When the fog lifted in the forenoon of December 13th, Franklin's division was revealed in full strength marching and counter-marching in preparation of the coming conflict. Officers in new uniforms, thousands of bayonets gleaming in the sunshine, champing steeds, rattling gun-carriages whisking artillery into proper range, formed a scene of magnificent grandeur, which excited the admiration of all, even the Confederates. This maneuver has been called the grandest military scene of the war, yet after all this show, Burnside's subordinate officers were unanimous in their belief in the rashness of the undertaking. It is said by historians that the Army of the Potomac never went down to battle with less alacrity than on this day at Fredericksburg.
The advance began about the middle of the forenoon on Jackson's right, which was made by the divisions led by Generals Meade, Doubleday and Gibbon, who endeavored to seize one of the opposing heights on Jackson's extreme right. The advance was made in three lines of battle, which were guarded in front and on each flank by Jackson, whose artillery swept the field by both a front and an enfilading fire as the attacking columns advanced. And as the divisions approached within range Jackson's left poured a deadly fire of musketry upon them, which mowed down brave men in the Union lines in swaths, leaving broad gaps where men had stood.
On the Federal columns came, only to be swept again and again by this murderous fire, but were at length repulsed.
The Confederate lines were broken only once by a part of Meade's division, which captured a few flags and several prisoners. The lost ground was soon recovered by the Confederates. Some of the charges made by the Federals in this engagement were heroic in the extreme. In one advance knapsacks were unslung and bayonets fixed; a brigade marched across a plowed field and passed through broken lines of other brigades, which were retiring in confusion from the leaden storm. In every instance the Federals were driven back in shattered columns.
The dead and wounded lay in heaps. Soldiers were fleeing and officers were galloping to and fro, urging their lines forward.
At length they received orders to retreat, and in retiring from the field the destruction was almost as great as during the assault. Most of the wounded were brought from the field after the engagement, but the dead were left where they fell.
During this engagement General George D. Bayard was mortally wounded by a shot that had severed the sword-belt of a subordinate officer who was standing by.
While Franklin's division was engaged with the Confederate right, Sumner's division was engaged in a terrific assault upon the works of Marye's Heights, which was the stronghold of the Confederate forces. Their position was almost impregnable, consisting of earthworks, wood and stone barricades, running along the sunken road near the foot of the hill. The Federals were not apprised of the sunken road nor of the Confederate force concealed behind the stone wall, under General Cobb. When the Federals advanced up the road they were harassed by shot and shell at every step, but came dashing on in line notwithstanding the terrific fire which poured upon them. The Irish brigade of Hancock's division, under General Meagher, made a wonderful charge, the Irish soldiers moved steadily up the ridge until within a few yards of the sunken road, from which the unexpected fire mowed them down. When they returned from the assault but 250 out of 1,200 men reported under arms from the field, and all these were needed to care for their wounded comrades. This brigade, as we will notice later, distinguished itself at Gettysburg and other engagements. It lost more men in killed and wounded than any regiment that left the State of New York. When returning to be mustered out in 1865, it had only forty-seven men out of 950 that enlisted four years before on first leaving for the front.
Sumner sent column after column against this strong position, but they were repulsed with great slaughter. The approach was completely commanded by the Confederate batteries.
Not only was the Confederate fire disastrous upon the approaching columns, but it also inflicted great damage upon the masses of the Federal army, and it is said that in front of Marye's house, which was in the center where the charge was made, the Federals fell three deep in one of the bravest and bloodiest charges of the war.
Six times did the Federals, raked by the deadly fire of Washington's artillery, advance to within 100 yards of the sunken road, only to be driven back by the rapid fire of the Confederate infantry concealed there. The Confederates' effective and successful work in this battle was not alone due to their strong position, but also to the skill and generalship of the leaders, and the courage and well-directed aim of their cannoneers and infantry.
The whole plain was covered with men, the living men running here and there, their broken lines closing up and the wounded being carried to the rear.
The point and method of attack made by Sumner was anticipated by the Confederates, and careful preparation had been made to meet it.
