USA > Pennsylvania > Adams County > Gettysburg > Notes on the Rebel invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania and the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1st, 2d and 3d, 1863. > Part 3
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Scarcely had the tumult of battle ended on our left, when it was renewed on our right. Previous to that hour there had been some sharp fighting on this part of the line, for a short time, but it had ceased. Ewell, who, it is said, had sworn that he would take and hold, at all hazards, the hills east of the Baltimore turnpike, on which our right was resting, began to mass his men in that vicinity. Rhodes' division was hurried forward from the west end of the town to unite with Early's and Johnston's (then arrived from Carlisle), already near the scene
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of action, and at 7 P. M. Ewell was ready for the attack. Early attacked that portion of the Eleventh corps lying on the flank of the northeastern knob of Cemetery hill, and resting near a stone wall which extended southward from Houck's brick-yard, for the purpose of breaking our centre and capturing our guns. One portion moved obliquely across the brow of a hill, behind which they were lying, and came up in front of the wall, whilst another moved up a low valley stretching from Rock creek along the northern flank of Culp's hill. To the Louisiana Tigers was committed the perilous task of making the charge upon the guns. They dashed forward with furious determination, and, although they lost half their men in killed and wounded, some rushed over the wall up to the cannon, which were then too hot to be worked, and cried "surrender," but were beaten off by the gunners with clubs and stones. If they had been victorious in this charge, the battle would have been lost to us. But the enemy was successfully met, slaughtered in great numbers, and driven back with terrible loss. .
Ewell had directed a similar attack to be made, at the same time, against the Twelfth corps, in the rear of Culp's hill, through a valley leading up from Rock creek towards Spangler's spring. It is pos- sible that he may have known what force we had there to oppose him-he may have anticipated that, during the quiet of that vicinity, Meade had sent a portion of our men to support those who were pressed so fearfully on our left, and he consequently may have felt certain of an easy victory. Two divi-
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sions of the Twelfth corps formed our right flank west of Rock creek; the first, under General Wil. liams, was located near the creek, and the second, under General Geary, occupied Culp's hill. Only one brigade, the second, under General Greene, re- mained of Geary's division, the other two, the first and third, not having yet returned from the conflict on our left. The enemy came up under cover of the forest and approaching darkness, as if to the ac- complishment of an easy task. With desperate courage Green's brigade received them, literally covering the hills, in front of our works, with the wounded and dead. The scarred timber in the vicinity well attests the obstinacy and effectiveness with which our men fought. The enemy's loss was fearful-compared with ours, it was eight to one. In one of our regiments there was only one man wounded. Never did men fight with greater deter- mination to be the victors. From 7 to 91 P. M. the roar of musketry was continuous, and so terrible as to make the very earth quake.
But whilst General Greene succeeded, on his part of the line, in staying and hurling back the advan- cing columns of the enemy, that part near Span- gler's spring was left without adequate defence by the temporary withdrawal of the first and third bri- gades. There the Rebels were successful in cross- ing our works, and advancing to a point within a short distance of the Baltimore turnpike. This might have proved disastrous to us had it not oc- curred at so late an hour, and had they not been apprehensive of falling into a trap if they should
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advance further. With this exception, Thursday ended with decided advantages to the Union army. The enemy was finally repulsed on the left, and he met with heavy losses on both flanks, but especially in the last charges he had made on our right.
To us, however, who were at the time within the Rebel lines, the result seemed doubtful ; and gloomy forebodings filled our minds as we laid ourselves down to catch, if possible, a little sleep. The un- earthly yells of the exultant and defiant enemy had, during the afternoon, been frequently heard even amidst the almost deafening sounds of exploding cannon, of screaming and bursting shells, and of the continuous roar of musketry; and it seemed to us, judging from the character and direction of these mingled noises, that the enemy had been gaining essentially on our flanks. At about 6 p. M. it is true, we heard " cheering " different from that which had so often fallen dolefully upon our ears ; and some of the Rebels said to each other, "Listen ! the Yankees are cheering." But whilst this-which we afterwards found to have been the cheering of General Craw- ford's men, as they charged and drove the Rebels down the face of Little Round Top-afforded us a temporary encouragement, the movement of Rhodes' division, which we saw hurried forward on a "double- quick" for the purpose of uniting in a combined attack upon our right centre and flank, the incessant and prolonged musketry fire, and the gradual cessa- tion of the reports of our artillery on Cemetery hill, caused us to fear that our men had been badly beaten, ' and that our guns had either been captured or driven
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back from the advantageous position they had occu- pied. The battle ceased, and the outer world sank into "its usual repose;" but we lay down, not to sleep, but to indulge in sad and gloomy reflections. Intensely anxious to know, we had no means of finding out the relative condition of the two armies; and, "like drowning men," we were ready "to catch at straws."
