USA > Pennsylvania > Martial deeds of Pennsylvania, Vol. 1 > Part 28
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The brigades of Wilcox and Perry, as already noticed, thrown off to the right, failing to move with Pickett's division, having sheltered themselves for the moment, no sooner saw that Pickett had gone forward and penetrated the Union line than they moved up to assault farther to the south. The Union guns
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opened upon them; yet they kept on until they had reached a point within a few hundred, yards of the front. But now Stan- nard was again in position to do great damage upon the flank of the passing column. Ordering the Sixteenth and a part of the Fourteenth into line again at right angles to the main line, but now facing south, he attacked upon the exposed flank. The enemy made but feeble resistance, a large number being taken prisoners, and the rest saving themselves by flight.
Thus ended the grand charge, perhaps as determined, deliber- ate, and impetuous as was ever made on this continent. It was undertaken in the confident anticipation of success and hope of victory. : It resulted in the almost utter annihilation of this fine body of men, with no advantage whatever to the assailants. As an example of the futility, and at the same time the accuracy of their fire, it may be stated as an observation of the writer, made soon after the battle, that the splashes of the leaden bullets upon the shelving rock and the low stone wall along its very edge, and behind which were Hancock's men, for a distance of half a mile, were so thick, that one could scarcely lay his hand upon any part of either the wall or the rock without touching them. All this ammunition was of course thrown away, not one bullet in a thousand reaching its intended victim.
The field where this charge was made was of such a character, and so situated, that the greater part of both armies, as well as the population of the town, could behold it. When the terrible preliminary cannonade was in progress, the gravest apprehensions must have been excited in every Union breast; for, while the rebel infantry were all out of harm's way, the Union infantry were in the very mouth of it. But if apprehensions were aroused by the cannonade, what must have been the dismay inspired by the sight of the terribly compacted force which followed it? How with bated breath did each await the issue? The view from many parts of the town was perfect, and the progress of the charge was followed with eager gaze. Dr. Humphrey, surgeon of the Buck- tail (Stone's) brigade, remained with the wounded on the field of the first day's conflict, and was a prisoner during the second and third days of the battle. He was assigned to duty in a hospital established at the Catholic church, situated on the very summit
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of the hill on which the town of Gettysburg is built. A rebel Major, who was in charge of the hospital, had been jubilant over what he believed were triumphs of his army in the first and second days of the battle. Everything was represented to be moving on most gloriously for his side. Sickles' corps, and all that had been sent to his help, had been completely demolished and driven out of sight, according to his representations. The Doctor had no means of knowing anything to the contrary, other than that the fire of the Union guns indicated them to be now substantially where they were at the first. It is probable that the rebel file actually believed that they were gaining ground, and that they would ultimately carry the day. They admitted, however, that the Yankees had a good position, and were making a fair fight.
When the great cannonade and grand charge came to be delivered on the afternoon of the third day by Pickett's division, so elated was this rebel Major, that he invited Dr. Humphrey up into the belfry of the church to witness it. The prospect here was unsurpassed. Round Top and the Peach Orchard were in full view, and all the intermediate space, disclosing the Union and rebel lines throughout nearly their whole extent. When the awful cannonade had ceased, and the infantry in three lines with skirmishers and wings deployed, stretching away for a mile and a half, and moving with the precision of a grand parade, came on, the spectacle was transcendently magnificent. At sight of that noble body of men the joy and exultation of the rebel Major knew no bounds. " Now you will see the Yanks run." "What can stand before such an assault?" "I pity your poor fellows, but they will have to get out of the way now." "We shall be in Bal- timore before to-morrow night," and exclamations of similar im- port were constantly uttered as he rubbed his hands in glee, and danced about the narrow inclosure. With measured tread the lines went forward. They came under fire of the artillery. They staggered, but quailed not. They met the storm of the infantry, but still they swept on. As the work became desperate, the Major grew silent; but manifested the deepest agitation. Great drops of perspiration gathered on his brow, and when, finally, that grand body of men went down in the fight, and were next
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to annihilated, with a storm of black rage depicted on his counte- nance, he left the belfry without uttering a word. So desperate had he become that the Doctor says he dared not speak to him, though his inclination to cheer was almost beyond control.
