cavalry—numbering forty or fifty men—under Captain Jones, entered
McConnelsburg (which had been in possession of the National troops but a
day or two), on a reconnoissance. Captain Jones had but just dismounted
his horse, when one of his pickets hastened to him with the news that a
body of the enemy were advancing, and close upon the town. “How many are
there?” asked Captain Jones. “About a hundred,” was the reply. “Very
well. I will fight them!” returned the intrepid officer. “Men, take your
places!” The men mounted and leisurely rode down the street. The enemy,
supposing it to be a retreat, were getting ready for pursuit, when the
Unionists suddenly halted, turned, and faced them. The rebel leader sang
out to his men,—“Charge—charge the damned Yankees!” But the rebels never
moved. Captain Jones called out in a clear, firm voice, to his noble
little band, “Charge!” and the order required no repetition. With a
wild, triumphant cry, they sprang forward, sabre in hand, and drove the
enemy like chaff before them. The sharp ring of carbines, the clang of
sabres, and the ringing shouts of the triumphant pursuers, filled the
air with the enthusiasm of the scene. At the edge of the town, the Union
cavalry overtook the flying rebels, and dashing into their midst, a
hand-to-hand struggle took place, in which the rebels were compelled to
fight for their lives. The result was soon seen to be in favor of the
Unionists; and when they returned to the town, they drove before them
more prisoners than their own number. Two rebels were killed, one
dangerously wounded, and three escaped; the rest were taken prisoners.
By this time the Union army, in readiness for the great fight, was
impatient for it to begin. On the 28th sharp skirmishing took place at
Wrightsville between the rebels and a small force of Union troops under
Colonel Frick. The rebels attacked the Unionists in their rifle-pits,
and were fiercely repulsed, until, overpowered by numbers, the Federals
fled across the bridge over the Susquehanna river, near Columbia, which
they set on fire in order to prevent the rebels from crossing in pursuit
of them. On the same day the enemy took possession of the town of York,
Pa. From all the cities threatened by the rebels the citizens were
rapidly fleeing toward Philadelphia; although a very large number
rallied bravely to the defence of their homes. The publication of many
newspapers was suspended, the employees having all entered the ranks.
The excitement increased every hour.
BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG.
JULY 1–3, 1863.
General Meade, as soon as it was ascertained that the rebels were
encamped within full view of Gettysburg, set about making the required
changes in the positions of his own troops. On Tuesday, June 30th,
General Buford was sent, with a cavalry force numbering six thousand, to
make a reconnoissance on the Chambersburg road. They encamped there for
the night. Two corps were sent towards the southwest, to a point about
four miles from Gettysburg, where they also encamped for the night.
These corps were the First, numbering about eight thousand men, under
command of General Reynolds; and the Eleventh, numbering nearly fifteen
thousand, under command of General Howard. Two corps of the rebel
forces, under Generals Hill and Longstreet, and two divisions of Ewell’s
corps, were encamped quite near to the town of Gettysburg. The town of
Gettysburg, itself, lies at the head of a gently sloping valley, and
forms the centre for roads running north, south, east, and west.
The Catoctin and the South Mountain run on either sides of the valley;
and a short distance to the east of the town runs the stream of water
called Rock creek. Near the town are two hills, known respectively as
Round Top, and Little Round Top, and on the former General Meade posted
the extreme left of his line. To the northwest of this position, also on
a slight eminence, General Lee had posted his men, forming a circular
line of several miles in extent, and almost hemming in the patriot
troops. On the morning of the following day a body of cavalry, under
General Buford, was sent forward for reconnoitring purposes, and became
engaged with the rebel advance immediately. General Reynolds followed,
with his entire corps, and plunged into the thickest of the fight at the
first sound of battle; the odds, however, were fearful—eight thousand
against twenty thousand—and General Reynolds sent an urgent message to
General Howard, to send forward reinforcements. But not till one o’clock
did the Eleventh corps arrive to the assistance of the hard-pressed men,
who still stood their ground like a rock, and fiercely drove back the
advancing rebel hosts. General Reynolds riding up and down the line in
front of his men, urging them on with look and word, fell a victim to
his own dauntless bravery, being shot through the head by a rebel
sharpshooter.
