rse and rode forward to meet and
encourage the retreating troops. The air was filled with exploding
shell, and the men were coming back without order. General Lee now met
them, and with his staff-officers busied himself in rallying them,
uttering as he did so words of hope and encouragement. Colonel
Freemantle, who took particular notice of him at this moment,
describes his conduct as "perfectly sublime." "Lee's countenance," he
adds, "did not show signs of the slightest disappointment, care, or
annoyance," but preserved the utmost placidity and cheerfulness. The
hurry and confusion of the scene seemed not to move him in any manner,
and he rode slowly to and fro, saying in his grave, kindly voice to
the men: "All this will come right in the end. We'll talk it over
afterward, but in the mean time all good men must rally. We want all
good and true men just now."
Numbers of wounded passed him, some stretched on litters, which men
wearing the red badge of the ambulance corps were bearing to the rear,
others limping along bleeding from hurts more or less serious. To the
badly wounded Lee uttered words of sympathy and kindness; to those
but slightly injured, he said: "Come, bind up your wound and take a
musket," adding "my friend," as was his habit.
An evidence of his composure and absence of flurry was presented by a
slight incident. An officer near him was striking his horse violently
for becoming frightened and unruly at the bursting of a shell, when
General Lee, seeing that the horse was terrified and the punishment
would do no good, said, in tones of friendly remonstrance: "Don't
whip him, captain, don't whip him. I've got just such a foolish horse
myself, and whipping does no good."
Meanwhile the men continued to stream back, pursued still by that
triumphant roar of the enemy's artillery which swept the whole valley
and slope of Seminary Ridge with shot and shell. Lee was everywhere
encouraging them, and they responded by taking off their hats and
cheering him--even the wounded joining in this ceremony. Although
exposing himself with entire indifference to the heavy fire, he
advised Colonel Freemantle, as that officer states, to shelter
himself, saying: "This has been a sad day for us, colonel, a sad day.
But we can't expect always to gain victories."
As he was thus riding about in the fringe of woods, General Wilcox,
who, about the time of Pickett's repulse, had advanced and speedily
been thrown back with loss
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