military service. When we wish men must be read and digested. to read something valuable, touch- (At present, not one in a thousand ing the wars of Napoleon, we has been written.) Next, the take up the history of General archives, of the respective GovJomini, the Napoleon au Tribu- ernments at war, must be carenal de Cæsar, the Dispatches of fully studied, that their policy Wellington, Napier's Peninsular may be understood in projecting War, &c., - books written by certain campaigns, which culmimilitary men, understanding the nated in certain great battles. It subject of which they treat. So is plain that if this vast material for an account of a particular bat- was all gathered together and tle, as Waterloo, we may be en placed before the general historitertained by the vivid description an, he would have a work of of the great French novelist, but many years in collating, weighwe look for authentic facts to ing, examining, rejecting and diGneisenau, Beamish, Jones, &c. gesting. It is equally plain that Thus too, in our own first great if either the material is wanting, rebellion, we rely upon the state- or the patient and intelligent ments of the loyal Tarleton and investigation for years is wanting, the rebels Greene and Lee. As the book may pay the historian, they wrote about what they saw but it will never pay the reader. with their own eyes, or knew of If we wish the history of our their own personal knowledge, Confederate struggle to be correctwe feel sure that their dates ly written, we must encourage the and events are correct, though a writing of the histories of the partisan coloring may be thrown smaller commands, -regiments, around the latter. Therefore, brigades, etc., etc. General Longtheir books have lived, and will street has made a move in the live, while the sensational stories right direction in selecting a comof mere book writers have perished long ago.

petent officer to write the history of his corps. Let each corps commander do the same thing. The writers so selected would exert themselves to draw out the histories of the subordinate commands, and would, at any rate, get all the official reports of the subordinate

The general history of the second American rebellion must be a most difficult task, since three millions of men were called out on one side, and about half a million on the other. 'Tis a stupendous undertaking to compre- commanders in their respective hend fully fifty gigantic battles, corps. From the several corps and two hundred lesser combats histories in any one army, (as that of no little magnitude. The re- of Northern Virginia) the histoports of regiments, brigades, di- rian for that army may gather his visions, corps and armies, must materials and write his book.be read and digested, and how And from the histories of the sevmany thousands of these there eral armies, the general historian will be! Next, the histories of may gather the materials for the each, and of all these bodies of history of the whole-combining with the military, the civil and and yet the cowardly brigade lost political annals of the period of more men than the heroic divis

war.

ion! Another writer, (a clergy-
man) in his biography of a noble
partisan officer, has to describe
the movements of Jackson's corps,
in which there were many North
Carolina soldiers. But the whole
volume contains but one allusion

Should the proper interest in this subject be excited among our people, the corps historians might hope, in four or five years, to get the subordinate histories, from which their own could be compiled. This is all that we can expect in this to the brave soldiers from that generation. The general history State-" here the 21st N. C. regimust be the task of our descend- ment suffered heavily." At the ants. Perhaps in a quarter of a very time this clergyman was century, when the passions and composing his book at Winchesprejudices evoked by the war ter, Va., the Memorial Associashall have subsided; some calm, tion of that city were inviting dignified, impartial man of learn- Gov. Vance of North Carolina to ing, industry and ability, may address them, and giving as a gather together the materials reason for their invitation that furnished in the manner suggest- their Cemetery contained more ed, and from them produce a graves of soldiers from North Cartruthful history of the great re- olina than from any other Statebellion. The wisest statesman of a fact which might be said of evethe South has well said that this ry burying ground in Virginia.is not the age for the history of The wise reader will throw aside the Confederate struggle. as worthless, books bearing the We suppose no one will ques- marks of prejudice and partion the correctness of the prin- tiality, as well as of ignorance of the ciples we have laid down, or deny subject. What shall be said then that the qualities enumerated of the historian, whose chief merabove are essential to the histo- it, it is claimed, consists in his rian. But measured by this stand- prejudice and partiality? The ard how immeasurably will all the "Old Guard" for November, unwar-books yet produced fall short! der the editorial head, says of Mr. Most of them have been written E. A. Pollard: "He is partial, prejby civilians ignorant of the first udiced, dogmatic, determined-the rudiments of military science, very man to write contemporaneous who never heard the whistle of a history. He represents evidently hostile shot, and to whom the strategy of a campaign and the tactics of the field are alike incomprehensible. One of these writers is a civilian, who exalts to the skies a certain division for its gallantry at Gettysburg and attrib- does not in the least attempt to disutes the disaster there to the guise his prejudice, or conceal his cowardice of a certain brigade, hatred. His dislike of Jefferson

