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the_battle_of_gettysburg [2012/07/02 19:50] briancarnellthe_battle_of_gettysburg [2014/12/04 19:08] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1
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 <h1>THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG</h1> <h1>THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG</h1>
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 <p class="center"><span class="smcaplc">FRANK ARETAS HASKELL</span></p> <p class="center"><span class="smcaplc">FRANK ARETAS HASKELL</span></p>
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 <p>Frank Aretas Haskell was born at Tunbridge, Vermont, the son of Aretas <p>Frank Aretas Haskell was born at Tunbridge, Vermont, the son of Aretas
-and Ann (Folson) Haskell, +and Ann (Folson) Haskell, on the 13th of July, 1828. Graduating from 
 +Dartmouth College with distinguished honors, in the class of 1854, the 
 +young man came to Madison in the autumn of that year, and entered the 
 +law firm of Orton, Atwood &amp; Orton. His career in this profession was 
 +increasingly successful, until in 1861 it was interrupted by the 
 +outbreak of the War of Secession.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Commissioned on June 20 of that year as First Lieutenant of Company I of 
 +the Sixth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry of the Iron Brigade, he served as 
 +Adjutant of his regiment until April 14, 1862. Contemporaneous accounts 
 +state that &#8220;much of the excellent discipline for which this regiment was 
 +distinguished, was due to his soldierly efforts during its 
 +organization.&#8221;</p> 
 + 
 +<p>He was called from the adjutancy of the Sixth to be aide-de-camp to 
 +General John Gibbon, when the latter assumed command of the Iron 
 +Brigade, and remained in such service until (February 9,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span> 1864) he was 
 +promoted to be Colonel of the Thirty-sixth Wisconsin. While aide to 
 +General Gibbon he was temporarily on the staffs of several other 
 +generals, including Edwin V. Sumner and G. K. Warren, and won wide 
 +repute as a soldier of unusual ability and courage. With the Iron 
 +Brigade, he participated in the campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, 
 +taking part in reconnoissances at Orange Court House and Stephensburg, 
 +in skirmishes at Rappahannock Station and Sulphur Springs, and in the 
 +battles of Gainesville, Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, 
 +Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. Reporting upon the 
 +battle of December 13, 1862, at Fredericksburg, General Gibbon alluded 
 +to his favorite aide as being &#8220;constantly on the field, conveying orders 
 +and giving directions amid the heaviest fire.&#8221;</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Writing of Gettysburg, which is herein so graphically depicted by 
 +Haskell, General Francis A. Walker, in his <i>History of the Second Army 
 +Corps</i>,<small><a name="f1.1" id="f1.1" href="#f1">[1]</a></small> refers 
 +to our author as one who was &#8220;bravest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span> of the brave, 
 +riding mounted through an interval between the Union battalions, and 
 +calling upon the troops to go forward.&#8221; He further says: &#8220;Colonel Frank 
 +A. Haskell, of Wisconsin, had been known for his intelligence and 
 +courage, for his generosity of character and his exquisite culture, long 
 +before the third day of Gettysburg, when, acting as aide to General 
 +Gibbon, he rode mounted between the two lines, then swaying backward and 
 +forward under each other&#8217;s fire, calling upon the men of the Second 
 +Division to follow him, and setting an example of valor and self 
 +devotion never forgotten by any man of the thousands who witnessed it.&#8221;</p> 
 + 
 +<p>General Winfield S. Hancock, officially reporting upon the battle, thus 
 +alluded to Haskell&#8217;s deed: &#8220;I desire particularly to refer to the 
 +services of a gallant young officer, First Lieutenant F. A. Haskell, 
 +aide-de-camp to Brigadier-General Gibbon, who, at a critical period of 
 +the battle, when the contending forces were but 50 or 60 yards apart, 
 +believing that an example was necessary, and ready to sacrifice his 
 +life, rode between the contending lines with a view of giving 
 +encouragement to ours and leading it forward, he being<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span> at the moment 
 +the only mounted officer in a similar position. He was slightly wounded 
 +and his horse was shot in several places.&#8221;</p> 
 + 
 +<p>General Gibbon&#8217;s report said: &#8220;I desire to call particular attention to 
 +the manner in which several of the subordinate reports mention the 
 +services of my gallant aide, Lieutenant F. A. Haskell, Sixth Wisconsin, 
 +and to add my testimony of his valuable services. This young officer has 
 +been through many battles, and distinguished himself alike in all by his 
 +conspicuous coolness and bravery, and in this one was slightly wounded, 
 +but refused to quit the field. It has always been a source of regret to 
 +me that our military system offers no plan for rewarding his merit and 
 +services as they deserve.&#8221; In later years, the General again publicly 
 +alluded to Haskell&#8217;s heroic conduct on this field: &#8220;There was a young 
 +man on my staff who had been in every battle with me and who did more 
 +than any other one man to repulse Pickett&#8217;s assault at Gettysburg and he 
 +did the part of a general there.&#8221;</p> 
 + 
 +<p>General William Harrow spoke of Haskell as having &#8220;greatly distinguished 
 +himself by his constant exertion in the most exposed places.&#8221;</p> 
 + 
 +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</a></span>Colonel Norman J. Hall, of the Michigan Seventh Infantry, and then 
 +commanding the Third Brigade, thus referred to the incident: &#8220;I cannot 
 +omit speaking in the highest terms of the magnificent conduct of 
 +Lieutenant Haskell, of General Gibbon&#8217;s staff, in bringing forward 
 +regiments and in nerving the troops to their work by word and fearless 
 +example.&#8221;</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Upon receiving his appointment as Colonel of the Thirty-sixth Wisconsin, 
 +Haskell returned at once to this State, and recruited and organized the 
 +regiment for the field. Although his commission was dated from February 
 +9, he was not mustered into service as Colonel until March 23. The 
 +regiment, which had been assigned to the First Brigade, Second Division 
 +of the Second Army Corps, left Madison May 10, and seven days later was 
 +acting as reserve during the battle at Spottsylvania. Its experiences 
 +thenceforth were of the most active character.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>The command went into action at Cold Harbor, Virginia, early in the 
 +morning of June 3. The official account of what followed, is contained 
 +in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[Pg xvi]</a></span> the report of the State Adjutant 
 +General:<small><a name="f2.1" id="f2.1" href="#f2">[2]</a></small> &#8220;The whole line 
 +advanced upon the enemy by brigades, in column closed in mass by 
 +regiments, the Thirty-sixth being in rear of the brigade. On advancing 
 +about three-fourths of a mile across an open field, under a heavy 
 +artillery fire, and when within about twenty-five rods of the rebel 
 +works, partially protected by the brow of a low hill, the Thirty-sixth 
 +was found in the advance, leading the brigade. During the advance, 
 +Colonel McKeen, commanding the brigade, was killed, when the command 
 +devolved upon Colonel Haskell. After a moment&#8217;s rest, Colonel Haskell, 
 +by command of General Gibbon, ordered the brigade forward. The men rose 
 +to obey, and were met by a shower of bullets, when the other parts of 
 +the line halted. Colonel Haskell surveyed the situation for a moment, as 
 +if irresolute; he finally gave the order, &#8216;Lie down, men,&#8217; which was at 
 +once obeyed. An instant afterwards, he was struck in the head by a rebel 
 +bullet, and instantly killed. Thus fell one of Wisconsin&#8217;s most gallant 
 +soldiers, a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">[Pg xvii]</a></span> thorough disciplinarian, and an accomplished scholar.&#8221;</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Colonel Clement E. Warner, then a Captain in the Thirty-sixth, but later 
 +its Major and Lieutenant-Colonel, has left us this report of the battle 
 +of Cold Harbor, so far as concerns Colonel Haskell&#8217;s participation and 
 +death:<small><a name="f3.1" id="f3.1" href="#f3">[3]</a></small></p> 
 + 
 +<p>&#8220;Frank A. Haskell was in every respect an ideal soldier, according to 
 +the highest and best definition of that term. I think he was by 
 +education, experience, association, natural ability, and temperament 
 +fully as competent to handle a Division as a Regiment, and in many 
 +respects the higher would seem the more appropriate position for him.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>&#8220;He rejoined the Army of the Potomac with his regiment, the Thirty-sixth 
 +Wisconsin, about the middle of May, 1864, at Spottsylvania. The two 
 +armies were joined in a death struggle, which was destined to continue 
 +almost uninterruptedly until one was effectually wiped from the face of 
 +the earth. June 3 at Cold Harbor, our army was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">[Pg xviii]</a></span> massed by division and 
 +in that formation projected upon the fortifications of the enemy. Their 
 +line of works was really the outer line of the defenses of Richmond, and 
 +were perfectly constructed for defense, and manned by General Lee&#8217;
 +army, which when protected by works had thus far been able to 
 +successfully withstand General Grant&#8217;s continuous attacks.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>&#8220;With the general advance our Division moved at daylight for nearly two 
 +miles over undulating land, part of the time subject to the fire of the 
 +enemy and occasionally protected from it by slight depressions in the 
 +land. We moved forward as rapidly as possible, and in thirty minutes 
 +were in the immediate presence of the enemy&#8217;s line, and subjected to as 
 +murderous a fire as met Pickett&#8217;s men at the celebrated charge at 
 +Gettysburg.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>&#8220;Colonel Haskell, who was so largely instrumental in saving the day at 
 +Gettysburg, now finds his position exactly reversed from what it was on 
 +that memorable occasion. Now his men were charging and the enemy on the 
 +defense, protected by their works. He was standing nearly in front of 
 +the remnant of the Second Division which had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xix" id="Page_xix">[Pg xix]</a></span> thus far pressed forward 
 +through the murderous fire, and apparently seeing the hopelessness of 
 +further advance, and willing to save this remnant of his men, gave the 
 +order, &#8216;Lie down, men,&#8217; which was the last order he ever gave. It was 
 +promptly obeyed. For an instant it seemed that he was the only man 
 +standing, and only for an instant, for as he stood surveying the havoc 
 +around him, and glanced toward the enemy&#8217;s line, he was seen to throw up 
 +his arms and sink to the earth, his forehead pierced by a rebel ball. 
 +And this was the last of Frank Haskell&#8217;s consciousness. He had 
 +fearlessly and freely given his young life for his country. Nearly 
 +fifteen thousand companions joined him in the sacrifice on that fateful 
 +morning, the greatest loss of any single charge in the war.&#8221;</p> 
 + 
 +<p>In his own report of the battle, General Hancock said: &#8220;General Tyler 
 +was wounded and taken from the field and the lamented McKeen,<small><a name="f4.1" id="f4.1" href="#f4">[4]</a></small> after 
 +pushing his command as far as his example could urge it, was killed. The 
 +gallant Haskell succeeded to the command, but was carried from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xx" id="Page_xx">[Pg xx]</a></span> the 
 +field mortally wounded, while making renewed efforts to carry the 
 +enemy&#8217;s works.&#8221; In a field order, dated September 28, 1864, he further 
 +declared, &#8220;At Cold Harbor the Colonel of the Thirty-sixth Wisconsin, as 
 +gallant a soldier as ever lived, fell dead on the field.&#8221;</p> 
 + 
 +<p>General Gibbon, on receiving the sad news of the Colonel&#8217;s death, cried, 
 +&#8220;My God! I have lost my best friend, and one of the best soldiers in the 
 +Army of the Potomac has fallen!&#8221;</p> 
 + 
 +<p>The late Hon. A. J. Turner, editor of the Portage <i>State Register</i>, who 
 +was well acquainted with Colonel Haskell, said of him:<small><a name="f5.1" id="f5.1" href="#f5">[5]</a></small> &#8220;While 
 +commanding a brigade in the assault upon the enemy&#8217;s lines at the battle 
 +of the Chickahominy, near Richmond, Virginia, on the morning of Friday, 
 +the 3d of June, he was struck in the right temple by a Rebel 
 +sharpshooter&#8217;s bullet, and died in about three hours. His body was taken 
 +in charge by his young and faithful Orderly, John N. Ford, who, though 
 +himself wounded in the head and left arm, persevered through all 
 +difficulties and brought it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxi" id="Page_xxi">[Pg xxi]</a></span> home to Portage where, attended by a great 
 +concourse of people, it was buried in Silver Lake cemetery, June 12, 
 +1864.&#8221;</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Feeling tributes to his memory were rendered by the Dane County Bar 
 +Association, and the Common Council of the City of Madison.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>This story of the Battle of Gettysburg was written by Lieutenant Haskell 
 +to his brother, H. M. Haskell of Portage, not long after the contest. It 
 +was not intended for publication; but its great merit was at once 
 +recognized, and it was offered to Mr. Turner for insertion in his weekly 
 +paper. It was, however, too long a document for such purpose. About 
 +fifteen years later, it was published in a pamphlet of 72 pages, without 
 +even a title-page, for private circulation only. The account was widely 
 +read by military experts, and received much praise for both its literary 
 +and its professional merit. The pamphlet having become rare, for the 
 +edition was small, was reprinted in 1898 as part of the history of 
 +Dartmouth&#8217;s Class of 1854. Certain omissions and changes were, however, 
 +made therein by its editor, Captain Daniel Hall, who was an aide on 
 +General Howard&#8217;s staff; the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxii" id="Page_xxii">[Pg xxii]</a></span> reason assigned being, that the account was 
 +written so soon after the battle that &#8220;although surprisingly accurate in 
 +minute details,&#8221; the author was not fully informed relative to one or 
 +two facts which to him seemed to reflect on General Sickles. Captain 
 +Hall assumed that were Colonel Haskell now living, he would have 
 +justified these omissions. In March, 1908, the Dartmouth College version 
 +was reprinted by the Commandery of Massachusetts, Military Order of the 
 +Loyal Legion, under the editorship of Captain Charles Hunt.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>In deciding to inaugurate its own series of Reprints with Colonel 
 +Haskell&#8217;s brilliant paper, the Wisconsin History Commission has, in 
 +accordance with its fixed policy, reverted to the original edition, 
 +which is here presented entire, exactly as first printed. Whatever might 
 +have been the author&#8217;s later judgment, in the event of his surviving the 
 +war, the Commission does not feel warranted in disturbing this original 
 +text in the slightest degree&mdash;the present being an unexpurgated reprint 
 +of a rare and valuable narrative written by a soldier in whose memory 
 +Wisconsin feels especial pride.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxiii" id="Page_xxiii">[Pg xxiii]</a></span> Opinions or errors of fact on the part 
 +of the respective authors represented both in Original Narratives and in 
 +Reprints issued by the Commission, have not nor will they be modified by 
 +the latter. For all statements, of whatever character, the author alone 
 +is responsible.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>The Commissioners are grateful to Mrs. W. G. Clough, public librarian of 
 +Portage, for the loan of that institution&#8217;s rare copy of the original, 
 +for the purpose of this reprint.</p> 
 + 
 +<p class="right">R. G. T.</p> 
 + 
 +<p><small>WISCONSIN HISTORICAL LIBRARY<br />December, 1908</small></p> 
 + 
 + 
 +<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p> 
 +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> 
 +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> 
 +<h2>THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG<span class="foot"><a name="f6.1" id="f6.1" href="#f6">[6]</a></span></h2> 
 + 
 +<p>The Great battle of Gettysburg is now an event of the past. The 
 +composition and strength of the armies, their leaders, the strategy, the 
 +tactics, the result, of that field are to-day by the side of those of 
 +Waterloo&mdash;matters of history. A few days ago these things were 
 +otherwise. This great event did not so &#8220;cast its shadow before,&#8221; as to 
 +moderate the hot sunshine that streamed upon our preceding march, or to 
 +relieve our minds of all apprehension of the result of the second great 
 +Rebel invasion of the soil North of the Potomac.</p> 
 + 
 +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>No, not many days since, at times we were filled with fears and 
 +forebodings. The people of the country, I suppose, shared the anxieties 
 +of the army, somewhat in common with us, but they could not have felt 
 +them as keenly as we did. We were upon the immediate theatre of events, 
 +as they occurred from day to day, and were of them. We were the army 
 +whose province it should be to meet this invasion and repel it; on us 
 +was the immediate responsibility for results, most momentous for good or 
 +ill, as yet in the future. And so in addition to the solicitude of all 
 +good patriots, we felt that our own honor as men and as an army, as well 
 +as the safety of the Capitol and the country, were at stake.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>And what if that invasion should be successful, and in the coming 
 +battle, the Army of the Potomac should be overpowered? Would it not be? 
 +When our army was much larger than at present&mdash;had rested all 
 +winter&mdash;and, nearly perfect in all its departments and arrangements, was 
 +the most splendid army this continent ever saw, only a part of the Rebel 
 +force, which it now had to contend with, had defeated it&mdash;its leader, 
 +rather&mdash;at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> Chancellorsville! Now the Rebel had his whole force 
 +assembled, he was flushed with recent victory, was arrogant in his 
 +career of unopposed invasion, at a favorable season of the year. His 
 +daring plans, made by no unskilled head, to transfer the war from his 
 +own to his enemies&#8217; ground, were being successful. He had gone a day&#8217;
 +march from his front before Hooker moved, or was aware of his departure. 
 +Then, I believe, the army in general, both officers and men, had no 
 +confidence in Hooker, in either his honesty or ability.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Did they not charge him personally, with the defeat at Chancellorsville? 
 +Were they not still burning with indignation against him for that 
 +disgrace? And now, again under his leadership, they were marching 
 +against the enemy! And they knew of nothing, short of the providence of 
 +God, that could, or would, remove him. For many reasons, during the 
 +marches prior to the battle, we were anxious, and at times heavy at 
 +heart.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>But the Army of the Potomac was no band of school girls. They were not 
 +the men likely to be crushed or utterly discouraged by any new 
 +circumstances in which they might find themselves<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> placed. They had lost 
 +some battles, they had gained some. They knew what defeat was, and what 
 +was victory. But here is the greatest praise that I can bestow upon 
 +them, or upon any army: With the elation of victory, or the depression 
 +of defeat, amidst the hardest toils of the campaign, under unwelcome 
 +leadership, at all times, and under all circumstances, they were a 
 +reliable army still. The Army of the Potomac would do as it was told, 
 +always.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Well clothed, and well fed&mdash;there never could be any ground for 
 +complaint on these heads&mdash;but a mighty work was before them. Onward they 
 +moved&mdash;night and day were blended&mdash;over many a weary mile, through dust, 
 +and through mud, in the broiling sunshine, in the flooding rain, over 
 +steeps, through defiles, across rivers, over last year&#8217;s battle fields, 
 +where the skeletons of our dead brethren, by hundreds, lay bare and 
 +bleaching, weary, without sleep for days, tormented with the newspapers, 
 +and their rumors, that the enemy was in Philadelphia, in Baltimore, in 
 +all places where he was not, yet these men could still be relied upon, I 
 +believe, when the day of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> conflict should come. &#8220;<i>Haec olim meminisse 
 +juvabit.</i>&#8221; We did not then know this. I mention them now, that you may 
 +see that in those times we had several matters to think about, and to 
 +do, that were not as pleasant as sleeping upon a bank of violets in the 
 +shade.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>In moving from near Falmouth, Va., the army was formed in several 
 +columns, and took several roads. The Second Corps, the rear of the 
 +whole, was the last to move, and left Falmouth at daybreak, on the 15th 
 +of June, and pursued its march through Aquia, Dumfries, Wolf Run 
 +Shoales, Centerville, Gainesville, Thoroughfare Gap&mdash;this last we left 
 +on the 25th, marching back to Haymarket, where we had a skirmish with 
 +the cavalry and horse artillery of the enemy&mdash;Gum Spring, crossing the 
 +Potomac at Edward&#8217;s Ferry, thence through Poolesville, Frederick, 
 +Liberty, and Union Town. We marched from near Frederick to Union Town, a 
 +distance of thirty-two miles, from eight o&#8217;clock A. M. to nine P. M., on 
 +the 28th, and I think this is the longest march, accomplished in so 
 +short a time, by a corps during the war. On the 28th, while we were near 
 +this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> latter place, we breathed a full breath of joy, and of hope. The 
 +Providence of God had been with us&mdash;we ought not to have doubted 
 +it&mdash;General Meade commanded the Army of the Potomac.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Not a favorable time, one would be apt to suppose, to change the General 
 +of a large army, on the eve of battle, the result of which might be to 
 +destroy the Government and country! But it should have been done long 
 +before. At all events, any change could not have been for the worse, and 
 +the Administration, therefore, hazarded little, in making it now. From 
 +this moment my own mind was easy concerning results. I now felt that we 
 +had a clear-headed, honest soldier, to command the army, who would do 
 +his best always&mdash;that there would be no repetition of Chancellorsville. 
 +Meade was not as much known in the Army as many of the other corps 
 +commanders, but the officers who knew, all thought highly of him, a man 
 +of great modesty, with none of those qualities which are noisy and 
 +assuming, and hankering for cheap newspaper fame, not at all of the 
 +&#8220;<i>gallant</i>&#8221; Sickles stamp. I happened to know much<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> of General Meade&mdash;he 
 +and General Gibbon had always been very intimate, and I had seen much of 
 +him&mdash;I think my own notions concerning General Meade at this time, were 
 +shared quite generally by the army; at all events, all who knew him 
 +shared them.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>By this time, by reports that were not mere rumors, we began to hear 
 +frequently of the enemy, and of his proximity. His cavalry was all about 
 +us, making little raids here and there, capturing now and then a few of 
 +our wagons, and stealing a good many horses, but doing us really the 
 +least amount possible of harm, for we were not by these means impeded at 
 +all, and his cavalry gave no information at all to Lee, that he could 
 +rely upon, of the movements of the Army of the Potomac. The Infantry of 
 +the enemy was at this time in the neighborhood of Hagerstown, 
 +Chambersburg, and some had been at Gettysburg, possibly were there now. 
 +Gettysburg was a point of strategic importance, a great many roads, some 
 +ten or twelve at least concentrating there, so the army could easily 
 +converge to, or, should a further march be necessary, diverge from this 
 +point. General<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> Meade, therefore, resolved to try to seize Gettysburg, 
 +and accordingly gave the necessary orders for the concentration of his 
 +different columns there. Under the new auspices the army brightened, and 
 +moved on with a more elastic step towards the yet undefined field of 
 +conflict.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>The 1st Corps, General Reynolds, already having the advance, was ordered 
 +to push forward rapidly, and take and hold the town, if he could. The 
 +rest of the Army would assemble to his support. Buford&#8217;s Cavalry 
 +co-operated with this corps, and on the morning of the 1st of July found 
 +the enemy near Gettysburg and to the West, and promptly engaged him. The 
 +First Corps having bivouaced the night before, South of the town, came 
 +up rapidly to Buford&#8217;s support, and immediately a sharp battle was 
 +opened with the advance of the enemy. The first Division Gen. Wadsworth 
 +was the first of the infantry to become engaged, but the other two, 
 +commanded respectively by Generals Robinson and Doubleday, were close at 
 +hand, and forming the line of battle to the West and North-west of the 
 +town, at a mean distance of about a mile away, the battle continued<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> for 
 +some hours, with various success, which was on the whole with us until 
 +near noon. At this time a lull occurred, which was occupied, by both 
 +sides, in supervising and re-establishing the hastily formed lines of 
 +the morning. New Divisions of the enemy were constantly arriving and 
 +taking up positions, for this purpose marching in upon the various roads 
 +that terminate at the town, from the West and North. The position of the 
 +First Corps was then becoming perilous in the extreme, but it was 
 +improved a little before noon by the arrival upon the field of two 
 +Divisions of the Eleventh Corps (Gen Howard), these Divisions commanded 
 +respectively by Generals Schurz and Barlow, who by order posted their 
 +commands to the right of the First Corps, with their right retired, 
 +forming an angle with the line of the First Corps. Between three and 
 +four o&#8217;clock in the afternoon the enemy, now in overwhelming force, 
 +resumed the battle, with spirit. The portion of the Eleventh Corps 
 +making but feeble opposition to the advancing enemy, soon began to fall 
 +back.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Back in disorganized masses they fled into the town, hotly pursued, and 
 +in lanes, in barns, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> yards and cellars, throwing away their arms, 
 +they sought to hide like rabbits, and were there captured, unresisting, 
 +by hundreds.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>The First Corps, deprived of this support, if support it could be 
 +called, outflanked upon either hand, and engaged in front, was compelled 
 +to yield the field. Making its last stand upon what is called &#8220;Seminary 
 +Ridge,&#8221; not far from the town, it fell back in considerable confusion, 
 +through the South-west part of the town, making brave resistance, 
 +however, but with considerable loss. The enemy did not see fit to 
 +follow, or to attempt to, further than the town, and so the fight of the 
 +1st of July closed here. I suppose our losses during the day would 
 +exceed four thousand, of whom a large number were prisoners. Such 
 +usually is the kind of loss sustained by the Eleventh Corps. You will 
 +remember that the old &#8220;Iron Brigade&#8221; is in the First Corps, and 
 +consequently shared this fight, and I hear their conduct praised on all 
 +hands.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>In the 2nd Wis., Col. Fairchild lost his left arm; Lieut. Col. Stevens, 
 +was mortally wounded, and Major Mansfield was wounded; Lieut. Col.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> 
 +Callis, of the 7th Wis., and Lieut. Col. Dudley, of the 19th Ind., were 
 +badly, dangerously, wounded, the latter by the loss of his right leg 
 +above the knee.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>I saw &#8220;<i>John Burns</i>,&#8221; the only citizen of Gettysburg who fought in the 
 +battle, and I asked him what troops he fought with. He said: &#8220;O,
 +pitched in with them Wisconsin fellers.&#8221; I asked what sort of men they 
 +were, and he answered: &#8220;They fit terribly. The Rebs couldn&#8217;t make 
 +anything of them fellers.&#8221;</p> 
 + 
 +<p>And so the brave compliment the brave. This man was touched by three 
 +bullets from the enemy, but not seriously wounded.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>But the loss of the enemy to-day was severe also, probably in killed and 
 +wounded, as heavy as our own, but not so great in prisoners.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Of these latter the &#8220;Iron Brigade&#8221; captured almost an entire Mississippi 
 +Brigade, however.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Of the events so far, of the 1st of July, I do not speak from personal 
 +knowledge. I shall now tell my introduction to these events.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>At eleven o&#8217;clock A. M., on that day, the Second Corps was halted at 
 +Taneytown, which is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> thirteen miles from Gettysburg, South, and there 
 +awaiting orders, the men were allowed to make coffee and rest. At 
 +between one and two o&#8217;clock in the afternoon, a message was brought to 
 +Gen. Gibbon, requiring his immediate presence at the headquarters of 
 +Gen. Hancock, who commanded the Corps. I went with Gen. Gibbon, and we 
 +rode at a rapid gallop, to Gen. Hancock.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>At Gen. Hancock&#8217;s headquarters the following was learned: The First 
 +Corps had met the enemy at Gettysburg, and had possession of the town. 
