Longstreet is becoming the scapegoat. Lee will never be blamed for any losses. “The Old Man is becoming untouchable.” Armistead sums up the feelings for Lee when he tells Longstreet they don’t need any help as long as Lee is there to lead them.
Even Longstreet cannot fight Lee. He melts when Lee nurtures him, and he feels protective when he sees Lee feeling weak. Longstreet knows Lee needs to hear the truth and is angry with himself when he does not speak it.
Longstreet is rough around the edges, and although he is an emotional man, he does not always express it well. For example, Longstreet notices that his aide, Moxley Sorrel, is wounded. Sorrel frequently irritates Longstreet, but Longstreet attempts concern: “Take care of yourself, Major. You aint the most likable man I ever met, but you sure are useful.”
Longstreet struggles with emotion in general. He feels deeply for Armistead’s suffering and wants to touch the man, comfort him. But Longstreet can’t do it until they joke about hitting Early with a plate back in the old days. Then, with the emotional spell broken by a joke, Longstreet can lightly touch Armistead, once. Longstreet is in emotional pain, but can’t let it show. The depression is deep — so many men dead, Hood’s accusing eyes, his dead children — and Longstreet tries not to think about any of it. He stays away from his feelings.
Longstreet has been careful throughout the book to avoid any alcohol. He knows he is vulnerable already. However, after today, Longstreet wants to have a long sleep and a long bottle. He can’t take the pain anymore. At end of the chapter, Longstreet doesn’t want to be responsible anymore. He just wants to be with the men and let go. So he agrees to join Armistead and the others for one drink.
Shaara describes the condition of Lee’s health through subtle references in the chapter: the hand with no strength; sitting inside — sagging, lines of pain around the eyes; saying he’s tired, which he never did before; his hand going to his chest; his face gray and still. Lee is slipping away.
The theme of honor comes up several times in this chapter. Fremantle, so emotional over Longstreet’s courage at being in the front line of battle, is actually willing to shake Longstreet’s hand even though Fremantle hates that custom. Longstreet recalls Jackson ordering pikes — a weapon out of the dark ages of knights and castles — to use against the enemy if necessary. Longstreet can’t believe the mindset and concludes they all come from another age, “The Age of Virginia.” And Garnett, the unsmiling, dishonored, gallant man, will die in battle just to erase the stain on his name put there by Jackson.
Shaara chillingly foreshadows Armistead’s fate when Armistead relates to Longstreet the vow he made to Hancock: “Win, so help me, if I ever lift a hand against you, may God strike me dead.” Longstreet feels a cold shudder. Longstreet already feels the weight of other broken vows, being an invader on soil he had sworn to defend. This battle is the first time Armistead is up against Hancock, and while Armistead won’t sit the fight out, he senses the vow may come to pass. So does Longstreet.
Music plays a large role in this chapter. Celebrations occur in camp after the battle, with happy music and partying. The Irish tenor singing “Kathleen Mavourneen” leaves the whole camp silent and many in tears. One lyric from that song — “It may be for years, and it may be forever” — continues to recur throughout the chapters in connection with Armistead, his memories of his dead wife, and his parting from his friend, Hancock. It symbolizes the ambiguousness of Armistead’s situation — in his wife’s case, she is gone forever; in Hancock’s, it may be years before the two men see each other again, or it may be forever, if one or both die.
