Near this gate to the local cemetery of Gettysburg there stood during the
battle this sign: "All persons found using firearms in these grounds will
be prosecuted with the utmost rigor of the law." Many a soldier must have
smiled grimly at these words, for this gateway became the key of the
Federal line, the very center of the cruelest use of firearms yet seen on
this continent. On the first day Reynolds saw the value of Cemetery Hill
in case of a retreat. Howard posted his reserves here, and Hancock greatly
strengthened the position. One hundred and fifty Confederate guns were
turned against it that last afternoon. In five minutes every man of the
Federals had been forced to cover; for an hour and a half the shells fell
fast, dealing death and laying waste the summer verdure in the little
graveyard. Up to the very guns of the Federals on Cemetery Hill, Pickett
led his devoted troops. At night of the 3d it was one vast
slaughter-field. On this eminence, where thousands were buried, was
dedicated the soldiers' National Cemetery.
[Illustration: PICKETT--THE MARSHALL NEY OF GETTYSBURG]
The Now-or-never Charge of Pickett's Men. When the Confederate artillery
opened at one o'clock on the afternoon of July 3d, Meade and his staff
were driven from their headquarters on Cemetery Ridge. Nothing could live
exposed on that hillside, swept by cannon that were being worked as fast
as human hands could work them. It was the beginning of Lee's last effort
to wrest victory from the odds that were against him. Longstreet, on the
morning of the 3d, had earnestly advised against renewing the battle
against the Gettysburg heights. But Lee saw that in this moment the fate
of the South hung in the balance; that if the Army of Northern Virginia
did not win, it would never again become the aggressor. Pickett's
division, as yet not engaged, was the force Lee designated for the
assault; every man was a Virginian, forming a veritable Tenth Legion in
valor. Auxiliary divisions swelled the charging column to 15,000. In the
middle of the afternoon the Federal guns ceased firing. The time for the
charge had come. Twice Pickett asked of Longstreet if he should go
forward. Longstreet merely bowed in answer. "Sir, I shall lead my division
forward," said Pickett at last, and the heavy-hearted Longstreet bowed his
head. As the splendid column swept out of the woods and across the plain
the Federal guns reopened with redoubled fury. For a mile Pickett and his
men kept on, facing a deadly greeting of round shot, canister, and the
bullets of Hancock's resolute infantry. It was magnificent--but every one
of Pickett's brigade commanders went down and their men fell by scores and
hundreds around them. A hundred led by Armistead, waving his cap on his
sword-point, actually broke through and captured a battery, Armistead
falling beside a gun. It was but for a moment. Longstreet had been right
when he said: "There never was a body of fifteen thousand men who could
make that attack successfully." Before the converging Federals the thinned
ranks of Confederates drifted wearily back toward Seminary Ridge. Victory
for the South was not to be.
[Illustration: MEADE'S HEADQUARTERS ON CEMETERY RIDGE