 +Gen. Reynolds was badly, it was feared mortally wounded; the fight of 
 +the First Corps still continued. By Gen. Meade&#8217;s order, Gen. Hancock was 
 +to hurry forward and take command upon the field, of all troops there, 
 +or which should arrive there. The Eleventh Corps was near Gettysburg 
 +when the messenger who told of the fight left there, and the Third Corps 
 +was marching up, by order, on the Emmetsburg Road&mdash;Gen. Gibbon&mdash;he was 
 +not the ranking officer of the Second Corps after Hancock&mdash;was ordered 
 +to assume the command of the Second Corps.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>All this was sudden, and for that reason at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> least, exciting; but there 
 +were other elements in this information, that aroused our profoundest 
 +interest. The great battle that we had so anxiously looked for during so 
 +many days, had at length opened, and it was a relief, in some sense, to 
 +have these accidents of time and place established. What would be the 
 +result? Might not the enemy fall upon and destroy the First Corps before 
 +succor could arrive?</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Gen. Hancock, with his personal staff, at about two o&#8217;clock P. M., 
 +galloped off towards Gettysburg; Gen. Gibbon took his place in command 
 +of the Corps, appointing me his acting Assistant Adjutant General. The 
 +Second Corps took arms at once, and moved rapidly towards the field. It 
 +was not long before we began to hear the dull booming of the guns, and 
 +as we advanced, from many an eminence or opening among the trees, we 
 +could look out upon the white battery smoke, puffing up from the distant 
 +field of blood, and drifting up to the clouds. At these sights and 
 +sounds, the men looked more serious than before and were more silent, 
 +but they marched faster, and straggled less. At about five o&#8217;clock P. M., 
 +as we were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> riding along at the head of the column, we met an ambulance, 
 +accompanied by two or three mounted officers&mdash;we knew them to be staff 
 +officers of Gen. Reynolds&mdash;their faces told plainly enough what load the 
 +vehicle carried&mdash;it was the dead body of Gen. Reynolds. Very early in the 
 +action, while seeing personally to the formation of his lines under fire, 
 +he was shot through the head by a musket or rifle bullet, and killed 
 +almost instantly. His death at this time affected us much, for he was one 
 +of the <i>soldier</i> Generals of the army, a man whose soul was in his 
 +country&#8217;s work, which he did with a soldier&#8217;s high honor and fidelity.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>I remember seeing him often at the first battle of Fredericksburg&mdash;he 
 +then commanded the First Corps&mdash;and while Meade&#8217;s and Gibbon&#8217;s Divisions 
 +were assaulting the enemy&#8217;s works, he was the very beau ideal of the 
 +gallant general. Mounted upon a superb black horse, with his head thrown 
 +back and his great black eyes flashing fire, he was every where upon the 
 +field, seeing all things and giving commands in person. He died as many 
 +a friend, and many a foe to the country have died in this war.</p> 
 + 
 +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>Just as the dusk of evening fell, from Gen. Meade, the Second Corps had 
 +orders to halt, where the head of the column then was, and to go into 
 +position for the night. The Second Division (Gibbon&#8217;s) was accordingly 
 +put in position, upon the left of the (Taneytown) road, its left near 
 +the South-eastern base of &#8220;Round Top&#8221;&mdash;of which mountain more anon&mdash;and 
 +the right near the road; the Third Division was posted upon the right of 
 +the road, abreast of the Second; and the first Division in the rear of 
 +these two&mdash;all facing towards Gettysburg.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Arms were stacked, and the men lay down to sleep, alas! many of them 
 +their last but the great final sleep upon the earth.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Late in the afternoon as we came near the field, from some slightly 
 +wounded men we met, and occasional stragglers from the scene of 
 +operations in front, we got many rumors, and much disjointed information 
 +of battle, of lakes of blood, of rout and panic and undescribable 
 +disaster, from all of which the narrators were just fortunate enough to 
 +have barely escaped, the sole survivors. These stragglers are always 
 +terrible liars!</p> 
 + 
 +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>About nine o&#8217;clock in the evening, while I was yet engaged in showing 
 +the troops their positions, I met Gen. Hancock, then on his way from the 
 +front, to Gen. Meade, who was back toward Taneytown; and he, for the 
 +purpose of having me advise Gen. Gibbon, for his information, gave me 
 +quite a detailed account of the situation of matters at Gettysburg, and 
 +of what had transpired subsequently to his arrival.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>He had arrived and assumed command there, just when the troops of the 
 +First and Eleventh Corps, after their repulse, were coming in confusion 
 +through the town. Hancock is just the man for such an emergency as this. 
 +Upon horseback I think he was the most magnificent looking General in 
 +the whole Army of the Potomac at that time. With a large, well shaped 
 +person, always dressed with elegance, even upon that field of confusion, 
 +he would look as if he was &#8220;monarch of all he surveyed,&#8221; and few of his 
 +subjects would dare to question his right to command, or do aught else 
 +but to obey. His quick eye, in a flash, saw what was to be done, and his 
 +voice and his royal right hand at once commenced to do it. Gen. Howard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> 
 +had put one of his Divisions&mdash;Steinwehr&mdash;with some batteries, in 
 +position, upon a commanding eminence, at the &#8220;Cemetery,&#8221; which, as a 
 +reserve, had not participated in the fight of the day, and this Division 
 +was now of course steady. Around this Division the fugitives were 
 +stopped, and the shattered Brigades and Regiments, as they returned, 
 +were formed upon either flank, and faced toward the enemy again. A show 
 +of order at least, speedily came from chaos&mdash;the rout was at an end&mdash;the 
 +First and Eleventh Corps were in line of battle again&mdash;not very 
 +systematically formed perhaps&mdash;in a splendid position, and in a 
 +condition to offer resistance, should the enemy be willing to try them. 
 +These formations were all accomplished long before night. Then some 
 +considerable portion of the Third Corps&mdash;Gen. Sickles&mdash;came up by the 
 +Emmetsburg road, and was formed to the left of the Taneytown road, on an 
 +extension of the line that I have mentioned; and all the Twelfth 
 +Corps&mdash;Gen. Slocum&mdash;arriving before night, the Divisions were put in 
 +position, to the right of the troops already there, to the East of the 
 +Baltimore Pike. The enemy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> was in the town, and behind it, and to the 
 +East and West, and appeared to be in strong force, and was jubilant over 
 +his day&#8217;s success. Such was the posture of affairs as evening came on of 
 +the first of July. Gen. Hancock was hopeful, and in the best of spirits; 
 +and from him I also learned that the reason for halting the Second Corps 
 +in its present position, was that it was not then known where, in the 
 +coming fight, the line of battle would be formed, up near the town, 
 +where the troops then were, or further back, towards Taneytown. He would 
 +give his views upon this subject to Gen. Meade, which were in favor of 
 +the line near the town&mdash;the one that was subsequently adopted&mdash;and Gen. 
 +Meade would determine.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>The night before a great pitched battle would not ordinarily, I suppose, 
 +be a time for much sleep for Generals and their staff officers. We 
 +needed it enough, but there was work to be done. This war makes strange 
 +confusion of night and day! I did not sleep at all that night. It would, 
 +perhaps, be expected, on the eve of such great events, that one should 
 +have some peculiar sort of feelings, something extraordinary, some 
 +great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> arousing and excitement of the sensibilities and faculties, 
 +commensurate with the event itself; this certainly would be very 
 +poetical and pretty, but so far as I was concerned, and I think I can 
 +speak for the army in this matter, there was nothing of the kind. Men 
 +who had volunteered to fight the battles of the country, had met the 
 +enemy in many battles, and had been constantly before them, as had the 
 +Army of the Potomac, were too old soldiers, and long ago too well had 
 +weighed chances and probabilities, to be so disturbed now. No, I 
 +believe, the army slept soundly that night, and well, and I am glad the 
 +men did, for they needed it.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>At midnight Gen. Meade and staff rode by Gen. Gibbon&#8217;s Head Quarters, on 
 +their way to the field; and in conversation with Gen. Gibbon, Gen. Meade 
 +announced that he had decided to assemble the whole army before 
 +Gettysburg, and offer the enemy battle there. The Second Corps would 
 +move at the earliest daylight, to take up its position.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>At three o&#8217;clock, A. M., of the second of July, the sleepy soldiers of 
 +the Corps were aroused;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> before six the Corps was up to the field, and 
 +halted temporarily by the side of the Taneytown road, upon which it had 
 +marched, while some movements of the other troops were being made, to 
 +enable it to take position in the order of battle. The morning was thick 
 +and sultry, the sky overcast with low, vapory clouds. As we approached 
 +all was astir upon the crests near the Cemetery, and the work of 
 +preparation was speedily going on. Men looked like giants there in the 
 +mist, and the guns of the frowning batteries so big, that it was a 
 +relief to know that they were our friends.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Without a topographical map, some description of the ground and location 
 +is necessary to a clear understanding of the battle. With the sketch I 
 +have rudely drawn, without scale or compass, I hope you may understand 
 +my description. The line of battle as it was established, on the evening 
 +of the first, and morning of the second of July was in the form of the 
 +letter &#8220;U,&#8221; the troops facing outwards. And the &#8220;Cemetery,&#8221; which is at 
 +the point of the sharpest curvature of the line, being due South of the 
 +town of Gettysburg. &#8220;Round Top,&#8221; the extreme left of the line, is a 
 +small,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> woody, rocky elevation, a very little West of South of the town, 
 +and nearly two miles from it.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>The sides of this are in places very steep, and its rocky summit is 
 +almost inaccessible. A short distance North of this is a smaller 
 +elevation called &#8220;Little Round Top.&#8221; On the very top of &#8220;Little Round 
 +Top,&#8221; we had heavy rifled guns in position during the battle. Near the 
 +right of the line is a small, woody eminence, named &#8220;Culp&#8217;s Hill.&#8221; Three 
 +roads come up to the town from the South, which near the town are quite 
 +straight, and at the town the external ones unite, forming an angle of 
 +about sixty, or more degrees. Of these, the farthest to the East is the 
 +&#8220;Baltimore Pike,&#8221; which passes by the East entrance to the Cemetery; the 
 +farthest to the West is the &#8220;Emmetsburg road,&#8221; which is wholly outside 
 +of our line of battle, but near the Cemetery, is within a hundred yards 
 +of it; the &#8220;Taneytown road&#8221; is between these, running nearly due North 
 +and South, by the Eastern base of &#8220;Round Top,&#8221; by the Western side of 
 +the Cemetery, and uniting with the Emmetsburg road between the Cemetery 
 +and the town. High<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> ground near the Cemetery, is named &#8220;Cemetery Ridge.&#8221;</p> 
 + 
 +<p>The Eleventh Corps&mdash;Gen. Howard&mdash;was posted at the Cemetery, some of its 
 +batteries and troops, actually among the graves and monuments, which 
 +they used for shelter from the enemy&#8217;s fire, its left resting upon the 
 +Taneytown road, extending thence to the East, crossing the Baltimore 
 +Pike, and thence bending backwards towards the South-east; on the right 
 +of the Eleventh came the First Corps, now, since the death of Gen. 
 +Reynolds, commanded by Gen. Newton, formed in a line curving still more 
 +towards the South. The troops of these two Corps, were re-formed on the 
 +morning of the second, in order that each might be by itself, and to 
 +correct some things not done well during the hasty formations here the 
 +day before.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>To the right of the First Corps, and on an extension of the same line, 
 +along the crest and down the South-eastern slope of Culp&#8217;s Hill, was 
 +posted the Twelfth Corps&mdash;Gen. Slocum&mdash;its right, which was the extreme 
 +right of the line of the army, resting near a small stream called &#8220;Rock 
 +Run.&#8221; No changes, that I am aware of, occurred<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> in the formation of this 
 +Corps, on the morning of the Second. The Second Corps, after the brief 
 +halt that I have mentioned, moved up and took position, its right 
 +resting upon the Taneytown road, at the left of the Eleventh Corps, and 
 +extending the line thence, nearly a half mile, almost due South, towards 
 +Round Top, with its Divisions in the following order, from right to 
 +left: The Third, Gen. Alex Hays; the Second (Gibbon&#8217;s), Gen. Harrow, 
 +(temporarily); the First, Gen. Caldwell. The formation was in line by 
 +brigade in column, the brigade being in column by regiment, with forty 
 +paces interval between regimental lines, the Second and Third Divisions 
 +having each one, and the First Division, two brigades&mdash;there were four 
 +brigades in the First&mdash;similarly formed, in reserve, one hundred and 
 +fifty paces in the rear of the line of their respective Divisions. That 
 +is, the line of the Corps, exclusive of its reserves, was the length of 
 +six regiments, deployed, and the intervals between them, some of which 
 +were left wide for the posting of the batteries, and consisted of four 
 +common deployed lines, each of two ranks<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> of men, and a little more than 
 +one-third over in reserve.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>The five batteries, in all twenty-eight guns, were posted as follows: 
 +Woodruff&#8217;s regular, six twelve-pound Napoleon&#8217;s, brass, between the two 
 +brigades, in line of the Third Division; Arnold&#8217;s &#8220;A&#8221; first R. I., six 
 +three-inch Parrotts, rifled, and Cushing&#8217;s Regular, four three-inch 
 +Ordnance, rifled, between the Third and Second Division; Hazard&#8217;s, 
 +(commanded during the battle by Lieut. Brown,) &#8220;B&#8221; first R. I., and 
 +Rhorty&#8217;s N. G. each, six twelve-pound Napoleon&#8217;s, brass, between the 
 +Second and First Division.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>I have been thus specific in the description of the posting and 
 +formation of the Second Corps, because they were works that I assisted 
 +to perform; and also that the other Corps were similarly posted, with 
 +reference to the strength of the lines, and the intermixing of infantry 
 +and artillery. From this, you may get a notion of the whole.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>The Third Corps&mdash;Gen. Sickles&mdash;the remainder of it arriving upon the 
 +field this morning, was posted upon the left of the Second extending the 
 +line still in the direction of Round Top, with its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> left resting near 
 +&#8220;Little Round Top.&#8221; The left of the Third Corps was the extreme left of 
 +the line of battle, until changes occurred, which will be mentioned in 
 +the proper place. The Fifth Corps&mdash;Gen. Sykes&mdash;coming on the Baltimore 
 +Pike about this time, was massed there, near the line of battle, and 
 +held in reserve until some time in the afternoon, when it changed 
 +position, as I shall describe.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>I cannot give a detailed account of the cavalry, for I saw but little of 
 +it. It was posted near the wings, and watched the roads and the 
 +movements of the enemy upon the flanks of the army, but further than 
 +this participated but little in the battle. Some of it was also used for 
 +guarding the trains, which were far to the rear. The artillery reserve, 
 +which consisted of a good many batteries, were posted between the 
 +Baltimore Pike and the Taneytown road, on very nearly the center of a 
 +direct line passing through the extremities of the wings. Thus it could 
 +be readily sent to any part of the line. The Sixth Corps&mdash;Gen. 
 +Sedgwick&mdash;did not arrive upon the field until some time in the 
 +afternoon, but it was now not very far away, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> was coming up rapidly 
 +on the Baltimore Pike. No fears were entertained that &#8220;Uncle John,&#8221; as 
 +his men call Gen. Sedgwick, would not be in the right place at the right 
 +time.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>These dispositions were all made early, I think before eight o&#8217;clock in 
 +the morning. Skirmishers were posted well out all around the line, and 
 +all put in readiness for battle. The enemy did not yet demonstrate 
 +himself. With a look at the ground now, I think you may understand the 
 +movements of the battle. From Round Top, by the line of battle, round to 
 +the extreme right, I suppose is about three miles. From this same 
 +eminence to the Cemetery, extends a long ridge or hill&mdash;more resembling 
 +a great wave than a hill, however&mdash;with its crest, which was the line of 
 +battle, quite direct, between the points mentioned. To the West of this, 
 +that is towards the enemy, the ground falls away by a very gradual 
 +descent, across the Emmetsburg road, and then rises again, forming 
 +another ridge, nearly parallel to the first, but inferior in altitude, 
 +and something over a thousand yards away. A belt of woods extends partly 
 +along this second ridge, and partly farther to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> West, at distances 
 +of from one thousand to thirteen hundred yards away from our line. 
 +Between these ridges, and along their slopes, that is, in front of the 
 +Second and Third Corps, the ground is cultivated, and is covered with 
 +fields of wheat, now nearly ripe, with grass and pastures, with some 
 +peach orchards, with fields of waving corn, and some farm houses, and 
 +their out buildings along the Emmetsburg road. There are very few places 
 +within the limits mentioned where troops and guns could move concealed. 
 +There are some oaks of considerable growth, along the position of the 
 +right of the Second Corps, a group of small trees, sassafras and oak, in 
 +front of the right of the Second Division of this Corps also; and 
 +considerable woods immediately in front of the left of the Third Corps, 
 +and also to the West of, and near Round Top. At the Cemetery, where is 
 +Cemetery Ridge, to which the line of the Eleventh Corps conforms, is the 
 +highest point in our line, except Round Top. From this the ground falls 
 +quite abruptly to the town, the nearest point of which is some five 
 +hundred yards away from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> the line, and is cultivated, and checkered with 
 +stone fences.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>The same is the character of the ground occupied by, and in front of the 
 +left of the First Corps, which is also on a part of Cemetery Ridge. The 
 +right of this Corps, and the whole of the Twelfth, are along Culp&#8217;
 +Hill, and in woods, and the ground is very rocky, and in places in front 
 +precipitous&mdash;a most admirable position for defense from an attack in 
 +front, where, on account of the woods, no artillery could be used with 
 +effect by the enemy. Then these last three mentioned Corps had, by 
 +taking rails, by appropriating stone fences, by felling trees, and 
 +digging the earth, during the night of the first of July, made for 
 +themselves excellent breast works, which were a very good thing indeed. 
 +The position of the First and Twelfth Corps was admirably strong, 
 +therefore. Within the line of battle is an irregular basin, somewhat 
 +woody and rocky in places, but presenting few obstacles to the moving of 
 +troops and guns, from place to place along the lines, and also affording 
 +the advantage that all such movements, by reason of the surrounding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> 
 +crests, were out of view of the enemy. On the whole this was an 
 +admirable position to fight a defensive battle, good enough, I thought, 
 +when I saw it first, and better I believe than could be found elsewhere 
 +in a circle of many miles. Evils, sometimes at least, are blessings in 
 +disguise, for the repulse of our forces, and the death of Reynolds, on 
 +the first of July, with the opportune arrival of Hancock to arrest the 
 +tide of fugitives and fix it on these heights, gave us this 
 +position&mdash;perhaps the position gave us the victory. On arriving upon the 
 +field, Gen. Meade established his headquarters at a shabby little farm 
 +house on the left of the Taneytown road, the house nearest the line, and 
 +a little more than five hundred yards in the rear of what became the 
 +center of the position of the Second Corps, a point where he could 
 +communicate readily and rapidly with all parts of the army. The 
 +advantages of the position, briefly, were these: the flanks were quite 
 +well protected by the natural defences there, Round Top up the left, and 
 +a rocky, steep, untraversable ground up the right. Our line was more 
 +elevated than that of the enemy, consequently our artillery had a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> 
 +greater range and power than theirs. On account of the convexity of our 
 +line, every part of the line could be reinforced by troops having to 
 +move a shorter distance than if the line were straight; further, for the 
 +same reason, the line of the enemy must be concave, and, consequently, 
 +longer, and with an equal force, thinner, and so weaker than ours. Upon 
 +those parts of our line which were wooded, neither we nor the enemy 
 +could use artillery; but they were so strong by nature, aided by art, as 
 +to be readily defended by a small, against a very large, body of 
 +infantry. When the line was open, it had the advantage of having open 
 +country in front, consequently, the enemy here could not surprise, as we 
 +were on a crest, which besides the other advantages that I have 
 +mentioned, had this: the enemy must advance to the attack up an ascent, 
 +and must therefore move slower, and be, before coming upon us, longer 
 +under our fire, as well as more exhausted. These, and some other things, 
 +rendered our position admirable&mdash;for a defensive battle.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>So, before a great battle, was ranged the Army of the Potomac. The day 
 +wore on, the weather<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> still sultry, and the sky overcast, with a 
 +mizzling effort at rain. When the audience has all assembled, time seems 
 +long until the curtain rises; so to-day. &#8220;Will there be a battle 
 +to-day?&#8221; &#8220;Shall we attack the Rebel?&#8221; &#8220;Will he attack us?&#8221; These and 
 +similar questions, later in the morning, were thought or asked a million 
 +times.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Meanwhile, on our part, all was put in the last state of readiness for 
 +battle. Surgeons were busy riding about selecting eligible places for 
 +Hospitals, and hunting streams, and springs, and wells. Ambulances, and 
 +ambulance men, were brought up near the lines, and stretchers gotten 
 +ready for use. Who of us could tell but that he would be the first to 
 +need them? The Provost Guards were busy driving up all stragglers, and 
 +causing them to join their regiments. Ammunition wagons were driven to 
 +suitable places, and pack mules bearing boxes of cartridges; and the 
 +commands were informed where they might be found. Officers were sent to 
 +see that the men had each his hundred rounds of ammunition. Generals and 
 +their Staffs were riding here and there among their commands to see that 
 +all was right. A staff officer, or an <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>orderly might be seen galloping 
 +furiously in the transmission of some order or message.&mdash;All, all was 
 +ready&mdash;and yet the sound of no gun had disturbed the air or ear to-day.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>And so the men stacked their arms&mdash;in long bristling rows they stood 
 +along the crests&mdash;and were at ease. Some men of the Second and Third 
 +Corps pulled down the rail fences near and piled them up for breastworks 
 +in their front. Some loitered, some went to sleep upon the ground, some, 
 +a single man, carrying twenty canteens slung over his shoulder, went for 
 +water. Some made them a fire and boiled a dipper of coffee. Some with 
 +knees cocked up, enjoyed the soldier&#8217;s peculiar solace, a pipe of 
 +tobacco. Some were mirthful and chatty, and some were serious and 
 +silent. Leaving them thus&mdash;I suppose of all arms and grades there were 
 +about a hundred thousand of them somewhere about that field&mdash;each to 
 +pass the hour according to his duty or his humor, let us look to the 
 +enemy.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Here let me state that according to the best information that I could 
 +get, I think a fair estimate of the Rebel force engaged in this battle 
 +would be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> a little upwards of a hundred thousand men of all arms. Of 
 +course we can&#8217;t now know, but there are reasonable data for this 
 +estimate. At all events there was no great disparity of numbers in the 
 +two opposing armies. We thought the enemy to be somewhat more numerous 
 +than we, and he probably was. But if ninety-five men should fight with a 
 +hundred and five, the latter would not always be victors&mdash;and slight 
 +numerical differences are of much less consequence in great bodies of 
 +men.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Skillful generalship and good fighting are the jewels of war. These 
 +concurring are difficult to overcome; and these, not numbers, must 
 +determine this battle.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>During all the morning&mdash;and of the night, too&mdash;the skirmishers of the 
 +enemy had been confronting those of the Eleventh, First and Twelfth 
 +Corps. At the time of the fight of the First, he was seen in heavy force 
 +North of the town&mdash;he was believed to be now in the same neighborhood, 
 +in full force. But from the woody character of the country, and thereby 
 +the careful concealment of troops, which the Rebel is always sure to 
 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>effect, during the early part of the morning almost nothing was 
 +actually seen by us of the invaders of the North. About nine o&#8217;clock in 
 +the morning, I should think, our glasses began to reveal them at the 
 +West and North-west of the town, a mile and a half away from our lines. 
 +They were moving towards our left, but the woods of Seminary Ridge so 
 +concealed them that we could not make out much of their movements. About 
 +this time some rifled guns in the Cemetery, at the left of the Eleventh 
 +Corps, opened fire&mdash;almost the first shots of any kind this morning&mdash;and 
 +when it was found they were firing at a Rebel line of skirmishers 
 +merely, that were advancing upon the left of that, and the right of the 
 +Second Corps, the officer in charge of the guns was ordered to cease 
 +firing, and was rebuked for having fired at all. These skirmishers soon 
 +engaged those at the right of the Second Corps, who stood their ground 
 +and were reinforced to make the line entirely secure. The Rebel skirmish 
 +line kept extending further and further to their right&mdash;toward our left. 
 +They would dash up close upon ours and sometimes drive them back a short 
 +distance, in turn to be <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>repulsed themselves&mdash;and so they continued to 
 +do until their right was opposite the extreme left of the Third Corps. 
 +By these means they had ascertained the position and extent of our 
 +lines&mdash;but their own masses were still out of view. From the time that 
 +the firing commenced, as I have mentioned, it was kept up, among the 
 +skirmishers, until quite noon, often briskly; but with no definite 
 +results further than those mentioned, and with no considerable show of 
 +infantry on the part of the enemy to support. There was a farm house and 
 +outbuildings in front of the Third Division of the Second Corps, at 
 +which the skirmishers of the enemy had made a dash, and dislodged ours 
 +posted there, and from there their sharp shooters began to annoy our 
 +line of skirmishers and even the main line, with their long range 
 +rifles. I was up to the line, and a bullet from one of the rascals hid 
 +there, hissed by my cheek so close that I felt the movement of the air 
 +distinctly. And so I was not at all displeased when I saw one of our 
 +regiments go down and attack and capture the house and buildings and 
 +several prisoners, after a spirited little fight, and, by Gen. Hays&#8217; 
 +order, burn the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> buildings to the ground. About noon the Signal Corps, 
 +from the top of Little Round Top, with their powerful glasses, and the 
 +cavalry at the extreme left, began to report the enemy in heavy force, 
 +making disposition of battle, to the West of Round Top, and opposite to 
 +the left of the Third Corps. Some few prisoners had been captured, some 
 +deserters from the enemy had come in, and from all sources, by this 
 +time, we had much important and reliable information of the enemy&mdash;of 
 +his disposition and apparent purposes. The Rebel infantry consisted of 
 +three Army Corps, each consisting of three Divisions, Longstreet, 
 +Ewell&mdash;the same whose leg Gibbons&#8217; shell knocked off at Gainesville on 
 +the 28th of August last year&mdash;and A. P. Hill, each in the Rebel service 
 +having the rank of Lieutenant General, were the commanders of these 
 +Corps. Longstreet&#8217;s Division commanders were Hood, McLaws, and Pickett; 
 +Ewell&#8217;s were Rhodes, Early and Johnson, and Hill&#8217;s were Pender, Heth and 
 +Anderson. Stewart and Fitzhugh Lee commanded Divisions of the Rebel 
 +cavalry. The rank of these Division commands, I believe, was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> that of 
 +Major General. The Rebels had about as much artillery as we did; but we 
 +never have thought much of this arm in the hands of our adversaries. 
 +They have courage enough, but not the skill to handle it well. They 
 +generally fire far too high, and the ammunition is usually of a very 
 +inferior quality. And, of late, we have begun to despise the enemies&#8217; 
 +cavalry too. It used to have enterprise and dash, but in the late 
 +cavalry contests ours have always been victor; and so now we think about 
 +all this <i>chivalry</i> is fit for is to steal a few of our mules 
 +occasionally, and their negro drivers. This army of the rebel infantry, 
 +however, is good&mdash;to deny this is useless. I never had any desire 
 +to&mdash;and if one should count up, it would possibly be found that they 
 +have gained more victories over us, than we have over them, and they 
 +will now, doubtless, fight well, even desperately. And it is not horses 
 +or cannon that will determine the result of this confronting of the two 
 +armies, but the men with the muskets must do it&mdash;the infantry must do 
 +the sharp work. So we watched all this posting of forces as closely as 
 +possible, for it was a matter of vital interest to us,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> and all 
 +information relating to it was hurried to the commander of the army. The 
 +Rebel line of battle was concave, bending around our own, with the 
 +extremities of the wings opposite to, or a little outside of ours. 
