the Union army would have been massed toward its left rather than
its right; and if Lee had been correctly informed on his part, it
is unlikely that he would have risked throwing his columns out at
random against the Union army, as he was now doing. Only the fatuity
of the Union generals saved Lee's vanguard on the 1st of July. Yet
he held the very important advantage of having already begun the
concentration of his army--an easy thing for him to do, inasmuch as
but one of his three corps was separated from the others--before
Meade discovered by chance what was so near proving his ruin. One
day's march would bring all three up within supporting distances,
two in position for giving battle.
[Sidenote: Confederate Positions June 29th.]
Heth's division of Hill's Corps got as far as Cashtown, eight miles
from Gettysburg, on the 29th; Rodes' division of Ewell's Corps
was coming down by the direct road from Carlisle, east of South
Mountain; Early's division of this corps began its march back
from York to Gettysburg on the morning of the 30th. These three
divisions, or one-third of Lee's whole army, therefore, formed the
enemy's vanguard which would first strike an approaching force. But,
as we have seen, the whole army was in march behind it, and by the
next day well closed up on the advance.
Leaving them to pursue their march, which was by no means hurried,
let us, to borrow Lee's very expressive phrase, "see what General
Meade was about."
[Sidenote: Union Positions June 30th.]
On the 29th all seven of the Union corps were advancing northward
like fingers spread apart, and exactly in an inverse order from
Lee's three, which were converging on the palm of the hand. On the
30th this divergent order of march continued to conduct the corps
still farther apart, with the result also, considering Gettysburg
as the ultimate point of concentration, that the bulk of the army
was away off to the right of Gettysburg.[30] Moreover, Meade's
efforts to get the army up to this position, or in front of his
chosen line of defence on Pipe Creek, had covered the roads with
stragglers, and compelled at least one corps to halt for nearly a
whole day.[31]
[Sidenote: Scattered Condition of the Army.]
It was not until nightfall of the 30th, or forty-eight hours after
it was begun, that Meade knew of the enemy's movement toward
Gettysburg; and even then he did not feel at all sure of having
detected the true point of concentration. Indeed, his want of
accurate information on this head seems surprising. By that time
his own army was stretched out from Emmettsburg, on the northwest,
to Manchester at the east, thus putting it out of Meade's power to
concentrate it at Gettysburg in one day. By endeavoring to cover
too much ground his army had been dangerously scattered. Even
without cavalry Lee had fairly stolen a march on him. And it is
not improbable that Hooker might now have been "shocked," in his
turn.[32]
[Sidenote: Union Left Wing in Advance.]
Our present business is now wholly with the left wing of the Union
army,--its right being quite out of reach--that is to say, with the
three infantry and one cavalry corps commanded by that thorough
soldier, so beloved by the whole army, General Reynolds, the actual
chief of the First Corps.
[Sidenote: Buford finds the Enemy.]
Buford had spent the 29th in scouring the passes of South Mountain
as far north as Monterey, without getting sight of the enemy,
however, until he halted for the night at Fountaindale, when he then
perceived the camp-fires of a numerous body of troops stretching
along in his front and lighting up the road toward Gettysburg.
Evidently they had just crossed South Mountain from the valley.
[Sidenote: He attacks.]
To Buford this sight was indeed as a ray of light in a dark place.
No friendly force could be in that quarter. He determined to know
who and what it was without loss of time. Before dawn his troopers
were again in the saddle. They soon fell in with a strong column
of infantry moving toward Gettysburg on the Fairfield (Hagerstown)
road. After exchanging a few shots, and having learned what he
wanted to know, Buford hastened back to Reynolds, at Emmettsburg,
with the news.
Reynolds immediately sent Buford back to Gettysburg, in order, if
possible, to head off the enemy before he should reach that place,
for which he was evidently making. A courier was also despatched to
headquarters. This was the first trustworthy intelligence of Lee's
movement to the east that Meade had thus far received. Could the
enemy be massing on his left? It certainly looked like it. After
this night there was only one word on the tongues of all men in that
army--Gettysburg! Gettysburg!
[Sidenote: Reynolds marches up.]
The First Corps, also marching for Gettysburg, went into camp some
five miles short of that town; the Eleventh lay at Emmettsburg; the
Third at Taneytown. It is with them alone that we shall have to deal
in what follows.
