The Memoirs of Henry Heth

THE MEMOIRS OF HENRY HETH Edited by James L. Morrison, Jr. [EDITOR'S NOTE: Civil War History is proud to publish for the first time the wartime memoirs of General Henry Heth. Not only do Heth's recollections provide a new insight into the story of Lee's Lieutenants, but they also afford a clearer, more personal picture of "Marse Robert'' himself. Moreover, Heth's opinions and observations while serving in three Confederate armies are both poignant and provocative. For these reasons, Civil War History is breaking precedent by publishing an article in two parts, so that readers may have the full Civil War recollections of this important Confederate figure. We wish to acknowledge with sincere thanks the assistance of the Alderman Library, University of Virginia, where the original memoirs are deposited, and to express appreciation to Major James Morrison, who edited the recollections in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Master's degree from the University of Virginia. Major Morrison is currently on the staff of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The second and concluding installment of the Heth memoirs will appear in the September issue of Civil War HistoryJ INTRODUCTION Gettysburg—a struggle of such drama and significance that its hold on the interest and imagination of Americans is unique. Yet, paradoxically, it was a battle whose immediate origins remain largely unexplored. Civil War students, intimate with the roles of Lee, Meade, Longstreet and Pickett, and fully cognizant of the sequence of events and scenes which marked the unfolding of the drama, nevertheless tend to ignore the characters and events that lay in the prologue to Gettysburg. The initial link in the immediate chain of events leading up to the battle took shape on June 30, 1863, as Confederate Brigadier General J. J. Pettigrew led his tatterdemalions down the Cashtown Road toward the small town of Gettysburg. His objective was not to gain some critical terrain feature or vital communications center, but to obtain shoes for his barefoot troops. On the outskirts of Gettysburg the Confederates met Federal resistance. Pettigrew, unwilling to risk a general engagement , countermarched to Cashtown. There he reported the situation to his division commander who, after consulting the corps commander, or- O J AMES L. MORRISON, JR. dered a resumption of the march on Gettysburg the following day. The commander who issued that fateful order was Henry Heth, Major General , C.S.A. Notwithstandinghis role at Gettysburg, Heth never became one ofthe great figures of the Civil War period. Nevertheless, both he and his memoirs are worthy of the serious scholar's interest. He knew and wrote about Winfield Scott and Jefferson Davis, Grant and Lee, Sherman and Kirby Smith, Hancock and Pickett. Heth's relationship with the Commanding General, Army ofNorthern Virginia, was so unusual that Douglas Freeman stated: "Tradition is that Heth was the one general officer whom Lee called by his first name; certain it is that Lee interested himself in Heth's advancement as in no other instance of record."" Yet none of these factors—a leading role in the Gettysburg preliminaries , close acquaintanceships with generals on both sides, or even a unique relationship with Lee—would, singly or in combination, be sufficient to establish historical significance. Of much greater importance is the fact that, by studying Heth and his memoirs, the historian gains a seldom-revealed view of the middle level of Confederate leadership: that broad, second stratum of command which contributed so much to the magnificent victories and the bitter defeats of the Army of Northern Virginia. In word and in deed, Heth epitomized this middle level of command. He was unflinchingly brave, fanatically loyal, and unfailingly cheerful. Yet at the same time, he was highly opinionated, childishly naive, and blindly self-assured. In short, he was, as his memoirs attest, an articulate member of that group which formed the backbone of Lee's army, the Virginia landed gentry. For this reason, a study of Heth yields a better understanding of why the trail to Appomattox took four years to traverse. Henry Heth was born December 16, 1825, at Blackheath, the family estate in Chesterfield County, Virginia. His father, John Heth, a veteran of...