 +Longstreet&#8217;s Corps was upon their right; Hill&#8217;s in the center. These two 
 +Rebel Corps occupied the second or inferior ridge to the West of our 
 +position, as I have mentioned, with Hill&#8217;s left bending towards, and 
 +resting near the town, and Ewell&#8217;s was upon their left, his troops being 
 +in, and to the East of the town. This last Corps confronted our Twelfth, 
 +First, and the right of the Eleventh Corps. When I have said that ours 
 +was a good <i>defensive</i> position, this is equivalant to saying that that 
 +of the enemy was not a good <i>offensive</i> one; for these are relative 
 +terms, and cannot be both predicated of the respective positions of the 
 +two armies at the same time. The reasons that this was not a good 
 +offensive position, are the same already stated in favor of ours for 
 +defense. Excepting, occasionally, for a brief time, during some movement 
 +of troops, as when advancing to attack, their men and guns were kept 
 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>constantly and carefully, by woods and inequalities of ground, out of 
 +our view.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Noon is past, one o&#8217;clock is past, and, save the skirmishing, that I 
 +have mentioned, and an occasional shot from our guns, at something or 
 +other, the nature of which the ones who fired it were ignorant, there 
 +was no fight yet. Our arms were still stacked, and the men were at ease. 
 +As I looked upon those interminable rows of muskets along the crests, 
 +and saw how cool and good spirited the men were, who were lounging about 
 +on the ground among them, I could not, and did not, have any fears as to 
 +the result of the battle. The storm was near, and we all knew it well 
 +enough by this time, which was to rain death upon these crests and down 
 +their slopes, and yet the men who could not, and would not escape it, 
 +were as calm and cheerful, generally, as if nothing unusual were about 
 +to happen. You see, these men were veterans, and had been in such places 
 +so often that they were accustomed to them. But I was well pleased with 
 +the tone of the men to-day&mdash;I could almost see the fore-shadowing of 
 +victory upon their faces, I thought. And I thought, too, as I had seen 
 +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> mighty preparations go on to completion for this great 
 +conflict&mdash;the marshaling of these two hundred thousand men and the guns 
 +of the hosts, that now but a narrow valley divided, that to have been in 
 +such a battle, and to survive on the side of the victors, would be 
 +glorious. Oh, the world is most unchristian yet!</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Somewhat after one o&#8217;clock P. M.&mdash;the skirmish firing had nearly ceased 
 +now&mdash;a movement of the Third Corps occurred, which I shall describe. I 
 +cannot conjecture the reason of this movement. From the position of the 
 +Third Corps, as I have mentioned, to the second ridge West, the distance 
 +is about a thousand yards, and there the Emmetsburg road runs near the 
 +crest of the ridge. Gen. Sickles commenced to advance his whole Corps, 
 +from the general line, straight to the front, with a view to occupy this 
 +second ridge, along, and near the road. What his purpose could have been 
 +is past conjecture. It was not ordered by Gen. Meade, as I heard him 
 +say, and he disapproved of it as soon as it was made known to him. 
 +Generals Hancock and Gibbon, as they saw the move in progress, 
 +criticized its propriety sharply, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> I know, and foretold quite 
 +accurately what would be the result. I suppose the truth probably is 
 +that General Sickles supposed he was doing for the best; but he was 
 +neither born nor bred a soldier. But one can scarcely tell what may have 
 +been the motives of such a man&mdash;a politician, and some other things, 
 +exclusive of the <i>Barton Key</i> affair&mdash;a man after show and notoriety, 
 +and newspaper fame, and the adulation of the mob! O, there is a grave 
 +responsibility on those in whose hands are the lives of ten thousand 
 +men; and on those who put stars upon men&#8217;s shoulders, too! Bah! I kindle 
 +when I see some things that I have to see. But this move of the Third 
 +Corps was an important one&mdash;it developed the battle&mdash;the results of the 
 +move to the Corps itself we shall see. O, if this Corps had kept its 
 +strong position upon the crest, and supported by the rest of the army, 
 +had waited for the attack of the enemy!</p> 
 + 
 +<p>It was magnificent to see those ten or twelve thousand men&mdash;they were 
 +good men&mdash;with their batteries, and some squadrons of cavalry upon the 
 +left flank, all in battle order, in several lines, with flags streaming, 
 +sweep steadily down the slope,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> across the valley, and up the next 
 +ascent, toward their destined position! From our position we could see 
 +it all. In advance Sickles pushed forward his heavy line of skirmishers, 
 +who drove back those of the enemy, across the Emmetsburg road, and thus 
 +cleared the way for the main body. The Third Corps now became the 
 +absorbing object of interest of all eyes. The Second Corps took arms, 
 +and the 1st Division of this Corps was ordered to be in readiness to 
 +support the Third Corps, should circumstances render support necessary. 
 +As the Third Corps was the extreme left of our line, as it advanced, if 
 +the enemy was assembling to the West of Round Top with a view to turn 
 +our left, as we had heard, there would be nothing between the left flank 
 +of the Corps and the enemy, and the enemy would be square upon its flank 
 +by the time it had attained the road. So when this advance line came 
 +near the Emmetsburg road, and we saw the squadrons of cavalry mentioned, 
 +come dashing back from their position as flankers, and the smoke of some 
 +guns, and we heard the reports away to Sickles left, anxiety became an 
 +element in our interest in these movements.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> The enemy opened slowly at 
 +first, and from long range; but he was square upon Sickles&#8217; left flank. 
 +General Caldwell was ordered at once to put his Division&mdash;the 1st of the 
 +Second Corps, as mentioned&mdash;in motion, and to take post in the woods at 
 +the left slope of Round Top, in such a manner as to resist the enemy 
 +should he attempt to come around Sickles left and gain his rear. The 
 +Division moved as ordered, and disappeared from view in the woods, 
 +towards the point indicated at between two and three o&#8217;clock P. M., and 
 +the reserve brigade&mdash;the First, Col. Heath temporarily commanding&mdash;of 
 +the Second Division, was therefore moved up and occupied the position 
 +vacated by the Third Division. About the same time the Fifth Corps could 
 +be seen marching by the flank from its position on the Baltimore Pike, 
 +and in the opening of the woods heading for the same locality where the 
 +1st Division of the Second Corps had gone. The Sixth Corps had now come 
 +up and was halted upon the Baltimore Pike. So the plot thickened. As the 
 +enemy opened upon Sickles with his batteries, some five or six in all, I 
 +suppose, firing slowly, Sickles with as many <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>replied, and with much 
 +more spirit. The artillery fire became quite animated, soon; but the 
 +enemy was forced to withdraw his guns farther and farther away, and ours 
 +advanced upon him. It was not long before the cannonade ceased 
 +altogether, the enemy having retired out of range, and Sickles, having 
 +temporarily halted his command, pending this, moved forward again to the 
 +position he desired, or nearly that. It was now about five o&#8217;clock, and 
 +we shall soon see what Sickles gained by his move. First we hear more 
 +artillery firing upon Sickles&#8217; left&mdash;the enemy seems to be opening 
 +again, and as we watch the Rebel batteries seem to be advancing there. 
 +The cannonade is soon opened again, and with great spirit upon both 
 +sides. The enemy&#8217;s batteries press those of Sickles, and pound the shot 
 +upon them, and this time they in turn begin to retire to position nearer 
 +the infantry. The enemy seem to be fearfully in earnest this time. And 
 +what is more ominous than the thunder or the shot of his advancing guns, 
 +this time, in the intervals between his batteries, far to Sickles&#8217; left, 
 +appear the long lines and the columns of the Rebel infantry, now 
 +unmistakably<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> moving out to the attack. The position of the Third Corps 
 +becomes at once one of great peril, and it is probable that its 
 +commander by this time began to realize his true situation. All was 
 +astir now on our crest. Generals and their Staffs were galloping hither 
 +and thither&mdash;the men were all in their places, and you might have heard 
 +the rattle of ten thousand ramrods as they drove home and &#8220;thugged&#8221; upon 
 +the little globes and cones of lead. As the enemy was advancing upon 
 +Sickles&#8217; flank, he commenced a change, or at least a partial one, of 
 +front, by swinging back his left and throwing forward his right, in 
 +order that his lines might be parallel to those of his adversary, his 
 +batteries meantime doing what they could to check the enemy&#8217;s advance; 
 +but this movement was not completely executed before new Rebel batteries 
 +opened upon Sickles&#8217; right flank&mdash;his former front&mdash;and in the same 
 +quarter appeared the Rebel infantry also. Now came the dreadful battle 
 +picture, of which we for a time could be but spectators. Upon the front 
 +and right flank of Sickles came sweeping the infantry of Longstreet and 
 +Hill. Hitherto there had been skirmishing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> and artillery practice&mdash;now 
 +the battle began; for amid the heavier smoke and larger tongues of flame 
 +of the batteries, now began to appear the countless flashes, and the 
 +long fiery sheets of the muskets, and the rattle of the volleys, mingled 
 +with the thunder of the guns. We see the long gray lines come sweeping 
 +down upon Sickles&#8217; front, and mix with the battle smoke; now the same 
 +colors emerge from the bushes and orchards upon his right, and envelope 
 +his flank in the confusion of the conflict.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>O, the din and the roar, and these thirty thousand Rebel wolf cries! 
 +What a hell is there down that valley!</p> 
 + 
 +<p>These ten or twelve thousand men of the Third Corps fight well, but it 
 +soon becomes apparent that they must be swept from the field, or perish 
 +there where they are doing so well, so thick and overwhelming a storm of 
 +Rebel fire involves them. It was fearful to see, but these men, such as 
 +ever escape, must come from that conflict as best they can. To move down 
 +and support them with other troops is out of the question, for this 
 +would be to do as Sickles did, to relinquish a good position,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> and 
 +advance to a bad one. There is no other alternative&mdash;the Third Corps 
 +must fight itself out of its position of destruction! What was it ever 
 +put there for?</p> 
 + 
 +<p>In the meantime some other dispositions must be made to meet the enemy, 
 +in the event that Sickles is overpowered. With this Corps out of the 
 +way, the enemy would be in a position to advance upon the line of the 
 +Second Corps, not in a line parallel with its front, but they would come 
 +obliquely from the left. To meet this contingency the left of the Second 
 +Division of the Second Corps is thrown back slightly, and two Regiments, 
 +the 15th Mass., Col. Ward, and the 82nd N. Y., Lieut. Col. Horton, are 
 +advanced down to the Emmetsburg road, to a favorable position nearer us 
 +than the fight has yet come, and some new batteries from the artillery 
 +reserve are posted upon the crest near the left of the Second Corps. 
 +This was all Gen. Gibbon could do. Other dispositions were made or were 
 +now being made upon the field, which I shall mention presently. The 
 +enemy is still giving Sickles fierce battle&mdash;or rather the Third Corps, 
 +for Sickles has been borne<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> from the field minus one of his legs, and 
 +Gen. Birney now commands&mdash;and we of the Second Corps, a thousand yards 
 +away, with our guns and men are, and must be, still idle spectators of 
 +the fight.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>The Rebel, as anticipated, tries to gain the left of the Third Corps, 
 +and for this purpose is now moving into the woods at the west of Round 
 +Top. We knew what he would find there. No sooner had the enemy gotten a 
 +considerable force into the woods mentioned, in the attempted execution 
 +of his purpose, than the roar of the conflict was heard there also. The 
 +Fifth Corps and the First Division of the Second were there at the right 
 +time, and promptly engaged him; and there, too, the battle soon became 
 +general and obstinate. Now the roar of battle has become twice the 
 +volume that it was before, and its range extends over more than twice 
 +the space. The Third Corps has been pressed back considerably, and the 
 +wounded are streaming to the rear by hundreds, but still the battle 
 +there goes on, with no considerable abatement on our part. The field of 
 +actual conflict extends now from a point to the front of the left of 
 +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> Second Corps, away down to the front of Round Top, and the fight 
 +rages with the greatest fury. The fire of artillery and infantry and the 
 +yells of the Rebels fill the air with a mixture of hideous sounds. When 
 +the First Division of the Second Corps first engaged the enemy, for a 
 +time it was pressed back somewhat, but under the able and judicious 
 +management of Gen. Caldwell, and the support of the Fifth Corps, it 
 +speedily ceased to retrograde, and stood its ground; and then there 
 +followed a time, after the Fifth Corps became well engaged, when from 
 +appearances we hoped the troops already engaged would be able to check 
 +entirely, or repulse the further assault of the enemy. But fresh bodies 
 +of the Rebels continued to advance out of the woods to the front of the 
 +position of the Third Corps, and to swell the numbers of the assailants 
 +of this already hard pressed command. The men there begin to show signs 
 +of exhaustion&mdash;their ammunition must be nearly expended&mdash;they have now 
 +been fighting more than an hour, and against greatly superior numbers. 
 +From the sound of the firing at the extreme left, and the place where 
 +the smoke rises above the tree<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> tops there, we know that the Fifth Corps 
 +is still steady, and holding its own there; and as we see the Sixth 
 +Corps now marching and near at hand to that point, we have no fears for 
 +the left&mdash;we have more apparent reason to fear for ourselves.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>The Third Corps is being overpowered&mdash;here and there its lines begin to 
 +break&mdash;the men begin to pour back to the rear in confusion&mdash;the enemy 
 +are close upon them and among them&mdash;organization is lost to a great 
 +degree&mdash;guns and caissons are abandoned and in the hands of the 
 +enemy&mdash;the Third Corps, after a heroic but unfortunate fight, is being 
 +literally swept from the field. That Corps gone, what is there between 
 +the Second Corps, and these yelling masses of the enemy? Do you not 
 +think that by this time we began to feel a personal interest in this 
 +fight? We did indeed. We had been mere observers&mdash;the time was at hand 
 +when we must be actors in this drama.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Up to this hour Gen. Gibbon had been in command of the Second Corps, 
 +since yesterday, but Gen. Hancock, relieved of his duties elsewhere, now 
 +assumed command. Five or six hundred<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> yards away the Third Corps was 
 +making its last opposition; and the enemy was hotly pressing his 
 +advantages there, and throwing in fresh troops whose line extended still 
 +more along our front, when Generals Hancock and Gibbon rode along the 
 +lines of their troops; and at once cheer after cheer&mdash;not Rebel, mongrel 
 +cries, but genuine cheers&mdash;rang out all along the line, above the roar 
 +of battle, for &#8220;Hancock&#8221; and &#8220;Gibbon,&#8221; and &#8220;our Generals.&#8221; These were 
 +good. Had you heard their voices, you would have known these men would 
 +fight. Just at this time we saw another thing that made us glad:&mdash;we 
 +looked to our rear, and there, and all up the hillside which was the 
 +rear of the Third Corps before it went forward, were rapidly advancing 
 +large bodies of men from the extreme right of our line of battle, coming 
 +to the support of the part now so hotly pressed. There was the whole 
 +Twelfth Corps, with the exception of about one brigade, that is, the 
 +larger portion of the Divisions of Gens. Williams and Geary; the Third 
 +Division of the First Corps, Gen. Doubleday; and some other brigades 
 +from the same Corps&mdash;and some of them were moving<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> at the double quick. 
 +They formed lines of battle at the foot of the Taneytown road, and when 
 +the broken fragments of the Third Corps were swarming by them towards 
 +the rear, without halting or wavering they came sweeping up, and with 
 +glorious old cheers, under fire, took their places on the crest in line 
 +of battle to the left of the Second Corps. Now Sickles&#8217; blunder is 
 +repaired. Now, Rebel chief, hurl forward your howling lines and columns! 
 +Yell out your loudest and your last, for many of your best will never 
 +yell, or wave the spurious flag again!</p> 
 + 
 +<p>The battle still rages all along the left, where the Fifth Corps is, and 
 +the West slope of Round Top is the scene of the conflict; and nearer us 
 +there was but short abatement, as the last of the Third Corps retired 
 +from the field, for the enemy is flushed with his success. He has been 
 +throwing forward brigade after brigade, and Division after Division, 
 +since the battle began, and his advancing line now extends almost as far 
 +to our right as the right of the Second Division of the Second Corps. 
 +The whole slope in our front is full of them; and in various <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>formation, 
 +in line, in column, and in masses which are neither, with yells and 
 +thick volleys, they are rushing towards our crest. The Third Corps is 
 +out of the way. Now we are in for it. The battery men are ready by their 
 +loaded guns. All along the crest is ready. Now Arnold and Brown&mdash;now 
 +Cushing, and Woodruff, and Rhorty!&mdash;you three shall survive to-day! They 
 +drew the cords that moved the friction primers, and gun after gun, along 
 +the batteries, in rapid succession, leaped where it stood and bellowed 
 +its canister upon the enemy. The enemy still advance. The infantry open 
 +fire&mdash;first the two advance regiments, the 15th Mass. and the 82d N. 
 +Y.&mdash;then here and there throughout the length of the long line, at the 
 +points where the enemy comes nearest, and soon the whole crest, 
 +artillery and infantry, is one continued sheet of fire. From Round Top 
 +to near the Cemetery stretches an uninterrupted field of conflict. There 
 +is a great army upon each side, now hotly engaged.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>To see the fight, while it went on in the valley below us, was 
 +terrible,&mdash;what must it be now,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> when we are in it, and it is all around 
 +us, in all its fury?</p> 
 + 
 +<p>All senses for the time are dead but the one of sight. The roar of the 
 +discharges and the yells of the enemy all pass unheeded; but the 
 +impassioned soul is all eyes, and sees all things, that the smoke does 
 +not hide. How madly the battery men are driving home the double charges 
 +of canister in those broad-mouthed Napoleons, whose fire seems almost to 
 +reach the enemy. How rapidly these long, blue-coated lines of infantry 
 +deliver their file fire down the slope.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>But there is no faltering&mdash;the men stand nobly to their work. Men are 
 +dropping dead or wounded on all sides, by scores and by hundreds, and 
 +the poor mutilated creatures, some with an arm dangling, some with a leg 
 +broken by a bullet, are limping and crawling towards the rear. They make 
 +no sound of complaint or pain, but are as silent as if dumb and mute. A 
 +sublime heroism seems to pervade all, and the intuition that to lose 
 +that crest, all is lost. How our officers, in the work of cheering on 
 +and directing the men, are falling.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>We have heard that Gen. Zook and Col.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> Cross, in the First Division of 
 +our Corps, are mortally wounded&mdash;they both commanded brigades,&mdash;now near 
 +us Col. Ward of the 15th Mass.&mdash;he lost a leg at Balls Bluff&mdash;and Lieut. 
 +Col. Horton of the 82d N. Y., are mortally struck while trying to hold 
 +their commands, which are being forced back; Col. Revere, 20th Mass., 
 +grandson of old Paul Revere, of the Revolution, is killed, Lieut. Col. 
 +Max Thoman, commanding 59th N. Y., is mortally wounded, and a host of 
 +others that I cannot name. These were of Gibbon&#8217;s Division. Lieut. Brown 
 +is wounded among his guns&mdash;his position is a hundred yards in advance of 
 +the main line&mdash;the enemy is upon his battery, and he escapes, but leaves 
 +three of his six guns in the hands of the enemy.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>The fire all along our crest is terrific, and it is a wonder how 
 +anything human could have stood before it, and yet the madness of the 
 +enemy drove them on, clear up to the muzzle of the guns, clear up to the 
 +lines of our infantry&mdash;but the lines stood right in their places. Gen. 
 +Hancock and his Aides rode up to Gibbon&#8217;s Division, under the smoke. 
 +Gen. Gibbon, with myself, was near, and there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> was a flag dimly visible, 
 +coming towards us from the direction of the enemy. &#8220;Here, what are these 
 +men falling back for?&#8221; said Hancock. The flag was no more than fifty 
 +yards away, but it was the head of a Rebel column, which at once opened 
 +fire with a volley. Lieut. Miller, Gen. Hancock&#8217;s Aide, fell, twice 
 +struck, but the General was unharmed, and he told the 1st Minn., which 
 +was near, to drive these people away. That splendid regiment, the less 
 +than three hundred that are left out of fifteen hundred that it has had, 
 +swings around upon the enemy, gives them a volley in their faces, and 
 +advances upon them with the bayonet. The Rebels fled in confusion, but 
 +Col. Colville, Lieut. Col. Adams and Major Downie, are all badly, 
 +dangerously wounded, and many of the other officers and men will never 
 +fight again. More than two-thirds fell.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Such fighting as this cannot last long. It is now near sundown, and the 
 +battle has gone on wonderfully long already. But if you will stop to 
 +notice it, a change has occurred. The Rebel cry has ceased, and the men 
 +of the Union begin to shout there, under the smoke, and their lines to 
 +advance.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> See, the Rebels are breaking! They are in confusion in all our 
 +front! The wave has rolled upon the rock, and the rock has smashed it. 
 +Let us shout, too!</p> 
 + 
 +<p>First upon their extreme left the Rebels broke, where they had almost 
 +pierced our lines; thence the repulse extended rapidly to their right. 
 +They hung longest about Round Top, where the Fifth Corps punished them, 
 +but in a space of time incredibly short, after they first gave signs of 
 +weakness, the whole force of the Rebel assault along the whole line, in 
 +spite of waving red flags, and yells, and the entreaties of officers, 
 +and the pride of the chivalry, fled like chaff before the whirlwind, 
 +back down the slope, over the valley, across the Emmetsburg road, 
 +shattered, without organization in utter confusion, fugitive into the 
 +woods, and victory was with the arms of the Republic. The great Rebel 
 +assault, the greatest ever made upon this continent, has been made and 
 +signally repulsed, and upon this part of the field the fight of to-day 
 +is now soon over. Pursuit was made as rapidly and as far as practicable, 
 +but owing to the proximity of night, and the long distance which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> would 
 +have to be gone over before any of the enemy, where they would be likely 
 +to halt, could be overtaken, further success was not attainable to-day. 
 +Where the Rebel rout first commenced, a large number of prisoners, some 
 +thousands at least, were captured; almost all their dead, and such of 
 +their wounded as could not themselves get to the rear, were within our 
 +lines; several of their flags were gathered up, and a good many thousand 
 +muskets, some nine or ten guns and some caissons lost by the Third 
 +Corps, and the three of Brown&#8217;s battery&mdash;these last were in Rebel hands 
 +but a few minutes&mdash;were all safe now with us, the enemy having had no 
 +time to take them off.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Not less, I estimate, than twenty thousand men were killed or wounded in 
 +this fight. Our own losses must have been nearly half this 
 +number,&mdash;about four thousand in the Third Corps, fully two thousand in 
 +the Second, and I think two thousand in the Fifth, and I think the 
 +losses of the First, Twelfth, and a little more than a brigade of the 
 +Sixth&mdash;all of that Corps which was actually engaged&mdash;would reach nearly 
 +two thousand more. Of course it will never be possible to know the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> 
 +numbers upon either side who fell in this particular part of the general 
 +battle, but from the position of the enemy and his numbers, and the 
 +appearance of the field, his loss must have been as heavy, or as I think 
 +much heavier than our own, and my estimates are probably short of the 
 +actual loss.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>&nbsp;</p> 
 +</html> 
 +{{  haskell-gettysburg-final-attack.jpg  }} 
 +<html> 
 +<p class="center">Battle of Gettysburg&mdash;Final attack, July 2<br />(Compiled by C. E. Estabrook)</p> 
 +<p>&nbsp;</p> 
 + 
 +<p>The fight done, the sudden revulsions of sense and feeling follow, which 
 +more or less characterize all similar occasions. How strange the 
 +stillness seems! The whole air roared with the conflict but a moment 
 +since&mdash;now all is silent; not a gunshot sound is heard, and the silence 
 +comes distinctly, almost painfully to the senses. And the sun purples 
 +the clouds in the West, and the sultry evening steals on as if there had 
 +been no battle, and the furious shout and the cannon&#8217;s roar had never 
 +shaken the earth. And how look these fields? We may see them before 
 +dark&mdash;the ripening grain, the luxuriant corn, the orchards, the grassy 
 +meadows, and in their midst the rural cottage of brick or wood. They 
 +were beautiful this morning. They are desolate now&mdash;trampled by the 
 +countless feet of the combatants, plowed and scored by the shot and 
 +shell, the orchards<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> splintered, the fences prostrate, the harvest 
 +trodden in the mud. And more dreadful than the sight of all this, 
 +thickly strewn over all their length and breadth, are the habiliments of 
 +the soldiers, the knapsacks cast aside in the stress of the fight, or 
 +after the fatal lead had struck; haversacks, yawning with the rations 
 +the owner will never call for; canteens of cedar of the Rebel men of 
 +Jackson, and of cloth-covered tin of the men of the Union; blankets and 
 +trowsers, and coats and caps, and some are blue and some are gray; 
 +muskets and ramrods, and bayonets, and swords, and scabbards and belts, 
 +some bent and cut by the shot or shell; broken wheels, exploded 
 +caissons, and limber-boxes, and dismantled guns, and all these are 
 +sprinkled with blood; horses, some dead, a mangled heap of carnage, some 
 +alive, with a leg shot clear off, or other frightful wounds, appealing 
 +to you with almost more than brute gaze as you pass; and last, but not 
 +least numerous, many thousands of men&mdash;and there was no rebellion here 
 +now&mdash;the men of South Carolina were quiet by the side of those of 
 +Massachusetts, some composed, with upturned faces, sleeping the last 
 +sleep, some <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>mutilated and frightful, some wretched, fallen, bathed in 
 +blood, survivors still and unwilling witnesses of the rage of 
 +Gettysburg.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>And yet with all this before them, as darkness came on, and the 
 +dispositions were made and the outposts thrown out for the night, the 
 +Army of the Potomac was quite mad with joy. No more light-hearted guests 
 +ever graced a banquet, than were these men as they boiled their coffee 
 +and munched their soldiers&#8217; supper to-night. Is it strange?</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Otherwise they would not have been soldiers. And such sights as all 
 +these will be certain to be seen as long as war lasts in the world, and 
 +when war is done, then is the end and the days of the millenium are at 
 +hand.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>The ambulances commenced their work as soon as the battle opened&mdash;the 
 +twinkling lanterns through the night, and the sun of to-morrow saw them 
 +still with the same work unfinished.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>I wish that I could write, that with the coming on of darkness, ended 
 +the fight of to-day, but such was not the case. The armies have fought 
 +enough to-day, and ought to sleep to-night, one would think, but not so 
 +thought the Rebel. Let us see<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> what he gained by his opinion. When the 
 +troops, including those of the Twelfth Corps had been withdrawn from the 
 +extreme right of our line, in the afternoon, to support the left, as I 
 +have mentioned, thereby, of course, weakening that part of the line so 
 +left, the Rebel Ewell, either becoming aware of the fact, or because he 
 +thought he could carry our right at all events, late in the afternoon 
 +commenced an assault upon that part of our line. His battle had been 
 +going on there simultaneously with the fight on the left, but not with 
 +any great degree of obstinacy on his part. He had advanced his men 
 +through the woods, and in front of the formidable position lately held 
 +by the Twelfth Corps cautiously, and to his surprise, I have no doubt, 
 +found our strong defenses upon the extreme right, entirely abandoned. 
