fighter in the whole army.'"6 Colonel Fitzgerald Ross of Austria-Hungary also commented on the closeness between Longstreet and Lee. Other observers who attached themselves to the General included Major Justus Scheibert of Prussia and two British newspapermen, Frank Vizetelly and Francis C. Lawley.7 Shortly after Lee ordered his concentration, these foreign visitors witnessed enough carnage to make their respective transatlantic crossings worthwhile. On the morning ofJuly i, Major General Harry 48 Longstreet's Military Record Heth's division of Hill's corps marched southeast along the Chambersburg Pike (also called the Cashtown Road) toward Gettysburg. About eight in the morning the troops encountered dismounted Federal cavalrymen just outside the village. A skirmish developed which escalated into a pitched battle as reinforcements arrived on each side. When A. P. Hilljoined the battle with the bulk of his corps, he discovered that he was facing not just cavalry but the First and Eleventh corps of the Army of the Potomac. Around noon, brigades from Ewell's corps began arriving from Carlisle, threatening the enemy 's right flank and rear. In...