Dear General:
I do not recollect where Johnson's division camped the night of 30th June, but it must have been some twelve or fifteen miles from Gettysburg. We arrived on the ground where Rodes and Gordon had fought late in the evening, after all the troops had gone. We moved to the left very late in the evening, and did not get into position until after dark. I recollect very distinctly that it was dark before we got to the position where we bivouacked for the night. It seems to me we reached the field sooner than sun-set, but not earlier than an hour before sun-set.
Yours very truly,
This leaves no doubt that a great mistake has been made, either by General Johnson in the conversation with Colonel Taylor, or by the latter in his recollection of it. The distance of Johnson's march was greater than the highest figure General Walker gives. General Longstreet says that his troops were greatly delayed on the 1st by Johnson's division and the trains following it, which came into the road from Shippensburg. Anderson preceded Johnson and halted, somewhere in rear of Hill's line, for him to pass. Johnson had camped the night before somewhere west of South Mountain and north of the Chambersburg road to Gettysburg.
On the morning of the 1st Ewell was moving with his troops towards Cashtown, in accordance with the orders of General Lee, when he received a note from Hill, giving the information that he was moving on Gettysburg with the expectation of encountering the enemy, and asking Ewell's co-operation. Hill was Ewell's junior, but, without hesitation, the latter promptly responded to the call, and sent information of his movement to General Lee, who in return informed him that, if the enemy's force was found to be very large, he did not wish a general engagement brought on until the rest of the army came up. Ewell found Hill already engaged, and went at once to his assistance. The arrival of Ewell's divisions was timely, and converted what threatened to be a reverse into a brilliant success; and the imputation on him? that he did not carry out the Commanding-General's instructions, when it was in his power to do so, or did not do all that it was a good soldier's duty to do to insure complete success, is most inconsiderate, if not harsh.
