LEE’S INVASION OF PENNSYLVANIA.
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were all hopeful and the army was ingood condition, hut the war had ad-vanced far enough for us to see that amere victory without decided fruits wasa luxury we could not afford. Ournumbers were less than the Federalforces, and our resources were limitedwhile theirs were not. The time hadcome when it was imperative that theskill of generals and the strategy andtactics of war should take the place ofmuscle against muscle. Our purposeshould have been to impair the moraleof the Federal army and shake North-ern confidence in the Federal leaders.We talked on that line from day today, and Oeneral Lee, accepting it as agood military view, adopted it as thekey-note of the campaign. I suggestedthat we should have all the details andpurposes so well arranged and so im-pressed upon our minds that when thecritical moment should come, we couldrefer to our calmer moments and knowwe were carrying out our original plans.I stated to General Lee that if he wouldallow me to handle my corps so as toreceive the attack of the Federal army,I would beat it off without calling onhim for help except to guard my rightand left, and called his attention to thebattle of Fredericksburg as an instanceof defensive warfare, where we hadthrown not more than five thousandtroops into the fight and had beatenoff two-thirds of the Federal army withgreat loss to them and slight loss to myown troops. I also called his attentionto Napoleon ’s instructions to Marmontat the head of an invading army.
A few days before we were ready tomove General Lee sent for GeneralEwell to receive his orders. I was pres-ent at the time and remarked that if wewere ever going to make an offensivebattle it should be done south of the