Many accounts relate the story of General Lee's personal attempt to lead the charge of the Texas Brigade. No two versions entirely agree and we may never know which details belong to history and which belong to mythology.
Colonel Charles S. Venable, an officer on Lee's staff, witnessed the event and wrote about it soon after the war:
Much moved by the greeting of these brave men and their magnificent behavior, General Lee spurred his horse through an opening in the trenches and followed close on their line as it moved rapidly forward. The men did not perceive that he was going with them until they had advanced some distance in the charge; when they did, there came from the entire line, as it rushed on, the cry, "Go back, General Lee! Go back!.... We won't go on unless you go back!" A sergeant seized his bridle rein. Just then I called his attention to General Longstreet, who sat on his horse on a knoll to the right of the Texans. He yielded with evident reluctance to the entreaties of his men and rode up to Longstreet's position.
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