the thoughts, hopes and passions
of a particular set, and when the
materials he gives are used by the
future writer of history, there is
no danger of their receiving more
than their proper weight. He

1

Davis is particularly plain. It is lard, and did not know until very like part of his style. It crops recently, when my attention was out in every direction." (The called to it by a friend, that in italics in the extract are our own.) speaking of a dispatch from Gen.

This is certainly strange doc- Lee at Frederick, Maryland, adtrine. Unfairness has never be- dressed to me, which was lost by fore been commended as an excel- some one, he used the following lence in any writer, and surely

least of all in the historian.

language:

"A copy of the order directing "Truth is in order to goodness" the movement of the army from is a well-known maxim of Lord Bacon; and when the competency of the author is not in dispute, he is valued just in proportion to our belief in his honesty and truth

fulness.

Frederick had been sent to D. H. Hill; and this vain and petulant officer, in a moment of passion, had thrown the paper on the ground. It was picked up by a Federal soldier, and McClellan thus strangely became possessed of the exact detail of his adversary's plan of operations."

Mr. E. A. Pollard, though an ardent advocate of the war, was, we believe, never under fire, and we might question the ability of a man to describe all the battles of Pollard three remarks.

I will make upon this extraordinary statement of Mr. E. A.

First. The harsh epithets which he applies to me are unworthy of the dignity of the historian, and prove a prejudiced state of mind.

the four years' struggle, who was never a witness of one. But we do not propose to discuss his competency, and will confine ourselves to exposing his prejudices and his inaccuracies. It has been the desire of the Editor of this Magazine not to obtrude upon his readers merely to be cashiered, but to be the part he himself acted in the shot to death with musketry.war, but as Mr. E. A. Pollard And it seems strange that Gen.

Second. If I petulantly threw down this order, I deserved not

Lee, who ought to have known the facts, as well as Mr. E. A. Pollard, never brought me to trial

has made certain statements with reference to him, which are matters of general and not merely of personal interest, he thinks there for it. 'Tis still stranger that is no violation of good taste in re- Mr. Davis, nearly a year after the plying through his own columns. alleged occurrence, promoted me To prevent misapprehension, he to a Lieutenant-Generalcy, and will drop the Editorial we and sent me to command a corps at speak in the first person.

Chickamauga.

Believing that life was too short Third. If Mr. E. A. Pollard to be wasted in reading a history cannot prove this statement by of the war, a quarter of a century trustworthy eye-witnesses, who in advance of the time, when a saw this petulant act of throwing truthful history could be written, down the dispatch, he could be I had not read a single line of the convicted of slander in any re"Lost Cause," by Mr. E. A. Pol- spectable Court of Justice in Christendom. But there is not the division examining a map held by shadow of truth in his charge, and Captain (afterwards Colonel) E. he has therefore perpetrated a V. White, who still lives. He gross and unprovoked slander. said, "You have been placed

and

General McClellan states that a under my orders, I wish your dispatch, of General Lee, direct- division to join me, to-night, near ed to me was found near Freder- Frederick." I returned ick, Maryland, and that he gained brought up my division that night. most important information from General J. was disabled the next it. There can be no doubt then, morning by his horse falling back that such a dispatch was lost. - upon him, and I was put in But it is obviously unfair to as- charge of the corps. I rode forsume that a paper with my name ward and joined Captain White's on the envelope was necessarily scouts, and together, we crossed lost by me in person. Might it the bridge over the Monocacy, not have been lost in Gen. Lee's and went first to the telegraph own office? Might it not have office. For the next two or three been dropped by his courier in days, we drew all our supplies carrying it to me? As the Adju- and received all our tant is the keeper of all orders, through General Jackson. might it not have been lost by my seems to me very improbable Adjutant? Who has the right to then, that General Lee would assume that the loss was through send an order directly to me.

my own carelessness ? Who, without evidence, can presume to charge me with throwing it down in a fit of passion? I challenge Mr. E. A. Pollard to produce a single witness, who saw the act.