" As our eye," says Professor Jacobs, who also watched the charge from the town, "runs over these grounds, we can yet call vividly to mind the appearance of this fan-shaped mass, as we saw it on the day of battle, moving over towards our line, with the intention of penetrating it, like a wedge, and reaching our rear. . In a few moments a tremendous roar, proceeding from the simultaneous discharge of thousands of muskets and rifles, shook the earth; then, in the portion of the line nearest us, a few, then more, and then still more rebels, in all to the number of about two hundred, were seen moving backwards towards the point from which they had so defiantly proceeded; and at last two or three men carrying a single battle-flag, which they had saved from capture, and several officers, on horseback, followed the fugitives. The wounded and dead were seen strewn amongst the grass and grain; men with stretchers stealthily picking up and carrying the former to the rear; and officers for a moment contemplating the scene with evident amazement, and riding rapidly towards the Seminary Ridge. . . . So sudden and com- plete was the slaughter and capture of nearly all of Pickett's men, that one of his officers who fell wounded amongst the first on the Emmittsburg road, and who characterized the charge as foolish and mad, said that when, in a few moments afterwards, he was enabled to rise and look about him, the whole division had disappeared as if blown away by the wind."
The victory here was signal and complete; and it was gained at a much less cost in killed and wounded than were many of the operations on other parts of the field. Generals Hancock and Gibbon were wounded, but not seriously. Of Pickett's three brigade commanders, Armistead was mortally wounded, and left in the Union lines; Kemper was severely wounded; and Garnett was killed. Fourteen of his field officers, including Williams, Mayo, Callcott, Patton, Otey, Terry, Hunton, Allen, Ellis, Hodges, Edmunds, Aylett, and Magruder, were either killed or wounded, only one of that rank escaping unhurt.
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- General Lee had confidently counted on success in this final conflict, and so sure was he that the Union army would be put to rout that he sent out his cavalry well supported by infantry, upon both flanks, to fall upon its rear and intensify the confusion. But the Union cavalry were on the alert, and ready to receive them. General David McM. Gregg upon the right, at the moment the artillery fire slackened on the front and Pickett began his charge, discovered the enemy's cavalry, under Hamp- ton, advancing on the Bonaughtown road, with the evident intent of forcing its way through and gaining the Union flank and rear. The Third Pennsylvania cavalry was upon the skir- mish line, and first felt the shock. Gregg's main line was well in hand; and when the skirmishers, after a brave resistance, were driven in, he met Hampton, who charged in close column of squadrons, with Custar's Michigan brigade-his Wolverines, as Custar termed them-while the skirmishers rallied and charged upon his flanks. The enemy started with drawn sabres; but according to their individual habits, many dropped them and took their pistols, while the Union men used the sabre alone. After a hard fight, in part hand to hand, the rebels were driven back with severe loss. A more skilful or triumphant sabre charge is rarely witnessed.
While this was passing on the right, a no less stubborn, but far more daring and desperate engagement was in progress on the Union left. Kilpatrick had been sent early to operate upon that wing of the army, and had been busily engaged during most of the day, the enemy manifesting considerable activity in that direction. Finally, towards evening, when the clangor of battle upon the centre was at its height, Kilpatrick, aroused by the noise of the fray, ordered in the brigades of Farnsworth and Merritt. Robinson's brigade of Hood's division was upon the rebel front, well posted behind fences and rugged ground, and supported by the cavalry of Stuart; but Farnsworth, who led, charged with the sabre, driving the foe from his shelter, and pressed forward up to the very mouths of the rebel guns. Here Farnsworth was killed, and many of his officers and men were killed or wounded, and the line was compelled to fall back, sustaining severe losses. Merrit pressed from the Union left and
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made a gallant fight; but the rebel guns were too numerous and too well posted to be overcome, and Kilpatrick was obliged to call in his shattered ranks, and brace himself for any attempt of the enemy to follow and in turn become the assailants. The rebel column, however, by this time had little stomach for fur- ther offensive demonstrations.