[Illustration: Positions, June 30th.]
[Sidenote: Pipe Creek.]
We have already seen that Meade had not designed advancing one
step farther than might be found effectual for turning Lee back
from overrunning the State. This was the first great object to
be attained. And this had now been done. To avoid being struck
from behind, Lee had been forced to halt, face about, and look for
a place to fight in. When the enemy should be fairly in motion
southward, Meade meant to take up the position along Pipe Creek,
and await an attack there. But he no longer had the disposing of
events. In order to gain this position now, Reynolds must have
fallen back one or two marches; nor could Meade know that Lee was
then coming half way to meet him; or that--strange confusion of
ideas!--Lee had promised his generals not to fight a pitched battle
except on ground of his own choosing; certainly not on one his
adversary had chosen for him; least of all where defeat would carry
down with it the cause of the Southern Confederacy itself.
[Sidenote: Reynolds.]
Reynolds, therefore, held the destinies of both armies in his
keeping on that memorable last night of June. He now knew that any
further advance on his part would probably result in bringing on
a combat--a combat, moreover, in which both armies might become
involved, for his military instinct truly foreshadowed what was
coming. There was still time to fall back on the main army, to avoid
an engagement. But Reynolds was not that kind of general. He was the
man of all others to whom the whole army had looked in the event
of Hooker's incapacity from any cause, as well as the first whom
the President had designed to replace him. He now shared Meade's
confidence to the fullest extent. He was a soldier of the finest
temper, a Pennsylvanian, like Meade himself, neither rash on the one
hand, nor weighed down by the feeling that he or his soldiers were
overmatched in any respect on the other. To him, at least, Lee was
no bugbear. Having come there expressly to find the enemy, he was
not going to turn his back now that the enemy was found. Reynolds
was, therefore, emphatically the man for the hour. He knew that
Meade would support him to the last man and the last cartridge. He
fall back? There was no such word in Reynolds' vocabulary. His order
was "Forward!"
So history has indissolubly linked together the names of Reynolds
and of Gettysburg, for had he decided differently there would have
been no battle of Gettysburg.
Thus it was that all through the silent watches of that moonlit
summer's night the roads leading to Gettysburg from north and south,
from east and west, were lighted up by a thousand camp-fires.
Without knowing it, the citizens of that peaceful village were
sleeping on a volcano.
[25] Besides Meade, there were Hancock, Reynolds, and Humphreys--a
triumvirate of some power with that army. Pennsylvania had also
seventy-three regiments and five batteries with Meade.
[26] While thus feeling for Lee along the mountain passes with his
left hand, Meade was reaching out the right as far as possible
toward the Susquehanna, or toward Early at York.
[27] This was Longstreet's scout, Harrison. "He said there were
three corps near Frederick when he passed there, one to the right
and one to the left; but he did not succeed in getting the position
of the other."--_Longstreet._
[28] This shows how little foundation exists for the statements
of the Comte de Paris and others that Hooker's strategy compelled
Lee to cross the mountain, when it is clear that he knew nothing
whatever of Hooker's intentions. This is concurred in by both Lee
and Longstreet. Moreover, Hooker had scarcely put his strategy in
effect when he was relieved.
[29] In point of fact, the concentration was first ordered for
Cashtown, "at the eastern base of the mountain."--_Lee._ Ewell
and Hill took the responsibility of going on to Gettysburg, after
hearing that the Union cavalry had been seen there.
[30] On the night of June 30th, Meade's headquarters and the
artillery reserve were at Taneytown, the First Corps at Marsh
Run, Eleventh at Emmettsburg, Third at Bridgeport, Twelfth at
Littlestown, Second at Uniontown, Fifth at Union Mills, Sixth and
Gregg's Cavalry at Manchester, Kilpatrick's at Hanover--a line over
thirty miles long.
[31] By being compelled to ford streams without taking off shoes or
stockings, the men's feet were badly blistered.
[32] Upon taking command, Meade is said to have expressed himself as
"shocked" at the scattered condition of the army.
V
THE FIRST OF JULY
[Sidenote: Buford.]
Since early in the afternoon of June 30th, the inhabitants of
Gettysburg had seen pouring through their village, taking position
on the heights that dominate it, and spreading themselves out over
all the roads leading into it from the west and north, squadron
after squadron of horse, dusty and travel-stained, but alert,
vigilant, and full of ardor at the prospect of coming to blows with
the enemy at last.