The Rebels returned again to our street at 10 P. M., and prepared their supper; and soon we began to hope that all was not lost. Some of them expressed their most earnest indignation at the foreigners-the Dutchmen-for having shot down so many of their men. This led us to believe that the Eleventh corps, -of whom many were foreign Germans, and whom, on the previous evening, they tauntingly told us they had met at Chancellorville - had done their duty, and had nobly redeemed their character. We after- wards found the explanation of this indignation when we learned what had taken place that evening, on the eastern flank of Cemetery hill. Then again, soon after this, some were heard to say: "The Yankees have a good position, and we must drive them out of it to-morrow." This assured us that our men had been able to hold their position, and that our lines were unbroken. There seemed now to be an entire absence of that elation and boastfulness which they manifested when they entered the town on the even- ing of the 1st of July. Still later at night, one said to another, in tones of great earnestness, "I am very much discouraged," from which we learned that the results of the day were not in accordance with their
1
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high expectations, although they said, during the evening, they had been driving us on our right and our left.
Some time after supper, about midnight, nearly all of those who had returned to town, instead of lying down to sleep, moved eastward again to our right. Soon afterwards, some of those who remained as a guard, and for the purpose of plundering the houses and cellars of citizens, said to us, "To-mor- row, Longstreet, who just arrived this evening, and has not yet been in the fight, will give the Yankees something to do." Of course this was mere boasting, for two of Longstreet's divisions had been in position during the day, and McLaws' was active in the fight. Only Pickett's division had arrived during the evening.
There was some readjusting of their lines during the night. Pickett was placed to the left of Ander- son and to the right of Heath, and directly opposite our left centre ; and Rhodes moved his division, at 2 A. M., to join the rest of Ewell's corps on our right; so as to be ready, by the dawn of day, to improve the temporary advantage he had gained the evening before, and obtain possession of Culp's hill and then the Baltimore road. Thus massed, Ewell designed, like his predecessor, Stonewall Jackson, to throw his whole force upon and break our right. This was the work which it seems was assigned to him to do on Friday, the 3d of July ; whilst it was made the duty of Longstreet to perform a similar work on our left centre. Such was the Rebel programme for the morrow.
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FRIDAY, JULY 3.
On the previous evening, just as the fighting at Culp's hill had ceased, a portion of the Twelfth corps, which had been sent to the left to support Sickles, returned again to the right. During the night Shaler's brigade, of the third division of the Sixth corps, was transferred to the same vicinity, and to these was also added Lockwood's Maryland brigade. Such was the preparation on our part to resist the Rebel shock.
At the dawn of day our artillery opened upon the Rebels at the point where they had, on the previous evening, penetrated our lines. At sunrise this was followed by a general infantry attack. The battle raged furiously, and was maintained with desperate obstinacy on both sides. At eight o'clock there was a cessation for a short time; after which it was re- newed with increased earnestness. From 4} to 10} A. M., with terrible slaughter, our men pushed the enemy backward, until they drove them over our breastworks entirely broken to pieces. In this work of death, a battery of artillery placed on a hill to the right of the Baltimore turnpike, and some dis- tance south of the Cemetery, was found to have performed a prominent part. Shot and shell were thrown thence over the Twelfth corps, into the re- tiring enemy. The cannonading lasted for about an hour and a half. At 10} A. M., the fighting had nearly ceased on our right, after which it was not renewed on that part of the line. From 11 A. M. to 1 P. M. there was a perfect lull, each party apparently waiting
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to see what the other was about to do, and at what point the attack was to be made.