At last came two divisions of the Eleventh corps, under Schurtz and
Barlow. Eager to retrieve their reputation, so tarnished at
Chancellorsville, they formed bravely on the right, and stayed the
faltering line, for the first time beginning to waver. The remaining
division of the Eleventh corps, under General Steinwehr, was sent to
occupy a point called Cemetery Hill, on the south side of the town.
[Illustration: ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS.]
For three hours longer the brave line continued to hold its ground
against the ever increasing numbers of the enemy; but human endurance
could bear no more, and at last the right wing slowly yielded, and then
the whole line fell gradually back, in good order, to the town of
Gettysburg. Here they fell a prey to the pursuing rebels, who overtook
them in the turnings and twistings of the streets, and in a few minutes
one thousand and twenty men became prisoners to the enemy. Now, indeed,
the day looked dark for the Union soldiers; but at the very moment that
all seemed lost, the artillery of the troops which had been sent to
Cemetery Hill blazed forth a most unexpected check to the triumphant
rebels. This saved the battle of Gettysburg from being lost to the
National arms; the effect of the sudden firing was magical, and night,
which now began to darken down around both friend and foe, put an end to
the day’s battle.
The night following this day was one of anxious thought to the generals
commanding the Union army; and in the Cemetery, among the monuments of
the dead, many a prayer for reinforcements passed the lips of those who
knew that certain destruction awaited them on the morrow, if more troops
did not in the mean time arrive to their assistance.
But midnight brought relief and joy to those anxious waiting hearts. At
about twelve o’clock the Twelfth corps, under General Slocum, and the
Third, under General Sickles, arrived, fresh and eager for the battle.
And soon after daylight came further reinforcements of the Second and
Fifth corps; and the sun of the next day shone down on an almost
entirely new army, which struck consternation to the hearts of the
astonished rebels, who had already made up their minds to an easy and
certain victory.
On this day the position of General Meade’s forces was as follows:
General Howard, with the Eleventh corps, held the centre; the remaining
portion of the First corps, and the Twelfth, under General Slocum,
formed the right wing, and were placed on the right of the Baltimore
road; the Second corps,—General Hancock,—and the Third,—General
Sickles,—formed the army’s left wing, between the Taneytown and
Emmetsburg roads.
On Thursday morning, the enemy, apparently surprised by the formidable
Union army which they found ready to oppose them, remained strangely
quiet during the most of the day; and it was four o’clock before they
attacked the waiting and immovable line of Federal troops. Then indeed
the crisis of the battle began. General Longstreet hurled his whole
division upon the left wing of General Meade’s army, and the storm of
artillery that plowed through the ranks, dealt swift and terrible
destruction. But the brave Third corps, not even wavering before the
dreadful fire, beat back the rebels again and again. On their left
flank, danger now menaced them. Already one of Longstreet’s divisions
was manœuvering to cut them off from Round Top Hill, on which were
placed but three or four batteries. The position would be of
incalculable value to the rebels, who, by placing their batteries on the
hill, could hurl shell upon the whole Union line. To save Round Top Hill
was of the greatest moment to the National forces, who put forth almost
superhuman efforts to beat back the approach of the enemy. Bravely, with
unflinching front, the rebels marched up to the very mouths of the guns,
to be blown into atoms, and hurled in horrible burnt, blackened,
bleeding fragments through the air, their places instantly filled up by
scores of others equally daring and reckless of life. Captain Bigelow,
commanding the battery at the extreme left, held the hill, after losing
many of his men, several artillerists, two sergeants, four of his guns,
and being himself severely wounded in the thigh, until McGilway’s two
batteries arrived to his assistance, and poured in an unflinching fire
upon the enemy’s lines.