This was a portion of that splendid cavalry which, under the lead
of Pleasonton, Buford, Gregg, and Kilpatrick, at last disputed the
boasted superiority of Stuart's famous troopers. At last the Union
army had a cavalry force. These men formed the van of that army
which was pursuing Lee by forced marches for the purpose of bringing
him to battle.
[Sidenote: Oak Ridge.]
[Sidenote: Willoughby Run.]
Forewarned that he must look for the enemy to make his appearance
on the Chambersburg and Carlisle roads,[33] and feeling that there
was warm work ahead, Buford was keeping a good lookout in both
directions. To that end he had now taken post on a commanding ridge
over which these roads passed first to Seminary Ridge, and so back
into Gettysburg. First causing his troopers to dismount, he formed
them across the two roads in question in skirmishing order, threw
out his vedettes, planted his horse-artillery, and with the little
valley of Willoughby Run before him, the Seminary and Gettysburg
behind him, and the First Corps in bivouac only five miles away
toward Emmettsburg, this intrepid soldier calmly awaited the coming
of the storm, conscious that if Gettysburg was to be defended at all
it must be from these heights.
A pretty little valley was this of Willoughby Run, with its
green banks and clear-flowing waters, its tall woods and tangled
shrubbery, so soon to be torn and defaced by shot and shell, so soon
deformed by drifting smoke and the loud cries of the combatants.
The night passed off quietly. Nevertheless, some thirty thousand
Confederates, of all arms, were lying in camp within a radius of
eight miles from Gettysburg. Their vanguard had discovered the
presence of our cavalry,[34] and was waiting for the morning only to
brush it away.
[Sidenote: Heth comes down the Pike.]
Next morning Heth's division was marching down the Chambersburg
pike, looking for this cavalry, when its advance fell in with
Buford's vedettes. While they halted to reconnoitre, these vedettes
came back with the news that the enemy was advancing in force,
infantry and artillery filling the road as far as could be seen.
Warned that not a moment was to be lost, Buford at once sent off
word to Reynolds, who, after ordering the First Corps under arms,
and sending back for the Eleventh, himself set off at a gallop for
Gettysburg, followed only by his staff.
[Sidenote: He drives Buford.]
Buford's bold front had thus caused the enemy to come to a halt; but
soon after nine, supposing he had to do with cavalry alone, Heth
deployed his skirmishers across the pike, forming his two leading
brigades at each side of it; these troops then pushed forward, and
soon the crack of a musket announced that the battle of Gettysburg
had begun.
[Sidenote: Wadsworth comes to Buford's Aid.]
After an hour's stubborn fighting, Buford was being slowly but
surely pushed back over the first ridge, when a column of the
Union infantry was seen coming up the Emmettsburg road at the
double-quick. It was Wadsworth's division arriving in the nick of
time, as the enemy's skirmishers, followed by Archer's brigade,
were, even then, in the act of fording the run unopposed, and unless
promptly stopped would soon be in possession of the first range of
heights. It was really a neck-and-neck race to see who would get
there first.
[Sidenote: Reynolds forms the Division.]
[Sidenote: Charge of the Iron Brigade.]
[Sidenote: Reynolds falls.]
Reynolds was impatiently awaiting the arrival of his troops, who
were making across the fields for the ridge he was so desirous of
holding on the run. It was plain as day that he had determined to
contest the enemy's possession of Gettysburg here. Cutler's brigade
was the first to arrive. Hurrying this off to the right of the pike,
where it formed along the crest of the ridge under a shower of
balls, Reynolds ordered the next, as it came up, to charge on over
the ridge in its front, and drive Archer's men out of a wood that
rose before him crowning the crest and running down the opposite
slopes. It was done in the most gallant manner, each regiment in
turn breaking off from the line of march to join in the charge under
the eye of Reynolds himself, who, heedless of everything except
the supreme importance of securing the position, rode on after the
leading regiment into the fire where bullets were flying thickest.
Not only was the enemy driven out of the wood, but back across the
run, with the loss of about half the brigade, including Archer
himself. At the very moment success had crowned his first effort,
Reynolds fell dead with a bullet in his brain.[35]
[Sidenote: Evil Consequences.]