At seven minutes past 1 P. M., the awful and por- tentous silence was broken. Probably not less than 150 guns on each side belched forth the missiles of death, producing such a continuous succession of crashing sounds as to make us feel as if the very heavens had been rent asunder-such as were never equalled by the most terrific thunder-storm ever witnessed by mortal man. The air was filled with lines of whizzing, screaming, bursting shells and solid shot. The enemy had placed his guns on the hills near the Bonaughtown road, near the York road, near the Harrisburg road, and on the Seminary ridge along its whole line to a point beyond Round Top, so as to subject our artillery on Cemetery hill to a circle of cross fires, and to enable him to dis- mount and destroy them. By this means he hoped to break our front centre; but in this he was not successful.
During the day General Lee had reconnoitred our position from the College cupola - although, being a hospital, that edifice, by all principles of military honor, should have been free from every hostile use -and had come to the conclusion that our left centre was the weakest part of our lines. Anderson and McLaws had failed to turn our left flank on the previous evening ; Ewell had most signally failed in the morning to take Culp's hill and turn our right ; and now some other point must be assailed - that point was the position held by Hancock.
When 2} P. M. came, it witnessed a determined
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effort on the part of the enemy to accomplish this result, so important and desirable to him. At this time, Pickett's division of Longstreet's corps, con- sisting of the brigades of Garnett, Kemper, and Armistead, was seen to emerge from the wooded crest of the Seminary ridge, just to the south of McMillan's orchard, and to move in two long, dark, massive lines, over the plain towards our left centre. This division was supported on the left by Pettigrew's brigade of Heath's division, and on the right by Wright's and Wilcox's brigades of Anderson's divi- sion. When this mass of men had moved over about one-third of the space between the two opposing lines, our batteries, placed in a grove near Bryan's house, opened upon them, and threw shells and grape into the advancing column; now for a few moments they seemed to hesitate; then, with a ter- rific yell, they rushed forward. In a few moments a tremendous roar, proceeding from the simultaneous discharge from 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 horse- back, 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 con- templating the scene with evident amazement, and
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riding rapidly towards the Seminary ridge. Our men having quietly waited until the Rebels came to the Emmittsburg road, poured a deadly fire into them, and cut them down like grass before the mower's scythe. The rank and file had been made to believe that they were making this charge upon the Penn- sylvania militia; but their delusion was now broken, and in surprise they exclaimed, "The Army of the Potomac !" But still they pressed onward. General - Gibbon had ordered his men to fall back, to enable the artillery to use grape. The enemy came up to the cannon's mouth, and were blown away or cut down by hundreds. Seeing them waver, General Webb cried out, "Boys, the enemy is ours !" and his bri- gade rushed upon them and captured 800 prisoners; Stannard's brigade took as many more; and still others were captured, swelling the number of pris- oners to 3,500. Fifteen stands of colors were taken. So sudden and complete was the slaughter and cap- ture 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. In this charge, two of our Gen- erals, Hancock and Gibbon, were wounded. Of the Rebels, Kemper was seriously wounded, Armistead mortally, and Garnett was killed.
But whilst these things were in progress, we must not suppose that the enemy was inactive on his ex- treme right. He showed considerable signs of vigor
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opposite Little Round Top. Hood's division was trying all the afternoon what success they might meet with in driving our men from that strong- hold and turning our flank. To complete our vic- tory on our whole line, the Pennsylvania Reserves were called upon to make a charge upon a battery which the enemy had been using to annoy them, placed on the hill just in front, and from which they had been driven the evening before. Our men took the battery, 300 prisoners, and 5000 stand of arms, and drove the enemy half a mile beyond the line they had occupied during the day. This took place about 5 P. M., and with it ended the battle of Gettysburg.
At that time the enemy began to exhibit signs of uneasiness and fear. They gathered up the wounded and sent them to the rear as fast as possible. They now feared that our men would make a dash upon them, a thing for which they evidently had no very great relish. They said to us, "The Yankees in- tend, this evening, to charge upon us in the streets;" and when asked upon what authority they spoke, they only answered that they knew that such was to be the case, being evidently influenced by their fears. Apprehensive of such a result, they took a hasty supper, and, about midnight, formed in two ranks, and were under arms, as if awaiting a charge.