As the Federal columns advanced without hurrah or battle-cry, their entire lines were swept by a heavy artillery fire, which poured canister and shell and solid shot into their ranks from the front and on both sides with frightful results. The ground was so thickly strewn with dead bodies as seriously to impede the movements of renewed attack. These repeated assaults in such good order caused some fear on the part of General Lee that they might eventually break his lines, and he conveyed his anxiety to General Longstreet, but his fears proved groundless.
General Cobb, who had so gallantly defended the Confederate position at the sunken road, against the onslaughts of the Federals, fell mortally wounded and was carried from the field.
His command was handed to Kershaw, who took his place in this desperate struggle. The onrushing Federals fell almost in battalions; the dead and wounded lay in heaps. Late in the day the dead bodies, which had become frozen from the extreme cold, were placed in front of the soldiers as a protection to shield the living.
The steadiness of the Union troops and the silent and determined heroism of the rank and file in these repeated but hopeless assaults upon the Confederate works were marvelous indeed, and will go down in history as a monument to the memory of those who were engaged in this terrible conflict.
After these disastrous attempts to carry the works of the Confederate left it was night; the Federals had retired; hope was abandoned, and it was seen that the day was lost for the Union forces. The shattered Army of the Potomac sought to gather and care for the wounded. The beautiful Fredericksburg of a few days before now had put on a different appearance. Ancestral homes were turned into hospitals. The charming drives and stately groves, and the pleasure grounds of the colonial days, were not filled with grand carriages and gay parties, but with war horses, soldiers and other military equipments, and had put on the gloom that follows in the wake of a defeated army after a great battle.
The plan of Burnside had ended in failure. In his report of the battle to Washington he gave reasons for the issue, and in a manly way took the responsibility upon himself and most highly commended his officers and men.
President Lincoln's verdict of this battle is reverse to the unanimous opinions of the historians. In his reply to Burnside's report of the battle he says, "Although you were not successful, the attempt was not an error, nor the failure other than accident."
After the battle the wounded lay on the field in their agony, exposed to the freezing cold for forty-eight hours before they were cared for. Many were burned by the long dead grass becoming ignited by the cannon fire.
The scene witnessed was dreadful and heart-rending. The Union loss was about 12,000, and the Confederates less than half that number. The Union army was withdrawn across the river under the cover of darkness, and the battle of Fredericksburg had passed into history.
Burnside, at his own request, was relieved of the command of the Army of the Potomac, which was handed to General Joseph Hooker.
After the battle of Fredericksburg the Union army went into winter quarters at Falmouth, only a few miles away, while the Confederates took up their encampment for the winter at Fredericksburg.
General Joseph Hooker, who was popularly known as "Fighting Joe Hooker," had succeeded General Burnside in command of the Army of the Potomac, which numbered about 130,000 men, while that of the Confederates numbered about 60,000.
Hooker conceived the idea to divide his army and leave Sedgwick with about 40,000 men to make a feint upon the Confederates, stationed about Fredericksburg, and himself with the remainder of the army to move around Lee's army and take a position at Chancellorsville, a small place in a wilderness country only a few miles from Fredericksburg, and by doing this, take Lee by surprise. These plans of Hooker have been considered by war historians as being well laid if they had been carried out. Lee was on the alert, and had heard of Hooker's plans, and was not to be caught in the trap. Lee, paying little attention to Sedgwick, east of Fredericksburg, had turned to face Hooker. By rapid night marches he met Hooker's army before it reached its destination. His advance columns were pushed back by the Federals, who succeeded in taking the position which was assigned to them, Meade on the left and Slocum on the right, with adequate support in the rear. All was in readiness and had favorable positions when, to the amazement of all the officers, Hooker ordered the whole army to fall back to the position it had occupied the day before, thereby leaving the advantage with Lee, who moved his forces up to the positions which the Federals evacuated and began feeling the Federal lines with some cannonading during the evening of May 1st.
The Confederates were in extreme danger, having one large army in their front and another almost as large as theirs in their rear near Fredericksburg. But Lee decided to make one great and decisive blow at Hooker in front. During the night of May 1st Lee held council with "Stonewall" Jackson and accepted a plan laid out by him for Jackson to take part of the army and move around through the dense wood and rough country and fall upon the right flank of the enemy.
