There was little time that could be employed by either side in caring for
those who fell upon the fields of the almost uninterrupted fighting at
Gettysburg. On the morning of the 4th, when Lee began to abandon his
position on Seminary Ridge, opposite the Federal right, both sides sent
forth ambulance and burial details to remove the wounded and bury the dead
in the torrential rain then falling. Under cover of the hazy atmosphere,
Lee was getting his whole army in motion to retreat. Many an unfinished
shallow grave, like the one above, had to be left by the Confederates. In
this lower picture some men of the Twenty-fourth Michigan infantry are
lying dead on the field of battle. This regiment--one of the units of the
Iron Brigade--left seven distinct rows of dead as it fell back from
battle-line to battle-line, on the first day. Three-fourths of its members
were struck down.
[Illustration: MEN OF THE IRON BRIGADE]
[Illustration: THE FIRST DAY'S TOLL