 +These he at once took possession of, and simultaneously made an attack 
 +upon our right flank, which was now near the summit of Culp&#8217;s hill, and 
 +upon the front of that part of the line. That small portion of the 
 +Twelfth Corps, which had been left there, and some of the Eleventh 
 +Corps, sent to their assistance, did what they could to check the 
 +Rebels;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> but the Eleventh Corps men were getting shot at there, and they 
 +did not want to stay. Matters began to have a bad look in that part of 
 +the field. A portion of the First Division of the First Corps, was sent 
 +there for support&mdash;the 6th Wisconsin, among others, and this improved 
 +matters&mdash;but still, as we had but a small number of men there, all told, 
 +the enemy with their great numbers, were having too much prospect of 
 +success, and it seems that, probably emboldened by this, Ewell had 
 +resolved upon a night attack upon that wing of the army, and was making 
 +his dispositions accordingly. The enemy had not at sundown, actually 
 +carried any part of our rifle pits there, save the ones abandoned, but 
 +he was getting troops assembled upon our flank, and altogether, with our 
 +weakness there, at that time, matters did not look as we would like to 
 +have them. Such was then the posture of affairs, when the fight upon our 
 +left, that I have described, was done. Under such circumstances it is 
 +not strange that the Twelfth Corps, as soon as its work was done upon 
 +the left, was quickly ordered back to the right, to its old position. 
 +There it arrived in good time; not soon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> enough, of course, to avoid the 
 +mortification of finding the enemy in the possession of a part of the 
 +works the men had labored so hard to construct, but in ample time before 
 +dark to put the men well in the pits we already held, and to take up a 
 +strong defensible position, at right angles to, and in rear of the main 
 +line, in order to resist these flanking dispositions of the enemy. The 
 +army was secure again. The men in the works would be steady against all 
 +attacks in front, as long as they knew that their flank was safe. Until 
 +between ten and eleven o&#8217;clock at night, the woods upon the right, 
 +resounded with the discharges of musketry. Shortly after or about dark, 
 +the enemy made a dash upon the right of the Eleventh Corps. They crept 
 +up the windings of a valley, not in a very heavy force, but from the 
 +peculiar mode in which this Corps does outpost duty, quite unperceived 
 +in the dark until they were close upon the main line. It is said, I do 
 +not know it to be true, that they spiked two guns of one of the Eleventh 
 +Corps&#8217; batteries, and that the battery men had to drive them off with 
 +their sabres and rammers, and that there was some fearful &#8220;Dutch&#8221; 
 +swearing on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> occasion, &#8220;<i>donner wetter</i>&#8221; among other similar impious 
 +oaths, having been freely used. The enemy here were finally repulsed by 
 +the assistance of Col. Correll&#8217;s brigade of the Third Division of the 
 +Second Corps, and the 106th Pa., from the Second Division of the same 
 +Corps, was by Gen. Howard&#8217;s request sent there to do outpost duty. It 
 +seems to have been a matter of utter madness and folly on the part of 
 +the enemy to have continued their night attack, as they did upon the 
 +right. Our men were securely covered by ample works and even in most 
 +places a log was placed a few inches above the top of the main 
 +breastwork, as a protection to the heads of the men as they thrust out 
 +their pieces beneath it to fire. Yet in the darkness the enemy would 
 +rush up, clambering over rocks and among trees, even to the front of the 
 +works, but only to leave their riddled bodies there upon the ground or 
 +to be swiftly repulsed headlong into the woods again. In the darkness 
 +the enemy would climb trees close to the works, and endeavor to shoot 
 +our men by the light of the flashes. When discovered, a thousand bullets 
 +would whistle after them in the dark, and some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> would hit, and then the 
 +Rebel would make up his mind to come down.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Our loss was light, almost nothing in this fight&mdash;the next morning the 
 +enemy&#8217;s dead were thick all along this part of the line. Near eleven 
 +o&#8217;clock the enemy, wearied with his disastrous work, desisted, and 
 +thereafter until morning, not a shot was heard in all the armies.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>So much for the battle. There is another thing that I wish to mention, 
 +of the matters of the 2d of July.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>After evening came on, and from reports received, all was known to be 
 +going satisfactorily upon the right, Gen. Meade summoned his Corps 
 +Commanders to his Headquarters for consultation. A consultation is held 
 +upon matters of vast moment to the country, and that poor little 
 +farm-house is honored with more distinguished guests than it ever had 
 +before, or than it will ever have again, probably.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Do you expect to see a degree of ceremony, and severe military aspect 
 +characterize this meeting, in accordance with strict military rules, and 
 +commensurate with the moment of the matters of their <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>deliberation? Name 
 +it &#8220;Major General Meade, Commander of the Army of the Potomac, with his 
 +Corps Generals, holding a Council of War, upon the field of Gettysburg,&#8221; 
 +and it would sound pretty well,&mdash;and that was what it was; and you might 
 +make a picture of it and hang it up by the side of &#8220;Napoleon and his 
 +Marshals,&#8221; and &#8220;Washington and his Generals,&#8221; maybe, at some future 
 +time. But for the artist to draw his picture from, I will tell how this 
 +council appeared. Meade, Sedgwick, Slocum, Howard, Hancock, Sykes, 
 +Newton, Pleasanton&mdash;commander of the cavalry&mdash;and Gibbon, were the 
 +Generals present. Hancock, now that Sickles is wounded, has charge of 
 +the Third Corps, and Gibbon again has the Second. Meade is a tall spare 
 +man, with full beard, which with his hair, originally brown, is quite 
 +thickly sprinkled with gray&mdash;has a Romanish face, very large nose, and a 
 +white, large forehead, prominent and wide over the eyes, which are full 
 +and large, and quick in their movements, and he wears spectacles. His 
 +<i>fibres</i> are all of the long and sinewy kind. His habitual personal 
 +appearance is quite careless, and it would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> be rather difficult to make 
 +him look well dressed. Sedgwick is quite a heavy man, short, thick-set 
 +and muscular, with florid complexion, dark, calm, straight-looking eyes, 
 +with full, heavyish features, which, with his eyes, have plenty of 
 +animation when he is aroused. He has a magnificent profile, well cut, 
 +with the nose and forehead forming almost a straight line, curly, short, 
 +chestnut hair and full beard, cut short, with a little gray in it. He 
 +dresses carelessly, but can look magnificently when he is well dressed. 
 +Like Meade, he looks and is, honest and modest. You might see at once, 
 +why his men, because they love him, call him &#8220;Uncle John,&#8221; not to his 
 +face, of course, but among themselves. Slocum is small, rather spare, 
 +with black, straight hair and beard, which latter is unshaven and thin, 
 +large, full, quick, black eyes, white skin, sharp nose, wide cheek 
 +bones, and hollow cheeks and small chin. His movements are quick and 
 +angular, and he dresses with a sufficient degree of elegance. Howard is 
 +medium in size, has nothing marked about him, is the youngest of them 
 +all, I think&mdash;has lost an arm in the war, has straight brown hair and 
 +beard,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> shaves his short upper lip, over which his nose slants down, dim 
 +blue eyes, and on the whole, appears a very pleasant, affable, well 
 +dressed little gentleman. Hancock is the tallest and most shapely, and 
 +in many respects is the best looking officer of them all. His hair is 
 +very light brown, straight and moist, and always looks well, his beard 
 +is of the same color, of which he wears the moustache and a tuft upon 
 +the chin; complexion ruddy, features neither large nor small, but well 
 +cut, with full jaw and chin, compressed mouth, straight nose, full, deep 
 +blue eyes, and a very mobile, emotional countenance. He always dresses 
 +remarkably well, and his manner is dignified, gentlemanly and 
 +commanding. I think if he were in citizens clothes, and should give 
 +commands in the army to those who did not know him, he would be likely 
 +to be obeyed at once, and without any question as to his right to 
 +command. Sykes is a small, rather thin man, well dressed and 
 +gentlemanly, brown hair and beard, which he wears full, with a red, 
 +pinched, rough-looking skin, feeble blue eyes, long nose, with the 
 +general air of one who is weary and a little ill-natured.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> Newton is a 
 +well-sized, shapely, muscular, well dressed man, with brown hair, with a 
 +very ruddy, clean-shaved, full face, blue eyes, blunt, round features, 
 +walks very erect, curbs in his chin, and has somewhat of that smart sort 
 +of swagger that people are apt to suppose characterizes soldiers. 
 +Pleasonton is quite a nice little dandy, with brown hair and beard, a 
 +straw hat with a little jockey rim, which he cocks upon one side of his 
 +head, with an unsteady eye, that looks slyly at you and then dodges. 
 +Gibbon, the youngest of them all, save Howard, is about the same size as 
 +Slocum, Howard, Sykes and Pleasonton, and there are none of these who 
 +will weigh one hundred and fifty pounds. He is compactly made, neither 
 +spare nor corpulent, with ruddy complexion, chestnut brown hair, with a 
 +clean-shaved face, except his moustache, which is decidedly reddish in 
 +color, medium-sized, well-shaped head, sharp, moderately-jutting brow, 
 +deep blue, calm eyes, sharp, slightly aquiline nose, compressed mouth, 
 +full jaws and chin, with an air of calm firmness in his manner. He 
 +always looks well dressed. I suppose Howard is about thirty-five and 
 +Meade<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> about forty-five years of age; the rest are between these ages, 
 +but not many under forty. As they come to the council now, there is the 
 +appearance of fatigue about them, which is not customary, but is only 
 +due to the hard labors of the past few days. They all wear clothes of 
 +dark blue, some have top boots and some not, and except the two-starred 
 +straps upon the shoulders of all save Gibbon, who has but one star, 
 +there was scarcely a piece of regulation uniform about them all. They 
 +wore their swords, of various patterns, but no sashes, the Army hat, but 
 +with the crown pinched into all sorts of shapes and the rim slouched 
 +down and shorn of all its ornaments but the gilt band&mdash;except Sykes who 
 +wore a blue cap, and Pleasonton with his straw hat with broad black 
 +band. Then the mean little room where they met,&mdash;its only furniture 
 +consisted of a large, wide bed in one corner, a small pine table in the 
 +center, upon which was a wooden pail of water, with a tin cup for 
 +drinking, and a candle, stuck to the table by putting the end in tallow 
 +melted down from the wick, and five or six straight-backed rush-bottomed 
 +chairs. The Generals came in&mdash;some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> sat, some kept walking or standing, 
 +two lounged upon the bed, some were constantly smoking cigars. And thus 
 +disposed, they deliberated whether the army should fall back from its 
 +present position to one in rear which it was said was stronger, should 
 +attack the enemy on the morrow, wherever he could be found, or should 
 +stand there upon the horse-shoe crest, still on the defensive, and await 
 +the further movements of the enemy.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>The latter proposition was unanimously agreed to. Their heads were 
 +sound. The Army of the Potomac would just halt right there, and allow 
 +the Rebel to come up and smash his head against it, to any reasonable 
 +extent he desired, as he had to-day. After some two hours the council 
 +dissolved, and the officers went their several ways.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Night, sultry and starless, droned on, and it was almost midnight that I 
 +found myself peering my way from the line of the Second Corps, back down 
 +to the General&#8217;s Headquarters, which were an ambulance in the rear, in a 
 +little peach orchard. All was silent now but the sound of the 
 +ambulances, as they were bringing off the wounded, and you could hear 
 +them rattle here and there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> about the field, and see their lanterns. I 
 +am weary and sleepy, almost to such an extent as not to be able to sit 
 +on my horse. And my horse can hardly move&mdash;the spur will not start 
 +him&mdash;what can be the reason? I know that he has been touched by two or 
 +three bullets to-day, but not to wound or lame him to speak of. Then, in 
 +riding by a horse that is hitched, in the dark, I got kicked; had I not 
 +a very thick boot, the blow would have been likely to have broken my 
 +ankle&mdash;it did break my temper as it was&mdash;and, as if it would cure 
 +matters, I foolishly spurred my horse again. No use, he would but walk. 
 +I dismounted; I could not lead him along at all, so out of temper I rode 
 +at the slowest possible walk to the Headquarters, which I reached at 
 +last. General Hancock and Gibbon were asleep in the ambulance. With a 
 +light I found what was the matter with &#8220;Billy.&#8221; A bullet had entered his 
 +chest just in front of my left leg, as I was mounted, and the blood was 
 +running down all his side and leg, and the air from his lungs came out 
 +of the bullet-hole. I begged his pardon mentally for my cruelty in 
 +spurring him, and should have done so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> in words if he could have 
 +understood me. Kind treatment as is due to the wounded he could 
 +understand, and he had it. Poor Billy! He and I were first under fire 
 +together, and I rode him at the second Bull Run and the first and second 
 +Fredericksburg, and at Antietam after brave &#8220;Joe&#8221; was killed; but I 
 +shall never mount him again&mdash;Billy&#8217;s battles are over.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>&#8220;George, make my bed here upon the ground by the side of this ambulance. 
 +Pull off my sabre and my boots&mdash;that will do!&#8221; Was ever princely couch 
 +or softest down so soft as those rough blankets, there upon the unroofed 
 +sod? At midnight they received me for four hours delicious, dreamless 
 +oblivion of weariness and of battle. So to me ended the Second of July.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>At four o&#8217;clock on the morning of the Third, I was awakened by Gen. 
 +Gibbon&#8217;s pulling me by the foot and saying: &#8220;Come, don&#8217;t you hear that?&#8221; 
 +I sprang up to my feet. Where was I? A moment and my dead senses and 
 +memory were alive again, and the sound of brisk firing of musketry to 
 +the front and right of the Second Corps, and over at the extreme right 
 +of our line, where<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> we heard it last in the night, brought all back to 
 +my memory. We surely were on the field of battle, and there were 
 +palpable evidences to my reason that to-day was to be another of blood. 
 +Oh! for a moment the thought of it was sickening to every sense and 
 +feeling! But the motion of my horse as I galloped over the crest a few 
 +minutes later, and the serene splendor of the morning now breaking 
 +through rifted clouds and spreading over the landscape, soon reassured 
 +me. Come day of battle! Up Rebel hosts, and thunder with your arms! We 
 +are all ready to do and to die for the Republic!</p> 
 + 
 +<p>I found a sharp skirmish going on in front of the right of the Second 
 +Corps, between our outposts and those of the enemy, but save this&mdash;and 
 +none of the enemy but his outposts were in sight&mdash;all was quiet in that 
 +part of the field. On the extreme right of the line the sound of 
 +musketry was quite heavy; and this I learned was brought on by the 
 +attack of the Second Division, Twelfth Corps, Gen. Geary, upon the enemy 
 +in order to drive him out of our works which he had sneaked into 
 +yesterday, as I have mentioned.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> The attack was made at the earliest 
 +moment in the morning when it was light enough to discern objects to 
 +fire at. The enemy could not use the works, but was confronting Geary in 
 +woods, and had the cover of many rocks and trees, so the fight was an 
 +irregular one, now breaking out and swelling to a vigorous fight, now 
 +subsiding to a few scattering shots; and so it continued by turns until 
 +the morning was well advanced, when the enemy was finally wholly 
 +repulsed and driven from the pits, and the right of our line was again 
 +re-established in the place it first occupied. The heaviest losses the 
 +Twelfth Corps sustained in all the battle, occurred during this attack, 
 +and they were here quite severe. I heard Gen. Meade express 
 +dissatisfaction at Gen. Geary for making this attack, as a thing not 
 +ordered and not necessary, as the works of ours were of no intrinsic 
 +importance, and had not been captured from us by a fight, and Geary&#8217;
 +position was just as good as they, where he was during the night. And I 
 +heard Gen. Meade say that he sent an order to have the fight stopped; 
 +but I believe the order was not communicated to Geary until after the 
 +repulse of the enemy. Late<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> in the forenoon the enemy again tried to 
 +carry our right by storm. We heard that old Rebel Ewell had sworn an 
 +oath that he would break our right. He had Stonewall Jackson&#8217;s Corps, 
 +and possibly imagined himself another Stonewall, but he certainly 
 +<i>hankered</i> after the right of our line&mdash;and so up through the woods, and 
 +over the rocks, and up the steeps he sent his storming parties&mdash;our men 
 +could see them now in the day time. But all the Rebel&#8217;s efforts were 
 +fruitless, save in one thing, slaughter to his own men. These assaults 
 +were made with great spirit and determination, but as the enemy would 
 +come up, our men lying behind their secure defenses would just singe 
 +them with the blaze of their muskets, and riddle them, as a hail-storm 
 +the tender blades of corn. The Rebel oath was not kept, any more than 
 +his former one to support the Constitution of the United States. The 
 +Rebel loss was very heavy indeed, here, ours but trifling. I regret that 
 +I cannot give more of the details of this fighting upon the right&mdash;it 
 +was so determined upon the part of the enemy, both last night and this 
 +morning&mdash;so successful to us. About all that I actually saw of it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> 
 +during its progress, was the smoke, and I heard the discharges. My 
 +information is derived from officers who were personally in it. Some of 
 +our heavier artillery assisted our infantry in this by firing, with the 
 +piece elevated, far from the rear, over the heads of our men, at a 
 +distance from the enemy of two miles, I suppose. Of course they could 
 +have done no great damage. It was nearly eleven o&#8217;clock that the battle 
 +in this part of the field subsided, not to be again renewed. All the 
 +morning we felt no apprehension for this part of the line, for we knew 
 +its strength, and that our troops engaged, the Twelfth Corps and the 
 +First Division, Wadsworth&#8217;s, of the First, could be trusted.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>For the sake of telling one thing at a time, I have anticipated events 
 +somewhat, in writing of this fight upon the right. I shall now go back 
 +to the starting point, four o&#8217;clock this morning, and, as other events 
 +occurred during the day, second to none in the battle in importance, 
 +which I think I saw as much of as any man living, I will tell you 
 +something of them, and what I saw, and how the time moved on. The 
 +outpost skirmish that I have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> mentioned, soon subsided. I suppose it was 
 +the natural escape of the wrath which the men had, during the night, 
 +hoarded up against each other, and which, as soon as they could see in 
 +the morning, they could no longer contain, but must let it off through 
 +their musket barrels, at their adversaries. At the commencement of the 
 +war such firing would have awaked the whole army and roused it to its 
 +feet and to arms; not so now. The men upon the crest lay snoring in 
 +their blankets, even though some of the enemy&#8217;s bullets dropped among 
 +them, as if bullets were as harmless as the drops of dew around them. As 
 +the sun arose to-day, the clouds became broken, and we had once more 
 +glimpses of sky, and fits of sunshine&mdash;a rarity, to cheer us. From the 
 +crest, save to the right of the Second Corps, no enemy, not even his 
 +outposts could be discovered, along all the position where he so 
 +thronged upon the Third Corps yesterday. All was silent there&mdash;the 
 +wounded horses were limping about the field; the ravages of the conflict 
 +were still fearfully visible&mdash;the scattered arms and the ground thickly 
 +dotted with the dead&mdash;but no hostile foe. The men were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> roused early, in 
 +order that the morning meal might be out of the way in time for whatever 
 +should occur. Then ensued the hum of an army, not in ranks, chatting in 
 +low tones, and running about and jostling among each other, rolling and 
 +packing their blankets and tents. They looked like an army of 
 +rag-gatherers, while shaking these very useful articles of the soldier&#8217;
 +outfit, for you must know that rain and mud in conjunction have not had 
 +the effect to make them clean, and the wear and tear of service have not 
 +left them entirely whole. But one could not have told by the appearance 
 +of the men, that they were in battle yesterday, and were likely to be 
 +again to-day. They packed their knapsacks, boiled their coffee and 
 +munched their hard bread, just as usual&mdash;just like old soldiers who know 
 +what campaigning is; and their talk is far more concerning their present 
 +employment&mdash;some joke or drollery&mdash;than concerning what they saw or did 
 +yesterday.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>As early as practicable the lines all along the left are revised and 
 +reformed, this having been rendered necessary by yesterday&#8217;s battle, and 
 +also by what is anticipated to-day.</p> 
 + 
 +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>It is the opinion of many of our Generals that the Rebel will not give 
 +us battle to-day&mdash;that he had enough yesterday&mdash;that he will be heading 
 +towards the Potomac at the earliest practicable moment, if he has not 
 +already done so; but the better, and controlling judgment is, that he 
 +will make another grand effort to pierce or turn our lines&mdash;that he will 
 +either mass and attack the left again, as yesterday, or direct his 
 +operations against the left of our center, the position of the Second 
 +Corps, and try to sever our line. I infer that Gen. Meade was of the 
 +opinion that the attack to-day would be upon the left&mdash;this from the 
 +disposition he ordered, I know that Gen. Hancock anticipated the attack 
 +upon the center.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>The dispositions to-day upon the left are as follows:</p> 
 + 
 +<p>The Second and Third Divisions of the Second Corps are in the position 
 +of yesterday; then on the left come Doubleday&#8217;s&mdash;the Third Division and 
 +Col. Stannard&#8217;s brigade of the First Corps; then Colwell&#8217;s&mdash;the First 
 +Division of the Second Corps; then the Third Corps, temporarily under 
 +the command of Hancock, since Sickles&#8217;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> wound. The Third Corps is upon 
 +the same ground in part, and on the identical line where it first formed 
 +yesterday morning, and where, had it stayed instead of moving out to the 
 +front, we should have many more men to-day, and should not have been 
 +upon the brink of disaster yesterday. On the left of the Third Corps is 
 +the Fifth Corps, with a short front and deep line; then comes the Sixth 
 +Corps, all but one brigade, which is sent over to the Twelfth. The 
 +Sixth, a splendid Corps, almost intact in the fight of yesterday, is the 
 +extreme left of our line, which terminates to the south of Round Top, 
 +and runs along its western base, in the woods, and thence to the 
 +Cemetery. This Corps is burning to pay off the old scores made on the 
 +4th of May, there back of Fredericksburg. Note well the position of the 
 +Second and Third Divisions of the Second Corps&mdash;it will become 
 +important. There are nearly six thousand men and officers in these two 
 +Divisions here upon the field&mdash;the losses were quite heavy yesterday, 
 +some regiments are detached to other parts of the field&mdash;so all told 
 +there are less than six thousand men now in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> two Divisions, who 
 +occupy a line of about a thousand yards. The most of the way along this 
 +line upon the crest was a stone fence, constructed of small, rough 
 +stones, a good deal of the way badly pulled down, but the men had 
 +improved it and patched it with rails from the neighboring fences, and 
 +with earth, so as to render it in many places a very passable breastwork 
 +against musketry and flying fragments of shells.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>These works are so low as to compel the men to kneel or lie down 
 +generally to obtain cover. Near the right of the Second Division, and 
 +just by the little group of trees that I have mentioned there, this 
 +stone fence made a right angle, and extended thence to the front, about 
 +twenty or thirty yards, where with another less than a right angle it 
 +followed along the crest again.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>The lines were conformed to these breastworks and to the nature of the 
 +ground upon the crest, so as to occupy the most favorable places, to be 
 +covered, and still be able to deliver effective fire upon the enemy 
 +should he come there. In some places a second line was so posted as to 
 +be able to deliver its fire over the heads of the first line behind the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> 
 +works; but such formation was not practicable all of the way. But all 
 +the force of these two divisions was in line, in position, without 
 +reserves, and in such a manner that every man of them could have fired 
 +his piece at the same instant. The division flags, that of the Second 
 +Division, being a white trefoil upon a square blue field, and of the 
 +Third Division a blue trefoil upon a white rectangular field, waved 
 +behind the divisions at the points where the Generals of Division were 
 +supposed to be; the brigade flags, similar to these but with a 
 +triangular field, were behind the brigades; and the national flags of 
 +the regiments were in the lines of their regiments. To the left of the 
 +Second Division, and advanced something over a hundred yards, were 
 +posted a part of Stannard&#8217;s Brigade two regiments or more, behind a 
 +small bush-crowned crest that ran in a direction oblique to the general 
 +line. These were well covered by the crest, and wholly concealed by the 
 +bushes, so that an advancing enemy would be close upon them before they 
 +could be seen. Other troops of Doubleday&#8217;s Division were strongly posted 
 +in rear of these in the general line.</p> 
 + 
 +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>I could not help wishing all the morning that this line of the two 
 +divisions of the Second Corps was stronger; it was so far as numbers 
 +constitute strength, the weakest part of our whole line of battle. What 
 +if, I thought, the enemy should make an assault here to-day, with two or 
 +three heavy lines&mdash;a great overwhelming mass; would he not sweep through 
 +that thin six thousand?</p> 
 + 
 +<p>But I was not General Meade, who alone had power to send other troops 
 +there; and he was satisfied with that part of the line as it was. He was 
 +early on horseback this morning, and rode along the whole line, looking 
 +to it himself, and with glass in hand sweeping the woods and fields in 
 +the direction of the enemy, to see if aught of him could be discovered. 
 +His manner was calm and serious, but earnest. There was no arrogance of 
 +hope, or timidity of fear discernible in his face; but you would have 
 +supposed he would do his duty conscientiously and well, and would be 
 +willing to abide the result. You would have seen this in his face. He 
 +was well pleased with the left of the line to-day, it was so strong with 
 +good troops. He had no apprehension for the right<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> where the fight now 
 +was going on, on account of the admirable position of our forces there. 
 +He was not of the opinion that the enemy would attack the center, our 
 +artillery had such sweep there, and this was not the favorite point of 
 +attack with the Rebel. Besides, should he attack the center, the General 
 +thought he could reinforce it in good season. I heard Gen. Meade speak 
 +of these matters to Hancock and some others, at about nine o&#8217;clock in 
 +the morning, while they were up by the line, near the Second Corps.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>No further changes of importance except those mentioned, were made in 
 +the disposition of the troops this morning, except to replace some of 
 +the batteries that were disabled yesterday by others from the artillery 
 +reserve, and to brace up the lines well with guns wherever there were 
 +eligible places, from the same source. The line is all in good order 
 +again, and we are ready for general battle.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Save the operations upon the right, the enemy so far as we could see, 
 +was very quiet all the morning. Occasionally the outposts would fire a 
 +little, and then cease. Movements would be <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>discovered which would 
 +indicate the attempt on the part of the enemy to post a battery. Our 
 +Parrotts would send a few shells to the spot, then silence would follow.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>At one of these times a painful accident happened to us, this morning. 