Early on the morning of May 2d the cannonading began its death-song and the infantry was brought into action. Before long Jackson began, with a portion of the army, to move off the field, and Hooker, observing this, believed that Lee's army was in full retreat on Richmond. This movement proved to be the undoing of Hooker's army, as Jackson was making for his right flank. It was about five o'clock in the afternoon when Jackson broke from the woods in a charge upon the unsuspecting troops of Hooker's right which was under Howard.
The approach of Jackson's forces was first intimated to the Federals by the bending of shrubbery, the stampede of rabbits and squirrels, and the flocks of birds in wild flight from the woods. First appeared a few skirmishers, then the rattling of musketry and the incessant roar of cannon. On the Confederates came in their impetuous charge. The charge was so unexpected and terrific that they carried everything before them. The Federal lines were swept as by tidal waves and rolled up like a scroll.
This crowning and final stroke of Jackson's military genius was the result of his own carefully worked-out plan, which had been approved by Lee.
General Hooker was spending the evening at his headquarters at the Chancellor House, rejoicing, as he thought, that Jackson was in full retreat and everything appeared to be going well. Presently the roar of battle became louder and louder on his right and an officer came up at full speed to notify him that his right was being fiercely attacked, was giving away, and would soon be in utter rout. Hooker made haste to the scene of battle and passed through brigade after brigade of his forces in retreat and confusion.
He was successful in having Berry re-form his division and charge the Confederates with fixed bayonets, which partly stopped the Confederates' advance. This gave the Federal artillery a few minutes to prepare itself for action. They finally succeeded in stopping the Confederate advance.
The mighty turmoil was silenced as darkness gathered. The two hostile forces were concealed in the darkness watching each other. Finally, at midnight, the order, "Forward!" was given in subdued tones to Sickle's corps. They stealthily advanced upon the Confederate position and at heavy loss gained the position sought for.
Between Hooker's and Sedgwick's divisions of the army stood the Confederate army flushed with the victory of the day, immediately in front of Sedgwick was Fredericksburg, beyond which loomed Marye's Heights, strongly guarded by Washington's artillery of the Confederates. These Heights were the battleground of a few months before when Burnside tried in vain to drive the Confederates from their crest.
Shortly after midnight Sedgwick began his march against Marye's Heights that was fraught with peril and death. At the foot of the slope were the stone wall and the sunken road, which was the battleground of a few months before in the battle of Fredericksburg. The crest and slopes bristled with Confederate cannon and musket. Sedgwick made his attack directly upon the stone wall in the face of a terrible storm of artillery and musketry. The first assault failed, but the second met with more success, as they succeeded in driving the Confederates from their strong position at the point of the bayonet by their overwhelming numbers. Sedgwick pushed on to attack Lee in the rear, but Lee was aware of his advance and dispatched General Early with a strong force to hold him in check and thus prevent his juncture with Hooker's army at Chancellorsville. Lee's army and that of Hooker's had been engaged since early morning in deadly combat.
While this engagement was at its height General Hooker, while leaning against a pillar on the porch of the Chancellor House, was stunned and felled to the ground and for some time it was thought that he was killed. This was done by a cannon ball, which shattered the pillar against which he was leaning. This injury incapacitated Hooker from active service the balance of the day and he gave orders for his army to retire, which was reluctantly done by his subordinate officers. When his columns began to retire from the field the Confederates increased their artillery fire, which played upon the retreating columns in blue. This fire marked the doom of the old Chancellor House, where Hooker had headquarters. The brick walls were pierced through by cannon balls and shells exploded in the upper rooms, setting the building on fire. Fragments of the demolished chimneys rained down upon the wounded in the lower rooms.
During the entire day's battle there were nineteen women and children, including some slaves, in the cellar where they had taken refuge. They were all removed before the complete destruction of the house by fire.
The long, deep trenches, full of Federal and Confederate dead, told the awful story of Chancellorsville. This scene will never be forgotten by the survivors of the battle. This was one of the greatest battles yet fought on the American Continent, and has gone down in history as being one of the greatest of modern times.
The Union loss was about 17,000, while that of the Confederates was about 13,000.