Below, at the base of the hill, the battle raged with even greater
violence; but feeling that it would be lost if Round Top Hill were
yielded, the brave Union men determined to die in its defence, or hold
it to the end. On came the rebels with their dreadful battle yell, as
deafening as the roar of their artillery, and with fixed bayonets
charged forward, a sea of gleaming, death-dealing, blood-stained steel,
upon the noble, patriotic band, who met their attacks with unfaltering
courage, and hand to hand fought them to the death, while the artillery
rained a perfect torrent of shot and shell along the whole line. While
this noble division, composed of Maine, Michigan, New York, and
Pennsylvania regiments, all under command of General Barnes, were thus
heroically resisting the rebels, the First division stood in danger of
being completely swept away by the enemy’s advance. But now came General
Ayres’ division, steadily marching forward, and with that indomitable
bravery for which it was famed, and which had been displayed on previous
battle-fields, poured down in resistless force upon the rebels, and
saved the First division. Still harder pressed on the fight to obtain
the coveted position on Round Top Hill; but the rebels were destined to
defeat. General Meade sent orders to the Fourth and Fifth brigades of
the Pennsylvania reserves to clear the hill of the enemy, and the
movement began at once, superintended by General Crawford in person.
Hastily forming his line General Crawford ordered a dash to be made, and
the enemy was immediately driven back. One rebel brigade, under General
Anderson, made a stand in a gap of the woods, but was fallen upon by a
brigade under Colonel McCandless, and completely routed or taken
prisoners. The Union men pressed on after the retreating rebels, and
drove them back headlong and in wild confusion through the valley and
into the woods beyond. Returning then to the hill so bravely fought for,
and won with the blood of heroes, the Fourth and Fifth brigades took up
their position there and held it to the close of the fight.
Great credit is given to General Crawford for his management of this
affair. The honor of the army was saved by the brilliant action of the
reserves. The loss of so many arms was entirely regained by this dash,
and the ground upon which so many of the Union wounded lay without
assistance, rescued from the enemy. Not one of the wounded had received
the least assistance, and the groans of the suffering and dying men were
terrible. Ambulances were immediately sent for, under orders of General
Crawford, and the wounded were cared for.
In the mean time sharp and deadly fighting was going forward between the
Eleventh corps, situated northeast of Cemetery Hill, and General Early’s
division. As at Round Top on the day before, it was a hand-to-hand
fight; the guns were so hot from the continuous shower of destruction
that had thundered from their dreadful throats, that they could not be
worked; but the rebels advanced over the cemetery wall, and leaped to
the very mouths of the guns, but were beaten off with clubbed muskets.
Before this unexpected resistance, they were compelled to fall suddenly
back. The Twelfth corps was not so successful in beating off a similar
attack made upon them, and the rebels gained a slight foothold, which
would every hour become more valuable to them. But night had again
fallen upon the combatants, and nothing further could be done to beat
the enemy back. In the battle of Thursday, the losses on both sides were
heavy. Of general officers, Brigadier-General Paul, and
Brigadier-General Zook, were killed; and Generals Sickles, Barlow,
Graham, and Warren, were wounded.
At earliest dawn of the following day, the battle was opened by a
murderous fire from the National guns; and the fighting spread rapidly
along the line. On the right, the Twelfth corps was already preparing to
regain its losses of the previous evening; its rifle-pits bristled with
rebel muskets, which were presently pouring out a deadly fire in return
for the fierce attack of General Slocum’s men. But the brave Twelfth met
the fire courageously, and their renewed strength was too much for the
rebels, who, reluctantly began to fall back before them. The Union men
pushed forward their advance, pressed back the rebels from their
breastworks, and triumphantly taking up their lost position, the
National line was again perfectly unbroken from end to end.
From this time till about eleven o’clock, the battle continued to rage
with equal intensity and equal advantages or disadvantages to both
sides; and then for a time a short, general quiet prevailed. It had
already been proven by the battle of the previous day, that the final
issue of the contest turned upon the occupation of Cemetery Hill; and,
therefore, all General Lee’s ingenuity was exercised to obtain a clue to
its capture, as all General Meade’s military skill was put in force to
retain his valuable position. The rebel general had made preparations
early in the morning for an attack upon Meade’s entire line; and he had
also concentrated a large body of his troops against the Union centre,
with the design of taking the ground it occupied. In other respects, as
well, the rebel forces were skillfully and powerfully placed. The Union
artillery on Cemetery Hill was subjected to a half-circle of cross
fires, from the skillful arrangement of the enemy’s troops; General
Longstreet having massed fifty-five guns of long range upon the brow of
a slight eminence in front of General Hill’s extreme right, and General
Hill had massed sixty guns along the hill, in front of the heights held
by the National troops.