A little later, and soon after the repulse of Pickett, McCandless' brigade of the Pennsylvania Reserves was ordered by Meade to advance from the stone wall behind which it had taken shelter on the evening previous, across the Wheatfield on its front, and drive out the enemy, who were annoying it. A gun upon the crest of an elevation a thousand yards distant had proved quite destructive, and to capture it McCandless manœuvred his com- mand. With little loss he seized the gun and two caissons by its side. The flag of the Fifteenth. Georgia, and three hundred prisoners were also taken, and six thousand muskets were collected.
But the enemy was now becoming thoroughly aroused to the peril of his situation, and having gathered in his forces, he retired to the line of Seminary Ridge, and fell to fortifying. He feared a countercharge by a heavy Union force, and made every prepara- tion to meet it.
General Meade, finding in the course of the artillery fire, that the enemy apparently had the range of his headquarters, moved over to Power's Hill, where he occupied the headquarters of General Slocum; but, soon after his arrival there, finding that the signal officer whom he had left at his old headquarters had abandoned it, and fearing that his staff would fail to find him, he returned. On the way back he could plainly distinguish by the sound, that the enemy's infantry charge was in progress. By the time he had reached his headquarters the battle was virtually decided, and the enemy repulsed. He accordingly rode up on to the crest of the ridge, and as he went, met the prisoners going to the rear, who had been captured in the fight.
There was some firing after he reached the summit, by which his own horse and that of his son were shot. It appears that as soon as the survivors of the assaulting column began to retire, the rebel artillery opened and delivered a hot fire, to cover the
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retirement of the troops, which was kept up for some moments, and it was from this that the General and his son lost their horses. Meade rode over to Little Round Top, where he ordered the advance of Crawford's troops for the purpose of preparing the way for an immediate assault. But in his testimony he says : "The great length of the line, and the time required to carry these orders out to the front, and the movement subsequently made before the report given to me of the condition of the forces in the front and left, caused it to be so late in the evening, as to induce me to abandon the assault which I had contemplated."
The enemy along his whole line showed signs of trepidation, and was undoubtedly apprehensive of an attack. In the town itself the rebel wounded were gathered up and sent to the rear as rapidly as possible. At midnight his troops were aroused and drawn up in two lines along the streets, where they stood under arms as if awaiting a charge. The position here, and indeed throughout the whole of Ewell's line, was weak and exposed. Lee, accordingly withdrew it, and by three o'clock on the morning of the 4th Ewell's entire corps had disappeared from Gettysburg, and had taken position on the Seminary heights. Here the men were put to work, and during the day heavy breastworks were erected. Indeed, the best and strongest fortifications constructed by either army on the Gettysburg field were those built by the enemy on this day between the Chambersburg and Mummasburg pikes, and those at the other extremity of the rebel line, where that line strikes the Emmittsburg road. The position along all this ridge, naturally defensible, was made secure.
Proclaim Liberty throughout the Land.
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CHAPTER XIV.
THE RETREAT OF LEE FROM GETTYSBURG. .
ENERAL LEE was now satisfied that a further attempt to maintain the contest would be fruitless, and consequently determined to yield to the inevi- table, and make good his retreat. And now was seen the great strategic advantage to him of the possession of Gettysburg; for he was able to con- trol the shortest routes to the Potomac. Had the Fairfield road been under the control of the Union army, Lee's retreat could have been cut off. But his army lying across the two shortest roads lead- ing to Williamsport, he was able to retire without the danger of serious interruption. In his report, Lee says : "Owing to the strength of the enemy's position, and the reduction of our ammunition, a renewal of the engagement could not be hazarded, and the difficulty of procuring supplies rendered it impossible to continue longer where we were. Such of the wounded as were in condition to be removed, and part of the arms collected on the field, were ordered to Williams- port. The army remained at Gettysburg during the 4th, and at night began to retire by the road to Fairfield." This was the most direct road. But the wounded who could bear transporta- tion were started back during the night of the 3d; and all day long of the 4th the two roads-the one by Fairfield and the other by Chambersburg, until the mountain was passed, and thence by Greenwood and Waynesborough-were incessantly filled with the trains.
