Army of Northern Virginia. He had officers
and men under him who were the "flower of chivalry" of the South, and
were really the "Old Guard" of Lee's Army. McLaws was a graduate of
West Point, and had seen service in Mexico and on the plains of the
West. But General McLaws was not the man for the times--not the man
to command such troops as he had--was not the officer to lead in an
active, vigorous campaign, where all depended on alertness and dash.
He was too cautious, and as such, too slow. The two Georgia brigades,
a Mississippi brigade, and a South Carolina brigade, composed mostly
of the first volunteers from their respective States, needed as a
commander a hotspur like our own J.B. Kershaw. While the army watched
with sorrow and regret the departure of our old and faithful General,
one who had been with us through so many scenes of trials, hardships,
and bloodshed, whose name had been so identified with that of our own
as to be almost a part of it, still none could deny that the change
was better for the service and the Confederacy.

One great trouble with the organization of our army was that too many
old and incompetent officers of the old regular army commanded it.
And the one idea that seemed to haunt the President was that none but
those who had passed through the great corridors and halls of West
Point could command armies or men--that civilians without military
training were unfit for the work at hand--furthermore, he had
favorites, that no failures or want of confidence by the men could
shake his faith in as to ability and Generalship. What the army needed
was young blood--no old army fossils to command the hot-blooded,
dashing, enthusiastic volunteers, who could do more in their
impetuosity with the bayonet in a few moments than in days and months
of manoeuvering, planning, and fighting battles by rules or conducting
campaigns by following the precedent of great commanders, but now
obsolete.

When the gallant Joe Kershaw took the command and began to feel his
way for his Major General's spurs, the division took on new life.
While the brigade was loath to give him up, still they were proud of
their little "Brigadier," who had yet to carve out a name for himself
on the pillars of fame, and write his achievements high up on the
pages of history in the campaign that was soon to begin.

It seems from contemporaneous history that President Davis was baiting
between two opinions, either to have Longstreet re