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 orderly might be seen galloping
furiously in the transmission of some order or message.--All, all was
ready--and yet the sound of no gun had disturbed the air or ear to-day.
And so the men stacked their arms--in long bristling rows they stood
along the crests--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's peculiar solace, a pipe of
tobacco. Some were mirthful and chatty, and some were serious and
silent. Leaving them thus--I suppose of all arms and grades there were
about a hundred thousand of them somewhere about that field--each to
pass the hour according to his duty or his humor, let us look to the
enemy.
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 a little upwards of a hundred thousand men of all arms. Of
course we can'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--and slight
numerical differences are of much less consequence in great bodies of
men.
Skillful generalship and good fighting are the jewels of war. These
concurring are difficult to overcome; and these, not numbers, must
determine this battle.
During all the morning--and of the night, too--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--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
effect, during the early part of the morning almost nothing was
actually seen by us of the invaders of the North. About nine o'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--almost the first shots of any kind this morning--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--toward our left.
They would dash up close upon ours and sometimes drive them back a short
distance, in turn to be repulsed themselves--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--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'
order, burn the 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--of
his disposition and apparent purposes. The Rebel infantry consisted of
three Army Corps, each consisting of three Divisions, Longstreet,
Ewell--the same whose leg Gibbons' shell knocked off at Gainesville on
the 28th of August last year--and A. P. Hill, each in the Rebel service
having the rank of Lieutenant General, were the commanders of these
Corps. Longstreet's Division commanders were Hood, McLaws, and Pickett;
Ewell's were Rhodes, Early and Johnson, and Hill'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 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'
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 _chivalry_ 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--to deny this is useless. I never had any desire
to--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--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, 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's Corps was upon their right; Hill'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's left bending towards, and
resting near the town, and Ewell'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 _defensive_ position, this is equivalant to saying that that
of the enemy was not a good _offensive_ 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
constantly and carefully, by woods and inequalities of ground, out of
our view.
Noon is past, one o'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--I could almost see the fore-shadowing of
victory upon their faces, I thought. And I thought, too, as I had seen
the mighty preparations go on to completion for this great
conflict--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!
Somewhat after one o'clock P. M.--the skirmish firing had nearly ceased
now--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 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--a politician, and some other things,
exclusive of the _Barton Key_ affair--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'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--it developed the battle--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!
It was magnificent to see those ten or twelve thousand men--they were
good men--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, 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. The enemy opened slowly at
first, and from long range; but he was square upon Sickles' left flank.
General Caldwell was ordered at once to put his Division--the 1st of the
Second Corps, as mentioned--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'clock P. M., and
the reserve brigade--the First, Col. Heath temporarily commanding--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 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'clock, and
we shall soon see what Sickles gained by his move. First we hear more
artillery firing upon Sickles' left--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'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' left,
appear the long lines and the columns of the Rebel infantry, now
unmistakably 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--the men were all in their places, and you might have heard
the rattle of ten thousand ramrods as they drove home and "thugged" upon
the little globes and cones of lead. As the enemy was advancing upon
Sickles' 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's advance;
but this movement was not completely executed before new Rebel batteries
opened upon Sickles' right flank--his former front--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 and artillery practice--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' 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.
O, the din and the roar, and these thirty thousand Rebel wolf cries!
What a hell is there down that valley!
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, and
advance to a bad one. There is no other alternative--the Third Corps
must fight itself out of its position of destruction! What was it ever
put there for?
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--or rather the Third Corps,
for Sickles has been borne from the field minus one of his legs, and
Gen. Birney now commands--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.
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 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--their ammunition must be nearly expended--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 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--we have more apparent reason to fear for ourselves.
The Third Corps is being overpowered--here and there its lines begin to
break--the men begin to pour back to the rear in confusion--the enemy
are close upon them and among them--organization is lost to a great
degree--guns and caissons are abandoned and in the hands of the
enemy--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--the time was at hand
when we must be actors in this drama.
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 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--not Rebel, mongrel
cries, but genuine cheers--rang out all along the line, above the roar
of battle, for "Hancock" and "Gibbon," and "our Generals." 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:--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--and some of them were moving 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' 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!