by Jeff Shaara
He didn't know if his children would come to the reunion, even to support him, to endure the great speeches, watching the sad old men. He hoped Daisy would come at least, and bring her children. There is value in that, that if my stories and all the newspaper clippings mean very little, they should at least come to this place, walk this ground. It was different with Wyllys, his son never quite finding his place in the world. Chamberlain had tried to help him, had even gone to Florida for a business venture that Wyllys involved him in. It had come apart, as much of Wyllys's life had come apart, and Chamberlain thought of that now: It is my fault, my doing. He has a lot to live up to, the name, the famous father. He doesn't have to prove anything, not to me, but he will never stop trying.
Down below, there was a noise, loud, and he looked out over the rocks, saw black smoke, an automobile, full of straw hats and colored dresses. The car growled and sputtered along the road, moving toward the town, and he thought, There is something new, something for the old soldiers to think about. What of armies without horses?
He stood now, slowly, eased the stiffness in his legs. The noise of the auto was still in his mind, the jarring distraction, and he thought, Enough of this. It's time to go.
He moved back along the trail, stopped, paused briefly, saw a tall thin tree where no tree had been. Beside it was a rock, small, flat, oddly round. He moved over, stepped up on the rock, looked out toward the larger bill, Big Round Top, and knew it was one of those places he had stood, watching them, watching the enemy roll up the hill in one screaming tide. He looked across the ground, saw more of the rocks now, knew they had always been there, and he remembered now, this rock, he had done this every time he came up here.
All right, Lawrence, he thought, enough. But something held him, something different this time, and he told himself, No, wait, don't leave, not just yet. It came out of the ground, the rocks, through the deep green of the trees, all around him, the sight of his men, the sounds, the smells. He closed his eyes, and he was swallowed up in all of it, his men, holding them back, holding the line, the smoke and the cries, the horrible sight of his men dropping away, struck down. He could hear the screams and the sounds of the muskets, could smell the hot burn of the smoke, saw the terror in their eyes, and now he felt it, his mind opening to the marvelous memories, the pure raw excitement. If this was the last time, if he could never come back, he knew seeing it all again, it was the most alive he had ever been.
OSHUA LAWRENCE CHAMBERLAIN DOES NOT ATTEND THE FIFTIETH Reunion at Gettysburg, is stricken with illness. On February 24) 1.914, he dies in Portland, Maine. He does not live to see the events that will follow six months later, when, across a wide ocean, another conspiracy, another assassination, will shatter the peace. Once again a glorious army will march with banners unfurled, the colorful flags slapping in the brisk wind. This time it will be the French, and they will still remember the ways of Napoleon, still march in neat lines, a grand parade, officers leading their men, energized by the lust for the glory of war. They will not march into the rifled musket, but something new, n more deadly, the ever-changing technology providing a weapon eve more efficient. This time, the glorious charge will take them straight into the machine guns of the Germans. The Great War will last another four years, and again the blood and the numbers will horrify the world. And again they will not have learned.
AF E T
"War Isfor thepartz *czp*ants a test of character; it makes bad men worse and good men better.
JOSHUA LAWRENCE CHAMBERLAIN "It is h1sto7Y that teaches us to hope.
ROBERT E. LEE
JULIA DENT GRANT Regarded with great affection, she seems born to the attention that surrounds her husband's amazing career. Pious yet charming, her White House years leave Washington with a clear image of the perfect social hostess. She writes her memoirs, an odd mix of touchingly affectionate descriptions of her romance with her husband and a strident attack on the myths that surrounded him, including his presumed difficulties with sobriety. Her focus, and thus her personality, is revealed with charming clarity, as much of her reminiscences concern their two-year journey through the capitals and palaces of the world. Her book is not published in her lifetime, and only reaches a public audience in 1975. She dies the dignified widow of an American hero in 1902.