Late in the evening of the first day's battle General "Stonewall" Jackson was mortally wounded, in which the South suffered incalculable loss. After his brilliant flank march and the evening attack on Hooker's army had been driven home, at half-past eight, Jackson had ridden beyond his lines to reconnoiter for the final advance. By the sudden fire of musketry in his front, he discovered that he was within the enemy's lines. His party, suddenly turning back and riding at full speed, was mistook by his own men for the enemy, and his men, firing a volley of musketry, killed and wounded several of Jackson's party and mortally wounded Jackson by two shots in the left arm and one in his right hand. He was taken from his horse by the officers who were with him, among whom was A. P. Hill. It was found that there was no immediate conveyance for him to be carried within his lines. Presently the enemy discovered the commotion and mistaking it as an advance of the Confederate lines, began to shell the immediate vicinity with grape and canister, which necessitated the party with Jackson to lie down to escape the shower of lead which poured over them. The scene about them was an awful one. The air was pierced by the shrieks of shells and the cries of the wounded. Finally a stretcher was secured and Jackson was carried to the rear. One of the bearers was shot down and his place was taken by another. During the turmoil General W. D. Pender was met, who expressed the fear that his lines must fall back. General Jackson, in a clear voice, "You must hold your ground, General Pender; you must hold your ground to the last, sir." This was his last order to a subordinate officer.
It was first thought that Jackson's wounds would not prove fatal, but he developed pneumonia and gradually grew worse, and on the morning of May 10th it was apparent that he had only a few hours to live; at times he was unconscious and his mind apparently wandered on previous battlefields. During one of his unconscious moments he suddenly cried out, "Order A. P. Hill to prepare for action. Pass the infantry to the front!"
He then became silent and weak, and his last words were: "Let us cross over the river and rest in the shade of the trees."
When Lee heard that Jackson had fallen he said: "Any victory would be dear at such a price." It is thought by many that the result at Gettysburg would have been different had "The Great Flanker" lived to have been there. Henderson, the British war historian, said the fame of "Stonewall" Jackson is no longer the exclusive property of Virginia and the South; it has become the birthright of every man privileged to call himself an American.
Vicksburg, often called "The Gibraltar of the West," is situated on the east bank of the Mississippi River, where the river makes a great bend and the east bank of the same makes up from the river in a bluff about 200 feet.
Here at Vicksburg about 100,000 men and a powerful fleet of many gunboats and ironclads for forty days and nights fought to decide whether the Confederate states should be cut in twain; whether the great river should flow free to the gulf.
The Confederate cannon, situated on the high bluff along the river front at Vicksburg, commanded the waterway for miles in either direction, while the obstacles in the way of a land approach were almost equally insurmountable.
The object of the Federal army was to gain control of the entire course of the river that it might, in the language of President Lincoln, "Roll unvexed to the sea," and to separate the Confederate states so as to hinder them from getting supplies and men for their armies from the southwest.
The great problem of the Federals was how to get control of Vicksburg. This great question was left to General Grant to work out.
In June, 1862, the Confederates, under General Van Dorn, numbering 15,000 men, occupied and fortified Vicksburg. Van Dorn was a man of great energy. In a short time he had hundreds of men at work planting batteries, digging rifle-pits, mounting heavy guns and building bomb-proof magazines. All through the summer the work progressed and by the coming of winter the city was a veritable Gibraltar.
In the last days of June the combined fleet, under Farragut and Porter, arrived below the Confederate stronghold. They had on board about 3,000 troops and a large supply of implements required in digging trenches. The engineers conceived the idea of cutting a new channel for the Mississippi through a neck of land on the Louisiana side opposite Vicksburg and thereby change the course of the river and leave Vicksburg high and dry.
While General Williams was engaged in the task of diverting the mighty river across the peninsula Farragut stormed the Confederate batteries with his fleet, but failed to silence Vicksburg's cannon guards. He then determined to dash past the fortifications with his fleet, trusting to the speed of his vessels and the stoutness of their armor to survive the tremendous cannonade that would fall upon them.
Early on the morning of June 28th his vessels moved forward and after several hours of terrific bombardment with the loss of three vessels, passed through the raging inferno to the waters above Vicksburg.
