Category: Biographies

Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer

Forbears and Home at Savannah--Fort Sumter attacked--Hostilities begin--Leave for Virginia--Visit to my father--Beauregard's camp at Manassas--Colonel Jordan--Introduced to General Longstreet--Sketch--General Stuart--General Johnston--The battle--Enemy defeated--Pursuit stoppe...

Chapters

34. CHAPTER XXXIV

Return of Longstreet--Am promoted brigadier-general--Parting with the First Corps--Report to A. P. Hill and Mahone--Sketches--Assume command of brigade of Georgians--Its staff--...

30. CHAPTER XXX

General Grant in command of all the Union forces--Takes station with Army of the Potomac--His career--His successes--Later kind feelings of Southern people toward him--His dinne...

1. CHAPTER I

Forbears and Home at Savannah--Fort Sumter attacked--Hostilities begin--Leave for Virginia--Visit to my father--Beauregard's camp at Manassas--Colonel Jordan--Introduced to Gene...

8. CHAPTER VIII

General Lee in command--Sketch--Reinforced--Preparing for campaign--General Lee's staff--Longstreet second in command--His division--Artillery reorganized--Washington Artillery...

33. CHAPTER XXXIII

Siege of Petersburg--Lines closely drawn--Attacks on Lee's right--Mahone's defense--Mining for an explosion--North side threatened--Troops sent--Capture of Battery Harrison--Lee...

21. CHAPTER XXI

Expectation of revelations--Longstreet and Lee--Attacks not in good combination between the three corps--July 2, situation unfavorable--Our heavy attack on the right--Ground and...

32. CHAPTER XXXII

The night's horrors--The forest on fire--Sufferings of the wounded--On same ground May 7th--Anderson in command of First Corps--Characteristics--The great strategic contest betw...

2. CHAPTER II

Commissioned as captain and acting adjutant-general--Pay of officers--Assigned to Longstreet's brigade--The Oglethorpe Infantry, of Savannah--Enemy preparing for winter quarters...

10. CHAPTER X

Major-General Pope in command of Union troops in Northern Virginia--Religious observances in our army--Homesickness--Furloughs--Rations--March against Pope--Artillery duel at Ra...

3. CHAPTER III

Not long after the battle I set out on a visit to my father's country place, Ireland, fifteen miles from our camp. Hitching up two good mules to a light army ambulance, what we...

26. CHAPTER XXVI

The Western army--Its general appearance--Feeling toward Bragg--President Davis's visit--An incident in battle--General W. W. Mackall, chief of Bragg's staff--Losses--A captured...

28. CHAPTER XXVIII

In front of Knoxville after repulse--Position serious--Bragg defeated at Missionary Ridge--Reinforcements pressing to Burnside--We withdraw to the eastward--Halt at Rogersville-...

9. CHAPTER IX

Longstreet's and A. P. Hill's divisions--Rivalry between the two--Publications in _Richmond Examiner_ and _Whig_--General Hill resentful--Refuses recognition of Longstreet's adj...

27. CHAPTER XXVII

Ordered by Bragg to move against Burnside and Knoxville--Our two divisions--Wheeler's cavalry with artillery--Burnside's strength--At Sweetwater, November 21st--Disappointed in...

29. CHAPTER XXIX

Leave of absence--Visiting home with Doctor Sorrel--Traveling by rail--Old Savannah--Few changes--Many friends--Happiness in meeting them--Return to the army--Longstreet's corre...

18. CHAPTER XVIII

Fredericksburg after the battle--Flag of truce--Burying dead--General Wadsworth, U. S. A.--Again on enemy's side with flag of truce--At their picket fire--Colonel Brown, of Rhod...

4. CHAPTER IV

One fine day not long after the Manassas battle, and while we were at Fairfax Court House, Longstreet called on me to ride over to the station on a visit. It was to General Elze...

16. CHAPTER XVI

Burnside in command of Army of the Potomac--Sketch--Lee's plans--At Fredericksburg--General Patrick, U. S. A.--Flag of truce--Arrival of army in position--Poor defensive works--...

11. CHAPTER XI

When we got back to Virginia and Toombs's resignation had gone in, Longstreet sent for me to say he had, some time before, about August, 1862, recommended me for promotion to br...

17. CHAPTER XVII

Enemy massed on Stafford Heights--Heavy artillery fire--The pontoon bridge--Splendid defense of Mississippians--Enemy crosses--Preparing for his assault--Sumner's attack on Mary...

25. CHAPTER XXV

Arrival at Catoosa--Riding to General Bragg--The meeting--Order of battle--Polk the right wing, Longstreet the left--attack to begin on right--Delayed some hours--Left wing take...

20. CHAPTER XX

Preparations for summer campaign--Army reorganized--Three Army Corps--A. P. Hill made lieutenant-general, commanding Third Corps--Lieutenant-General Ewell commanding Second Corp...

22. CHAPTER XXII

The invasion of Pennsylvania had many features of interest to our army. The country itself contrasted greatly with our own. It was rolling in plenty, high cultivation was appare...

19. CHAPTER XIX

Burnside's "mud march"--His removal--Hooker superseding him--Our great want of supplies--Longstreet ordered to South Virginia--Hood's and Pickett's divisions with him--I precede...

6. CHAPTER VI

Arrival at Yorktown--Major-General Magruder--His skilful defense--Lines at Warwick River--Major-General McClellan--Retreat from Yorktown--Battle of Williamsburg, May 5--Death of...

12. CHAPTER XII

Marching through Frederick--Barbara Fritchie and Stonewall Jackson--Commissariat broken down--Green corn for rations--Stampede of horses of a cavalry regiment--D. H. Hill's hors...

13. CHAPTER XIII

Toombs's Georgia Brigade--Longstreet on the field--Lee's war horse--McClellan superseded by Burnside--A horse trade--Richard H. Anderson's division--A lost opportunity--Walton a...

7. CHAPTER VII

McClellan was hugging himself in security and reinforcements beyond the Chickahominy, and the earthwork defenses of Richmond which we were guarding seemed to us then all-suffici...

23. CHAPTER XXIII

Lee moves across the ridge into the Piedmont country--Camps taken near Rapidan--Our Headquarters at Taylor's--Festivities and gaieties--Buying remounts--Scout Harrison again--Lo...

15. CHAPTER XV

Of the names of those starting out with Longstreet at the beginning only a few have already been given. The others were added as the command grew in strength and wants. Some of...

31. CHAPTER XXXI

Longstreet borne from the field--His letter to Lee from Lynchburg--Return of General Wadsworth's map to his son--Coincidence in the wounding of Jackson and Longstreet--General L...

5. CHAPTER V

Among the troops at Centerville there was much singing, some of it very sweet and touching. "Lorena," set to a tender, sentimental air, was heard everywhere. "My Maryland" was a...

14. CHAPTER XIV

On duty again, recovered--Army refreshed and in good condition--Reorganization--First and Second Army Corps, Longstreet and Stonewall commanding--Divisions composing them--Caval...

24. CHAPTER XXIV

The important movement now impending was the subject of deep and secret discussion by the President, Generals Lee and Longstreet, and General Lawton, Quartermaster-General, whos...