THOSE WHO WORE BLUE MAJOR GENERAL WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN A man with few friends in the press, his reputation for eccentric behavior continues. He is often accused of insanity, or at the very least, a brutal Osensitivity to human life. But the few who know him well understap' that this is a man with a deep respect for excellence, and a man of high intellect-in 1859 he founds what later becomes Louisiana ersity. Promoted to Lieutenant General in 1866, and then State Uni" I eral 1869, he succeeds Grant as general-in-chief of the army. Full Gen s's blamed or praised for the army's behavior during the great He thu i Indian conflIcts throughout the expansion of the American West during the 1870s. Despite a notorious disregard for criticism, he wearies of contro'ersy, and retires in 1884. He dies in i8gi, a week after his seventy-first birthday.
MAJOR GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN A ron who likely would have faded into obscurity without the opportu.Vitles provided him by Grant, he continues to invite controversy for his brusque manner and hot temper. The month after the Appomatto@ surrender, he is assigned to Texas, to con from the supposed threat fro fn Mexican Emperor Maximilian, brought to power as a puppet of the French, who support Maximilian with French troops. Sheridan's force of nearly fifty thousand men is a successful deterrent, and the French Pull out of Mexico, leaving Maximilian to the angry Mexican citizeary. Sheridan is made military governor of Texas and Louisiana durOg Reconstruction, but displays such brutality to the civili population, he is recalled to Washington after a short term of office. Promote@ to Lieutenant General in 1869, he later travels to Europe and represents the US. as an observer in the Franco-Prussian War. In 1884 he succeds Sherman as general-in-chief of the army, and dies four years later at ag@ fifty-seven.
BRIGADIER GENERAL JOHN A. RAWLINS GrOt's conscience, if not his tormentor, he is still Grant's close friend, aiiJ remains close after the war. Seen by many as a hypochondriac, his suffering becomes real, and he contracts the tuberculosis that had previously killed his wife. Still with Grant, he accepts the cabinet post as Grant's first Secretary of War, but his failing health causes his term of Office to be brief, and he dies in mid-1869. It is a letter to Grant, in the war, that lends the most credence written by Rawlins early to Grant's supposed drunkenness. The letter, which Grant never saw, is made public in i8gi, and in part reads, "I find you where the wine bottle haj been emptied, in company with those who drink, and urge you not to do likewise." The message reflects the hovering attention to detail and proper protocol for which Rawlins was well known, and includes the additional note, which is often ignored by Grant's enemies, that this advice was "heeded, and all went well." There is no evidence whatsoever that during any campaign where the safety of the army was an issue, or during any time when Grant's decision-making was critical, was Rawlins's commander ever indulging in the destructive practice that affected the abilities of so many men of both armies.
MAJOR GENERAL WIN FIELD SCOTT HANCOCK
Grant describes him as "the most conspicuous figure of all the general officers who did not exercise a separate command," and the man whose name was "never mentioned as having committed in battle a blunder for which he was responsible." Hancock still receives the deepest respect and affection from his subordinates, but the nagging wound keeps him from returning to active command of troops in the field. At the end of the war he is officially Commander of the Department of West Virginia, and has command of the Middle Military Division, the position originally created for Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley. He remains in the army, and his command places him in the uncomfortable position of military executioner for the assassins of President Lincoln. Despite grave misgivings, Hancock reluctantly oversees the execution of Mary Surratt, who he believes to be an innocent victim o
f the conspiracy.
In 1866, at Sherman's request, Hancock is named commander of the Military Department of Missouri, and moves again to Kansas, where he had spent so much of the i85os. His duty in Sherman's controversial Indian conflicts is short-lived, concluding with a feud with General George Custer, whom Hancock arrests. In 1867 Hancock is reassigned and succeeds Sheridan as Military Governor of Texas and Louisiana, where his sympathy for the rights of the former Confederate citizens creates enemies for him in Washington. He is eventually given the thankless post commanding the Department of Dakota. Feeling the pressure of Democrats to represent their political interests, be makes an attempt at a presidential nomination in 1868, but Grant's popularity prevents any hope of success. He assumes command of the Department of the Atlantic under the new president, still keeps his political interests alive, and in i88o receives the nomination. But Grant's corrupt administration has shifted the mood of the country away from military heroes, and Hancock loses the election to James Garfield.
