LONGSTREET (Chapter 4 of Part I)

Foreshadowing of HillÂ’s scuffle with Buford and introduction of the main Confederate characters

Longstreet receives information that General Hill plans on marching into Gettysburg the next morning, despite reports from Harrison (the spy) and others that Union cavalry are in the town.

Then a lighthearted Pickett rides into camp with his three brigade commanders: the elderly Armistead, the withdrawn Garnett, and the political Kemper. Longstreet introduces the four to Fremantle, a comical English soldier observing for the Queen. Longstreet then sits down with Armistead and they discuss the new trench strategies, Hancock (the Union commander who used to be ArmisteadÂ’s best friend), whether morale alone can win battles, and General Lee.

Longstreet and Armistead return to the group around the campÂ’s fire to find several men explaining "The Cause" to Fremantle, who had previously thought the war centered on slavery. Sorrel asserts that government derives its power from the consent of the governed and that the South simply does not consent to the Union. Kemper likens the Union to a central tyranny, while Pickett compares the Union to a gentlemanÂ’s club that the South wanted to quit.

The chapter ends with a Confederate private (from LongstreetÂ’s camp) watching BufordÂ’s men setting up in the rain.

STYLE

Juxtaposition & Parallel Construction:

"Sorrel moved off into a burst of laughter, a cloud of lovely tobacco. Longstreet sat brooding." (p.52)

Extended Metaphor:

"There was something about the man [Fremantle], prepared for flight, that made Longstreet grin. He was a scrawny man, toothy, with a pipelike neck and a monstrous AdamÂ’s apple. He looked like a popeyed bird who had just swallowed something large and sticky and triangular. He was wearing a tall gray hat and a remarkable coat with very wide shoulders, like wings." (p.52-53). Note that even when Shaara is not directly comparing Fremantle to a bird, he is describing Fremantle as a bird-like figure (i.e. pipelike neck).

Similes:

"They [the brigade commanders Armistead, Garnett, and Kemper] rode toward Longstreet like ships through a gleeful surf." (p.54)

"...skirmishers. Long, long rows, like walking trees." (p.67-68)

"But she [LongstreetÂ’s wife] was not fine. He felt a spasm of pain like a blast of sudden cold, saw the patient high-boned Indian face, that beautiful woman, indelible suffering." (p.62)

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