You got that right...Ol' "Blue Light" would have skinned his hide. LOL

Re dserters on the Gettysburg Campaign, See the Lincoln Studies site for Lee's Letter to grant after Gettysburg.

"Our absentees are returning, and I hope the earnest and beautiful appeal made to the country in your proclamation may stir up the virtue of the whole people, and that they may see their duty and perform it."

Also, we have had posts on this site speculating about Lee's physical condition at Gettysburg. Here are his comments, in the same letter.

"The general remedy for the want of success in a military commander is his removal. This is natural, and, in many instances, proper. For, no matter what may be the ability of the officer, if he loses the confidence of his troops disaster must sooner or later ensue. I have been prompted by these reflections more than once since my return from Pennsylvania to propose to Your Excellency the propriety of selecting another commander for this army... do this with the more earnestness because no one is more aware than myself of my inability for the duties of my position. I cannot even accomplish what I myself desire. How can I fulfill the expectations of others? In addition I sensibly feel the growing failure of my bodily strength. I have not yet removed from the attack I experienced the past spring. I am becoming more and more incapable of exertion, and am thus prevented from making the personal examinations and giving the personal supervision to the operations in the field which I feel to be necessary. I am so dull that in making use of the eyes of others I am frequently misled.

Davis did not accept Lee's resignation. He replied, “To ask me to substitute you by someone…more fit to command, or who would possess more of the confidence of the army…is to demand an impossibility.”

Stan