Hancock then suffers the extraordinary loss of both his children, then loses the final fight for his own health and dies in 1886.
MAJOR GENERAL GOUVERNEUR K. WARREN
The unfortunate victim of Sheridan's wrath spends the rest of his life trying to correct the record, and is supported by Joshua Chamberlain for his actions along the White Oak Road and Five Forks. Pleading his case for a Court of Inquiry, he is finally granted a hearing in 1979, which clears him of wrongdoing and faults Sheridan's judgment for relieving him from command of the Fifth Corps. But the damage is done, and Warren dies in 1882 still believing his potential for a brilliant army career was stripped away by a grave injustice.
MAJOR GENERAL HO RATIO G. WRIGHT Sedgwick's successor to command of the Sixth Corps performs with competence, though he never rises to the esteem or the affection that the men had given "Uncle John." He remains in the army after the war, is assigned Chief of the Corps of Engineers in 1879, retires in 1994. He survives until 1899.
LIEUTENANT COLONEL HORACE PORTER Grant's most trustworthy and efficient staff officer remains in the army after the war, is promoted to Brigadier General. He resigns in 1873, returns to Pennsylvania to become an executive for the railroad. He is a frequent contributor to magazines whose audiences hunger for the "real" stories of the war, and in 1997 he writes his own memoirs, considered one of the most accurate and readable accounts of life with General Grant. He survives until ig2i.
MAJOR GENERAL GEORGE GORDON MEADE He is described by Grant as Clan officer of great merit, with drawbacks to his usefulness that were beyond his control... no one saw this better than himself, and no one regretted it more." Meade remains in the army after the war and is named to command the Division of the Atlantic. Congress's Reconstruction policies place the military in command of the southern states, and he becomes Military Governor of Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. When Sheridan alone is promoted to Lieutenant General, Meade vents his anger in public at both Sheridan and Washington for being passed over. He resigns his Reconstruction position, returns to Philadelphia to again command the Division of the Atlantic, and dies in 1872 of pneumonia.
MAJOR Tom CHAMBERLAIN Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain's youngest brother remains in command of Company G, Twentieth Maine, throughout the last half of the war. After Appomattox he is promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, and for a short while serves on Chamberlain's staff at division command. When the Army of the Potomac is officially disbanded in late June 1865, Tom returns to Maine, finds little to substitute for life as a soldier. He marries his ex-sister-in-law (widow of brother John) in 1870, and tries to follow his older brother's example by joining Joshua and Wyllys Chamberlain in their unfortunate business venture in Florida. He returns to Maine, saddens his family by establishing a dismal reputation for drinking and womanizing. Those who served with him during the war remember only a man who was an excellent soldier, but his civilian life can never measure up to the extraordinary esteem enjoyed by his famous brother, and he dies in New York City in 1896, at age fifty-five.
THOSE WHO WORE GRAY
COLONEL WALTERH. TAYLOR
Lee's most loyal officer was arguably the most hardworking and efficient staff officer in either army. After the war, he settles with his new wife in Norfolk, Virginia, and raises eight children. He prospers first in the hardware business, eventually enters banking, becomes president of the Marine Bank of Norfolk. He serves briefly as a state senator to the Virginia legislature, which labors to carry the state forward through the difficulties of Reconstruction. He maintains contact with his former commander, and is one of those called upon to assist Lee with material for the memoirs Lee never writes. Taylor understands Lee's fondness for those small bits of luxury Lee himself would rarely reveal, and so the young man frequently surprises Lee with gifts from the seacoast, most notably great boxes of fresh oysters, for which Lee has a weakness.
THE LAST FULL MEASURE 555 Taylor serves on the board of his alma mater, the Virginia Military Institute, and three of his sons attend the school.
