Annotation by Alexander. E.P. Alexander Papers

Stiles/Akin

Sergeant Major
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Atlanta, Georgia
After two days of inconclusive fighting at Gettysburg, Lee ordered an attack against the center known as “Pickett’s Charge.” Colonel Edward P. Alexander’s artillery tried to weaken the Union defenses, after which the infantry, under command of Lieutenant General James Longstreet, charged the Union center. Longstreet asked Alexander to advise Pickett whether or not to make the charge based on his artillery’s effectiveness, and Alexander’s postwar scrapbook included Longstreet’s original battlefield notes and his own replies.

Annotation by Alexander. E.P. Alexander Papers, L of C.

https://www.facebook.com/TheLongstr...96436831837/10154330900781838/?type=3&theater

The Longstreet Society

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When I take notes on Civil War videos (for the Monday chats we've had here but have discontinued, hopefully temporarily), I find that afterwards I can't read my own writing! No wonder, it's because I'm writing while watching the video instead of the paper!
 
I'm struggling to read the note
Longstreet is telling Alexander if the artillery does not have the desired effect tell Pickett not to charge. I think.
Porter responds that it will be hard to tell from the smoke, that the artillery will have little effect on the infantry there, and there is only enough ammo for one attempt. I think lol
 
So exciting to see the original notes! Thank you for posting this!

No problem for my reading the handwriting, but I'll bet my grandkids couldn't read a word of it! A lot of history is going to be lost when nobody is left who can read cursive!

Oddly enough, there's a WWII parallel I became aware of only recently involving German writing of the period. Since I don't read the language I'd always assumed what I was seeing was old German fractur but in fact there was a late nineteenth and early twentieth century variant called Sutterlin that aimed to rectify the many German regional dialects. The writing was unlike anything else and was taught in the schools of the period to many students like the young Adolf Hitler and many others. It seems to have been abandoned following the war and will probably become another "lost" language.
 
Oddly enough, there's a WWII parallel I became aware of only recently involving German writing of the period. Since I don't read the language I'd always assumed what I was seeing was old German fractur but in fact there was a late nineteenth and early twentieth century variant called Sutterlin that aimed to rectify the many German regional dialects. The writing was unlike anything else and was taught in the schools of the period to many students like the young Adolf Hitler and many others. It seems to have been abandoned following the war and will probably become another "lost" language.

fractur is for printing books - sütterlin is a handwriting, of which the name is quite often mistaken for what was known as deutsche schrift (and put out of commission by a certain austrian corporal in favour of latin) and is in fact and older style called old english text plus a few specificly german letters like äöüß and a few changes in favour of pestalozzi's theories.

hope i cleared it up for you :unsure:
 
Below is the "modern day" rendition of that infamous order and response. Like many others, I have always wondered what would of happened if Alexander's judgement was not to send in Pickett. But he didn't and we will never know that answer.

I had trouble reading the cursive actual orders as well, despite reading the content many times. I can only imagine the pressure that Colonel Alexander felt after receiving that note. His response in talking about an alternative plan is strikingly couageous of a Colonel talking to a Lt General of Longstreet's stature. I have always thought that this order and response is the most poignant and utterly fascinating dialogue between a senior officer and a subordinate that I have ever read.


Colonel:

"If the artillery fire does not have the effect to drive off the enemy or greatly demoralize him so as to make our efforts pretty certain, I would prefer that you should not advise General Pickett to make the charge. I shall rely a great deal on your good judgment to determine the matter, and shall expect you to let General Pickett know when the moment offers.

"Respectfully,
"J. Longstreet, Lieutenant General.
To Colonel E.P. Alexander, Artillery."


"General:

"I will only be able to judge of the effect of our fire on the enemy by his return fire, for his infantry is but little exposed to view and the smoke will obscure the whole field. If, as I infer from your note, there is any alternative to this attack, it should be carefully considered before opening our fire, for it will take all the artillery ammunition we have left to test this one thoroughly, and, if the result is unfavorable, we will have none left for another effort. And even if this is entirely successful it can only be so at a very bloody cost.

"Very respectfully, &c.,
"E.P. Alexander, Colonel Artillery."

 
I forgot to bring up William Faulkner's novel Intruder in the Dust as he goes on to describe the fall of the southern dream on July 3rd 1863.

Think of how this order set the stage for Faulkner's glorious distruction of that southern dream.

For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it's still not yet two oclock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it's all in the balance, it hasn't happened yet, it hasn't even begun yet, it not only hasn't begun yet but there is still time for it not to begin. . . Maybe this time with all this much to lose and all this much to gain: Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the world—the golden dome of Washington itself to crown with desperate and unbelievable victory the desperate gamble, the cast made two years ago; or to anyone who ever sailed even a skiff under a quilt sail, the moment in 1492 when somebody thought This is it: the absolute edge of no return, to turn back now and make home or sail irrevocably on and either find land or plunge over the world's roaring rim.
 
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