Williams and his men, including 1,000 negroes, labored hard to complete the canal, but a sudden rise in the river swept away the barriers with a terrific roar and many days of labor went for naught. This plan was at length abandoned and they all returned with the fleet during the last days of July to Baton Rouge, and Vicksburg was no more molested until the next spring.
In October General John C. Pemberton, a Philadelphian by birth, succeeded Van Dorn in command of the Confederate forces at Vicksburg. General Grant planned to divide the army of the Tennessee, Sherman taking part of it from Memphis down the Mississippi on transports while he would move overland with the rest of the army and coöperate with Sherman before Vicksburg. But the whole plan proved a failure, through the energies of Van Dorn and others of the Confederate army in destroying the Federal lines of communication.
Sherman, however, with an army of about 32,000 men, left Memphis on December 20th, and landed a few days later some miles above Vicksburg, and on the 29th made a daring attack on the Confederate lines at Chickasaw Bayou, and suffered a decisive repulse with a loss of 2,000 men.
Sherman now found the northern pathway to Vicksburg impassable and withdrew his men to the river, and, to make up triple disaster to the Federals, General Nathan Forest, one of the brilliant Confederate cavalry leaders, with 2,500 horsemen, dashed through the country west of Grant's army, tore up many miles of railroad and destroyed all telegraph lines and thus cut off all communication of the Federals.
In the meantime General Van Dorn pounced upon Holly Springs, capturing the guard of 1,500 men and burning Grant's great store of supplies, estimated to be worth a million and a half dollars, thus leaving Grant without supplies, and for many days without communication with the outside world. It was not until about the middle of January that he heard, through Washington, of the defeat of Sherman at Chickasaw Bayou.
Grant changed his plan of attack and decided to move his army below Vicksburg and approach the city from the south. Another plan was to cut a channel through the peninsula opposite Vicksburg and again try the project of changing the bed of the Mississippi so as to leave Vicksburg some miles inland. For six weeks thousands of men worked on this ditch; early in March the river began to rise and on the morning of the 8th it broke through the embankments and the men had to run for their lives. Many horses were drowned and great numbers of implements submerged. The "Father of waters" had put a decisive veto on the project, and the same was abandoned.
On the night of April 16th Porter ran past the batteries of Vicksburg with his fleet after days of preparation. They left their station near the mouth of the Yazoo about nine o'clock. Suddenly the flash of musketry fire pierced the darkness. A storm of shot and shell was rained upon the passing vessels. The water of the river was lashed into foam by the shot and shell from the batteries. The gunboats answered with their cannon. The air was filled with flying missiles. The transport, Henry Clay, caught fire and burned to the water's edge. By three in the morning the fleet was below the city and ready to coöperate with Grant's army.
Grant's army at that time numbered about 43,000 men, and he decided to make a campaign into the interior of Mississippi while waiting for General Banks from Baton Rouge to join him. The Confederate army under Pemberton numbered about 40,000, and about 15,000 more Confederates were at Jackson, Miss., under command of General Joseph E. Johnston. It was against Johnston's army that Grant decided to move. Johnston, on being attacked by Grant, fell back from Jackson and took a position on Champion's Hill, where a hard battle was fought in which the Confederates were greatly outnumbered and gave way in confusion. Part of Pemberton's army had arrived and was engaged in this battle. Pemberton retreated towards Vicksburg, closely followed by Grant, and several short engagements between the two armies took place on the road to Vicksburg. The Federal army now invested the city, occupying the surrounding hills. Around the doomed city gleamed the thousands of bayonets of the Union army. The city was filled with soldiers and the citizens of the country who had fled there for refuge and were now penned in.
On May 22d Grant ordered a grand assault by his whole army. The troops, flushed with their victories of the last few days, were eager for the attack. It is said that his columns were made up with his taller soldiers in front and the second in stature in the next line, and so on down, so as to save exposure to the fire of the enemy.
At the appointed time the order was passed down the line to move forward, and the columns leaped from their hiding places and started on their disastrous march in the face of a murderous fire from the defenders of the city, only to be mowed down by the sweeping fire from the Confederate batteries. Others came, crawling over the bodies of their fallen comrades, but at every charge they were met by the missiles of death. Thus it continued hour after hour until the coming of darkness. The assault had failed and the Union forces retired within their entrenchments before the city. This is considered as one of the most brave and disastrous assaults of the war.