As already noticed, Colonel Stone, of the Bucktail brigade, was wounded severely in the action of the first day, and fell into the enemy's hands. His Adjutant-General, Captain John E. Parsons,
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afterwards Colonel of the One Hundred and Eighty-seventh Pennsylvania regiment, unwilling to desert his bleeding chief, remained to care for him, and was also a prisoner. During the rest of the battle, he was kept under guard at a rebel hospital. In the following letter, he records the varying hopes and fears by which his bosom was swayed as the dreadful hours wore on, and points out the first intimations which he interpreted as evidence that victory had at last crowned the Union arms : "On the morning of the 2d of July," he says, "I obtained permission from the rebel General Hood, to move Colonel Stone, and to re- main with him. With the assistance of two soldiers, we carried him on a stretcher to a stone farmhouse, a half mile to the rear, and some 200 yards to the north of the Baltimore pike. We found the house deserted by the family, and in a sad condition ; portions of the floor torn up for plunder, the beds ripped open and feathers scattered over the house, and the hand of the spoiler visible on every side. We found a soldier of the Iron brigade in the house, mortally wounded. He died by our side that night.
" During the afternoon of the 2d, the house was taken posses- sion of by the Surgical corps of Hayes' brigade, 'Louisiana Tigers,' as their Brigade Hospital. The desperate charges made by this brigade, on the evening of the 2d, brought ambulance after am- bulance of their wounded to the hospital. I could gather nothing satisfactory from their surgeons or their wounded, as to the result of the day; but they were in good spirits, and appeared sanguine of success in the end. Some of the officers who were slightly wounded, said to me that they were certain of success, and had marked out on their pocket-maps the line of march to Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia, and New York. On the evening of the 3d, however, they seemed depressed in spirits, which first gave me the intimation of our victory. On the morning of the 4th, they commenced to haul to the rear all of their wounded that were able to be removed. Then I was satisfied that our army was victorious, and that the enemy was getting ready to retreat. When I asked some of the officers who were so sanguine only the day before, why they were hauling their wounded back, they said it was only to a place where water was more abundant. But their defeat was obvious on all sides. Depressed in spirits,
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and demoralized in manner, they hurriedly took their departure, and next morning at daylight, I found that the whole rebel army, except a light line of cavalry, had fled, leaving our hospital and the houses and barns about us filled with the worst of their wounded. By nine o'clock the cavalry line withdrew, concen- trated on the Chambersburg pike in front of our hospital, and took their departure, followed in a short time by our cavalry. Colonel Stone was taken in an ambulance to Gettysburg, and our surgeons took charge of the rebel wounded. Both the Colonel and myself were treated kindly by the surgeons and officers at the hospital. A portion of the rebel army passed our hospital in their retreat."
The condition of the rebel army was now such that its Com- mander's best efforts were required to save it. The great thor- oughfares on the direct line to Williamsport, it is true, were his, and by judicious dispositions and prompt action, he had a good prospect of bringing it off; but the longer he delayed, the more precarious his situation became ; for, while his own force was constantly dwindling, the Union army was in a fair way to re- ceive important accessions, the militia in the Cumberland Valley and at Harrisburg, and troops from the James being already on the way. General Imboden, who had been sent by Lee with his independent mixed command of cavalry and mounted infantry, for the destruction of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and had come up into Pennsylvania by the way of McConnellsburg, had arrived on the field at Gettysburg a little after noon of the 3d, at the moment when the last grand charge was in full tide. His men were fresh, and to him Lee called, and entrusted the re- moval of the wounded. Imboden has published an account of the doings of that night of horrors, in which he labored to carry back to Virginia such as could, and, though in a dying state, would be removed :
" When night closed upon the grand scene," he says, "our army was repulsed. Silence and gloom pervaded our camps. We knew that the day had gone against us, but the extent of the disaster was not known except in high quarters. The car- nage of the day was reported to have been frightful, but our army was not in retreat, and we all surmised that with to- morrow's dawn would come a renewal of the struggle; and we
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knew that if such was the case, those who had not been in the fight would have their full share in its honors and its dangers. All felt and appreciated the momentous consequences of final defeat or victory on that great field. These considerations made that, to us, one of those solemn and awful nights that every one who fought through our long war sometimes experienced before a great battle. Few camp fires enlivened the scene. It was a warm summer's night, and the weary soldiers were lying in groups on the luxuriant grass of the meadows we occupied, dis- cussing the events of the day, or watching that their horses did not straggle off in browsing around.