The third day closed, leaving them in a condition far different from that in which they entered the town on the evening of the first. They came in exultant, and flushed with victory. They were in a good fighting condition; had an easy day's work; had
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killed, wounded and captured many of our men, and had lost a far smaller number of their men; and there were as yet only two of our corps to oppose them. The first was the day of their triumph ; the second ended without securing them any decided advantage -it was rather ominous of disaster, yet they were hopeful; but the third closed, leaving them repulsed at every point, not only showing the futility of any further attempt to carry any portion of our lines, or of doing us any serious damage, but the probability of a disastrous result, should our men, as they feared, act on the offensive.
Lee could therefore do no better than hastily remove Ewell's division from its exposed position in the town and the hills southeast of it, under cover of which he lay, and place them behind his defences
on the Seminary ridge. Accordingly, by 3 A. M. of the 4th, all the Rebels had been withdrawn from the town and placed in the rear of that ridge, where, during the day, they occupied some time in strengthening their breastworks and preparing for an assault. This was, however, no doubt done as a precautionary measure, to enable their rear, if neces- sary, to make an obstinate resistance, while the main body of the army was retreating. In fact, there is sufficient evidence that Lee's retreat began soon after the night of the 3d had set in, and that he was hurrying his wounded, his stores, his ammu- nition and wagon train forward all night and all Saturday (the 4th) by the two roads leading to the Cumberland Valley ; the one by the Cham- bersburg turnpike, as far as to Greenwood, and
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thence towards Waynesboro'; and the other, directly towards the latter point and Hagerstown. After the experience of Friday, the 3d, the retreat from Gettysburg and from the presence of General Meade's army became to General Lee a military necessity ; and as Sunday dawned upon us, only a few Rebel pickets remained in this region of coun- try, unless we except the multitudes of stragglers from his army, and a larger number of his wounded, which were literally emptied out of his wagons into farm-houses and barns in his hasty retreat.
This battle of three days will compare, in magni- tude and far-reaching consequences, with any of the great battles of modern times. In the battle of Waterloo, the Allies had 72,000, the French 80,000 men; in this the Rebels had 90,000, the Federals about 60,000 men. The British had 186 cannon, the French 252; the Rebels had upwards of 200, and we an equal number. The Allies lost 20,000 in killed and wounded; the French 40,000 in killed, wounded, prisoners and deserters ; the Federals lost about 4,000 killed, 12,000 wounded, and 4,000 pri- soners, or, in all, about 20,000; whilst the Rebels lost 5,500 killed, 21,000 wounded, 9,000 prisoners, and 4,000 stragglers and deserters, or a total of about 40,000. The proportion of men and of losses, in both battles, is nearly the same. The battle of Waterloo resulted in effectually crushing the power of Napoleon and the grinding despotism that he was exercising over Europe. It broke to pieces that army in whose track followed desolation and famine, and whose final triumph must have resulted in the
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destruction of all the then existing governments of the civilized world. The battle of Gettysburg re- sulted, first, in checking the progress and then in destroying the power of a well-disciplined and de fiant army, which had come to the North for the express purpose of robbery and of spreading terror and desolation in its track, and, by the capture of Baltimore and Washington, of dictating to us the most humiliating terms of peace. The sway of Napoleon over subject Europe would not have been more tyrannical and destructive of the vital interests of the people, than would have been the establish- ment, by a decisive victory of Lee, of an overbearing slave-power as a controlling influence in our coun- try. The fall of Vicksburg and of Port Hudson, which followed immediately after the battle of Get- tysburg, though of the highest importance to the country, is, nevertheless, not equal in its influence to the breaking of the power of an army which was striking a blow at the heart of the nation. In the defeat, therefore, of Lee the corner-stone of that fabric, which the rebellion sought to erect on human bondage and the distinction of the races of men, which God has made of one blood, is crushed to pieces, and the bright days of a happy future loom up before our vision, when we shall once more be a united and prosperous people.
THE END.
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