Lee's Tarnished Lieutenant

2 From Fredericksburg to Gettysburg

2. From Fredericksburg to Gettysburg B Confederate army for almost a year and a half and had participated in five major campaigns. While Seven Pines represented a colossal blunder, Blackburn's Ford, Williamsburg, the Seven Days battles, Second Manassas, and Antietam gave him a reputation any soldier would envy. How had these experiences affected his outlook on the war? The wartime writings of the reticent Longstreet hold few clues, but it is almost certain that he either had a preference for defensive tactics or was developing one. As a subordinate, Longstreet was not always free to chose a particular method of warfare, but if he had a preference in combat plans it was probably to allow the enemy to wear himself out attacking a carefully chosen Confederate position and then to subject him to counterattack. Longstreet's counterattacks at Blackburn's Ford and Williamsburg were ineffective, and none had been possible at Antietam . But at Second Manassas,where Lee was guided in part by Longstreet 's advice, Longstreet's counterattack was powerfully destructive. The combination of defense and counterattack was appropriate, given the South's numerical inferiority. It also suited the changes in military technology that had occurred since the Mexican War. When Longstreet fought in Mexico, the soldiers used smoothbore muskets accurate to only approximately 100 yards. A determined attacker could cover the distance rather quickly,allowing his enemyrelatively few shots at him. The rifled muskets used during the Civil War,how3i Y DECEMBER 1862 James Longstreet had been in the 32 Longstreet's Military Record ever, were accurate to some 300 yards, giving a defender in 1862 a three times greater chance of killing an attacking enemy. Longstreet's experience with defensive tactics was strongly augmented by the battle of Fredericksburg, which for the South proved to be a welcome change from the bloodbath campaigns of the summer . McClellan, the familiar and predictable foe, had been replaced after his failure to crush Lee's emaciated army at Antietam. On November 9, 1862, Major General Ambrose E. Burnside took command of the Army of the Potomac. He shifted the scene of action some seventymiles south and east, attempting to steal a march on Lee by crossing the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg. But a delay in the arrival of his pontoon train allowed the Southern forces time to reach the town ahead of him.1 Lee ordered the First Corps to Fredericksburg in mid-November . Longstreet reached the city on the nineteenth or twentieth and made preparations to repulse any Federal crossing of the river. Alow range of hills behind the town, together with a sunken road that ran along their base for some distance, provided an excellent defensive position. Longstreet placed his infantry on the hills and at their base, where a stone wall bordering the road formed a natural trench.2 Although they were modest compared with the elaborate earthworks that both sides would routinely construct quite rapidly later in the war, Longstreet established extensive field fortifications, working right up to the morning of the battle. Parts of his line, he later informed Lee, were strengthened by "rifle trenches and abatis," and reports from his subordinates refer to rifle pits, trenches, and breastworks of logs and earth.3 When Jackson arrived, Lee placed his troops on Longstreet's right flank but withoutentrenchments. Lee hoped the Federals would so exhaust themselves attacking Longstreet's position that Jackson would be able to counterattack. The plan was thus similar to that for Second Manassas,with Longstreet and Jackson reversing roles.4 When Burnside's men finally attacked, on the cold, misty morning of December 13, their major thrust did indeed strike Longstreet. Viewing the mass of men arrayed in plain sight of his chief lieutenant 's position, Lee felt some doubt that Longstreet could hold. Longstreet , however, confidently predicted that he could repulse the entire From Fredericksburg to Gettysburg 33 Federal army with his corps alone. "I will kill them all," he said. Longstreet 's primary artillerist, E. P. Alexander, remarked, "Wecover that ground now so well that we will comb it as with a fine-tooth comb. A chicken could not live on the field when we open on it!"5 Longstreet and Lee observed the enemy's advance from one of the hilltops above Fredericksburg that was bristling with Longstreet's artillery. Their position exposed them to the intense counterbattery fire of the Federals, but William Pettit...