 +First Lieut. Henry Ropes, 20th Mass., in Gen. Gibbon&#8217;s Division, a most 
 +estimable gentleman and officer, intelligent, educated, refined, one of 
 +the noble souls that came to the country&#8217;s defense, while lying at his 
 +post with his regiment, in front of one of the Batteries, which fired 
 +over the Infantry, was instantly killed by a badly made shell, which, or 
 +some portion of it, fell but a few yards in front of the muzzle of the 
 +gun. The same accident killed or wounded several others. The loss of 
 +Ropes would have pained us at any time, and in any manner; in this 
 +manner his death was doubly painful.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Between ten and eleven o&#8217;clock, over in a peach orchard in front of the 
 +position of Sickles yesterday, some little show of the enemy&#8217;s infantry 
 +was discovered; a few shells scattered the gray-backs; they again 
 +appeared, and it becoming<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> apparent that they were only posting a 
 +skirmish line, no further molestation was offered them. A little after 
 +this some of the enemy&#8217;s flags could be discerned over near the same 
 +quarter, above the top and behind a small crest of a ridge. There seemed 
 +to be two or three of them&mdash;possibly they were guidons&mdash;and they moved 
 +too fast to be carried on foot. Possibly, we thought, the enemy is 
 +posting some batteries there. We knew in about two hours from this time 
 +better about the matter. Eleven o&#8217;clock came. The noise of battle has 
 +ceased upon the right; not a sound of a gun or musket can be heard on 
 +all the field; the sky is bright, with only the white fleecy clouds 
 +floating over from the West. The July sun streams down its fire upon the 
 +bright iron of the muskets in stacks upon the crest, and the dazzling 
 +brass of the Napoleons. The army lolls and longs for the shade, of which 
 +some get a hand&#8217;s breadth, from a shelter tent stuck upon a ramrod. The 
 +silence and sultriness of a July noon are supreme. Now it so happened 
 +that just about this time of day a very original and interesting thought 
 +occurred to Gen. Gibbon and several of his staff;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> that it would be a 
 +very good thing, and a very good time, to have something to eat. When I 
 +announce to you that I had not tasted a mouthful of food since yesterday 
 +noon, and that all I had had to drink since that time, but the most 
 +miserable muddy warm water, was a little drink of whiskey that Major 
 +Biddle, General Meade&#8217;s aide-de-camp, gave me last evening, and a cup of 
 +strong coffee that I gulped down as I was first mounting this morning, 
 +and further, that, save the four or five hours in the night, there was 
 +scarcely a moment since that time but that I was in the saddle, you may 
 +have some notion of the reason of my assent to this extraordinary 
 +proposition. Nor will I mention the doubts I had as to the feasibility 
 +of the execution of this very novel proposal, except to say that I knew 
 +this morning that our larder was low; not to put too fine a point upon 
 +it, that we had nothing but some potatoes and sugar and coffee in the 
 +world. And I may as well say here, that of such, in scant proportion, 
 +would have been our repast, had it not been for the riding of miles by 
 +two persons, one an officer, to procure supplies; and they only 
 +succeeded in getting some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> few chickens, some butter, and one huge loaf 
 +of bread, which last was bought of a soldier, because he had grown faint 
 +in carrying it, and was afterwards rescued with much difficulty and 
 +after a long race from a four-footed hog, which had got hold of and had 
 +actually eaten a part of it. &#8220;There is a divinity,&#8221; etc. Suffice it, 
 +this very ingenious and unheard of contemplated proceeding, first 
 +announced by the General, was accepted and at once undertaken by his 
 +staff. Of the absolute quality of what we had to eat, I could not 
 +pretend to judge, but I think an unprejudiced person would have said of 
 +the bread that it was good; so of the potatoes before they were boiled. 
 +Of the chickens he would have questioned their age, but they were large 
 +and in good <i>running</i> order. The toast was good, and the butter. There 
 +were those who, when coffee was given them, called for tea, and vice 
 +versa, and were so ungracious as to suggest that the water that was used 
 +in both might have come from near a barn. Of course it did not. We all 
 +came down to the little peach orchard where we had stayed last night, 
 +and, wonderful to see and tell, ever mindful of our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> needs, had it all 
 +ready, had our faithful John. There was an enormous pan of stewed 
 +chickens, and the potatoes, and toast, all hot, and the bread and the 
 +butter, and tea and coffee. There was satisfaction derived from just 
 +naming them all over. We called John an angel, and he snickered and said 
 +he &#8220;knowed&#8221; we&#8217;d come. General Hancock is of course invited to partake, 
 +and without delay we commence operations. Stools are not very numerous, 
 +two in all, and these the two Generals have by common consent. Our table 
 +was the top of a mess chest. By this the Generals sat. The rest of us 
 +sat upon the ground, cross-legged, like the picture of a smoking Turk, 
 +and held our plates upon our laps. How delicious was the stewed chicken. 
 +I had a cucumber pickle in my saddle bags, the last of a lunch left 
 +there two or three days ago, which George brought, and I had half of it. 
 +We were just well at it when General Meade rode down to us from the 
 +line, accompanied by one of his staff, and by General Gibbon&#8217;
 +invitation, they dismounted and joined us. For the General commanding 
 +the Army of the Potomac George, by an effort<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> worthy of the person and 
 +the occasion, finds an empty cracker box for a seat. The staff officer 
 +must sit upon the ground with the rest of us. Soon Generals Newton and 
 +Pleasonton, each with an aide, arrive. By an almost superhuman effort a 
 +roll of blankets is found, which, upon a pinch, is long enough to seat 
 +these Generals both, and room is made for them. The aides sit with us. 
 +And, fortunate to relate, there was enough cooked for us all, and from 
 +General Meade to the youngest second lieutenant we all had a most hearty 
 +and well relished dinner. Of the &#8220;past&#8221; we were &#8220;secure.&#8221; The Generals 
 +ate, and after, lighted cigars, and under the flickering shade of a very 
 +small tree, discoursed of the incidents of yesterday&#8217;s battle and of the 
 +probabilities of to-day. General Newton humorously spoke of General 
 +Gibbon as &#8220;this young North Carolinian,&#8221; and how he was becoming 
 +arrogant and above his position, because he commanded a corps. General 
 +Gibbon retorted by saying that General Newton had not been long enough 
 +in such a command, only since yesterday, to enable him to judge of such 
 +things. General Meade still thought that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> the enemy would attack his 
 +left again to-day towards evening; but he was ready for them. General 
 +Hancock thought that the attack would be upon the position of the Second 
 +Corps. It was mentioned that General Hancock would again assume command 
 +of the Second Corps from that time, so that General Gibbon would again 
 +return to the Second Division.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>General Meade spoke of the Provost Guards, that they were good men, and 
 +that it would be better to-day to have them in the works than to stop 
 +stragglers and skulkers, as these latter would be good for but little 
 +even in the works; and so he gave the order that all the Provost Guards 
 +should at once temporarily rejoin their regiments. Then General Gibbon 
 +called up Captain Farrel, First Minnesota, who commanded the provost 
 +guard of his division, and directed him for that day to join the 
 +regiment. &#8220;Very well, sir,&#8221; said the Captain, as he touched his hat and 
 +turned away. He was a quiet, excellent gentleman and thorough soldier. I 
 +knew him well and esteemed him. I never saw him again. He was killed in 
 +two or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> three hours from that time, and over half of his splendid 
 +company were either killed or wounded.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>And so the time passed on, each General now and then dispatching some 
 +order or message by an officer or orderly, until about half-past twelve, 
 +when all the Generals, one by one, first General Meade, rode off their 
 +several ways, and General Gibbon and his staff alone remained.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>We dozed in the heat, and lolled upon the ground, with half open eyes. 
 +Our horses were hitched to the trees munching some oats. A great lull 
 +rests upon all the field. Time was heavy, and for want of something 
 +better to do, I yawned, and looked at my watch. It was five minutes 
 +before one o&#8217;clock. I returned my watch to its pocket, and thought 
 +possibly that I might go to sleep, and stretched myself upon the ground 
 +accordingly. <i>Ex uno disce omnes.</i> My attitude and purpose were those of 
 +the General and the rest of the staff.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>What sound was that? There was no mistaking it. The distinct sharp sound 
 +of one of the enemy&#8217;s guns, square over to the front, caused us to open 
 +our eyes and turn them in that direction,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> when we saw directly above 
 +the crest the smoke of the bursting shell, and heard its noise. In an 
 +instant, before a word was spoken, as if that was the signal gun for 
 +general work, loud, startling, booming, the report of gun after gun in 
 +rapid succession smote our ears and their shells plunged down and 
 +exploded all around us. We sprang to our feet. In briefest time the 
 +whole Rebel line to the West was pouring out its thunder and its iron 
 +upon our devoted crest. The wildest confusion for a few moments obtained 
 +sway among us. The shells came bursting all about. The servants ran 
 +terror-stricken for dear life and disappeared. The horses, hitched to 
 +the trees or held by the slack hands of orderlies, neighed out in 
 +fright, and broke away and plunged riderless through the fields. The 
 +General at the first had snatched his sword, and started on foot for the 
 +front. I called for my horse; nobody responded. I found him tied to a 
 +tree, near by, eating oats, with an air of the greatest composure, which 
 +under the circumstances, even then struck me as exceedingly ridiculous. 
 +He alone, of all beasts or men near was cool. I am not sure but that I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> 
 +learned a lesson then from a horse. Anxious alone for his oats, while I 
 +put on the bridle and adjusted the halter, he delayed me by keeping his 
 +head down, so I had time to see one of the horses of our mess wagon 
 +struck and torn by a shell. The pair plunge&mdash;the driver has lost the 
 +reins&mdash;horses, driver and wagon go into a heap by a tree. Two mules 
 +close at hand, packed with boxes of ammunition, are knocked all to 
 +pieces by a shell. General Gibbon&#8217;s groom has just mounted his horse and 
 +is starting to take the General&#8217;s horse to him, when the flying iron 
 +meets him and tears open his breast. He drops dead and the horses gallop 
 +away. No more than a minute since the first shot was fired, and I am 
 +mounted and riding after the General. The mighty din that now rises to 
 +heaven and shakes the earth is not all of it the voice of the rebellion; 
 +for our guns, the guardian lions of the crest, quick to awake when 
 +danger comes, have opened their fiery jaws and begun to roar&mdash;the great 
 +hoarse roar of battle. I overtake the General half way up to the line. 
 +Before we reach the crest his horse is brought by an orderly. Leaving 
 +our horses just behind a sharp declivity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> of the ridge, on foot we go up 
 +among the batteries. How the long streams of fire spout from the guns, 
 +how the rifled shells hiss, how the smoke deepens and rolls. But where 
 +is the infantry? Has it vanished in smoke? Is this a nightmare or a 
 +juggler&#8217;s devilish trick? All too real. The men of the infantry have 
 +seized their arms, and behind their works, behind every rock, in every 
 +ditch, wherever there is any shelter, they hug the ground, silent, 
 +quiet, unterrified, little harmed. The enemy&#8217;s guns now in action are in 
 +position at their front of the woods along the second ridge that I have 
 +before mentioned and towards their right, behind a small crest in the 
 +open field, where we saw the flags this morning. Their line is some two 
 +miles long, concave on the side towards us, and their range is from one 
 +thousand to eighteen hundred yards. A hundred and twenty-five rebel 
 +guns, we estimate, are now active, firing twenty-four pound, twenty, 
 +twelve and ten-pound projectiles, solid shot and shells, spherical, 
 +conical, spiral. The enemy&#8217;s fire is chiefly concentrated upon the 
 +position of the Second Corps. From the Cemetery to Round Top, with over 
 +a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> hundred guns, and to all parts of the enemy&#8217;s line, our batteries 
 +reply, of twenty and ten-pound Parrotts, ten-pound rifled ordnance, and 
 +twelve-pound Napoleons, using projectiles as various in shape and name 
 +as those of the enemy. Captain Hazard commanding the artillery brigade 
 +of the Second Corps was vigilant among the batteries of his command, and 
 +they were all doing well. All was going on satisfactorily. We had 
 +nothing to do, therefore, but to be observers of the grand spectacle of 
 +battle. Captain Wessels, Judge Advocate of the Division, now joined us, 
 +and we sat down behind the crest, close to the left of Cushing&#8217;
 +Battery, to bide our time, to see, to be ready to act when the time 
 +should come, which might be at any moment. Who can describe such a 
 +conflict as is raging around us? To say that it was like a summer storm, 
 +with the crash of thunder, the glare of lightning, the shrieking of the 
 +wind, and the clatter of hailstones, would be weak. The thunder and 
 +lightning of these two hundred and fifty guns and their shells, whose 
 +smoke darkens the sky, are incessant, all pervading, in the air above 
 +our heads, on the ground at our feet, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>remote, near, deafening, 
 +ear-piercing, astounding; and these hailstones are massy iron, charged 
 +with exploding fire. And there is little of human interest in a storm; 
 +it is an absorbing element of this. You may see flame and smoke, and 
 +hurrying men, and human passion at a great conflagration; but they are 
 +all earthly and nothing more. These guns are great infuriate demons, not 
 +of the earth, whose mouths blaze with smoky tongues of living fire, and 
 +whose murky breath, sulphur-laden, rolls around them and along the 
 +ground, the smoke of Hades. These grimy men, rushing, shouting, their 
 +souls in frenzy, plying the dusky globes and the igniting spark, are in 
 +their league, and but their willing ministers. We thought that at the 
 +second Bull Run, at the Antietam and at Fredericksburg on the 11th of 
 +December, we had heard heavy cannonading; they were but holiday salutes 
 +compared with this. Besides the great ceaseless roar of the guns, which 
 +was but the background of the others, a million various minor sounds 
 +engaged the ear. The projectiles shriek long and sharp. They hiss, they 
 +scream, they growl, they sputter; all sounds of life and rage; and each 
 +has its <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>different note, and all are discordant. Was ever such a chorus 
 +of sound before? We note the effect of the enemies&#8217; fire among the 
 +batteries and along the crest. We see the solid shot strike axle, or 
 +pole, or wheel, and the tough iron and heart of oak snap and fly like 
 +straws. The great oaks there by Woodruff&#8217;s guns heave down their massy 
 +branches with a crash, as if the lightning smote them. The shells swoop 
 +down among the battery horses standing there apart. A half a dozen 
 +horses start, they tumble, their legs stiffen, their vitals and blood 
 +smear the ground. And these shot and shells have no respect for men 
 +either. We see the poor fellows hobbling back from the crest, or unable 
 +to do so, pale and weak, lying on the ground with the mangled stump of 
 +an arm or leg, dripping their life-blood away; or with a cheek torn 
 +open, or a shoulder mashed. And many, alas! hear not the roar as they 
 +stretch upon the ground with upturned faces and open eyes, though a 
 +shell should burst at their very ears. Their ears and their bodies this 
 +instant are only mud. We saw them but a moment since there among the 
 +flame, with brawny arms and muscles<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> of iron wielding the rammer and 
 +pushing home the cannon&#8217;s plethoric load.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Strange freaks these round shot play! We saw a man coming up from the 
 +rear with his full knapsack on, and some canteens of water held by the 
 +straps in his hands. He was walking slowly and with apparent unconcern, 
 +though the iron hailed around him. A shot struck the knapsack, and it, 
 +and its contents flew thirty yards in every direction, the knapsack 
 +disappearing like an egg, thrown spitefully against a rock. The soldier 
 +stopped and turned about in puzzled surprise, put up one hand to his 
 +back to assure himself that the knapsack was not there, and then walked 
 +slowly on again unharmed, with not even his coat torn. Near us was a man 
 +crouching behind a small disintegrated stone, which was about the size 
 +of a common water bucket. He was bent up, with his face to the ground, 
 +in the <ins class="correction" title="original: attiude">attitude</ins> of a Pagan worshipper before his idol. It looked so 
 +absurd to see him thus, that I went and said to him, &#8220;Do not lie there 
 +like a toad. Why not go to your regiment and be a man?&#8221; He turned up his 
 +face with a stupid, terrified look upon me, and then<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> without a word 
 +turned his nose again to the ground. An orderly that was with me at the 
 +time, told me a few moments later, that a shot struck the stone, 
 +smashing it in a thousand fragments, but did not touch the man, though 
 +his head was not six inches from the stone.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>All the projectiles that came near us were not so harmless. Not ten 
 +yards away from us a shell burst among some small bushes, where sat 
 +three or four orderlies holding horses. Two of the men and one horse 
 +were killed. Only a few yards off a shell exploded over an open limber 
 +box in Cushing&#8217;s battery, and at the same instant, another shell over a 
 +neighboring box. In both the boxes the ammunition blew up with an 
 +explosion that shook the ground, throwing fire and splinters and shells 
 +far into the air and all around, and destroying several men. We watched 
 +the shells bursting in the air, as they came hissing in all directions. 
 +Their flash was a bright gleam of lightning radiating from a point, 
 +giving place in the thousandth part of a second to a small, white, puffy 
 +cloud, like a fleece of the lightest, whitest wool. These clouds were 
 +very numerous. We<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> could not often see the shell before it burst; but 
 +sometimes, as we faced towards the enemy, and looked above our heads, 
 +the approach would be heralded by a prolonged hiss, which always seemed 
 +to me to be a line of something tangible, terminating in a black globe, 
 +distinct to the eye, as the sound had been to the ear. The shell would 
 +seem to stop, and hang suspended in the air an instant, and then vanish 
 +in fire and smoke and noise. We saw the missiles tear and plow the 
 +ground. All in rear of the crest for a thousand yards, as well as among 
 +the batteries, was the field of their blind fury. Ambulances, passing 
 +down the Taneytown road with wounded men, were struck. The hospitals 
 +near this road were riddled. The house which was General Meade&#8217;
 +headquarters was shot through several times, and a great many horses of 
 +officers and orderlies were lying dead around it. Riderless horses, 
 +galloping madly through the fields, were brought up, or down rather, by 
 +these invisible horse-tamers, and they would not run any more. Mules 
 +with ammunition, pigs wallowing about, cows in the pastures, whatever 
 +was animate or <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>inanimate, in all this broad range, were no exception to 
 +their blind havoc. The percussion shells would strike, and thunder, and 
 +scatter the earth and their whistling fragments; the Whitworth bolts 
 +would pound and ricochet, and bowl far away sputtering, with the sound 
 +of a mass of hot iron plunged in water; and the great solid shot would 
 +smite the unresisting ground with a sounding &#8220;thud,&#8221; as the strong boxer 
 +crashes his iron fist into the jaws of his unguarded adversary. Such 
 +were some of the sights and sounds of this great iron battle of 
 +missiles. Our artillerymen upon the crest budged not an inch, nor 
 +intermitted, but, though caisson and limber were smashed, and guns 
 +dismantled, and men and horses killed, there amidst smoke and sweat, 
 +they gave back, without grudge, or loss of time in the sending, in kind 
 +whatever the enemy sent, globe, and cone, and bolt, hollow or solid, an 
 +iron greeting to the rebellion, the compliments of the wrathful 
 +Republic. An hour has droned its flight since first the war began. There 
 +is no sign of weariness or abatement on either side. So long it seemed, 
 +that the din and crashing around began to appear the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> normal condition 
 +of nature there, and fighting man&#8217;s element. The General proposed to go 
 +among the men and over to the front of the batteries, so at about two 
 +o&#8217;clock he and I started. We went along the lines of the infantry as 
 +they lay there flat upon the earth, a little to the front of the 
 +batteries. They were suffering little, and were quiet and cool. How glad 
 +we were that the enemy were no better gunners, and that they cut the 
 +shell fuses too long. To the question asked the men, &#8220;What do you think 
 +of this?&#8221; the replies would be, &#8220;O, this is bully,&#8221; &#8220;We are getting to 
 +like it,&#8221; &#8220;O, we don&#8217;t mind this.&#8221; And so they lay under the heaviest 
 +cannonade that ever shook the continent, and among them a thousand times 
 +more jokes than heads were cracked.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>We went down in front of the line some two hundred yards, and as the 
 +smoke had a tendency to settle upon a higher plain than where we were, 
 +we could see near the ground distinctly all over the fields, as well 
 +back to the crest where were our own guns as to the opposite ridge where 
 +were those of the enemy. No infantry was in sight, save the skirmishers, 
 +and they stood silent and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>motionless&mdash;a row of gray posts through the 
 +field on one side confronted by another of blue. Under the grateful 
 +shade of some elm trees, where we could see much of the field, we made 
 +seats of the ground and sat down. Here all the more repulsive features 
 +of the fight were unseen, by reason of the smoke. Man had arranged the 
 +scenes, and for a time had taken part in the great drama; but at last, 
 +as the plot thickened, conscious of his littleness and inadequacy to the 
 +mighty part, he had stepped aside and given place to more powerful 
 +actors. So it seemed; for we could see no men about the batteries. On 
 +either crest we could see the great flaky streams of fire, and they 
 +seemed numberless, of the opposing guns, and their white banks of swift, 
 +convolving smoke; but the sound of the discharges was drowned in the 
 +universal ocean of sound. Over all the valley the smoke, a sulphury 
 +arch, stretched its lurid span; and through it always, shrieking on 
 +their unseen courses, thickly flew a myriad iron deaths. With our grim 
 +horizon on all sides round toothed thick with battery flame, under that 
 +dissonant canopy of warring shells, we sat and heard in silence. What<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> 
 +other expression had we that was not mean, for such an awful universe of 
 +battle?</p> 
 + 
 +<p>A shell struck our breastwork of rails up in sight of us, and a moment 
 +afterwards we saw the men bearing some of their wounded companions away 
 +from the same spot; and directly two men came from there down toward 
 +where we were and sought to get shelter in an excavation near by, where 
 +many dead horses, killed in yesterday&#8217;s fight, had been thrown. General 
 +Gibbon said to these men, more in a tone of kindly expostulation than of 
 +command: &#8220;My men, do not leave your ranks to try to get shelter here. 
 +All these matters are in the hands of God, and nothing that you can do 
 +will make you safer in one place than in another.&#8221; The men went quietly 
 +back to the line at once. The General then said to me: &#8220;I am not a 
 +member of any church, but I have always had a strong religious feeling; 
 +and so in all these battles I have always believed that I was in the 
 +hands of God, and that I should be unharmed or not, according to his 
 +will. For this reason, I think it is, I am always ready to go where duty 
 +calls, no matter how great the danger.&#8221; <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>Half-past two o&#8217;clock, an hour 
 +and a half since the commencement, and still the cannonade did not in 
 +the least abate; but soon thereafter some signs of weariness and a 
 +little slacking of fire began to be apparent upon both sides. First we 
 +saw Brown&#8217;s battery retire from the line, too feeble for further battle. 
 +Its position was a little to the front of the line. Its commander was 
 +wounded, and many of its men were so, or worse; some of its guns had 
 +been disabled, many of its horses killed; its ammunition was nearly 
 +expended. Other batteries in similar case had been withdrawn before to 
 +be replaced by fresh ones, and some were withdrawn afterwards. Soon 
 +after the battery named had gone the General and I started to return, 
 +passing towards the left of the division, and crossing the ground where 
 +the guns had stood. The stricken horses were numerous, and the dead and 
 +wounded men lay about, and as we passed these latter, their low, piteous 
 +call for water would invariably come to us, if they had yet any voice 
 +left. I found canteens of water near&mdash;no difficult matter where a battle 
 +has been&mdash;and held them to livid lips, and even in the faintness of 
 +death the eagerness to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> drink told of their terrible torture of thirst. 
 +But we must pass on. Our infantry was still unshaken, and in all the 
 +cannonade suffered very little. The batteries had been handled much more 
 +severely. I am unable to give any figures. A great number of horses had 
 +been killed, in some batteries more than half of all. Guns had been 
 +dismounted. A great many caissons, limbers and carriages had been 
 +destroyed, and usually from ten to twenty-five men to each battery had 
 +been struck, at least along our part of the crest. Altogether the fire 
 +of the enemy had injured us much, both in the modes that I have stated, 
 +and also by exhausting our ammunition and fouling our guns, so as to 
 +render our batteries unfit for further immediate use. The scenes that 
 +met our eyes on all hands among the batteries were fearful. All things 
 +must end, and the great cannonade was no exception to the general law of 
 +earth. In the number of guns active at one time, and in the duration and 
 +rapidity of their fire, this artillery engagement, up to this time, must 
 +stand alone and pre-eminent in this war. It has not been often, or many 
 +times, surpassed in the battles<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> of the world. Two hundred and fifty 
 +guns, at least, rapidly fired for two mortal hours. Cipher out the 
 +number of tons of gunpowder and iron that made these two hours hideous.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Of the injury of our fire upon the enemy, except the facts that ours was 
 +the superior position, if not better served and constructed artillery, 
 +and that the enemy&#8217;s artillery hereafter during the battle was almost 
 +silent, we know little. Of course, during the fight we often saw the 
 +enemy&#8217;s caissons explode, and the trees rent by our shot crashing about 
 +his ears, but we can from these alone infer but little of general 
 +results. At three o&#8217;clock almost precisely the last shot hummed, and 
 +bounded and fell, and the cannonade was over. The purpose of General Lee 
 +in all this fire of his guns&mdash;we know it now, we did not at the time so 
 +well&mdash;was to disable our artillery and break up our infantry upon the 
 +position of the Second Corps, so as to render them less an impediment to 
 +the sweep of his own brigades and divisions over our crest and through 
 +our lines. He probably supposed our infantry was massed behind the crest 
 +and the batteries; and hence his fire was so high, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> his fuses to the 
 +shells were cut so long, too long. The Rebel General failed in some of 
 +his plans in this behalf, as many generals have failed before and will 
 +again. The artillery fight over, men began to breathe more freely, and 
 +to ask, What next, I wonder? The battery men were among their guns, some 
 +leaning to rest and wipe the sweat from their sooty faces, some were 
 +handling ammunition boxes and replenishing those that were empty. Some 
 +batteries from the artillery reserve were moving up to take the places 
 +of the disabled ones; the smoke was clearing from the crests. There was 
 +a pause between acts, with the curtain down, soon to rise upon the great 
 +final act, and catastrophe of Gettysburg. We have passed by the left of 
 +the Second Division, coming from the First; when we crossed the crest 
 +the enemy was not in sight, and all was still&mdash;we walked slowly along in 
 +the rear of the troops, by the ridge cut off now from a view of the 
 +enemy in his position, and were returning to the spot where we had left 
 +our horses. General Gibbon had just said that he inclined to the belief 
 +that the enemy was falling back, and that the cannonade was only one of 
 +his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> noisy modes of covering the movement. I said that I thought that 
 +fifteen minutes would show that, by all his bowling, the Rebel did not 
 +mean retreat. We were near our horses when we noticed Brigadier General 
 +Hunt, Chief of Artillery of the Army, near Woodruff&#8217;s Battery, swiftly 
 +moving about on horseback, and apparently in a rapid manner giving some 
 +orders about the guns. Thought we, what could this mean? In a moment 
 +afterwards we met Captain Wessels and the orderlies who had our horses; 
 +they were on foot leading the horses. Captain Wessels was pale, and he 
 +said, excited: &#8220;General, they say the enemy&#8217;s infantry is advancing.&#8221; We 
 +sprang into our saddles, a score of bounds brought us upon the 
 +all-seeing crest. To say that men grew pale and held their breath at 
 +what we and they there saw, would not be true. Might not six thousand 
 +men be brave and without shade of fear, and yet, before a hostile 
 +eighteen thousand, armed, and not five minutes&#8217; march away, turn ashy 
 +white? None on that crest now need be told that <i>the enemy is 
 +advancing</i>. Every eye could see his legions, an overwhelming resistless 
 +tide of an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> ocean of armed men sweeping upon us! Regiment after regiment 
 +and brigade after brigade move from the woods and rapidly take their 
 +places in the lines forming the assault. Pickett&#8217;s proud division, with 
 +some additional troops, hold their right; Pettigrew&#8217;s (Worth&#8217;s) their 
 +left. The first line at short interval is followed by a second, and that 
 +a third succeeds; and columns between support the lines. More than half 
 +a mile their front extends; more than a thousand yards the dull gray 
 +masses deploy, man touching man, rank pressing rank, and line supporting 
 +line. The red flags wave, their horsemen gallop up and down; the arms of 
 +eighteen thousand men, barrel and bayonet, gleam in the sun, a sloping 
 +forest of flashing steel. Right on they move, as with one soul, in 
 +perfect order, without impediment of ditch, or wall or stream, over 
 +ridge and slope, through orchard and meadow, and cornfield, magnificent, 
 +grim, irresistible. All was orderly and still upon our crest; no noise 
 +and no confusion. The men had little need of commands, for the survivors 
 +of a dozen battles knew well enough what this array in front portended, 
 +and, already in their places, they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> would be prepared to act when the 
 +right time should come. The click of the locks as each man raised the 
 +hammer to feel with his fingers that the cap was on the nipple; the 
 +sharp jar as a musket touched a stone upon the wall when thrust in 
 +aiming over it, and the clicking of the iron axles as the guns were 
 +rolled up by hand a little further to the front, were quite all the 
 +sounds that could be heard. Cap-boxes were slid around to the front of 
 +the body; cartridge boxes opened, officers opened their pistol-holsters. 
