The battle began on July 1st, the Union Cavalry, which had gone out to
the west and north of Gettysburg, becoming engaged with the
Confederate advance approaching the town from the passes through the
South Mountain. The cavalry, at first victorious, was soon overwhelmed
by superior numbers, and infantry supports arrived, under General
Reynolds; but he was killed, and they were all driven back and through
Gettysburg to the cemetery and Culp's Hill, which were manned by fresh
troops that had come up. Meade was then at Pipe Creek, laying out a
defensive line, but when he heard of Reynolds' death and the defeat,
he sent General Hancock forward to take command, who decided that the
Cemetery Ridge was the place to give battle. Ewell had in the meantime
extended the Confederate left wing around to the east of Culp's Hill
and held Gettysburg, but active operations were suspended, and the
night was availed of by both sides to get their forces up and into
position, which was mainly accomplished by morning.
When the second day, July 2d, opened, the armies confronted each other
in line of battle. The Union troops were along the Cemetery Ridge and
the Confederates upon the Seminary Ridge, across the intervale to the
west, their lines also stretching around through Gettysburg to the
north of the cemetery, and two miles east along the base of Culp's
Hill. In the long intervening valley, and in the ravines and upon the
slopes of the Cemetery Ridge and Culp's Hill, the main battle was
fought. The attack began by General Longstreet advancing against the
two Round Tops, but after a bloody contest he was repulsed. General
Sickles, who held the line to the south of the Little Round Top, then
thought he could improve his position by advancing a half-mile into
the valley towards the Seminary Ridge, thus making a broken Union
line, with a portion dangerously thrust forward. The enemy soon took
advantage of this, and fell upon Sickles, front and flank, almost
overwhelming his line in the "Peach Orchard," and driving it back to
the adjacent "Wheat Field." Reinforcements were quickly poured in, and
there was a hot conflict, Sickles being seriously wounded and his
troops almost cut to pieces. About the same time Ewell made a terrific
charge out of Gettysburg upon the Cemetery and Culp's Hill, with the
"Louisiana Tigers" and other troops, effecting a lodgement, although
the defending soldiers wrought great havoc by a heavy cannonade. The
Union gunners on Little Round Top ultimately cleared the "Wheat
Field," and then the combatants rested. Lee was much inspirited by his
successes, and determined to renew the attack next morning.
Upon the third and last day, July 3d, General Meade opened the combat
early in the morning by driving out Ewell's forces, who had effected a
lodgement on Culp's Hill. General Lee did not learn of this, but he
was full of the idea that both the Union centre and right wing had
been weakened the previous day, and during the night he planned an
attack in front, to be accompanied by a cavalry movement around the
Union right to assail the rear, thus following up Ewell's supposed
advantage. To give Stuart with the cavalry time to get around to the
rear, the front attack was not made until afternoon. During the
morning each side got cannon into position, Lee having one hundred and
twenty guns along Seminary Ridge, and Meade eighty in the Cemetery and
southward, along a low, irregular stone pile, forming a sort of rude
wall bordering the road leading from Gettysburg south to Taneytown, in
Maryland. The action began about one o'clock in the afternoon, when
the Confederates opened fire, and the most terrific artillery duel of
the war took place across the intervening valley, six guns being
discharged every second. The troops suffered little, as they kept down
in the ground, but several Union guns were dismounted. After two hours
deafening cannonade Lee ordered his grand attack, the celebrated
charge by General Pickett, a force of fourteen thousand men with
brigade front advancing across the valley. They marched swiftly, and
had a mile to go, but before they were half-way across all the
available Union guns had been trained upon them. Their attack was
directed at an umbrella-shaped clump of trees on the Cemetery Ridge at
a low place where the rude stone wall made an angle, with its point
outside. General Hancock commanded this portion of the Union line. The
grape and canister of the Union cannonade ploughed furrows through
Pickett's ranks, and when his column got within three hundred yards,
Hancock opened musketry fire with terrible effect. Thousands fell, and
the brigades broke in disorder; but the advance, headed by General
Armistead on foot, continued, and about one hundred and fifty men
leaped over the stone piles at the angle to capture the Union guns.
Lieutenant Cushing, mortally wounded in both thighs, ran his last
serviceable gun towards the wall, and shouting to his commander,
"Webb, I will give them one more shot!" he fired the gun and died.
Armistead put his hand on the cannon, waved his sword, and called out,
"Give them the cold steel, boys!" then, pierced by bullets, he fell
dead alongside of Cushing. Both lay near the clump of trees, about
thirty yards inside the wall, their corpses marking the farthest point
to which Pickett's advance penetrated. There was a hand to hand
conflict; Webb was wounded, and also Hancock, and the slaughter was
dreadful. The Confederates were overwhelmed, and not one-fourth of the
gallant charging column, composed of the flower of the Virginia
troops, escaped, the remnant retreating in disorder. Stuart's cavalry
failed to coöperate as intended, having met the Union cavalry about
four miles to the east of Gettysburg, and the conflict ensuing
prevented their attacking the Union rear. After Pickett's retreat
there was a general Union advance, closing the combat.
The point within the angle of the stone wall where Cushing and
Armistead fell has been commemorated by what is known as the
"High-Water Mark Monument," for it was placed at the point reached by
the top of the flood-tide of the rebellion, as afterwards there was a
steady ebb. During the night of July 3d Lee began a retreat, and aided
by heavy rains, usually following great battles, the Confederates next
day withdrew through the mountain passes towards Hagerstown, and
afterwards escaped across the Potomac. Upon the day of Lee's retreat,
Vicksburg surrendered to General Grant, and these two events began the
Confederacy's downfall. There were engaged in the battle of Gettysburg
about eighty thousand men on each side, the Union army having three
hundred and thirty-nine cannon and the Confederates two hundred and
ninety-three. It was the largest battle of the Civil War in the actual
numbers engaged, and one of the most hotly contested. The Union loss
was twenty-three thousand and three killed, wounded and prisoners, and
the Confederate loss twenty-three thousand seven hundred and
sixty-eight.