Nothing could have been more unfortunate at this time. With Reynolds
fell the whole inspiration of the battle of Gettysburg, but, worst
of all, with his fall both the directing mind and that unquestioned
authority so essential to bring the battle to a successful issue
vanished from the field. He had been struck down too suddenly even
to transmit his views to a subordinate. Disaster was in the air.
[Sidenote: Cutler is driven.]
This dearly bought success on the left was more than offset by what
was going on at the right, where Davis' Confederate brigade, after
getting round Cutler's flank, was driving all before it. Cutler had
to fall back to the Seminary Ridge in disorder.
Having so easily cleared this part of the line, Davis' men next
threw themselves astride the ridge, and seeing nothing before them
but Hall's battery, which was then firing down the Chambersburg
pike, they came booming down upon the guns, yelling like so many
Comanche Indians. Before the battery could be limbered up the
enemy were among the guns, shooting the cannoneers and bayoneting
the horses. It was finally got off with the loss of one of the
pieces.[36]
This success put the enemy in possession of all the Union line as
far down as the pike, and threatened that part just won with a like
fate. We had routed the enemy on the left, and been routed on the
right.
[Sidenote: The Ridge recovered.]
[Sidenote: Davis in a Trap.]
Fortunately, the Sixth Wisconsin had been left in reserve near the
Seminary a little earlier, and it was now ordered to the rescue.
Colonel Dawes led his men up on the run. This regiment, with two
of Cutler's that had turned back on seeing the diversion making in
their favor, drove the enemy back again, up the ridge, to where it
is crossed by a railroad cut, some two hundred yards north of the
pike. To escape this attack most of them jumped down into the cut;
but as the banks are high and steep and the outlet narrow, this was
only getting out of the frying-pan into the fire, since while one
body of pursuers was firing down into them from above, still another
had thrown itself across the outlet and was raking the cut from
end to end. This proved more than even Davis' Mississippians could
stand, and though they fought obstinately enough, all were either
killed, taken, or dispersed.
[Sidenote: Heth brought to a Standstill.]
Heth's two attacking brigades having thus been practically used up
after a fierce conflict, not with cavalry alone, with whom they had
expected to have a little fun, but with infantry, in whom they
recognized their old antagonists of many a hard-fought field, and
who fought to-day with a determination unusual even to them, Heth
hesitated about advancing to the attack again in the face of such
a check as he had just received, without strong backing up; but
sending word of his encounter to Lee, he set about forming the
fragments of the two defeated brigades on two fresh ones, where they
could be sheltered from the Union fire.
Yet Hill, his immediate chief, had told him only the night before
there was no objection in the world to his going into Gettysburg the
next day.
This success also enabled Doubleday[37] to reform his line in its
old position. The troops on the left had not been shaken, and
Cutler's men were now coming back to the front eager to wipe out the
disgrace of their defeat.
If the enemy's van had not been without cavalry to clear its march,
Heth must inevitably have got into Gettysburg first. As it was, the
unexpected resistance he had met with made Heth cautious. Lee's
orders to his lieutenants were not to force the fighting until the
whole army should be up. Pender was therefore forming behind Heth,
the artillery set at work, and all were impatiently looking out
for Rodes' appearance on the Carlisle (or Mummasburg) road, before
renewing the action.
[Sidenote: Eleven o'clock.]
This proved a most fortunate respite to the small Union force on Oak
Ridge, as, in consequence of it,--the state of things just pointed
out,--some hours elapsed before there was any more fighting by the
infantry, though the artillery kept up its annoying fire. Meanwhile
the two remaining divisions of the First Corps came on the ground.
Robinson's was left in reserve at the Seminary, with orders to
throw up some breastworks there; Doubleday's, now Rowley's, went
into line partly to the right and partly to the left of the troops
already there, thus extending both flanks considerably; and at the
extreme left, which was held by Biddle's brigade, two companies of
the Twentieth New York were even thrown out across the run, into
the Harman house and out-buildings, where they did good service in
keeping down the enemy's skirmish fire.[38]
[Sidenote: Rodes on Union Flank.]
Meantime, also, Pender's division had got into line. When formed for
the attack it considerably outflanked the Union left. And a little
later Rodes was seen coming down the Mummasburg road, or out quite
beyond the right of the First Corps. Clearly, the combat just closed
was child's play in comparison with what was about to begin.