 +Such preparations, little more was needed. The trefoil flags, colors of 
 +the brigades and divisions moved to their places in rear; but along the 
 +lines in front the grand old ensign that first waved in battle at 
 +Saratoga in 1777, and which these people coming would rob of half its 
 +stars, stood up, and the west wind kissed it as the sergeants sloped its 
 +lance towards the enemy. I believe that not one above whom it then waved 
 +but blessed his God that he was loyal to it, and whose heart did not 
 +swell with pride towards it, as the emblem of the Republic before that 
 +treason&#8217;s flaunting rag in front. General Gibbon rode down the lines, 
 +cool and calm, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> in an unimpassioned voice he said to the men, &#8220;Do 
 +not hurry, men, and fire too fast, let them come up close before you 
 +fire, and then aim low and steadily.&#8221; The coolness of their General was 
 +reflected in the faces of his men. Five minutes has elapsed since first 
 +the enemy have emerged from the woods&mdash;no great space of time surely, if 
 +measured by the usual standard by which men estimate duration&mdash;but it 
 +was long enough for us to note and weigh some of the elements of mighty 
 +moment that surrounded us; the disparity of numbers between the 
 +assailants and the assailed; that few as were our numbers we could not 
 +be supported or reinforced until support would not be needed or would be 
 +too late; that upon the ability of the two trefoil divisions to hold the 
 +crest and repel the assault depended not only their own safety or 
 +destruction, but also the honor of the Army of the Potomac and defeat or 
 +victory at Gettysburg. Should these advancing men pierce our line and 
 +become the entering wedge, driven home, that would sever our army 
 +asunder, what hope would there be afterwards, and where the blood-earned 
 +fruits of yesterday? It was long enough for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> Rebel storm to drift 
 +across more than half the space that had at first separated it from us. 
 +None, or all, of these considerations either depressed or elevated us. 
 +They might have done the former, had we been timid; the latter had we 
 +been confident and vain. But, we were there waiting, and ready to do our 
 +duty&mdash;that done, results could not dishonor us.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Our skirmishers open a spattering fire along the front, and, fighting, 
 +retire upon the main line&mdash;the first drops, the heralds of the storm, 
 +sounding on our windows. Then the thunders of our guns, first Arnold&#8217;
 +then Cushing&#8217;s and Woodruff&#8217;s and the rest, shake and reverberate again 
 +through the air, and their sounding shells smite the enemy. The General 
 +said I had better go and tell General Meade of this advance. To gallop 
 +to General Meade&#8217;s headquarters, to learn there that he had changed them 
 +to another part of the field, to dispatch to him by the Signal Corps in 
 +General Gibbon&#8217;s name the message, &#8220;The enemy is advancing his infantry 
 +in force upon my front,&#8221; and to be again upon the crest, were but the 
 +work of a minute. All our available guns are now active, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> from the 
 +fire of shells, as the range grows shorter and shorter, they change to 
 +shrapnel, and from shrapnel to canister; but in spite of shells, and 
 +shrapnel and canister, without wavering or halt, the hardy lines of the 
 +enemy continue to move on. The Rebel guns make no reply to ours, and no 
 +charging shout rings out to-day, as is the Rebel wont; but the courage 
 +of these silent men amid our shots seems not to need the stimulus of 
 +other noise. The enemy&#8217;s right flank sweeps near Stannard&#8217;s bushy crest, 
 +and his concealed Vermonters rake it with a well-delivered fire of 
 +musketry. The gray lines do not halt or reply, but withdrawing a little 
 +from that extreme, they still move on. And so across all that broad open 
 +ground they have come, nearer and nearer, nearly half the way, with our 
 +guns bellowing in their faces, until now a hundred yards, no more, 
 +divide our ready left from their advancing right. The eager men there 
 +are impatient to begin. Let them. First, Harrow&#8217;s breastworks flame; 
 +then Hall&#8217;s; then Webb&#8217;s. As if our bullets were the fire coals that 
 +touched off their muskets, the enemy in front halts, and his countless 
 +level barrels blaze back<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> upon us. The Second Division is struggling in 
 +battle. The rattling storm soon spreads to the right, and the blue 
 +trefoils are vieing with the white. All along each hostile front, a 
 +thousand yards, with narrowest space between, the volleys blaze and 
 +roll; as thick the sound as when a summer hail-storm pelts the city 
 +roofs; as thick the fire as when the incessant lightning fringes a 
 +summer cloud. When the Rebel infantry had opened fire our batteries soon 
 +became silent, and this without their fault, for they were foul by long 
 +previous use. They were the targets of the concentrated Rebel bullets, 
 +and some of them had expended all their canister. But they were not 
 +silent before Rhorty was killed, Woodruff had fallen mortally wounded, 
 +and Cushing, firing almost his last canister, had dropped dead among his 
 +guns shot through the head by a bullet. The conflict is left to the 
 +infantry alone. Unable to find my general when I had returned to the 
 +crest after transmitting his message to General Meade, and while riding 
 +in the search having witnessed the development of the fight, from the 
 +first fire upon the left by the main lines until all of the two 
 +divisions were <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>furiously engaged, I gave up hunting as useless&mdash;I was 
 +convinced General Gibbon could not be on the field; I left him mounted; 
 +I could easily have found him now had he so remained&mdash;but now, save 
 +myself, there was not a mounted officer near the engaged lines&mdash;and was 
 +riding towards the right of the Second Division, with purpose to stop 
 +there, as the most eligible position to watch the further progress of 
 +the battle, there to be ready to take part according to my own notions 
 +whenever and wherever occasion was presented. The conflict was 
 +tremendous, but I had seen no wavering in all our line. Wondering how 
 +long the Rebel ranks, deep though they were, could stand our sheltered 
 +volleys, I had come near my destination, when&mdash;great heaven! were my 
 +senses mad? The larger portion of Webb&#8217;s brigade&mdash;my God, it was 
 +true&mdash;there by the group of trees and the angles of the wall, was 
 +breaking from the cover of their works, and, without orders or reason, 
 +with no hand lifted to check them, was falling back, a fear-stricken 
 +flock of confusion! The fate of Gettysburg hung upon a spider&#8217;s single 
 +thread! A great magnificent passion came on me<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> at the instant, not one 
 +that overpowers and confounds, but one that blanches the face and 
 +sublimes every sense and faculty. My sword, that had always hung idle by 
 +my side, the sign of rank only in every battle, I drew, bright and 
 +gleaming, the symbol of command. Was not that a fit occasion, and these 
 +fugitives the men on whom to try the temper of the Solinzen steel? All 
 +rules and proprieties were forgotten; all considerations of person, and 
 +danger and safety despised; for, as I met the tide of these rabbits, the 
 +damned red flags of the rebellion began to thicken and flaunt along the 
 +wall they had just deserted, and one was already waving over one of the 
 +guns of the dead Cushing. I ordered these men to &#8220;halt,&#8221; and &#8220;face 
 +about&#8221; and &#8220;fire,&#8221; and they heard my voice and gathered my meaning, and 
 +obeyed my commands. On some unpatriotic backs of those not quick of 
 +comprehension, the flat of my sabre fell not lightly, and at its touch 
 +their love of country returned, and, with a look at me as if I were the 
 +destroying angel, as I might have become theirs, they again faced the 
 +enemy. General Webb soon came to my assistance. He was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> on foot, but he 
 +was active, and did all that one could do to repair the breach, or to 
 +avert its calamity. The men that had fallen back, facing the enemy, soon 
 +regained confidence in themselves, and became steady. This portion of 
 +the wall was lost to us, and the enemy had gained the cover of the 
 +reverse side, where he now stormed with fire. But Webb&#8217;s men, with their 
 +bodies in part protected by the abruptness of the crest, now sent back 
 +in the enemies&#8217; faces as fierce a storm. Some scores of venturesome 
 +Rebels, that in their first push at the wall had dared to cross at the 
 +further angle, and those that had desecrated Cushing&#8217;s guns, were 
 +promptly shot down, and speedy death met him who should raise his body 
 +to cross it again. At this point little could be seen of the enemy, by 
 +reason of his cover and the smoke, except the flash of his muskets and 
 +his waving flags. These red flags were accumulating at the wall every 
 +moment, and they maddened us as the same color does the bull. Webb&#8217;s men 
 +are falling fast, and he is among them to direct and encourage; but, 
 +however well they may now do, with that walled enemy in front, with more 
 +than a dozen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> flags to Webb&#8217;s three, it soon becomes apparent that in 
 +not many minutes they will be overpowered, or that there will be none 
 +alive for the enemy to overpower. Webb, has but three regiments, all 
 +small, the 69th, 71st and 72d Pennsylvania&mdash;the 106th Pennsylvania, 
 +except two companies, is not here to-day&mdash;and he must have speedy 
 +assistance, or this crest will be lost. Oh, where is Gibbon? where is 
 +Hancock?&mdash;some general&mdash;anybody with the power and the will to support 
 +that wasting, melting line? No general came, and no succor! I thought of 
 +Hayes upon the right, but from the smoke and war along his front, it was 
 +evident that he had enough upon his hands, if he stayed the in-rolling 
 +tide of the Rebels there. Doubleday upon the left was too far off and 
 +too slow, and on another occasion I had begged him to send his idle 
 +regiments to support another line battling with thrice its numbers, and 
 +this &#8220;Old Sumpter Hero&#8221; had declined. As a last resort I resolved to see 
 +if Hall and Harrow could not send some of their commands to reinforce 
 +Webb. I galloped to the left in the execution of my purpose, and as I 
 +attained the rear of Hall&#8217;s line,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> from the nature of the ground and the 
 +position of the enemy it was easy to discover the reason and the manner 
 +of this gathering of Rebel flags in front of Webb. The enemy, emboldened 
 +by his success in gaining our line by the group of trees and the angle 
 +of the wall, was concentrating all his right against and was further 
 +pressing that point. There was the stress of his assault; there would he 
 +drive his fiery wedge to split our line. In front of Harrow&#8217;s and Hall&#8217;
 +Brigades he had been able to advance no nearer than when he first halted 
 +to deliver fire, and these commands had not yielded an inch. To effect 
 +the concentration before Webb, the enemy would march the regiment on his 
 +extreme right of each of his lines by the left flank to the rear of the 
 +troops, still halted and facing to the front, and so continuing to draw 
 +in his right, when they were all massed in the position desired, he 
 +would again face them to the front, and advance to the storming. This 
 +was the way he made the wall before Webb&#8217;s line blaze red with his 
 +battle flags, and such was the purpose there of his thick-crowding 
 +battalions. Not a moment must be lost. Colonel Hall I found just in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> 
 +rear of his line, sword in hand, cool, vigilant, noting all that passed 
 +and directing the battle of his brigade. The fire was constantly 
 +diminishing now in his front, in the manner and by the movement of the 
 +enemy that I have mentioned, drifting to the right. &#8220;How is it going?&#8221; 
 +Colonel Hall asked me, as I rode up. &#8220;Well, but Webb is hotly pressed 
 +and must have support, or he will be overpowered. Can you assist him?&#8221; 
 +&#8220;Yes.&#8221; &#8220;You cannot be too quick.&#8221; &#8220;I will move my brigade at once.&#8221; 
 +&#8220;Good.&#8221; He gave the order, and in briefest time I saw five friendly 
 +colors hurrying to the aid of the imperilled three; and each color 
 +represented true, battle-tried men, that had not turned back from Rebel 
 +fire that day nor yesterday, though their ranks were sadly thinned, to 
 +Webb&#8217;s brigade, pressed back as it had been from the wall, the distance 
 +was not great from Hall&#8217;s right. The regiments marched by the right 
 +flank. Col. Hall superintended the movement in person. Col. Devereux 
 +coolly commanded the 19th Massachusetts. His major, Rice, had already 
 +been wounded and carried off. Lieut. Col. Macy, of the 20th Mass., had 
 +just<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> had his left hand shot off, and so Capt. Abbott gallantly led over 
 +this fine regiment. The 42d New York followed their excellent Colonel 
 +Mallon. Lieut. Col. Steele, 7th Mich., had just been killed, and his 
 +regiment, and the handful of the 59th N. Y., followed their colors. The 
 +movement, as it did, attracting the enemy&#8217;s fire, and executed in haste, 
 +as it must be, was difficult; but in reasonable time, and in order that 
 +is serviceable, if not regular, Hall&#8217;s men are fighting gallantly side 
 +by side with Webb&#8217;s before the all important point. I did not stop to 
 +see all this movement of Hall&#8217;s, but from him I went at once further to 
 +the left, to the 1st brigade. Gen&#8217;l Harrow I did not see, but his 
 +fighting men would answer my purpose as well. The 19th Me., the 15th 
 +Mass., the 32d N. Y. and the shattered old thunderbolt, the 1st 
 +Minn.&mdash;poor Farrell was dying then upon the ground where he had 
 +fallen,&mdash;all men that I could find I took over to the right at the 
 +<i>double quick</i>.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>As we were moving to, and near the other brigade of the division, from 
 +my position on horseback I could see that the enemy&#8217;s right, under<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> 
 +Hall&#8217;s fire, was beginning to stagger and to break. &#8220;See,&#8221; I said to the 
 +men, &#8220;See the <i>chivalry</i>! See the gray-backs run!&#8221; The men saw, and as 
 +they swept to their places by the side of Hall and opened fire, they 
 +roared, and this in a manner that said more plainly than words&mdash;for the 
 +deaf could have seen it in their faces, and the blind could have heard 
 +it in their voices&mdash;<i>the crest is safe</i>!</p> 
 + 
 +<p>The whole Division concentrated, and changes of position, and new 
 +phases, as well on our part as on that of the enemy, having as indicated 
 +occurred, for the purpose of showing the exact present posture of 
 +affairs, some further description is necessary. Before the 2d Division 
 +the enemy is massed, the main bulk of his force covered by the ground 
 +that slopes to his rear, with his front at the stone wall. Between his 
 +front and us extends the very apex of the crest. All there are left of 
 +the White Trefoil Division&mdash;yesterday morning there were three thousand 
 +eight hundred, this morning there were less than three thousand&mdash;at this 
 +moment there are somewhat over two thousand;&mdash;twelve regiments in three 
 +brigades are below or behind the crest, in such a position that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> by the 
 +exposure of the head and upper part of the body above the crest they can 
 +deliver their fire in the enemy&#8217;s faces along the top of the wall. By 
 +reason of the disorganization incidental in Webb&#8217;s brigade to his men&#8217;
 +having broken and fallen back, as mentioned, in the two other brigades 
 +to their rapid and difficult change of position under fire, and in all 
 +the division in part to severe and continuous battle, formation of 
 +companies and regiments in regular ranks is lost; but commands, 
 +companies, regiments and brigades are blended and intermixed&mdash;an 
 +irregular extended mass&mdash;men enough, if in order, to form a line of four 
 +or five ranks along the whole front of the division. The twelve flags of 
 +the regiments wave defiantly at intervals along the front; at the stone 
 +wall, at unequal distances from ours of forty, fifty or sixty yards, 
 +stream nearly double this number of the battle flags of the enemy. These 
 +changes accomplished on either side, and the concentration complete, 
 +although no cessation or abatement in the general din of conflict since 
 +the commencement had at any time been appreciable, now it was as if a 
 +new battle, deadlier, stormier than before, had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> sprung from the body of 
 +the old&mdash;a young Ph&oelig;nix of combat, whose eyes stream lightning, 
 +shaking his arrowy wings over the yet glowing ashes of his progenitor. 
 +The jostling, swaying lines on either side boil, and roar, and dash 
 +their flamy spray, two hostile billows of a fiery ocean. Thick flashes 
 +stream from the wall, thick volleys answer from the crest. No threats or 
 +expostulation now, only example and encouragement. All depths of passion 
 +are stirred, and all combatives fire, down to their deep foundations. 
 +Individuality is drowned in a sea of clamor, and timid men, breathing 
 +the breath of the multitude, are brave. The frequent dead and wounded 
 +lie where they stagger and fall&mdash;there is no humanity for them now, and 
 +none can be spared to care for them. The men do not cheer or shout; they 
 +growl, and over that uneasy sea, heard with the roar of musketry, sweeps 
 +the muttered thunder of a storm of growls. Webb, Hall, Devereux, Mallon, 
 +Abbott among the men where all are heroes, are doing deeds of note. Now 
 +the loyal wave rolls up as if it would overleap its barrier, the crest. 
 +Pistols flash with the muskets. My &#8220;Forward to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> wall&#8221; is answered by 
 +the Rebel counter-command, &#8220;Steady, men!&#8221; and the wave swings back. 
 +Again it surges, and again it sinks. These men of Pennsylvania, on the 
 +soil of their own homesteads, the first and only to flee the wall, must 
 +be the first to storm it. &#8220;Major&mdash;, <i>lead</i> your men over the crest, they 
 +will follow.&#8221; &#8220;By the tactics I understand my place is in rear of the 
 +men.&#8221; &#8220;Your pardon, sir; I see <i>your</i> place is in rear of the men. I 
 +thought you were fit to lead.&#8221; &#8220;Capt. Sapler, come on with your men.&#8221; 
 +&#8220;Let me first stop this fire in the rear, or we shall be hit by our own 
 +men.&#8221; &#8220;Never mind the fire in the rear; let us take care of this in 
 +front first.&#8221; &#8220;Sergeant, forward with your color. Let the Rebels see it 
 +close to their eyes once before they die.&#8221; The color sergeant of the 72d 
 +Pa., grasping the stump of the severed lance in both his hands, waved 
 +the flag above his head and rushed towards the wall. &#8220;Will you see your 
 +color storm the wall alone?&#8221; One man only starts to follow. Almost half 
 +way to the wall, down go color bearer and color to the ground&mdash;the 
 +gallant sergeant is dead. The line springs&mdash;the crest of the solid 
 +ground with a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> great roar, heaves forward its maddened load, men, arms, 
 +smoke, fire, a fighting mass. It rolls to the wall&mdash;flash meets flash, 
 +the wall is crossed&mdash;a moment ensues of thrusts, yells, blows, shots, 
 +and undistinguishable conflict, followed by a shout universal that makes 
 +the welkin ring again, and the last and bloodiest fight of the great 
 +battle of Gettysburg is ended and won.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Many things cannot be described by pen or pencil&mdash;such a fight is one. 
 +Some hints and incidents may be given, but a description or picture 
 +never. From what is told the imagination may for itself construct the 
 +scene; otherwise he who never saw can have no adequate idea of what such 
 +a battle is.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>When the vortex of battle passion had subsided, hopes, fears, rage, joy, 
 +of which the maddest and the noisiest was the last, and we were calm 
 +enough to look about us, we saw that, as with us, the fight with the 
 +Third Division was ended, and that in that division was a repetition of 
 +the scenes immediately about us. In that moment the judgment almost 
 +refused to credit the senses. Are these abject wretches about us,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> 
 +whom our men are now disarming and driving together in flocks, the 
 +jaunty men of Pickett&#8217;s Division, whose steady lines and flashing arms 
 +but a few moment&#8217;s since came sweeping up the slope to destroy us? Are 
 +these red cloths that our men toss about in derision the &#8220;fiery Southern 
 +crosses,&#8221; thrice ardent, the battle flags of the rebellion that waved 
 +defiance at the wall? We know, but so sudden has been the transition, we 
 +yet can scarce believe.</p> 
 + 
 +</html> 
 +{{  haskell-gettysburg-final-attack-july-3.jpg  }} 
 +<html> 
 +<p class="center">Battle of Gettysburg&mdash;Final attack, July 3<br />(Compiled by C E. Estabrook)</p> 
 +<p>&nbsp;</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Just as the fight was over, and the first outburst of victory had a 
 +little subsided, when all in front of the crest was noise and 
 +confusion&mdash;prisoners being collected, small parties in pursuit of them 
 +far down into the fields, flags waving, officers giving quick, sharp 
 +commands to their men&mdash;I stood apart for a few moments upon the crest, 
 +by that group of trees which ought to be historic forever, a spectator 
 +of the thrilling scene around. Some few musket shots were still heard in 
 +the Third Division; and the enemy&#8217;s guns, almost silent since the 
 +advance of his infantry until the moment of his defeat, were dropping a 
 +few sullen shells among friend and foe upon the crest. Rebellion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> 
 +fosters such humanity. Near me, saddest sight of the many of such a 
 +field and not in keeping with all this noise, were mingled alone the 
 +thick dead of Maine and Minnesota, and Michigan and Massachusetts, and 
 +the Empire and Keystone States, who, not yet cold, with the blood still 
 +oozing from their death-wounds, had given their lives to the country 
 +upon that stormy field. So mingled upon that crest let their honored 
 +graves be. Look with me about us. These dead have been avenged already. 
 +Where the long lines of the enemy&#8217;s thousands so proudly advanced, see 
 +how thick the silent men of gray are scattered. It is not an hour since 
 +these legions were sweeping along so grandly; now sixteen hundred of 
 +that fiery mass are strewn among the trampled grass, dead as the clods 
 +they load; more than seven thousand, probably eight thousand, are 
 +wounded, some there with the dead, in our hands, some fugitive far 
 +towards the woods, among them Generals Pettigrew, Garnett, Kemper and 
 +Armstead, the last three mortally, and the last one in our hands. &#8220;Tell 
 +General Hancock,&#8221; he said to Lieutenant Mitchell, Hancock&#8217;
 +aide-de-camp, to whom he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> handed his watch, &#8220;that I know I did my 
 +country a great wrong when I took up arms against her, for which I am 
 +sorry, but for which I cannot live to atone.&#8221; Four thousand, not 
 +wounded, are prisoners of war. More in number of the captured than the 
 +captors. Our men are still &#8220;gathering them in.&#8221; Some hold up their hands 
 +or a handkerchief in sign of submission; some have hugged the ground to 
 +escape our bullets and so are taken; few made resistance after the first 
 +moment of our crossing the wall; some yield submissively with good 
 +grace, some with grim, dogged aspect, showing that but for the other 
 +alternative they could not submit to this. Colonels, and all less grades 
 +of officers, in the usual proportion are among them, and all are being 
 +stripped of their arms. Such of them as escaped wounds and capture are 
 +fleeing routed and panic stricken, and disappearing in the woods. Small 
 +arms, more thousands than we can count, are in our hands, scattered over 
 +the field. And these defiant battle-flags, some inscribed with &#8220;First 
 +Manassas,&#8221; the numerous battles of the Peninsula, &#8220;Second Manassas,&#8221; 
 +&#8220;South <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>Mountain,&#8221; 
 +&#8220;Sharpsburg,&#8221; (our Antietam), &#8220;Fredericksburg,&#8221; 
 +&#8220;Chancellorsville,&#8221; and many more names, our men have, and are showing 
 +about, <i>over thirty of them</i>.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Such was really the closing scene of the grand drama of Gettysburg. 
 +After repeated assaults upon the right and the left, where, and in all 
 +of which repulse had been his only success, this persistent and 
 +presuming enemy forms his chosen troops, the flower of his army, for a 
 +grand assault upon our center. The manner and result of such assault 
 +have been told&mdash;a loss to the enemy of from twelve thousand to fourteen 
 +thousand, killed, wounded and prisoners, and of over thirty 
 +battle-flags. This was accomplished by not over six thousand men, with a 
 +loss on our part of not over two thousand five hundred killed and 
 +wounded.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Would to Heaven General Hancock and Gibbon could have stood there where 
 +I did, and have looked upon that field! It would have done two men, to 
 +whom the country owes much, good to have been with their men in that 
 +moment of victory&mdash;to have seen the result of those dispositions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> which 
 +they had made, and of that splendid fighting which men schooled by their 
 +discipline, had executed. But they are both severely wounded and have 
 +been carried from the field. One person did come then that I was glad to 
 +see there, and that was no less than Major General Meade, whom the Army 
 +of the Potomac was fortunate enough to have at that time to command it. 
 +See how a great General looked upon the field, and what he said and did 
 +at the moment, and when he learned of his great victory. To appreciate 
 +the incident I give, it should be borne in mind that one coming up from 
 +the rear of the line, as did General Meade, could have seen very little 
 +of our own men, who had now crossed the crest, and although he could 
 +have heard the noise, he could not have told its occasion, or by whom 
 +made, until he had actually attained the crest. One who did not know 
 +results, so coming, would have been quite as likely to have supposed 
 +that our line there had been carried and captured by the enemy&mdash;so many 
 +gray Rebels were on the crest&mdash;as to have discovered the real truth. 
 +Such mistake was really made by one of our officers, as I shall relate.</p> 
 + 
 +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>General Meade rode up, accompanied alone by his son, who is his 
 +aide-de-camp, an escort, if select, not large for a commander of such an 
 +army. The principal horseman was no bedizened hero of some holiday 
 +review, but he was a plain man, dressed in a serviceable summer suit of 
 +dark blue cloth, without badge or ornament, save the shoulder-straps of 
 +his grade, and a light, straight sword of a General or General staff 
 +officer. He wore heavy, high-top boots and buff gauntlets, and his soft 
 +black felt hat was slouched down over his eyes. His face was very white, 
 +not pale, and the lines were marked and earnest and full of care. As he 
 +arrived near me, coming up the hill, he asked, in a sharp, eager voice: 
 +&#8220;How is it going here?&#8221; &#8220;I believe, General, the enemy&#8217;s attack is 
 +repulsed,&#8221; I answered. Still approaching, and a new light began to come 
 +in his face, of gratified surprise, with a touch of incredulity, of 
 +which his voice was also the medium, he further asked: &#8220;<i>What! Is the 
 +assault already repulsed?</i>&#8221; his voice quicker and more eager than 
 +before. &#8220;It is, sir,&#8221; I replied. By this time he was on the crest, and 
 +when his eye had for an instant swept over<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> the field, taking in just a 
 +glance of the whole&mdash;the masses of prisoners, the numerous captured 
 +flags which the men were derisively flaunting about, the fugitives of 
 +the routed enemy, disappearing with the speed of terror in the 
 +woods&mdash;partly at what I had told him, partly at what he saw, he said, 
 +impressively, and his face lighted: &#8220;Thank God.&#8221; And then his right hand 
 +moved as if it would have caught off his hat and waved it; but this 
 +gesture he suppressed, and instead he waved his hand, and said &#8220;Hurrah!&#8221; 
 +The son, with more youth in his blood and less rank upon his shoulders, 
 +snatched off his cap, and roared out his three &#8220;hurrahs&#8221; right heartily. 
