James Longstreet

The town caught fire in several places, shells crashed and burst, and solid shot rained like hail.

There was no indication of panic. The broken files marched back in steady step. The effort was nobly made and failed from the blows that could not be fended.

Pickett's lines being nearer, the impact was heaviest upon them.

In the case of the armies at Fredericksburg it would have been, to say the least, very hazardous to give counter-attack, the Federal position being about as strong as ours from which we had driven them back.

Bad as was being shot by some of our own troops in the battle of the Wilderness, - that was an honest mistake, one of the accidents of war, - being shot at, since the war, by many officers, was worse.

I cannot help but think that great results would have been obtained had my views been thought better of; yet I am much inclined to accept the present condition as for the best.

If the blame (if there is any) can be shifted from him to me, I shall help him and our cause by taking it. I desire, therefore, that all the responsibility that can be put upon me shall go there and shall remain there.

General Pickett, finding the battle broken while the enemy was still reinforcing, called the troops off.

I hope to live long enough to see my surviving comrades march side by side with the Union veterans along Pennsylvania Avenue, and then I will die happy.

In a very short time the army of Northern Virginia was face to face with the Army of the Potomac.

I fancy that no good ideas upon that campaign will be mentioned at any time that did not receive their share of consideration by General Lee.