[Sidenote: Oak Hill seized.]
These troops gave notice that they were shortly coming into action
by opening a sharp cannonade from Oak Hill, the commanding eminence
situated just beyond and in fact forming a continuation of Oak
Ridge, where the First Corps stood, though separated from it
somewhat.
This artillery fire from Oak Hill enfiladed the Union position so
completely that nothing was left for the right but to fall back to
Seminary Ridge, so as to show a new front to this attack. The centre
and left, however, kept its former position, with some rearrangement
of the line here and there, which had now become a very crooked one.
Twenty odd thousand men were thus waiting for the word to rush upon
between ten and eleven thousand.
[Sidenote: Eleventh Corps comes up.]
Before the battle could be renewed, however, the Eleventh Union
Corps came up through Gettysburg.[39] Howard, its actual head, was
now in chief command of the field, as next in rank to Reynolds.
He sent forward Schurz's and Barlow's divisions of this corps to
confront Rodes, leaving Steinwehr's in reserve on Cemetery Hill.
[Sidenote: Howard calls for Help.]
Having preceded his corps to the field, Howard had already notified
Meade, too hastily by half, that Reynolds was killed and the First
Corps routed--a report only half true, and calculated to do much
mischief, as it soon spread throughout the entire army. He also
sent off an urgent request to Slocum, who was halted in front of
Two Taverns, not five miles off, to come to his assistance with the
Twelfth Corps.
[Sidenote: Hancock comes to the Front.]
Supposing the day lost from the tenor of Howard's despatch,
lacking perhaps the fullest confidence in that general's ability
and experience, and thinking only of how he should save what was
left, Meade forthwith posted Hancock off to Gettysburg, with full
authority to take command of all the troops he might find there,
decide whether Gettysburg should be held or given up, and to
promptly report his decision, to the end that proper steps might be
taken to counteract this disaster if yet possible.
[Sidenote: Slocum and Sickles.]
Slocum would not stir from Two Taverns without orders, though it
is said the firing was distinctly heard there, and he could have
reached Gettysburg in an hour and a half. A second and still more
urgent appeal decided that commander, late in the afternoon, to
set his troops in motion. It was then too late. Sickles, who might
have been at Gettysburg inside of three hours with the greater part
of his corps, appears to have lingered in a deplorable state of
indecision until between two and three o'clock in the afternoon,
before he could make up his mind what to do. It was then too
late.[40]
By contrast we find Ewell promptly going to Hill's assistance
upon a simple request for such coöperation, though Ewell was
Hill's senior; and we further find that his doing so proved the
turning-point of this very battle.
[Illustration: Union Positions, July 1, 3 P.M.]
Was there a want of cordiality between the Union commanders? Was it
really culpable negligence, or was there only incapacity?
While, therefore, one corps certainly, two probably, might easily
have got to the field in season to take a decisive part in the
battle, but remained inactive, the Confederates were hurrying every
available man forward to the point of danger. This was precisely
where Reynolds' fall proved supremely disastrous, and where an
opportunity to acquire a decisive superiority on the field of battle
was most unfortunately thrown away for want of a head.[41]
[Sidenote: New Union Line.]
The Union line, lengthened out by the arrival of the Eleventh Corps,
had now been carried in a quarter circle around Gettysburg, or from
the Hagerstown road on the left to near Rock Creek on the right, the
Eleventh Corps being deployed across the open fields extending from
the Mummasburg to the Harrisburg road, with Barlow's division on
the extreme right. When this corps formed front in line of battle,
there was a gap of a quarter of a mile left wide open between it and
the First Corps. Furthermore, it was drawn up on open ground which,
if not actually level, is freely overlooked by all the surrounding
heights.
That this corps was badly posted was demonstrated after a very brief
trial.
[Sidenote: Rodes attacks.]
Having got into line facing southward, Rodes began his advance
against the right of the First Corps and left of the Eleventh
shortly before three o'clock, supported by a tremendous artillery
fire from Oak Hill. Our troops stood firm against this new
onslaught. It was only fairly under way, however, when Heth and
Pender joined in the attack.
The fighting now begun was on both sides of the most determined
character.
[Sidenote: Bloody Fighting.]