At one o’clock the signal gun was fired, and the cannonading commenced.
The fire of the enemy was thus concentrated on the position held by the
Eleventh and Second corps. It drew a most terrific response from the
Federal batteries. It is thus described by a spectator in the Union
army:
“The storm broke upon us so suddenly that soldiers and officers—who
leaped, as it began, from their tents, or from lazy siestas on the
grass—were stricken in their rising with mortal wounds, and died, some
with cigars between their teeth, some with pieces of food in their
fingers, and one at least—a pale young German, from Pennsylvania—with a
miniature of his sister in his hands. Horses fell, shrieking such awful
cries as Cooper told of, and writhing themselves about in hopeless
agony. The boards of fences, scattered by explosion, flew in splinters
through the air. The earth, torn up in clouds, blinded the eyes of
hurrying men; and through the branches of the trees and among the
gravestones of the cemetery a shower of destruction crashed ceaselessly.
As, with hundreds of others, I groped through this tempest of death for
the shelter of the bluff, an old man, a private in a company belonging
to the Twenty-fourth Michigan, was struck, scarcely ten feet away, by a
cannon ball, which tore through him, extorting such a low, intense cry
of mortal pain as I pray God I may never again hear. The hill, which
seemed alone devoted to this rain of death, was clear in nearly all its
unsheltered places within five minutes after the fire began.”
The same contest is thus described by an eye-witness in the Confederate
army:
“I have never yet heard such tremendous artillery firing. The enemy must
have had over one hundred guns, which, in addition to our one hundred
and fifteen, made the air hideous with most discordant noise. The very
earth shook beneath our feet, and the hills and rocks seemed to reel
like a drunken man. For one hour and a half this most terrific fire was
continued, during which time the shrieking of shell, the crash of fallen
timbers, the fragments of rocks flying through the air, shattered from
the cliffs by solid shot, the heavy mutterings from the valley between
the opposing armies, the splash of bursting shrapnell, and the fierce
neighing of wounded artillery horses, made a picture terribly grand and
sublime, but which my pen utterly fails to describe. After the firing
had continued for little more than an hour, the enemy’s guns began to
slacken, and finally all were silenced save some six or eight, which
were in a clump of woods a little to the left of the stone fence.”
For three hours the firing had continued steadily; suddenly the Union
fire was slackened for a moment to allow the guns to cool, when the
enemy, supposing they had been silenced, prepared to make a final and
irresistible attack. Their storming party was moved up. The division of
General Pickett, which had arrived since the previous day, led the
advance, supported on the right by General Wilcox’s brigade of General
Anderson’s division, and on the left by Heath’s division, commanded by
General Pettigrew. The troops of General Pickett’s division advanced in
splendid order. On his left, the command of General Pettigrew emerged
from the woods, and swept down the slope of the hill to the valley
beneath, and some two or three hundred yards in the rear of General
Pickett.
The Union line met the advance bravely. As they came under the fire of
the First and Second Corps, the enemy’s batteries became suddenly
silent. Their ammunition was exhausted. But still the rebel advance
pressed boldly forward, never wavering, even when a fire of grape and
shell was opened upon them. Steadily they crossed the Emmetsburg road,
and with undaunted front approached the Union infantry, who quietly
awaited their advance. General Gibbon, in command of the Second Corps,
walking composedly along the front of his line, encouraged his men with
his calm and steady voice:
“Hold your fire, boys—they are not near enough yet,” he called out
almost loud enough for the advancing rebels to hear, who, still coming
steadily onward, suddenly charged bayonets, and rushed forward on the
rifle pits. Then from the Union line flashed a blaze of fire before
which hundreds fell to the earth; but their comrades filled up the
vacant spaces, and charged over the pits. Now General Gibbon called to
his men to fall to the rear of the batteries, and without any sign of
confusion, the order was obeyed. But General Pettigrew’s brave division
no longer remained steady and unbroken; the artillery pouring in upon
them a blasting and destroying fire, had scattered their ranks in wild
confusion; and completely panic-stricken they fled over the plain, and
far to the rear. General Pickett was now left to bear the whole strength
of the Union forces alone, his officers wounded and falling around him
on every side. Further resistance was worse than useless, and the rebel
general gave the order to fall back. The Unionists pressed them
strongly, but their retreat was successfully effected under cover of a
brigade commanded by General Wright, and sent forward for that purpose
by General Lee.