" About eleven o'clock a horseman approached and delivered a message from General Lee, that he wished to see me immediately. I mounted at once, and accompanied by Lieutenant McPhail of my staff, and, guided by the courier, rode about two miles toward Gettysburg, where half a dozen small tents on the roadside were. pointed out as General Lee's headquarters for the night. He was not there, but I was informed that I would find him with General A. P. Hill, half a mile further on. On reaching the place indicated, a flickering, solitary candle, visible through the open front of a common tent, showed where Generals Lee and Hill were seated on camp stools, with a county map spread upon their knees, and engaged in a low and earnest conversation. They ceased speaking as I approached, and after the ordinary salutations, General Lee directed me to go to his headquarters and wait for him. He did not return until about one o'clock, when he came riding along at a slow walk and evidently wrapped in profound thought. There was not even a sentinel on duty, and no one of his staff was about. The moon was high in the heavens, shedding a flood of soft silvery light, almost as bright as day, upon the scene. When he approached and saw us, he spoke, reined up his horse, and essayed to dismount. The effort to do so betrayed so much physical exhaustion that I stepped forward to assist him, but before I reached him he had alighted. He threw his arm across his saddle to rest himself, and fixing his eyes upon the ground, leaned in silence upon his equally weary horse, the two forming a striking group, as motionless as a statue. The moon shone full upon his massive
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features, and revealed an expression of sadness I had never seen upon that fine countenance before, in any of the vicissitudes of the war through which he had passed. I waited for him to speak until the silence became painful and embarrassing, when to break it, and change the current of his thoughts, I remarked in a sympathetic tone, and in allusion to his great fatigue:
"'General, this has been a hard day on you.'
" This attracted his attention. He looked up and replied mournfully :
"' Yes, it has been a sad, sad day to us,' and immediately relapsed into his thoughtful mood and attitude. Being unwilling again to intrude upon his reflections, I said no more. After a minute or two he suddenly straightened up to his full height, and turning to me with more animation, energy, and excitement of manner than I had ever seen in him before, he addressed me in a voice tremulous with emotion, and said :
"'General, I never saw troops behave more magnificently than Pickett's division of Virginians did to-day in their grand charge upon the enemy. And if they had been supported, as they were to liave been-but for some reason, not yet fully explained to me, they were not-we would have held the position they so glori- ously won at such a fearful loss of noble lives, and the day would have been ours.'
" After a moment he added in a tone almost of agony :
""'Too bad ! Too bad !! Oh! too bad !!! '
" I never shall forget, as long as I live, his language, and his manner and his appearance and expression of mental suffering. Altogether, it was a scene that a historical painter might well immortalize had one been fortunately present to witness it. In a little while he called up a servant from his sleep to take his horse ; spoke mournfully, by name, of several of his friends who had fallen during the day; and when a candle had been lighted. invited me alone into his tent, where, as soon as we were seated. he remarked : 'We must return to Virginia. As many of our poor wounded as possible must be taken home. I have sent for you, because your men are fresh, to guard the trains back to Vir- ginia. The duty will be arduous, responsible, and dangerous, for I am afraid you will be harassed by the enemy's cavalry. I can
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