His Commissioner, Alexander H. Stephens,
was halted at Fortress Monroe and sent back to Richmond with an
insulting answer.
So bitter was Lee's disappointment that he offered his resignation to
Davis.
The President at once wrote a generous letter in which he renewed the
expressions of his confidence in the genius of his Commanding General
and begged him to guard his precious life from undue exposure.
Gettysburg was but one of the appalling calamities which crushed the
hopes of the Confederate Chieftain on this memorable fourth of July,
1863.
On the recovery of Joseph E. Johnston from his wound at Seven Pines he
was assigned to the old command of Albert Sidney Johnston in the West.
His department included the States of Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama,
Georgia and North Carolina.
He entered on the duties of his new and important field--complaining,
peevish, sulking.
On the day before his departure Mrs. Davis visited his wife and
expressed to General Johnston the earnest wish of her heart for her
husband's success.
"I sincerely hope, General," she said cordially, "that your campaign
will be brilliant and successful."
The General pursed the hard lines of his mouth.
"I might succeed if I had Lee's chances with the army of Northern
Virginia.
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