THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 14, 1996 TAG: 9604110437
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: George Tucker
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
Frivolity and desperation frequently wind up as ironic bedfellows. For instance, consider the most celebrated shad bake in Virginia's history that was relished by three top ranking Confederate generals with disastrous consequences only a few days before the Southern cause went down in defeat at Appomattox Court House 131 years ago this past Tuesday.
By late March of 1865, Robert E. Lee was finding it increasingly difficult for his Army of Northern Virginia to withstand the ever-increasing pressure of the Federal forces surrounding Petersburg. Near-starvation, disease and quagmires of mud created by incessant rain had made it plain that something had to be done to relieve the impasse. At that point Lee learned that Grant's already mighty army had been reinforced by Sheridan's crack cavalry that had recently devastated the Valley of Virginia. He also learned that an all out attack on nearby Five Forks was contemplated by the Federals.
Lee immediately dispatched a cavalry unit under the command of his nephew, Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, to Five Forks, following it with 5,000 foot soldiers under the command of Gen. George E. Pickett, the man who had earlier headed the famous charge at Gettysburg. While this operation was under way, the hard drinking but charming Gen. Thomas L. Rosser arrived on the scene. On the way to Petersburg Rosser had borrowed a seine, waded out into the Nottaway River and caught a number of big shad. Loading them in a wagon, he headed for Lee's headquarters. Before reaching it, however, he encountered Pickett and Fitz Lee and invited them to a shad bake on the banks of Hatcher's Run where his cavalry was resting.
Since Rosser's gormandizing and alcoholic addictions were well-known, Pickett and Fitz Lee accepted the invitation, quietly absenting themselves from their commands to do so. In their absence, their men were attacked by the Federals on April 1, 1865, and most of them were taken prisoner.
Apparently oblivious of what was taking place, Rosser, Pickett and Fitz Lee enjoyed the planked shad. And even after couriers began arriving with increasingly bad news neither general made a move to quit the gastronomic binge.
Finally, Pickett realized that something desperate was afoot, mounted his horse and charged back toward the debacle. Galloping up, he found all in confusion, but that didn't stop him from grabbing a bloodstained flag and begin singing ``Rally round the flag, boys, rally once again!'' While so engaged he was startled by a Yankee trooper jumping the barricade on a mule yelling for him to surrender. Pickett shouted, ``Damn you!'' and galloped away, barely missing being captured.
Understandably, General Lee was horrified at the dereliction of Pickett and his nephew. A few days later when he caught sight of the former he asked contemptuously, ``Is that man still in the army?''
Four years later, when Lee was staying in Richmond, he met Maj. Gen. John S. Mosby, the ``Gray Ghost of the Confederacy,'' on the street after which the two old comrades in arms went to Lee's hotel room for a chat. When Mosby left the hotel he saw Pickett pacing up and down outside. Apparently Pickett had hopes of patching up the long-standing grievance between Lee and himself, for he asked Mosby to accompany him to Lee's room, specifying that Mosby go with him as he ``didn't want to be alone with Lee.''
Mosby complied, but later reported in his memoirs that ``the interview was very strained, very formal, and ended very quickly.'' Mosby didn't recall if anything was said concerning Pickett's dereliction at Five Forks, the ``Waterloo of the Confederacy,'' but he did record that as he and Pickett left the hotel, it was clear that nothing had changed between Lee and Pickett and that the latter remained bitter.
Then Mosby summed up his account with one of the greatest Civil War anecdotes. In the course of the conversation after leaving Lee's room, Pickett recalled his bloody day of glory in 1863 and remarked, ``That old man had my division massacred at Gettysburg.'' To that, Mosby laconically replied, ``Yes, but he made you immortal!'' by CNB