oath that would have been a lie, I was denounced as a traitor, thrown into prison for eight months, and then exchanged as a prisoner of war.
I may have been a fool. I supposed or believed that the people of the south would never be conquered. I hardly hoped to live through the war. Though I had no intention of throwing my life away, I was willing to sacrifice it, if necessary, for the interests of a cause I believed to be just. I was more regardless of my own interests and those of my family than I should have been. A large portion even of my paper salary was never drawn by me. Nearly every thing I had in the world was lost—even the commission I had received for gallant and meritorious conduct, and I possess not even a token of esteem from those for whom I fought to leave, when I die, to those I love.
But the time has arrived when I think it my duty to grant pardon to the government for all the injustice and injury I have received. I sincerely hope that harmony and prosperity may yet be restored to the United States of America.
Colonel E. P. Alexander's Report of the Battle of Gettysburg.
Colonel G. M. Sorrell,
Adjutant-General First Corps:
Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report of the artillery operations on the field of Gettysburg conducted under my command:
On arriving on the field on the 2d of July, about 10 A. M., I was ordered by Lieutenant-General Longstreet to accompany the movements to the right, then being commenced by Hood's and McLaws' divisions, and to take command of the three battalions of artillery accompanying them, viz: my own battalion, of twenty-six guns (commanded in my absence by Major Frank Huger), Colonel Cabell's, of eighteen guns, and Major Henry's, of eighteen guns. About 4 P. M. the enemy's position having been defined and preparations for an assault upon him made, I placed in position against him the eighteen guns of Cabell's battalion and eigh-