 +The General then surveyed the field, some minutes, in silence. He at 
 +length asked who was in command&mdash;he had heard that Hancock and Gibbon 
 +were wounded&mdash;and I told him that General Caldwell was the senior 
 +officer of the Corps and General Harrow of the Division. He asked where 
 +they were, but before I had time to answer that I did not know, he 
 +resumed: &#8220;No matter; I will give my orders to you and you will see them 
 +executed.&#8221; He then gave direction that the troops<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> should be reformed as 
 +soon as practicable, and kept in their places, as the enemy might be mad 
 +enough to attack again. He also gave directions concerning the posting 
 +of some reinforcements which he said would soon be there, adding: &#8220;If 
 +the enemy does attack, charge him in the flank and sweep him from the 
 +field; do you understand.&#8221; The General then, a gratified man, galloped 
 +in the direction of his headquarters.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Then the work of the field went on. First, the prisoners were collected 
 +and sent to the rear. &#8220;There go the men,&#8221; the Rebels were heard to say, 
 +by some of our surgeons who were in Gettysburg, at the time Pickett&#8217;
 +Division marched out to take position&mdash;&#8220;There go the men that will go 
 +through your d&mdash;d Yankee lines, for you,&#8221; A good many of them did &#8220;go 
 +through our lines for us,&#8221; but in a very different way from the one they 
 +intended&mdash;not impetuous victors, sweeping away our thin lines with ball 
 +and bayonet, but crestfallen captives, without arms, guarded by the true 
 +bayonets of the Union, with the cheers of their conquerors ringing in 
 +their ears. There was a grim truth after all in this Rebel remark. 
 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>Collected, the prisoners began their dreary march, a miserable, 
 +melancholy stream of dirty gray, to pour over the crest to our rear. 
 +Many of the officers were well dressed, fine, proud gentlemen, such men 
 +as it would be a pleasure to meet, when the war is over. I had no desire 
 +to exult over them, and pity and sympathy were the general feelings of 
 +us all upon the occasion. The cheering of our men, and the unceremonious 
 +handling of the captured flags was probably not gratifying to the 
 +prisoners, but not intended for taunt or insult to the men; they could 
 +take no exception to such practices. When the prisoners were turned to 
 +the rear and were crossing the crest, Lieut. Col. Morgan, General 
 +Hancock&#8217;s Chief of Staff, was conducting a battery from the artillery 
 +reserve, towards the Second Corps. As he saw the men in gray coming over 
 +the hill, he said to the officer in command of the battery: &#8220;See up 
 +there! The enemy has carried the crest. See them come pouring over! The 
 +old Second Corps is gone, and you had better get your battery away from 
 +here as quickly as possible, or it will be captured.&#8221; The officer was 
 +actually giving the order to his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> men to move back, when close 
 +observation discovered that the gray-backs that were coming had no arms, 
 +and then the truth flashed upon the minds of the observers. The same 
 +mistake was made by others.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>In view of the results of that day&mdash;the successes of the arms of the 
 +country, would not the people of the whole country, standing there upon 
 +the crest with General Meade, have said, with him: &#8220;Thank God?&#8221;</p> 
 + 
 +<p>I have no knowledge and little notion of how long a time elapsed from 
 +the moment the fire of the infantry commenced, until the enemy was 
 +entirely repulsed, in this his grand assault. I judge, from the amount 
 +of fighting and the changes of position that occurred, that probably the 
 +fight was of nearly an hour&#8217;s duration, but I cannot tell, and I have 
 +seen none who knew. The time seemed but a very few minutes, when the 
 +battle was over.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>When the prisoners were cleared away and order was again established 
 +upon our crest, where the conflict had impaired it, until between five 
 +and six o&#8217;clock, I remained upon the field, directing some troops to 
 +their position, in conformity to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> orders of General Meade. The enemy 
 +appeared no more in front of the Second Corps; but while I was engaged 
 +as I have mentioned, farther to our left some considerable force of the 
 +enemy moved out and made show of attack. Our artillery, now in good 
 +order again, in due time opened fire, and the shells scattered the 
 +&#8220;Butternuts,&#8221; as clubs do the gray snow-birds of winter, before they 
 +came within range of our infantry. This, save unimportant outpost 
 +firing, was the last of the battle.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Of the pursuit of the enemy and the movements of the army subsequent to 
 +the battle, until the crossing of the Potomac by Lee and the closing of 
 +the campaign, it is not my purpose to write. Suffice it that on the 
 +night of the 3d of July the enemy withdrew his left, Ewell&#8217;s Corps, from 
 +our front, and on the morning of the 4th we again occupied the village 
 +of Gettysburg, and on that national day victory was proclaimed to the 
 +country; that floods of rain on that day prevented army movements of any 
 +considerable magnitude, the day being passed by our army in position 
 +upon the field, in burying our dead, and some of those of the enemy, and 
 +in making the movements already <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>indicated; that on the 5th the pursuit 
 +of the enemy was commenced&mdash;his dead were buried by us&mdash;and the corps of 
 +our army, upon various roads, moved from the battlefield.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>With a statement of some of the results of the battle, as to losses and 
 +captures, and of what I saw in riding over the field, when the enemy was 
 +gone, my account is done.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Our own losses in killed, wounded and missing I estimate at 
 +<i>twenty-three thousand</i>. Of the &#8220;missing&#8221; the larger proportion were 
 +prisoners, lost on the 1st of July. Our loss in prisoners, not wounded, 
 +probably was <i>four thousand</i>. The losses were distributed among the 
 +different army corps about as follows: In the Second Corps, which 
 +sustained the heaviest loss of any corps, a little over <i>four thousand 
 +five hundred</i>, of whom the missing were a mere nominal number; in the 
 +First Corps a little over <i>four thousand</i>, of whom a great many were 
 +missing; in the Third Corps <i>four thousand</i>, of whom some were missing; 
 +in the Eleventh Corps nearly <i>four thousand</i>, of whom the most were 
 +missing; and the rest of the loss, to make the aggregate mentioned, was 
 +shared by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> Fifth, Sixth and Twelfth Corps and the cavalry. Among 
 +these the missing were few; and the losses of the Sixth Corps and of the 
 +cavalry were light. I do not think the official reports will show my 
 +estimate of our losses to be far from correct, for I have taken great 
 +pains to question staff officers upon the subject, and have learned 
 +approximate numbers from them. We lost no gun or flag that I have heard 
 +of in all the battle. Some small arms, I suppose, were lost on the 1st 
 +of July.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>The enemy&#8217;s loss in killed, wounded and prisoners I estimate at <i>forty 
 +thousand</i>, and from the following data and for the following reasons: So 
 +far as I can learn we took <i>ten thousand</i> prisoners, who were not 
 +wounded&mdash;many more than these were captured, but several thousands of 
 +them were wounded. I have so far as practicable ascertained the number 
 +of dead the enemy left upon the field, approximately, by getting the 
 +reports of different burying parties. I think his dead upon the field 
 +were <i>five thousand</i>, almost all of whom, save those killed on the first 
 +of July, were buried by us&mdash;the enemy not having them in their 
 +possession. In looking at a great number of tables<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> of killed and 
 +wounded in battles I have found that the proportion of the killed to the 
 +wounded is as <i>one</i> to <i>five</i>, or more than five, rarely less than five. 
 +So with the killed at the number stated, <i>twenty-five thousand</i> 
 +mentioned. I think <i>fourteen thousand</i> of the enemy, wounded and 
 +unwounded, fell into our hands. Great numbers of his small arms, two or 
 +three guns, and forty or more&mdash;was there ever such bannered harvest?&mdash;of 
 +his regimental battle-flags, were captured by us. Some day possibly we 
 +may learn the enemy&#8217;s loss, but I doubt if he will ever tell truly how 
 +many flags he did not take home with him. I have great confidence 
 +however in my estimates, for they have been carefully made, and after 
 +much inquiry, and with no desire or motive to overestimate the enemy&#8217;
 +loss.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>The magnitude of the armies engaged, the number of the casualties, the 
 +object sought by the Rebel, the result, will all contribute to give 
 +Gettysburg a place among the great historic battles of the world. That 
 +General Meade&#8217;s concentration was rapid&mdash;over thirty miles a day was 
 +marched by some of the Corps&mdash;that his position was skillfully selected 
 +and his dispositions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> good; that he fought the battle hard and well; 
 +that his victory was brilliant and complete, I think all should admit. I 
 +cannot but regard it as highly fortunate to us and commendable in 
 +General Meade, that the enemy was allowed the initiative, the offensive, 
 +in the main battle; that it was much better to allow the Rebel, for his 
 +own destruction, to come up and smash his lines and columns upon the 
 +defensive solidity of our position, than it would have been to hunt him, 
 +for the same purpose, in the woods, or to unearth him from his 
 +rifle-pits. In this manner our losses were lighter, and his heavier, 
 +than if the case had been reversed. And whatever the books may say of 
 +troops fighting the better who make the attack, I am satisfied that in 
 +this war, Americans, the Rebels, as well as ourselves, are best on the 
 +defensive. The proposition is deducible from the battles of the war, I 
 +think, and my own observation confirms it.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>But men there are who think that nothing was gained or done well in this 
 +battle, because some other general did not have the command, or because 
 +any portion of the army of the enemy was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> permitted to escape capture or 
 +destruction. As if one army of a hundred thousand men could encounter 
 +another of the same number of as good troops and annihilate it! Military 
 +men do not claim or expect this; but the McClellan destroyers do, the 
 +doughty knights of purchasable newspaper quills; the formidable warriors 
 +from the brothels of politics, men of much warlike experience against 
 +honesty and honor, of profound attainments in ignorance, who have the 
 +maxims of Napoleon, whose spirit they as little understand as they do 
 +most things, to quote, to prove all things; but who, unfortunately, have 
 +much influence in the country and with the Government, and so over the 
 +army. It is very pleasant for these people, no doubt, at safe distances 
 +from guns, in the enjoyment of a lucrative office, or of a fraudulently 
 +obtained government contract, surrounded by the luxuries of their own 
 +firesides, where mud and flooding storms, and utter weariness never 
 +penetrate, to discourse of battles and how campaigns should be conducted 
 +and armies of the enemy destroyed. But it should be enough, perhaps, to 
 +say that men here, or elsewhere, who have <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>knowledge enough of military 
 +affairs to entitle them to express an opinion on such matters, and 
 +accurate information enough to realize the nature and the means of this 
 +desired destruction of Lee&#8217;s army before it crossed the Potomac into 
 +Virginia, will be most likely to vindicate the Pennsylvania campaign of 
 +Gen. Meade, and to see that he accomplished all that could have been 
 +reasonably expected of any general of any army. Complaint has been, and 
 +is, made specially against Meade, that he did not attack Lee near 
 +Williamsport before he had time to withdraw across the river. These were 
 +the facts concerning this matter:</p> 
 + 
 +<p>The 13th of July was the earliest day when such an attack, if 
 +practicable at all, could have been made. The time before this, since 
 +the battle, had been spent in moving the army from the vicinity of the 
 +field, finding something of the enemy and concentrating before him. On 
 +that day the army was concentrated and in order of battle near the 
 +turnpike that leads from Sharpsburg to Hagerstown, Md., the right 
 +resting at or near the latter place, the left near Jones&#8217; crossroads, 
 +some six miles in the direction of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>Sharpsburg, and in the following 
 +order from left to right: the 12th corps, the 2d, the 5th, the 6th, the 
 +1st, the 11th; the 3d being in reserve behind the 2d. The mean distance 
 +to the Potomac was some six miles, and the enemy was between Meade and 
 +the river. The Potomac, swelled by the recent rain, was boiling and 
 +swift and deep, a magnificent place to have drowned all the Rebel crew. 
 +I have not the least doubt but that Gen. Meade would have liked to drown 
 +them all, if he could, but they were unwilling to be drowned, and would 
 +fight first. To drive them into the river then, they must be routed. 
 +Gen. Meade, I believe, favored an attack upon the enemy at that time, 
 +and he summoned his corps commanders to a council upon the subject. The 
 +1st corps was represented by William Hayes, the 3d by French, the 5th by 
 +Sykes, the 6th by Sedgwick, the 11th by Howard, the 12th by Slocum, and 
 +the Cavalry by Pleasanton. Of the eight generals there, Wadsworth, 
 +Howard and Pleasanton were in favor of immediate attack, and five, 
 +Hayes, French, Sykes, Sedgwick and Slocum were not in favor of attack 
 +until better information was <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>obtained of the position and situation of 
 +the enemy. Of the <i>pros</i> Wadsworth only temporarily represented the 1st 
 +corps in the brief absence of Newton, who, had a battle occurred, would 
 +have commanded. Pleasanton, with his horses, would have been a spectator 
 +only, and Howard, with the <i>brilliant 11th corps</i>, would have been 
 +trusted nowhere but a safe distance from the enemy&mdash;not by Gen. Howard&#8217;
 +fault, however, for he is a good and brave man. Such was the position of 
 +those who felt sanguinarily inclined. Of the <i>cons</i> were all of the 
 +fighting generals of the fighting corps, save the 1st. This, then, was 
 +the feeling of these generals&mdash;all who would have had no responsibility 
 +or part in all probability, <i>hankered</i> for a fight&mdash;those who would have 
 +had both part and responsibility, did not. The attack was not made. At 
 +daylight on the morning of the 14th, strong reconnoissances from the 
 +12th, 2d and 5th corps were the means of discovering that between the 
 +enemy, except a thousand or fifteen hundred of his rear guard, who fell 
 +into our hands, and the Army of the Potomac, rolled the rapid, unbridged 
 +river. The Rebel General,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> Pettigrew, was here killed. The enemy had 
 +constructed bridges, had crossed during all the preceding night, but so 
 +close were our cavalry and infantry upon him in the morning, that the 
 +bridges were destroyed before his rear guard had all crossed.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Among the considerations influencing these generals against the 
 +propriety of attack at that time, were probably the following: The army 
 +was wearied and worn down by four weeks of constant forced marching or 
 +battle, in the midst of heat, mud and drenching showers, burdened with 
 +arms, accoutrements, blankets, sixty to a hundred cartridges, and five 
 +to eight days&#8217; rations. What such weariness means few save soldiers 
 +know. Since the battle the army had been constantly diminished by 
 +sickness or prostration and by more straggling than I ever saw before. 
 +Poor fellows&mdash;they could not help it. The men were near the point when 
 +further efficient physical exertion was quite impossible. Even the sound 
 +of the skirmishing, which was almost constant, and the excitement of 
 +impending battle, had no effect to arouse for an hour the exhibition of 
 +their wonted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> former vigor. The enemy&#8217;s loss in battle, it is true, had 
 +been far heavier than ours; but his army was less weary than ours, for 
 +in a given time since the first of the campaign, it had marched far less 
 +and with lighter loads. These Rebels are accustomed to hunger and 
 +nakedness, customs to which our men do not take readily. And the enemy 
 +had straggled less, for the men were going away from battle and towards 
 +home, and for them to straggle was to go into captivity, whose end they 
 +could not conjecture. The enemy was somewhere in position in a ridgy, 
 +wooded country, abounding in strong defensive positions, his main bodies 
 +concealed, protected by rifle-pits and epaulements, acting strictly on 
 +the defensive. His dispositions, his position even, with any 
 +considerable degree of accuracy was unknown, nor could they be known 
 +except by reconnoisances in such force, and carried to such extent, as 
 +would have constituted them attacks liable to bring on at any moment a 
 +general engagement, and at places where we were least prepared and least 
 +likely to be successful. To have had a battle there then, Gen. Meade 
 +would have had to attack a cunning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> enemy in the dark, where surprises, 
 +undiscovered rifle-pits and batteries, and unseen bodies of men might 
 +have met his forces at every point. With his not greatly superior 
 +numbers, under such circumstances had Gen. Meade attacked, would he have 
 +been victorious? The vote of these generals at the council shows their 
 +opinion&mdash;my own is that he would have been repulsed with heavy loss with 
 +little damage to the enemy. Such a result might have satisfied the 
 +bloody politicians better than the end of the campaign as it was; but I 
 +think the country did not need that sacrifice of the Army of the Potomac 
 +at that time&mdash;that enough odor of sacrifice came up to its nostrils from 
 +the 1st Fredericksburg field, to stop their snuffing for some time. I 
 +felt the probability of defeat strongly at the time, when we all 
 +supposed that a conflict would certainly ensue; for always before a 
 +battle&mdash;at least it so happens to me&mdash;some dim presentiment of results, 
 +some unaccountable fore-shadowing pervades the army. I never knew the 
 +result to prove it untrue, which rests with the weight of a conviction. 
 +Whether such shadows are cause or consequence, I shall not pretend to 
 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>determine; but when, as they often are, they are general, I think they 
 +should not be wholly disregarded by the commander. I believe the Army of 
 +the Potomac is always willing, often eager, to fight the enemy, 
 +whenever, as it thinks, there is a fair chance for victory; that it 
 +always will fight, let come victory or defeat whenever it is ordered so 
 +to do. Of course the army, both officers and men, had very great 
 +disappointment and very great sorrow that the Rebels <i>escaped</i>&mdash;so it 
 +was called&mdash;across the river; the disappointment was genuine, at least 
 +to the extent that disappointment is like surprise; but the sorrow to 
 +judge by looks, tones and actions, rather than by words, was not of that 
 +deep, sable character for which there is no balm.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Would it be an imputation upon the courage or patriotism of this army if 
 +it was not rampant for fight at this particular time and under the 
 +existing circumstances? Had the enemy stayed upon the left bank of the 
 +Potomac twelve hours longer, there would have been a great battle there 
 +near Williamsport on the 14th of July.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>After such digression, if such it is, I return to Gettysburg.</p> 
 + 
 +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>As good generalship is claimed for Gen. Meade in the battle, so was the 
 +conduct of his subordinate commanders good. I know, and have heard, of 
 +no bad conduct or blundering on the part of any officer, save that of 
 +Sickles, on the 2d of July, and that was so gross, and came so near 
 +being the cause of irreparable disaster that I cannot discuss it with 
 +moderation. I hope the man may never return to the Army of the Potomac, 
 +or elsewhere, to a position where his incapacity, or something worse, 
 +may bring fruitless destruction to thousands again. The conduct of 
 +officers and men was good. The 11th corps behaved badly; but I have yet 
 +to learn the occasion when, in the opinion of any save their own 
 +officers and themselves, the men of this corps have behaved well on the 
 +march or before the enemy, either under Siegel or any other commander. 
 +With this exception, and some minor cases of very little consequence in 
 +the general result, our troops whenever and wherever the enemy came, 
 +stood against them storms of impassable fire. Such was the infantry, 
 +such the artillery&mdash;the cavalry did less but it did all that was 
 +required.</p> 
 + 
 +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>The enemy, too, showed a determination and valor worthy of a better 
 +cause. Their conduct in this battle even makes me proud of them as 
 +Americans. They would have been victorious over any but the best of 
 +soldiers. Lee and his generals presumed too much upon some past 
 +successes, and did not estimate how much they were due on their part to 
 +position, as at Fredericksburg, or on our part to bad generalship, as at 
 +the 2d Bull Run and Chancellorsville.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>The fight of the 1st of July we do not, of course, claim as a victory; 
 +but even that probably would have resulted differently had Reynolds not 
 +been struck. The success of the enemy in the battle ended with the 1st 
 +of July. The Rebels were joyous and jubilant&mdash;so said our men in their 
 +hands, and the citizens of Gettysburg&mdash;at their achievements on that 
 +day. Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville were remembered by them. They 
 +saw victory already won, or only to be snatched from the streaming 
 +coat-tails of the 11th corps, or the &#8220;<i>raw Pennsylvania militia</i>&#8221; as 
 +they thought they were, when they saw them run; and already the spires 
 +of Baltimore and the dome of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> the National Capitol were forecast upon 
 +their glad vision&mdash;only two or three days march away through the 
 +beautiful valleys of Pennsylvania and &#8220;<i>my</i>&#8221; Maryland. Was there ever 
 +anything so fine before? How splendid it would be to enjoy the poultry 
 +and the fruit, the meats, the cakes, the beds, the clothing, the 
 +<i>Whiskey</i>, without price in this rich land of the Yankee! It would, 
 +indeed! But on the 2d of July something of a change came over the spirit 
 +of these dreams. They were surprised at results and talked less and 
 +thought more as they prepared supper that night. After the fight of the 
 +3d they talked only of the means of their own safety from destruction. 
 +Pickett&#8217;s splendid division had been almost annihilated, they said, and 
 +they talked not of how many were lost, but of who had escaped. They 
 +talked of these &#8220;Yanks&#8221; that had <i>clubs</i> on their flags and caps, the 
 +trefoils of the 2d corps that are like <i>clubs</i> in cards.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>The battle of Gettysburg is distinguished in this war, not only as by 
 +far the greatest and severest conflict that has occurred, but for some 
 +other things that I may mention. The fight of the 2d of July,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> on the 
 +left, which was almost a separate and complete battle, is, so far as I 
 +know, alone in the following particulars: the numbers of men actually 
 +engaged at one time, and the enormous losses that occurred in killed and 
 +wounded in the space of about two hours. If the truth could be obtained, 
 +it would probably show a much larger number of casualties in this than 
 +my estimate in a former part of these sheets. Few battles of the war 
 +that have had so many casualties <ins class="correction" title="original: altogther">altogether</ins> as those of the two hours on 
 +the 2d of July. The 3d of July is distinguished. Then occurred the 
 +&#8220;great cannonade&#8221;&mdash;so we call it, and so it would be called in any war, 
 +and in almost any battle. And besides this, the main operations that 
 +followed have few parallels in history, none in this war, of the 
 +magnitude and magnificence of the assault, single and simultaneous, the 
 +disparity of the numbers engaged, and the brilliancy, completeness and 
 +overwhelming character of the result in favor of the side numerically 
 +the weaker. I think I have not, in giving the results of this encounter, 
 +overestimated the numbers or the losses of the enemy. We learned on all 
 +hands, by prisoners and by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> newspapers, that over two divisions 
 +moved up to the assault&mdash;Pickett&#8217;s and Pettigrew&#8217;s&mdash;that this was the 
 +first engagement of Pickett&#8217;s in the battle, and the first of 
 +Pettigrew&#8217;s save a light participation on the 1st of July. The Rebel 
 +divisions usually number nine or ten thousand, or did at that time, as 
 +we understood. Then I have seen something of troops and think I can 
 +estimate their numbers somewhat. The number of the Rebels killed here I 
 +have estimated in this way: the 2d and 3d divisions of the 2d corps 
 +buried the Rebel dead in their own front, and where they fought upon 
 +their own grounds, by count they buried over <i>one thousand eight 
 +hundred</i>. I think no more than about <i>two hundred</i> of these were killed 
 +on the 2d of July in front of the 2d division, and the rest must have 
 +fallen upon the 3d. My estimates that depend upon this contingency may 
 +be erroneous, but to no great extent. The rest of the particulars of the 
 +assault, our own losses and our captures, I know are approximately 
 +accurate. Yet the whole sounds like romance, a grand stage piece of 
 +blood.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Of all the corps d&#8217;armie, for hard fighting, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>severe losses and 
 +brilliant results, the palm should be, as by the army it is, awarded to 
 +the &#8220;<i>Old Second</i>.&#8221; It did more fighting than any other corps, inflicted 
 +severer losses upon the enemy in killed and wounded, and sustained a 
 +heavier like loss, and captured more flags than all the rest of the 
 +army, and almost as many prisoners as the rest of the army. The loss of 
 +the 2d corps in killed and wounded in this battle&mdash;there is no other 
 +test of hard fighting&mdash;was almost as great as that of all Gen. Grant&#8217;
 +forces in the battle that preceded and in the siege of Vicksburg. 
 +Three-eighths of the whole corps were killed and wounded. Why does the 
 +Western Army suppose that the Army of the Potomac does not fight? Was 
 +ever a more absurd supposition? The Army of the Potomac is grand! Give 
 +it good leadership&mdash;let it alone&mdash;and it will not fail to accomplish all 
 +that reasonable men desire.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Of Gibbon&#8217;s white trefoil division, if I am not cautious, I shall speak 
 +too enthusiastically. This division has been accustomed to distinguished 
 +leadership. Sumner, Sedgwick and Howard have honored, and been honored 
 +by, its command.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> It was repulsed under Sedgwick at Antietam and under 
 +Howard at Fredericksburg; it was victorious under Gibbon at the 2d 
 +Fredericksburg and at Gettysburg. At Gettysburg its loss in killed and 
 +wounded was over <i>one thousand seven hundred</i>, near one-half of all 
 +engaged; it captured <i>seventeen</i> battle-flags and <i>two thousand three 
 +hundred</i> prisoners. Its bullets hailed on Pickett&#8217;s division, and killed 
 +or mortally wounded four Rebel generals, <i>Barksdale</i> on the 2d of July, 
 +with the three on the 3d, <i>Armstead</i>, <i>Garnett</i> and <i>Kemper</i>. In losses 
 +in killed and wounded, and in captures from the enemy of prisoners and 
 +flags, it stood pre-eminent among all the divisions at Gettysburg.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Under such generals as Hancock and Gibbon brilliant results may be 
 +expected. Will the country remember them?</p> 
 + 
 +<p>It is understood in the army that the President thanked the slayer of 
 +Barton Key for <i>saving the day</i> at Gettysburg. Does the country know any 
 +better than the President that Meade, Hancock and Gibbon were entitled 
 +to some little share of such credit?</p> 
 + 
 +<p>At about six o&#8217;clock on the afternoon of the 3d<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> of July, my duties done 
 +upon the field, I quitted it to go to the General. My brave horse 
 +<i>Dick</i>&mdash;poor creature, his good conduct in the battle that afternoon had 
 +been complimented by a Brigadier&mdash;was a sight to see. He was literally 
 +covered with blood. Struck repeatedly, his right thigh had been ripped 
 +open in a ghastly manner by a piece of shell, and three bullets were 
 +lodged deep in his body, and from his wounds the blood oozed and ran 
 +down his sides and legs and with the sweat formed a bloody foam. Dick&#8217;
 +was no mean part in that battle. Good conduct in men under such 
 +circumstances as he was placed in might result from a sense of duty&mdash;his 
 +was the result of his bravery. Most horses would have been unmanageable 
 +with the flash and roar of arms about and the shouting. Dick was utterly 
 +cool, and would have obeyed the rein had it been a straw. To Dick 
 +belongs the honor of first mounting that stormy crest before the enemy, 
 +not forty yards away, whose bullets smote him, and of being the only 
 +horse there during the heat of the battle. Even the enemy noticed Dick, 
 +and one of their reports of the battle mentions the &#8220;<i>solitary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> 
 +horseman</i>&#8221; who rallied our wavering line. He enabled me to do twelve 
 +times as much as I could have done on foot. It would not be dignified 
 +for an officer on foot to run; it is entirely so, mounted, to gallop. I 
 +do not approve of officers dismounting in battle, which is the time of 
 +all when they most need to be mounted, for thereby they have so much 
 +greater facilities for being everywhere present. Most officers, however, 
 +in close action, dismount. Dick deserves well of his country, and one 
 +day should have a horse-monument. If there be &#8220;<i>ut sapientibus placit</i>,&#8221; 
 +and equine elysium, I will send to Charon the brass coin, the fee for 
 +Dick&#8217;s passage over, and on the other side of the Styx in those shadowy 
 +clover-fields he may nibble the blossoms forever.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>I had been struck upon the thigh by a bullet which I think must have 
 +glanced and partially spent its force upon my saddle. It had pierced the 
 +thick cloth of my trowsers and two thicknesses of underclothing, but had 
 +not broken the skin, leaving me with an enormous bruise that for a time 
 +benumbed the entire leg. At the time of receiving it, I heard the thump, 
 +and noticed it and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> the hole in the cloth into which I thrust my finger, 
 +and I experienced a feeling of relief I am sure, when I found that my 
 +leg was not pierced. I think when I dismounted my horse after that fight 
 +that I was no very comely specimen of humanity. Drenched with sweat, the 
 +white of battle, by the reaction, now turned to burning red. I felt like 
 +a boiled man; and had it not been for the exhiliration at results I 
 +should have been miserable. This kept me up, however, and having found a 
 +man to transfer the saddle from poor Dick, who was now disposed to lie 
 +down by loss of blood and exhaustion, to another horse, I hobbled on 
 +among the hospitals in search of Gen. Gibbon.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>The skulkers were about, and they were as loud as any in their 
 +rejoicings at the victory, and I took a malicious pleasure as I went 
 +along and met them, in taunting the <i>sneaks</i> with their cowardice and 
 +telling them&mdash;it was not true&mdash;that Gen. Meade had just given the order 
 +to the Provost Guard to arrest and shoot all men they could find away 
 +from their regiments who could not prove a good account of themselves. 