The army now settled down to the wearisome siege, and for six weeks they encircled the city with trenches, approaching nearer and nearer to the defending walls. One by one the defending batteries were silenced. On the afternoon of June 25th a redoubt of the Confederate works was blown up with a mine. When the same exploded the Federals began to dash into the opening, only to meet with a withering fire from an interior parapet which the Confederates had constructed in the anticipation of this event.
Grant was constantly receiving reënforcements, and before the end of the siege his army numbered 70,000.
Day and night the roar of artillery continued without ceasing. Shrieking shells from Porter's fleet rose in grand curves, either bursting in midair or on the streets of the city, spreading havoc in all directions.
The people of the city burrowed into the ground for safety, their walls of clay being shaken by the roaring battles that raged above the ground. The supply of food became scarcer day by day, and by the end of June the entire city was in a complete famine. They had been living for several days upon corn meal, beans and mule meat, and were now facing their last enemy, death by starvation.
At ten o'clock on the morning of July 3d the firing ceased and a strange quietness rested over all. Pemberton had opened negotiations with Grant for the capitulation of the city. It is strange to say that on this very day the final chapter at Gettysburg was being written.
On the following morning Pemberton marched his 30,000 men out of the city and surrendered them as prisoners of war. They were released on parole.
This was the largest army ever surrendered at one time.
Our colonial fathers from North and South fought together when they brought this republic into being, defended it together in the war of 1812, and triumphed together when they carried the Stars and Stripes into the heritage of the Montezumas. The final and crucial test of the republic's strength and durability was the combat on the field of battle in the war between the states. The battle of Gettysburg is conceded to be the turning point in that war. Abraham Lincoln said in his Gettysburg address, in November, 1863: "This nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, is now engaged in a great civil war, testing whether this nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure."
The great question of that day was the question of state rights and relationship between state and federal government.
It had now come to the point where it could not be determined in the councils of peace, although the illustrious Henry Clay and other statesmen of his day had been the means of successfully deferring from time to time this crisis for almost a half century.
Gettysburg is a small, quiet town among the hills of Adams county, in southeastern Pennsylvania, and in 1863 contained about 1,500 inhabitants. It had been founded by James Gettys in about 1780. He probably never dreamed that his name, thus given to the village, would become famous in history for all time.
The hills around Gettysburg are little more than general swells of ground, and many of them were covered with timber when the legions of the North and South fought out the destinies of the republic on those memorable July days in 1863.
Lee's army was flushed with the victories of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, and public opinion was demanding an invasion of the North.
Lee crossed the Potomac early in June, after leaving General Stuart with his cavalry and a part of Hill's corps to prevent Hooker from pursuing. He began to concentrate his army around Hagerstown, Md., and prepare for a campaign in Pennsylvania. His army was organized into three corps under the respective commands of Longstreet, Ewell and A. P. Hill. Lee had driven his army so as to enter Pennsylvania by different routes, and to assess the towns along the way with large sums of money. In the latter part of June Lee was startled by the information that Stuart had failed to detain Hooker, and that the Federals were in hot pursuit. He soon conceived that the two armies must soon come together in a mighty death struggle, which meant that a great battle must be fought, a greater battle than this western world has heretofore known, which is claimed by historians as being one of the decisive battles of the world.
The Army of the Potomac had changed leaders, and George Gordon Meade was now its commander, having succeeded Hooker on June 28th. Thus for the third time the Army of the Potomac in ten months had a new commander.
The two great armies were scattered over portions of Maryland and southern Pennsylvania. Both were marching northward along parallel lines, the Federals endeavoring to stay between Lee's army and Washington. It was plain that they must soon come together in a gigantic conflict; but just where the shock of battle was to take place was yet unknown.
Meade sent General Buford in advance with 4,000 cavalry to intercept the Confederate advance guard.
On the night of June 30th Buford encamped on a hill a mile west from Gettysburg, and here on the following morning the great battle had its beginning.