His book, General Lee, 1861-1865, is possibly the most insightful and least egocentric memoir of any staff officer of the war. Throughout his life he is well known in Norfolk not only as the staff officer of the South's greatest hero, but for his own quiet accomplishments as well.
obituary in the Richmond He dies in 1913, at age seventy-four. His obi Times-Dispatch concludes: "Few men have been more honored in life than Col. Walter H. Taylor... and few are more honored in memory than he. To have lived so that all men gave him reverence to the day of his death is memory fine enough, but to have lived so that in his youth he was the trusted adjutant of Robert E. Lee sets his name apart and emblazons it. His books, his work in later years, his service to his community will live after him."
LIEUTENANT GENERAL JAMES LONGSTREET Possibly the least understood and most maligned commander in 1. the South, "Old Pete" was decades ahead of his time with his defensive tactics, the development of trench warfare.
After the war, he and his wife Louise settle in New Orleans, where he goes into the cotton brokerage business and later founds an insurance agency. Often blamed for the loss at Gettysburg, his close relationship with Lee diminishes after the war, and he pursues a lifelong effort to vindicate his actions, which often results in controversy, since much of his writing and explanations come after the death of Lee. There is still controversy and disagreement as to what role his ego and what desire for independent command played in his relationship wi h Lee. It is indisputable, however, that Lee relied upon Longstreet more than anyone under his command, and no one performed in difficult situations with the consistency of Old Pete.
Proving, however, to be his own worst enemy, Longstreet writes that "we are a conquered people" and should "accept the terms that are now offered by the conquerors." Though conciliatory in sentiment, it is an unwise statement to make publicly. He becomes a Republican during Reconstruction, believing sincerely that he can better aid the South by cooperation with the powers in Congress5 and thus alienates many Southerners who otherwise would have supported him. He accepts a job from his friend, (now President) Grant, and in 1869 becomes Customs Surveyor for the Port of New Orleans. This further outrages many who feel that he is a direct pawn of the hostile administration. His old friend, and former subordinate, Daniel Harvey Hill writes, "[Longstreet] is the local leper of the community."
He finally leaves New Orleans in 1875 and settles in Gainesville, Georgia. Later he serves as United States Minister to Turkey, but has never had skill as a diplomat, finds the position disagreeable at best, and returns to become a U. S. marshal in Georgia. He retires from government service in 1884 and settles into a pleasant life as a farmer. In 1889 he endures disaster as his home, and many of the precious artifacts of his wartime service, are destroyed by fire, and then later in the same year, his wife Louise dies. She had borne him ten children, only five of whom survived to adulthood. He eases his grief by writing his memoirs, creating yet more controversy. His view of events is de
scribed by many as flawed, either by the passage of years or his continuing need to defend his service on the field.
He shocks friends and family in 1897 by marrying thirty-four year-old Helen Dortch, a woman younger than he by forty-two years. Gradually, though, he rekindles the affection of many of the old soldiers, attends reunions and celebrations, and is cheered with great enthusiasm by the men who remember him, after all, as Lee's war-horse. He dies in 1904 of pneumonia, having never regained the use of his right arm; he is just shy of his eighty-third birthday. Helen Dortch Longstreet survives until 1962.
The controversy that has surrounded his name is made poignant' by the fact that it is not until July 1998, 135 years after the battle, that the first monument to him is scheduled to be placed on the field at Gettysburg.
MAJOR GENERAL JOHNB. GORDON The lawyer-turned-soldier returns to his home state of Georgia after the war, and serves two terms as a United States senator, then one term as governor of the state. Always active in Confederate causes and reunions, he serves as commander-in-chief of the United Confederate Veterans. Long after the war, after most of its participants are gone, he writes his memoirs. As with Longstreet, the accuracy of the work is criticized, and again, much is made of the span of years between the events and the writing. Some suggest there are some indiscreet motives behind some of Gordons accounts, and so, much of his reminiscences are regarded with great skepticism. Lee biographer Douglas Southall Freeman writes that it is often difficult "to know where General Gordon's memory ended and where his imagination began."