 +To find the General was no easy matter. I inquired for both Generals<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> 
 +Hancock and Gibbon&mdash;I knew well enough that they would be together&mdash;and 
 +for the hospitals of the 2d corps. My search was attended with many 
 +incidents that were provokingly humorous. The stupidity of most men is 
 +amazing. I would ask of a man I met, &#8220;Do you know, sir, where the 2d 
 +corps hospitals are?&#8221; &#8220;The 12th corps hospital is there!&#8221; Then I would 
 +ask sharply, &#8220;Did you understand me to ask for the 12th corps hospital?&#8221; 
 +&#8220;No!&#8221; &#8220;Then why tell me what I do not ask or care to know?&#8221; Then 
 +stupidity would stare or mutter about the ingratitude of some people for 
 +kindness. Did I ask for the Generals I was looking for, they would 
 +announce the interesting fact, in reply, that they had seen some other 
 +generals. Some were sure that Gen. Hancock or Gibbon was dead. They had 
 +seen his dead body. This was a falsehood, and they knew it. Then it was 
 +Gen. Longstreet. This was also, as they knew, a falsehood.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Oh, sorrowful was the sight to see so many wounded! The whole 
 +neighborhood in rear of the field became one vast hospital of miles in 
 +extent. Some could walk to the hospitals; such as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> could not were taken 
 +upon stretchers from the places where they fell to selected points and 
 +thence the ambulance bore them, a miserable load, to their destination. 
 +Many were brought to the building, along the Taneytown road, and too 
 +badly wounded to be carried further, died and were buried there, Union 
 +and Rebel soldiers together. At every house, and barn, and shed the 
 +wounded were; by many a cooling brook, or many a shady slope or grassy 
 +glade, the red flags beckoned them to their tented asylums, and there 
 +they gathered, in numbers a great army, a mutilated, bruised mass of 
 +humanity. Men with gray hair and furrowed cheeks and soft-lipped, 
 +beardless boys were there, for these bullets have made no distinction 
 +between age and youth. Every conceivable wound that iron and lead can 
 +make, blunt or sharp, bullet, ball and shell, piercing, bruising, 
 +tearing, was there; sometimes so light that a bandage and cold water 
 +would restore the soldier to the ranks again; sometimes so severe that 
 +the poor victim in his hopeless pain, remedy-less save by the only 
 +panacea for all mortal suffering, invoked that. The men are generally 
 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>cheerful, and even those with frightful wounds, often are talking with 
 +animated faces of nothing but the battle and the victory. But some are 
 +downcast, their faces distorted with pain. Some have undergone the 
 +surgeon&#8217;s work; some, like men at a ticket office, await impatiently 
 +their turn to have an arm or a leg cut off. Some walk about with an arm 
 +in a sling; some sit idly upon the ground; some lie at full length upon 
 +a little straw, or a blanket, with their brawny, now blood-stained, 
 +limbs bare, and you may see where the minie bullet has struck or the 
 +shell has torn. From a small round hole upon many a manly breast, the 
 +red blood trickles, but the pallid cheek, the hard-drawn breath and dim 
 +closed eyes tell how near the source of life it has gone. The surgeons, 
 +with coats off and sleeves rolled up, and the hospital attendants with 
 +green bands upon their caps, are about their work; and their faces and 
 +clothes are spattered with blood; and though they look weary and tired, 
 +their work goes systematically and steadily on. How much and how long 
 +they have worked, the piles of legs, arms, feet, hands, and fingers 
 +about partially tell. Such sounds are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> heard sometimes&mdash;you would not 
 +have heard them upon the field&mdash;as convince that bodies, bones, sinews 
 +and muscles are not made of insensible stone. Near by appear a row of 
 +small fresh mounds, placed side by side. They were not there day before 
 +yesterday. They will become more numerous every day.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Such things I saw as I rode along. At last I found the Generals. Gen. 
 +Gibbon was sitting on a chair that had been borrowed somewhere, with his 
 +wounded shoulder bare, and an attendant was bathing it with cold water. 
 +Gen. Hancock was near by in an ambulance. They were at the tents of the 
 +Second Corps hospitals, which were on Rock Run. As I approached Gen. 
 +Gibbon, when he saw me, he began to hurrah and wave his right hand. He 
 +had heard the result. I said: &#8220;O, General, long and well may you 
 +wave&#8221;&mdash;and he shook me warmly by the hand. Gen. Gibbon was struck by a 
 +bullet in the left shoulder, which had passed from the front through the 
 +flesh and out behind, fracturing the shoulder blade and inflicting a 
 +severe but not dangerous wound. He thinks he was the mark of a 
 +sharpshooter of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> enemy hid in the bushes, near where he and I had 
 +sat so long during the cannonade; and he was wounded and taken off the 
 +field before the fire of the main lines of infantry had commenced, he 
 +being at the time he was hit near the left of his division. Gen. Hancock 
 +was struck a little later near the same part of the field by a bullet, 
 +piercing and almost going through his thigh, without touching the bone, 
 +however. His wound was severe, also. He was carried back out of range, 
 +but before he would be carried off the field, he lay upon the ground in 
 +sight of the crest, where he could see something of the fight, until he 
 +knew what would be the result.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>And then, at Gen. Gibbon&#8217;s request, I had to tell him and a large 
 +voluntary crowd of the wounded who pressed around now, for the wounds 
 +they showed not rebuked for closing up to the Generals, the story of the 
 +fight. I was nothing loth; and I must say though I used sometimes before 
 +the war to make speeches, that I never had so enthusiastic an audience 
 +before. Cries of &#8220;good,&#8221; &#8220;glorious,&#8221; frequently interrupted me, and the 
 +storming of the wall was applauded by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> enthusiastic tears and the waving 
 +of battered, bloody hands.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>By the custom of the service the General had the right to have me along 
 +with him, while away with his wound; but duty and inclination attracted 
 +me still to the field, and I obtained the General&#8217;s consent to stay. 
 +Accompanying Gen. Gibbon to Westminster, the nearest point to which 
 +railroad trains then ran, and seeing him transferred from an ambulance 
 +to the cars for Baltimore on the 4th, the next day I returned to the 
 +field to his division, since his wounding in the command of Gen. Harrow.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>On the 6th of July, while my bullet bruise was yet too inflamed and 
 +sensitive for me to be good for much in the way of duty&mdash;the division 
 +was then halted for the day some four miles from the field on the 
 +Baltimore turnpike&mdash;I could not repress the desire or omit the 
 +opportunity to see again where the battle had been. With the right 
 +stirrup strap shortened in a manner to favor the bruised leg, I could 
 +ride my horse at a walk without serious discomfort. It seemed very 
 +strange upon approaching the horse-shoe crest again, not to see it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> 
 +covered with the thousands of troops and horses and guns, but they were 
 +all gone&mdash;the armies, to my seeming, had vanished&mdash;and on that lovely 
 +summer morning the stillness and silence of death pervaded the 
 +localities where so recently the shouts and the cannon had thundered. 
 +The recent rains had washed out many an unsightly spot, and smoothed 
 +many a harrowed trace of the conflict; but one still needed no guide 
 +save the eyes, to follow the track of that storm, which the storms of 
 +heaven were powerless soon to entirely efface. The spade and shovel, so 
 +far as a little earth for the human bodies would render their task done, 
 +had completed their work&mdash;a great labor, that. But still might see under 
 +some concealing bush, or sheltering rock, what had once been a man, and 
 +the thousands of stricken horses still lay scattered as they had died. 
 +The scattered small arms and the accoutrements had been collected and 
 +carried away, almost all that were of any value; but great numbers of 
 +bent and splintered muskets, rent knapsacks and haversacks, bruised 
 +canteens, shreds of caps, coats, trowsers, of blue or gray cloth, 
 +worthless belts and cartridge boxes, torn blankets, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>ammunition boxes, 
 +broken wheels, smashed limbers, shattered gun carriages, parts of 
 +harness, of all that men or horses wear or use in battle, were scattered 
 +broadcast over miles of the field. From these one could tell where the 
 +fight had been hottest. The rifle-pits and epaulements and the trampled 
 +grass told where the lines had stood, and the batteries&mdash;the former 
 +being thicker where the enemy had been than those of our own 
 +construction. No soldier was to be seen, but numbers of civilians and 
 +boys, and some girls even, were curiously loitering about the field, and 
 +their faces showed not sadness or horror, but only staring wonder or 
 +smirking curiosity. They looked for mementoes of the battle to keep, 
 +they said; but their furtive attempts to conceal an uninjured musket or 
 +an untorn blanket&mdash;they had been told that all property left here 
 +belonged to the Government&mdash;showed that the love of gain was an 
 +ingredient at least of their motive for coming here. Of course there was 
 +not the slightest objection to their taking anything they could find 
 +now; but their manner of doing it was the objectionable thing. I could 
 +now understand why soldiers had been asked a dollar for a small<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> strip 
 +of old linen to bind their own wound, and not be compelled to go off to 
 +the hospitals.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Never elsewhere upon any field have I seen such abundant evidences of a 
 +terrific fire of cannon and musketry as upon this. Along the enemy&#8217;
 +position, where our shells and shot had struck during the cannonade of 
 +the third, the trees had cast their trunks and branches as if they had 
 +been icicles shaken by a blast. And graves of the Rebel&#8217;s making, and 
 +dead horses and scattered accoutrements, showed that other things 
 +besides trees had been struck by our projectiles. I must say that, 
 +having seen the work of their guns upon the same occasion, I was 
 +gratified to see these things. Along the slope of Culp&#8217;s Hill, in front 
 +of the position of the 12th, and the 1st Division of the 1st Corps, the 
 +trees were almost literally peeled, from the ground up some fifteen or 
 +twenty feet, so thick upon them were the scars the bullets had made. 
 +Upon a single tree, not over a foot and a half in diameter, I actually 
 +counted as many as two hundred and fifty bullet marks. The ground was 
 +covered by the little twigs that had been cut off by the hailstorm of 
 +lead. Such were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> the evidences of the storm under which Ewell&#8217;s bold 
 +Rebels assaulted our breastworks on the night of the 2d and the morning 
 +of the 3d of July. And those works looked formidable, zig-zaging along 
 +these rocky crests, even now when not a musket was behind them. What 
 +madness on the part of the enemy to have attacked them! All along 
 +through these bullet-stormed woods were interspersed little patches of 
 +fresh earth, raised a foot or so above the surrounding ground. Some were 
 +very near the front of the works; and near by, upon a tree whose bark 
 +had been smoothed by an axe, written in red chalk would be the words, 
 +not in fine handwriting, &#8220;75 Rebels buried here.&#8221; &#8220;&#9758; 54 Rebs. 
 +there.&#8221; And so on. Such was the burial and such the epitaph of many of 
 +those famous men, once led by the mighty Stonewall Jackson. Oh, this 
 +damned rebellion will make brutes of us all, if it is not soon quelled! 
 +Our own men were buried in graves, not trenches; and upon a piece of 
 +board, or stave of a barrel, or bit of cracker box, placed at the head, 
 +were neatly cut or penciled the name and regiment of the one buried in 
 +such. This practice was <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>general, but of course there must be some 
 +exceptions, for sometimes the cannon&#8217;s load had not left enough of a man 
 +to recognize or name. The reasons here for the more careful interment of 
 +our own dead than such as was given to the dead of the enemy are obvious 
 +and I think satisfactory. Our own dead were usually buried not long 
 +after they fell, and without any general order to that effect. It was a 
 +work that the men&#8217;s hearts were in as soon as the fight was over and 
 +opportunity offered, to hunt out their dead companions, to make them a 
 +grave in some convenient spot, and decently composed with their blankets 
 +wrapped about them, to cover them tenderly with earth and mark their 
 +resting place. Such burials were not without as scalding tears as ever 
 +fell upon the face of coffined mortality. The dead of the enemy could 
 +not be buried until after the close of the whole battle. The army was 
 +about to move&mdash;some of it was already upon the march, before such burial 
 +commenced. Tools, save those carried by the pioneers, were many miles 
 +away with the train, and the burying parties were required to make all 
 +haste in their work, in order to be ready to move<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> with their regiments. 
 +To make long shallow trenches, to collect the Rebel dead, often hundreds 
 +in one place, and to cover them hastily with a little earth, without 
 +name, number, or mark, save the shallow mound above them&mdash;their names of 
 +course they did not know&mdash;was the best that could be done. I should have 
 +been glad to have seen more formal burial, even of these men of the 
 +rebellion, both because hostilities should cease with death, and of the 
 +respect I have for them as my brave, though deluded, countrymen. I found 
 +fault with such burial at the time, though I knew that the best was done 
 +that could be under the circumstances; but it may perhaps soften 
 +somewhat the rising feelings upon this subject, of any who may be 
 +disposed to share mine, to remember that under similar circumstances&mdash;had 
 +the issue of the battle been reversed&mdash;our own dead would have had no 
 +burial at all, at the hands of the enemy, but, stripped of their clothing, 
 +their naked bodies would have been left to rot, and their bones to whiten 
 +upon the top of the ground where they fell. Plenty of such examples of 
 +Rebel magnanimity are not wanting, and one occurred on this field,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> too. 
 +Our dead that fell into the hands of the enemy on the 1st of July had 
 +been plundered of all their clothing, but they were left unburied until 
 +our own men buried them after the Rebels had retreated at the end of the 
 +battle.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>All was bustle and noise in the little town of Gettysburg as I entered 
 +it on my tour of the field. From the afternoon of the 1st to the morning 
 +of the 4th of July, the enemy was in possession. Very many of the 
 +inhabitants had, upon the first approach of the enemy, or upon the 
 +retirement of our troops, fled their homes and the town not to return 
 +until after the battle. Now the town was a hospital where gray and blue 
 +mingled in about equal proportion. The public buildings, the courthouse, 
 +the churches and many private dwellings were full of wounded. There had 
 +been in some of the streets a good deal of fighting, and bullets had 
 +thickly spattered the fences and walls, and shells had riddled the 
 +houses from side to side. And the Rebels had done their work of pillage 
 +there, too, in spite of the smooth-sounding general order of the Rebel 
 +commander enjoining a sacred regard for private property&mdash;the order was 
 +really<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> good and would sound marvelously well abroad or in history. All 
 +stores of drugs and medicines, of clothing, tin-ware and all groceries 
 +had been rifled and emptied without pay or offer of recompense. 
 +Libraries, public and private, had been entered and the books scattered 
 +about the yards or destroyed. Great numbers of private dwellings had 
 +been entered and occupied without ceremony and whatever was liked had 
 +been appropriated or wantonly destroyed. Furniture had been smashed and 
 +beds ripped open, and apparently unlicensed pillage had reigned. 
 +Citizens and women who had remained had been kindly relieved of their 
 +money, their jewelry and their watches&mdash;all this by the high-toned 
 +chivalry, the army of the magnanimous Lee! Put these things by the side 
 +of the acts of the &#8220;vandal Yankees&#8221; in Virginia, and then let mad 
 +Rebeldom prate of honor! But the people, the women and children that had 
 +fled, were returning, or had returned to their homes&mdash;such homes&mdash;and 
 +amid the general havoc were restoring as they could order to the 
 +desecrated firesides. And the faces of them all plainly told that, with 
 +all they had lost and bad as was the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> condition of all things they 
 +found, they were better pleased with such homes than with wandering 
 +houseless in the fields with the Rebels there. All had treasures of 
 +incidents of the battle and of the occupation of the enemy&mdash;wonderful 
 +sights, escapes, witnessed encounters, wounds, the marvelous passage of 
 +shells or bullets which, upon the asking, or even without, they were 
 +willing to share with the stranger. I heard of no more than one or two 
 +cases of any personal injury received by any of the inhabitants. One 
 +woman was said to have been killed while at her wash-tub, sometime 
 +during the battle; but probably by a stray bullet coming a very long 
 +distance from our own men. For the next hundred years Gettysburg will be 
 +rich in legends and traditions of the battle. I rode through the 
 +Cemetery on &#8220;Cemetery Hill.&#8221; How these quiet sleepers must have been 
 +astounded in their graves when the twenty pound Parrott guns thundered 
 +above them and the solid shot crushed their gravestones! The flowers, 
 +roses and creeping vines that pious hands had planted to bloom and shed 
 +their odors over the ashes of dead ones gone, were trampled upon the 
 +ground<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> and black with the cannon&#8217;s soot. A dead horse lay by the marble 
 +shaft, and over it the marble finger pointed to the sky. The marble lamb 
 +that had slept its white sleep on the grave of a child, now lies 
 +blackened upon a broken gun-carriage. Such are the incongruities and 
 +jumblings of battle.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>I looked away to <i>the group of trees</i>&mdash;the Rebel gunners know what ones 
 +I mean, and so do the survivors of Pickett&#8217;s division&mdash;and a strange 
 +fascination led me thither. How thick are the marks of battle as I 
 +approach&mdash;the graves of the men of the 3d <ins class="correction" title="original: divison">division</ins> of the 2d corps; the 
 +splintered oaks, the scattered horses&mdash;seventy-one dead horses were on a 
 +spot some fifty yards square near the position of Woodruff&#8217;s battery, 
 +and where he fell.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>I stood solitary upon the crest by &#8220;<i>the trees</i>&#8221; where, less than three 
 +days ago, I had stood before; but now how changed is all the eye 
 +beholds. Do these thick mounds cover the fiery hearts that in the battle 
 +rage swept the crest and stormed the wall? I read their names&mdash;them, 
 +alas, I do not know&mdash;but I see the regiments marked on their frail 
 +monuments&mdash;&#8220;20th Mass. Vols.,&#8221; &#8220;69<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> 
 +P. V.,&#8221; &#8220;1st Minn. Vols.,&#8221; and the 
 +rest&mdash;they are all represented, and as they fought commingled here. So I 
 +am not alone. These, my brethren of the fight, are with me. Sleep, noble 
 +brave! The foe shall not desecrate your sleep. Yonder thick trenches 
 +will hold them. As long as patriotism is a virtue, and treason a crime 
 +your deeds have made this crest, your resting place, hallowed ground!</p> 
 + 
 +<p>But I have seen and said enough of this battle. The unfortunate wounding 
 +of my General so early in the action of the 3d of July, leaving 
 +important duties which, in the unreasoning excitement of the moment I in 
 +part assumed, enabled me to do for the successful issue, something which 
 +under other circumstances would not have fallen to my rank or place. 
 +Deploring the occasion for taking away from the division in that moment 
 +of its need its soldierly, appropriate head, so cool, so clear, I am yet 
 +glad, as that was to be, that his example and his tuition have not been 
 +entirely in vain to me, and that my impulses then prompted me to do 
 +somewhat as he might have done had he been on the field. The encomiums 
 +of officers, so numerous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> and some of so high rank, generously accorded 
 +me for my conduct upon that occasion&mdash;I am not without vanity&mdash;were 
 +gratifying. My position as a staff officer gave me an opportunity to see 
 +much, perhaps as much as any one person, of that conflict. My 
 +observations were not so particular as if I had been attached to a 
 +smaller command; not so general as may have been those of a staff 
 +officer to the General commanding the army; but of such as they were, my 
 +heart was there, and I could do no less than to write something of them, 
 +in the intervals between marches and during the subsequent repose of the 
 +army at the close of the campaign. I have put somewhat upon these 
 +pages&mdash;I make no apology for the egotism, if such there is, of this 
 +account&mdash;it is not designed to be a history, but simply <i>my account</i> of 
 +the battle. It should not be assumed, if I have told of some 
 +occurrences, that there were not other important ones. I would not have 
 +it supposed that I have attempted to do full justice to the good conduct 
 +of the fallen, or the survivors of the 1st and 12th Corps. Others must 
 +tell of them. I did not see their work. A full account of <i>the battle as 
 +it was</i> will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> never, can never be made. Who could sketch the changes, 
 +the constant shifting of the bloody panorama? It is not possible. The 
 +official reports may give results as to losses, with statements of 
 +attacks and repulses; they may also note the means by which results were 
 +attained, which is a statement of the number and kind of the forces 
 +employed, but the connection between means and results, the mode, the 
 +battle proper, these reports touch lightly. Two prominent reasons at 
 +least exist which go far to account for the general inadequacy of these 
 +official reports, or to account for their giving no true idea of what 
 +they assume to describe&mdash;the literary infirmity of the reporters and 
 +their not seeing themselves and their commands as others would have seen 
 +them. And factions, and parties, and politics, the curses of this 
 +Republic, are already putting in their unreasonable demands for the 
 +foremost honors of the field. &#8220;Gen. Hooker won Gettysburg.&#8221; How? Not 
 +with the army in person or by infinitesimal influence&mdash;leaving it almost 
 +four days before the battle when both armies were scattered and fifty 
 +miles apart! Was ever claim so absurd? Hooker, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> he alone, won the 
 +result at Chancellorsville. &#8220;Gen. Howard won Gettysburg!&#8221; &#8220;Sickles saved 
 +the day!&#8221; Just Heaven, save the poor Army of the Potomac from its 
 +friends! It has more to dread and less to hope from them than from the 
 +red bannered hosts of the rebellion. The states prefer each her claim 
 +for the sole brunt and winning of the fight. &#8220;Pennsylvania won it!&#8221; &#8220;New 
 +York won it!&#8221; &#8220;Did not Old Greece, or some tribe from about the sources 
 +of the Nile win it?&#8221; For modern Greeks&mdash;from Cork&mdash;and African Hannibals 
 +were there. Those intermingled graves along the crest bearing the names 
 +of every loyal state, save one or two, should admonish these geese to 
 +cease to cackle. One of the armies of the country won the battle, and 
 +that army supposes that Gen. Meade led it upon that occasion. If it be 
 +not one of the lessons that this war teaches, that we have a country 
 +paramount and supreme over faction, and party, and state, then was the 
 +blood of fifty thousand citizens shed on this field in vain. For the 
 +reasons mentioned, of this battle, greater than that of Waterloo, a 
 +history, just, comprehensive, complete will never be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> written. 
 +By-and-by, out of the chaos of trash and falsehood that the newspapers 
 +hold, out of the disjointed mass of reports, out of the traditions and 
 +tales that come down from the field, some eye that never saw the battle 
 +will select, and some pen will write what will be named <i>the history</i>
 +With that the world will be and, if we are alive, we must be, content.</p> 
 + 
 +<p>Already, as I rode down from the heights, nature&#8217;s mysterious loom was 
 +at work, joining and weaving on her ceaseless web the shells had broken 
 +there. Another spring shall green these trampled slopes, and flowers, 
 +planted by unseen hands, shall bloom upon these graves; another autumn 
 +and the yellow harvest shall ripen there&mdash;all not in less, but in higher 
 +perfection for this poured out blood. In another decade of years, in 
 +another century, or age, we hope that the Union, by the same means, may 
 +repose in a securer peace and bloom in a higher civilization. Then what 
 +matter if it lame Tradition glean on this field and hand down her 
 +garbled sheaf&mdash;if deft story with furtive fingers plait her ballad 
 +wreaths, deeds of her heroes here? or if stately history fill as she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> 
 +list her arbitrary tablet, the sounding record of this fight? Tradition, 
 +story, history&mdash;all will not efface the true, grand epic of Gettysburg.</p> 
 + 
 +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Frank A. Haskell.</span></p> 
 + 
 +<p><i>To H. M. Haskell.</i></p> 
 + 
 + 
 +<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p> 
 +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> 
 +<p><b>Footnotes:</b></p> 
 + 
 +<p><a name="f1" id="f1" href="#f1.1">[1]</a> <i>History of the Second Army Corps in the Army of the Potomac</i> (New 
 +York, 1886), pp. 512, 513.</p> 
 + 
 +<p><a name="f2" id="f2" href="#f2.1">[2]</a> <i>Annual Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Wisconsin for 
 +1865</i> (Madison, 1866), pp. 510, 511.</p> 
 + 
 +<p><a name="f3" id="f3" href="#f3.1">[3]</a> Columbus (Wis.) <i>Democrat</i>, May 27, 1895.</p> 
 + 
 +<p><a name="f4" id="f4" href="#f4.1">[4]</a> Colonel Harvey Boyd McKeen, of Pennsylvania, commander of the Third Brigade.</p> 
 + 
 +<p><a name="f5" id="f5" href="#f5.1">[5]</a> Columbus (Wis.) <i>Democrat</i>, May 27, 1895.</p> 
 + 
 +<p><a name="f6" id="f6" href="#f6.1">[6]</a> Upon the Portage Public Library&#8217;s copy of the original pamphlet 
 +edition, Hon. A. J. Turner wrote the following explanatory note:</p> 
 + 
 +<p>&#8220;The within description of the &#8216;The Battle of Gettysburg&#8217; was written by 
 +Colonel Frank A. Haskell who was on the staff of General John Gibbon, to 
 +his brother at Portage, Wisconsin. It was submitted to me soon after, in 
 +the <i>State Register</i> office, but its great length rendered its 
 +publication in our columns quite impossible. The article was written 
 +from the &#8216;Head Quarters of the Army of the Potomac,&#8217; but bore no date, 
 +although it was during the same month as the battle, and was written by 
 +Colonel Haskell in the intervals of the march, and was a private letter 
 +without design of publication&mdash;<span class="smcap">A. J. Turner</span>.&#8221;</p>
  
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