While this fierce attack was being resisted, and utterly repulsed by
General Gibbon’s corps, the extreme right and left had been severely
tried by the rebels under Generals Ewell and Longstreet; but on every
side they were beaten back, and the night ended in the complete success
of the National arms, and the glorious victory of Gettysburg. During the
whole of the next day, both armies were engaged in the mournful duty of
burying their dead, and caring for their wounded. The losses upon both
sides during these three days were very heavy. That of the National army
in killed was two thousand eight hundred and thirty-four; in wounded,
thirteen thousand seven hundred and ninety; in missing, six thousand,
six hundred and forty-three. That of the rebels in killed, wounded, and
prisoners, was much greater. The Union soldiers buried four thousand
five hundred of the rebel dead. They estimated their entire killed at
about one thousand more; their wounded numbered twenty-one thousand; and
their loss in prisoners, stragglers, and deserters numbered thirteen
thousand.
During all day of the 4th of July, General Lee sent forward such of his
wounded as would bear removal, to Hagerstown; and when night fell the
entire remnant of his army was put in motion on the road to Fairfield.
On the 6th General Lee reached Hagerstown, and took up position there
with his army. On the following day General Meade’s advance in hot
pursuit of the rebel army, reached Funktown, a place six miles south of
Hagerstown. On the 8th a sharp conflict took place at Boonsboro’ between
the retreating rebels and the pursuing Federal troops. The opposing
forces were the Union cavalry under General Buford and General
Kilpatrick; and the divisions under Generals Stuart, Hampton, and Jones,
together with a division of infantry.
General Kilpatrick’s division was encamped in the immediate vicinity of
the town. General Buford, who was posted about two miles in advance, was
attacked by the enemy about eleven o’clock in the morning. General
Kilpatrick immediately moved out to the front, and, relieving the
brigades of Merritt and Devin, engaged the rebels.
The Union horse artillery was planted upon a very commanding position,
and was served with great effectiveness.
The enemy’s infantry pressed the National line so closely that it was
compelled to fall back, though the retrograde movement was made very
slowly, and the ground disputed inch by inch. The cavalry repeatedly
charged the enemy, breaking his line and routing his cavalry; but the
rebel infantry pressed so hard that it was at length determined to fall
back upon Boonsboro’.
About night the Third division of the Eleventh corps arrived, when the
Union cavalry dashed impetuously upon the enemy, and drove him three
miles.
Day after day, the rebels continued to retreat, and were closely pursued
by the Union soldiers; skirmishing, and occasionally sharp fighting,
marked the whole line of retreat; and there was every appearance of a
long, pitched battle, between the Union array and that of General Lee,
before the latter could succeed in escaping with his troops across the
Potomac, and back into Virginia.
At daybreak on the 10th, a fight was opened at Sharpsburg, between the
Union and rebel armies, which lasted till six o’clock in the evening,
and resulted in a victory to the Union arms. During the night, the town
was evacuated by the rebels; Generals Lee, Longstreet, and Ewell, being
the last of the rebels to leave the place. The enemy fell back toward
Williamsport, and were pursued for several miles by the Federal troops.
The Army of the Potomac marched steadily on, till it was in sight of
Lee’s entire army, which occupied a strong position on the heights, near
a marsh, in front of Williamsport. During this, and many previous and
subsequent days, there was continual skirmishing in all directions; and
the great battle that now seemed imminent was most anxiously waited for
by the Union forces, who were eager to be at work again.