Longstreet knows Lee has made up his mind. There is no hope, and at this point, Longstreet just wants to get it over. He gives up on whatever he believes, abdicating his responsibility to Lee’s orders.
Both Lee and Longstreet have valid points of view, but the interesting thing is that if Longstreet had attacked earlier in the day, the Union Army wouldn’t have been in the Peach Orchard or on the Round Tops. Because the Confederate attacks started so late, Union General Sickles had already moved his men forward, and General Warren had obtained Colonel Vincent’s brigade to cover Little Round Top. On the flip side, there is no guarantee that the Confederates would have succeeded in an earlier attack if the enemy had seen them moving into position. It might have been a slaughter as the Union could have reinforced its lines in time. The element of chance comes into play here with timing, with no one knowing the roads, and with the missing Stuart, whose presence could have avoided some of the problems.
In this chapter, a lot is happening and being felt, but little is being said. There are shifting looks and a lot of “yes sirs.” The personal interactions as this attack is planned and carried out reveal the characters and how they feel about one another. For example, Lee constantly checks up on Ewell, but not on Longstreet — a measure of his trust in Longstreet. When Lee mentions Early to Longstreet, Longstreet spits on the ground — a not so subtle expression of Longstreet’s feelings for the man. Lee keeps trying for Longstreet’s approval — really wants it — but he can’t get it. And Longstreet wants to give it because he cares about Lee, but he just can’t. A.P. Hill is sick again on the day of battle, a trend. And McLaws is caught between his commander’s (Longstreet’s) feelings about the battle plan, and those of Lee.
Later, Hood wants to go around the Round Tops, and Longstreet agrees that Hood is right, but he won’t change Lee’s orders. It’s the impossible situation. Longstreet is sending his men to their deaths, to do the very things he disagrees with, and it’s killing him. But he will no longer fight Lee. Longstreet just wants to get on with it. He reflects on the preciousness of his men and that they should be used carefully. He struggles with this and cannot even look Hood in the eye as he orders him to attack.
Lee also continues to manipulate Longstreet. He speaks again to Longstreet of his health, of getting older, of needing Longstreet, and of wanting total honesty from him. Lee says the things he knows will tug at Longstreet’s emotions in the hope that Longstreet will agree with him. Lee needs Longstreet’s friendship as much as Longstreet needs the father figure in Lee.
One of the problems with this battle is that Lee is executing very complex strategies, something that requires flawless, close, and constant communications and precise timing. Instead, because the communications here are verbal ones delivered by messengers, they are fragmented, ineffective, and confusing. Lengthy and costly delays result.
There is again the mention of the oath to defend the Union being broken. Longstreet feels it. Lee pushes it away. The higher duty to Virginia is Lee’s guiding force, the indication that in that time, one’s state came before anything else, even before an oath to God.
Longstreet recognizes that the men they are battling are old friends, not an “enemy.” And he knows they will not be easy to take. He cannot shake the futility of this whole affair.