On the morning of July 1st the two armies were still well scattered, the extremes forty miles apart. General Reynolds, with two corps of the Union army was but a few miles away and was hastening to Gettysburg, while Longstreet and Hill were approaching from the west, with Hill's corps several miles in advance.
Buford opened battle against the advance division of Hill's corps under General Heth. Reynolds soon joined and the first day's battle was now in full progress. General Reynolds, while placing his troops in line of battle early in the day, received a death shot in the head by a Confederate sharpshooter. This was a great loss to the Federals, as he was one of the bravest and most able generals in the Union army. No casualty of the war brought more widespread mourning to the North than the death of General John F. Reynolds. But even this calamity did not stay the fury of the battle.
Early in the afternoon the Federals were heavily reënforced, and A. P. Hill had arrived on the field with the balance of his corps, and the roar of battle was unceasing. About the middle of the afternoon a breeze lifted the smoke from the field and revealed that the Federals were falling back towards Gettysburg. They were hard pressed by the Confederates and were pushed back through the town with the loss of many prisoners. The Federals took a position on Cemetery Hill and the first day's battle was over.
If the Confederates had known the disorganized condition of the Federal troops, they might have pursued and captured a large part of the army.
It is thought by many that if "Stonewall" Jackson had lived to be there that at this particular time is where he would have delivered his crushing blow to the Federals and no doubt would have changed the final result of the battle. Meade was still some miles from the field, but on hearing of the death of Reynolds sent General Hancock to take command until he himself should arrive.
The Union loss on the first day was severe. A great commander had fallen and they had suffered the fearful loss of 10,000 men.
Hancock arrived late in the afternoon, after riding at full speed. His presence brought an air of confidence, and his promise of heavy reënforcements all tended to inspire renewed hope in the ranks of the discouraged army.
Meade reached the scene late at night and chose to make this field the place of a general engagement. Lee had come to the same decision, and both called on their outlying legions to make all possible speed to Gettysburg. The night was spent in the marshaling of troops, getting position, planting artillery, and bands playing at intervals on the arrival of new divisions on the field.
General Gordon says that during the night the sound of axes and the falling of trees in the Federal entrenchments could plainly be heard, and that he became convinced during the night that by morning they would be so well fortified on Cemetery Hill that their position would be almost impregnable, and that he succeeded in getting a council of officers during the night to take under advisement a night attack on the enemy, but was told that General Lee had given orders that no further attack should be made until Longstreet arrived, and he had not yet arrived.
The dawn of July 2d broke into a beautiful summer day. Both armies hesitated to begin the battle and remained inactive until in the afternoon.
The fighting on that day was confined chiefly to the two extremes, leaving the center inactive. Longstreet commanded the Confederate right and the Union left was commanded by General Daniel E. Sickles, whose division lay directly opposite that of Longstreet. The Confederate left was commanded by General Richard Ewell, who succeeded to the command of this division after the death of "Stonewall" Jackson at Chancellorsville. While the Federal right, stationed on Culp's Hill was commanded by General Slocum.
Between these armies was a hollow into which the anxious farmers had driven and penned large numbers of cattle, which they thought would be a place of safety, and could not conceive that any battle could affect this place of refuge, but when the battle began and the stream of shells was directed against Round Top this place of refuge became a raging inferno of bursting shells.
There was a gate at the entrance of the local cemetery at Gettysburg that had written on it 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 at these words, for this gateway became the very center of the crudest use of firearms yet seen on this "terrestrial ball."
The plan of General Meade was to have General Sickles connect his division with that of Hancock and extend southward near the base of the Round Tops. Sickles found this ground, in his opinion, low and disadvantageous and advanced his division to higher ground in front, placing his men along the Emmettsburg road and back toward the Trostle farm and the wheat-field, thus forming an angle at the peach orchard, thus leaving this division alone in its position far in advance of the other Federal lines. This position taken by Sickles was in disobedience of orders from General Meade, and was considered by Meade, as well as President Lincoln, as being a great mistake, but General Sickles always maintained that he did right, and that his position was well taken.
