Note 175 — Chapter VII · LORD PALMERSTON’S LAST CONTEST WITH THE QUEEN.

Sir Francis Hastings Doyle tells a curious story which he obtained from an American officer, whose authority he vouches for as good, which throws some light on Lee’s failure, which was one of the turning-points of the war. One of his subordinate generals—“a hot-tempered, impetuous man”—received a document from Lee containing the plan of invasion, and giving him orders to carry it out. Something in these irritated him. He tore up the letter in a rage, and flung the pieces on the ground. The moment his troops moved on, the pieces were all picked up by a Northern partisan, pasted together, and conveyed to the enemy.—Reminiscences and Opinions of Sir F. H. Doyle, p. 340.