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Private Robert Campbell of the 5th Texas, who was serving as a courier to Brigadier General Gregg: “‘Attention Texas Brigade’ was rung upon the morning air, by Gen. Gregg, ‘the eyes of General Lee are upon you, forward, march.’ Scarce had we moved a step, when Gen. Lee, in front of the whole command, raised himself in his stirrups, uncovered his grey hairs, and with an earnest, yet anxious voice, exclaimed above the din and confusion of the hour, ‘Texans always move them.’. . . never before in my lifetime or since, did I ever witness such a scene as was enacted when Lee pronounced these words, with the appealing look that he gave. A yell rent the air that must have been heard for miles around, and but few eyes in that brigade of veterans and heroes of many a bloody field was undimmed by honest, heart-felt tears. Leonard Gee, a courier to Gen. Gregg, and riding by my side, with tears coursing down his cheeks and yells issuing from his throat exclaimed, ‘I would charge hell itself for that old man.’” -- from Campbell’s article “Texans Always Move Them” in The Land We Love, October 1868, as quoted in Voices of the Civil War: The Wilderness, page 67
Lieutenant Colonel William T. Poague, commanding Confederate artillery battalion: “At this critical juncture Gregg’s Texans came in line of battle at a swinging gait from the rear of our position. They passed through our guns, their right near the road. General Lee was riding close behind them. . . . Soon the Texans began to call to General Lee to go back, and as he seemed not to heed they became clamorous, insisting that if he did not go back they would not go forward. . . . Then, turning Traveller about, he rode quietly to the rear of our line of guns, amid the cheers of the artillerymen.” -- from Poague’s memoirs Gunner With Stonewall, page 90
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