The Killer Angels: Friday, July 3, 1863: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

Longstreet sits on the rail fence, his mind a “bloody vacancy, like a room in which there has been a butchering.” He watches the “nightmare” unfold, the lines coming apart, a few men stumbling up the slope before disappearing into smoke. Men begin to retreat, the one erect flag, near the center of the Union line, going down in the smoke. The men stream past Longstreet. One of Pickett’s men screams for support, but Longstreet patiently explains that there is no support left to give; all the brigades have gone in. He sees Garnett’s horse. He instructs Pickett’s men to fall back and sends word for a battery of artillery fire to protect their retreat.

Fremantle, who moments before had been cheering wildly, grasps the reality of the situation and offers Longstreet a flask, which he refuses. He is filled with weariness, helpless rage, and disgust. He thinks that “they had all died for nothing and he had sent them. A man is asked to bear too much.” He plans to walk forward into the battle, with the expectation of being killed. But as he stoops to pick up a rifle, he sees Lee.

Lee is riding slowly along the first line of dead men. He sits motionless and talks to the men around him. Longstreet watches, knowing he will never forgive Lee. Tears run down his cheeks. Lee begins to ride toward him. Longstreet hears him saying, “It is all my fault,” while the men around him shake their heads and argue with him. Lee tells them that they will rest and try again another day; they must show good order and never let the Yankees see them run.

Some men are crying, even asking Lee to let them attack again. Lee emerges from the crowd and smoke with a “stiff, set look” and empty eyes. He points out to Longstreet in a “soft, feathery” voice that the North appears to be forming for attack in the east. Longstreet can barely hear his voice. Suddenly Pickett appears—hatless, pale, and bloodstained. Longstreet is amazed that he is alive. His face is oddly wrinkled. Lee tells Pickett to re-form his division. Pickett starts to cry, saying in bewilderment, “General Lee, I have no division … Good God, sir, what about my men?” All of Pickett’s officers have been killed.

Longstreet turns away. He tells his gathering staff that he intends to go and meet the Union skirmishers. He cries as he rides down the hill, his horse shying among the dead bodies. Goree rides alongside him, asking for orders, his eyes filled with sorrow and pity in a look that Longstreet knows he will never forget. Longstreet directs fire, waiting for the Union soldiers to come, but they finally pull back without attacking.

Goree tells Longstreet that it is no good trying to get himself killed; the Lord will come for Longstreet in his own time. Longstreet hears a few heartbroken men firing in the distance, unwilling to give up, but finally they, too, fall still. Silence falls over the field with the sunset, and a wordless knowledge passes among them, that it’s over. Longstreet turns away as he hears the Union men cheering at the sight of a captured Virginia battle flag.

Clouds gather in the west, and as evening advances, they see lightning in the distance. Longstreet automatically places his men in a defensive line and then sits by the fire drinking coffee. Sorrel brings the figures from the day: Armistead and Garnett are dead; Kemper is dying. Seven of Pickett’s thirteen colonels are dead and six are wounded. Longstreet can listen to no more, sending Sorrel away. But the facts “rise up like shattered fenceposts in the mist.” He knows the army can’t recover from a day like this, as a doctor knows when he bends over a beloved patient for the last time. He doesn’t know what he will do now. He looks at the campfires coming to light “like clusters of carrion fireflies.” Nothing, he thinks, has been accomplished.

Lee comes along after a while, distant lightning blazing beyond his head. Men are still walking alongside him, pleadingly; Longstreet sees “something oddly biblical about it.” Even in this air of defeat, Lee conveys strength and majesty to those around him. Longstreet does not want to speak to him, and he knows he will never quite forgive him; nevertheless, he rises to meet the General.

Longstreet looks into Lee’s stony face and drops his eyes. Lee requests a few moments alone with Longstreet. They sit in silence by the fire as lightning flares and the wind picks up. Finally, Lee says, in a husky voice, that they will withdraw tonight, under cover of the approaching weather. Longstreet knows he is expected to say something, but his mind feels vacant. When he looks up, Lee looks vaguely different. Lee finally says, “Peter, I’m going to need your help.”

Lee sits with his hand over his eyes. He tells Longstreet that he is very tired. Longstreet asks what he can do. Longstreet feels “a shudder of enormous pity.” Finally, Lee looks at him and makes a gesture of surrender, shaking his head. Longstreet promises he will take care of the withdrawal that night. “I thought…” Lee begins. Longstreet says, “Never mind.” They sit in silence for a while. Lee says that morale is still good, and they will do better another time. Longstreet says, “I don’t think so.”

Longstreet thinks that there has been too much death, and that it is time for reality; he must speak plainly. He tells Lee that he does not think they can win it now. Lee nods, as if it is not really important. Longstreet continues, “I don’t know if I can go on leading them. To die. For nothing.” Eventually, Lee replies, “They do not die for us … That at least is a blessing.”

Lee continues, “Each man has his own reason to die.” If the men will go on, he says, then he will go on—what else can they do? “And does it matter after all who wins?” he asks. “Was that ever really the question? Will God ask that question, in the end?” As Longstreet helps the tired man rise, Lee looks into his eyes and says, “You were right. And I was wrong. And now you must … help us to see. I become … very tired.”

A cold, heavy wind, smelling of rain, is beginning to blow over the trees. Lee refers to his lecture on the previous day. He explains that he had been trying to warn Longstreet. Unlike their men, he says, they have no Cause; they have only the army. But if a soldier fights only for soldiers, he explains, they cannot ever win—it’s only the soldiers who die. With that, Lee mounts his horse and rides off into the dark. Longstreet watches him ride out of sight, then goes out into the field to say goodbye. Then he gives the order to retreat.