Longstreet was quick to see this apparent mistake and marched his troops along Sickles' front entirely overlapping the left wing of the Union army. Lee gave orders to Longstreet to make a general attack, and the boom of his cannon announced the beginning of the second day's battle. The Union forces answered quickly with their batteries and the fight extended from the peach orchard along the whole line to the base of Little Round Top. The musketry opened all along the line until there was one continuous roar. Longstreet swept forward in a line or battle a mile and a half long. He pressed back the Union forces and for a time it looked as though the Federals would be routed in utter confusion.
At the extreme left, near the Trostle house, was stationed John Biglow, in command of a Massachusetts battery, with orders to hold his position at all hazards. He defended his position well, but was finally routed with great loss by overwhelming numbers. This attack was made by Longstreet again and again, and was one of the bloodiest spots on the field at Gettysburg.
The most desperate struggle of the day was to get possession of Little Round Top, which was the key to the whole battleground west and south of Cemetery Ridge. General Longstreet sent General Hood with his division to occupy it. The Federals, under General Warren, defended this position and were charged on by General Hood's division with fixed bayonets time after time, which finally became a hand-to-hand conflict, but the Confederates were pressed down the hillside at the point of the bayonet, and thus was ended one of the most severe hand-to-hand conflicts yet known.
Little Round Top was saved to the Union army, but the cost was appalling. The hill was covered with hundreds of the slain. Many of the Confederate sharpshooters had taken position among the crevasses of the rocks in the Devil's Den, where they could overlook the position on Little Round Top, and their unerring aim spread death among the Federal officers. General Weed was mortally wounded, and, as General Hazlett was stooping to receive his last message, a sharpshooter's bullet laid him dead across the body of his chief.
During this attack, and for some time thereafter, the battle continued in the valley below, where many thousands were engaged. Longstreet and Sickles were engaged in a determined conflict, and it was apparent to all engaged that a decisive battle was being fought, and they were making a determined effort. Sickles' line was being pressed back to the base of the hill. His leg was shattered by a bursting shell, while scores of his officers and thousands of his men lay on the field to dream of battlefields no more. The coming of darkness ended the struggle. This valley has been rightly called the "Valley of Death."
While this battle was going on in this part of the field another was being fought at the other extreme end of the lines. General Ewell was making an attack on Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill, held by Slocum, who had been weakened by the sending of a large portion of his corps to the assistance of General Sickles. Ewell had three divisions, two of which were commanded by Generals Early and Johnston. Early made the attack on Cemetery Hill, but was repulsed after a bloody and desperate hand-to-hand fight. Johnston's attack on Culp's Hill was more successful, but was at length repulsed after the Federals had been heavily reënforced.
Thus closed the second day's battle of Gettysburg. The harvest of death had been great. The Federal loss during the two days was about 20,000 men; the Confederate loss was nearly as great. The Confederates had gained an apparent advantage on Culp's Hill, but the Union lines, except as to this point, were unbroken.
On the night of July 2d Lee held council of war with his generals and decided to make a grand assault on Meade's center the following day. Against this decision Longstreet protested in vain, but Lee was encouraged by the arrival of Pickett's division and Stuart's cavalry, which had not yet been engaged. Meade had held council with his officers, and had come to a like decision to defend.
That night a brilliant July moon shed its luster upon the ghastly field, over which thousands of men lay unable to rise. With many their last battle was over, but there were great numbers of wounded who were calling for the kindly touch of a helping hand. Nor did they call wholly in vain. They were carried to the improvised hospitals where they were given attention. The dead were buried in unknown graves soon to be forgotten except by their loving mothers.
All through the night the Confederates were massing their artillery along Seminary Ridge. The disabled horses were being replaced by others. The ammunition was being replenished, and all was being made ready for their work of destruction on the morrow.
The Federals were diligently laboring in the moonlight arranging their batteries on Cemetery Hill. The coming of morning revealed the two parallel lines of cannon which signified too well the story of what the day would bring forth.
On the first day of July, 1863, Pickett's division was encamped near Chambersburg, Penn., about twenty miles from Gettysburg.
This division was composed of three brigades, commanded by Armistead, Garnett and Kemper. They had no intimation that they would be called on to take part in the battle that was going on at Gettysburg. They had been following up as the rear guard of the Army of Northern Virginia.