There are some circumstances which will satisfy any unprejudiced mind that I am not responsible for the loss of the dispatch.

orders

It

Official etiquette required it to be sent through Jackson, and if the celebrated order of Sept. 9th (the one McClellan found) was not sent thus, it was in violation of usage. I have the certificate of my Adju tant (who is still living) Major J. W. Ratchford, that no order ever came to the division from General Lee. I have no recollection of any myself. But I have in my possession now (and it has been shown to many persons) a copy of this very lost order of Lee, which is in General Jackson's own hand

My division was the first to cross the Potomac, which it did at Cheek's ford, upon a verbal order, and with no knowledge whatever of the object of the expedition. writing. He did not trust it to We crossed one afternoon about be copied by his Adjutant, and 3 o'clock, and were engaged till with like care, I carried it in my the same hour the next day in pocket and did not trust it among destroying the Chesapeake & Ohio my office papers. It was right canal. I then learned that Gen. and proper that I should have reJackson had crossed and wished ceived this order from Jackson, to see me. After a rapid ride, I and from no one else, and I have found him at the head of his no recollection of getting one in Pennsylvania. As part of Mr. E. A. Pollard's history was written during the war, it may be that while I was risking my life for the

from General Lee's office direct. mond from the attacks of troops My Quarter-master, Major John coming from Fortress Monroe to D. Rogers, (now residing at Mid- capture the Confederate Capital, dleburg, Virginia,) writes to me during the absence of Lee's army that while at Frederick, he received all the orders in regard to his wagon train, supplies, &c., through Gen. Jackson's Quartermaster. It seems to me utterly defence of Richmond he, secure incomprehensible that all orders in his office, was penning this should have come through the most unjust and unprovoked usual official channels, except this one, the most important of all.

slander.

I next heard of this aspersion There is a mystery about this upon me when I was at Chattaorder, at Frederick, which would nooga, just before the battle of seem to indicate that there was Chickamauga. Fearing that there something wrong in the manner might be a stain upon my memoof transmitting it, or treachery in ry, if I fell in the approaching the persons carrying it. General battle without some explanation R. H. Anderson commanded an of the mystery, I wrote home that independent division (unlike mine the copy of Lee's order, which in that respect) and yet he re- governed me in all I did while in ceived no copy of the celebrated Maryland, could be found among order. He writes to me that he my papers, having been sent home is perfectly sure of this, and Gen. by a private hand while we were Chilton (Chief-of-Staff to General encamped on the Opequon. It Lee) is equally certain that the was found precisely as indicated. order was sent to all the Major As my statement made after the Generals.

battle was very generally copied, it seems strange to me that Mr. E. A. Pollard never saw it.

I will next examine the allegation that the loss of the dispatch was a serious damage to the Con federate cause. It will not be difficult to show that it was just the reverse. The celebrated or

But without attempting to unravel the mystery, I will content myself with pronouncing the charge of Mr. E. A. Pollard to be wholly untrue. It will be difficult for that gentleman to explain why I preserved with so much care, Jackson's copy of Lee's order, and threw away so contemptuously der of Lee is in these words: the order itself, coming directly "The army will resume its from the Head-quarters of the march to-morrow, taking the Army. Hagerstown road. Gen. Jackson's

I first heard of the lost dispatch command will form the advance, and the unkind comments made and after passing Middletown, upon it by some pen-and-ink with such portion as he may warriors, when I was on my select, take the route beyond way from the Department of Sharpsburg, cross the Potomac at North Carolina to defend Rich- the most convenient point, and by