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abandoned his scheme for further invasion, and ordered a
retrograde movement. On the same day, confederate
J. E. B. Stuart, with a large force of cavalry,
crossed the Potomac, pushed on to Westminster, at the right of the
Nationals, crossed over to Carlisle, encountering Kilpatrick and his
cavalry, and followed Ewell in his march towards Gettysburg.
Confederate General James Longstreet had
been ordered to cross the South Mountain range, and press on through
Gettysburg to Baltimore to keep
Meade from cutting
Lee's communications.
Lee
hoped to crush Meade, and then march in triumph on Baltimore and Washington;
or, in case of failure, to secure a direct line of retreat into Virginia.
Meanwhile Meade was pushing towards the Susquehanna with cautious movement,
and on the evening of June 30 he discovered
Lee's evident intention to give
battle at once. On the day before, Kilpatrick and
Custer's cavalry had
defeated some of Stuart's a few miles from Gettysburg. Buford's cavalry
entered Gettysburg; and on the 30th the left wing of Meade's army, led by
General Reynolds, arrived near there. At the same time the corps of
A. P. Hill and
James Longstreet were approaching from Chambersburg, and
Ewell was marching down
from Carlisle in full force. On the morning of July 1 Buford, with 6,000
cavalry, met the van of Lee's army, led by General Heth, between Seminary
Ridge (a little way from Gettysburg) and a parallel ridge a little farther
west, when a sharp skirmish ensued. Reynolds, who had bivouacked at Marsh
Creek, a few miles distant, was then advancing with his own corps, followed
by Howard's, having those of Sickles and
Slocum within call. The sound of
firearms quickened his pace, and he marched rapidly to the relief of Buford,
who was holding the Confederates in check. While Reynolds was placing some
of his troops on the Chambersburg road, the Confederates made an attack,
when a volley of musketry from the 56th Pennsylvania led by Col. J. W.
Hoffman, opened the decisive battle of Gettysburg. Meredith's " Iron
Brigade" then charged into a wood in the rear of the Seminary, to fall upon
Hill's right, under General Archer. The Nationals were pushed back, but
other troops, under the personal direction of Reynolds, struck Archer's
flank, and captured that officer and 800 of his men. At the moment when this
charge was made, the bullet of a Mississippi sharp-shooter pierced
Reynolds's neck, when he fell forward and expired.
General Doubleday had
just arrived, and took Reynolds's place, leaving his own division in charge
of General Rowley. Very soon the Mississippi brigade, under General Davis,
was captured, and at noon the whole of the 1st Corps, under General
Doubleday, was well posted on Seminary Ridge, and the remainder of Hill's
corps was rapidly approaching. |
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Howard's corps, animated by the sounds of
battle on its front, pressed rapidly forward, and reached the field of
strife at a little past noon. He left Steinwehr's brigade on Cemetery Hill,
placed General Schurz in temporary charge of the corps, and, ranking
Doubleday, took the chief command of all the troops in action. The
Confederate numbers were continually augmented, and, to meet an expected
attack from the north and west, Howard was compelled to extend the National
lines, then quite thin, about 3 miles, with Culp's Hill on the right, Round
Top on the left, and Cemetery Hill in the centre, forming the apex of a
redan. At about three o'clock in the afternoon there was a general advance
of the Confederates, and a terrible battle ensued, with heavy losses on both
sides. The Nationals were defeated. They had anxiously looked for
reinforcements from the scattered corps of the Army of the Potomac. These
speedily came, but not until the preliminary engagement in the great battle
of Gettysburg was ended. General Meade was at Taneytown, 13 miles distant,
when he heard of the death of Reynolds, and he ordered
General Hancock,
Howard's junior, to leave his corps with Gibbons and take the chief command
at Gettysburg. He arrived just as the beaten forces were hurrying towards
Cemetery Hill. He reported to Meade that he was satisfied with
Howard's
disposition of the troops. The latter had called early upon Slocum and
Sickles, and both promptly responded. Sickles joined the left of the troops
on Cemetery Hill that night. Hancock had gone back; and, meeting his own
corps, posted it a mile and a half in the rear of Cemetery Hill. Meade had
now given orders for the concentration of his whole army at Gettysburg, and
he aroused them at one o'clock in the morning of July 2, when only the corps
of Sykes and Sedgwick were absent.
Robert E. Lee, too, had been bringing forward his
troops as rapidly as possible, making his headquarters on Seminary Ridge. On
the morning of the 2nd a greater portion of the two armies confronted each
other. Both commanders seemed averse to taking the initiative of battle. The
Nationals had the advantage of position, their lines projecting in
wedge-form towards the Confederate centre, with steep rocky acclivities
along their front. It was late in the afternoon before a decided movement
was made. Sickles, on the left, between Cemetery Hill and Round Top,
expecting an attack, had advanced his corps well towards the heaviest
columns of the Confederates. Then Lee attacked him with
Longstreet's corps.
There was first a severe struggle for the possession of the rocky eminence
on Meade's extreme left, where Birney was stationed. The Nationals won.
Meanwhile there was a fierce contest near the centre, between Little Round
Top and Cemetery Hill.
BATTLE-GROUND OF LITTLE
ROUND TOP.
While yet there was strife for the former,
General Crawford, with six regiments of Pennsylvania reserves, swept down
its northwestern side with tremendous shouts, and drove the Confederates
through the woods to the Emmettsburg road, making 300 of them prisoners.
Generals Humphreys and Graham were then in an advanced position, the former
with his right on the Emmettsburg road, when Hill, advancing in heavy force
from Seminary Ridge, fell upon him and pushed him back, with a loss of half
his men and three guns. In this onset Sickles lost a leg, and Birney took
command of the corps. Elated by this success, the Confederates pushed up to
the base of Cemetery Hill and its southern slope, throwing themselves
recklessly upon supposed weak points. In this contest Meade led troops in
person. Finally Hancock, just at sunset, directed a general charge, chiefly
by fresh troops under Doubleday, who had hastened to his assistance from the
rear of Cemetery Hill. These, with Humphreys's shattered regiments, drove
the Confederates back and recaptured four guns. The battle ended on the left
centre at twilight. Then the battle was renewed on the National right, where
General Slocum was in chief command.
Ewell had attacked him with a part of
his corps at the time Longstreet assailed the left. The assault was
vigorous. Up the northern slopes of Cemetery Hill the Confederates pressed
in the face of a murderous fire of canister and shrapnel to the muzzles of
the guns. Another part of Ewell's corps attempted to turn the National right
by attacking its weakened part on Culp's Hill. The Confederates were
repulsed at the right centre; and, after a severe battle on the extreme
right of the Nationals, the Confederates there were firmly held in check. So
ended, at about ten o'clock at night, the second day's battle at Gettysburg,
when nearly 40,000 men of the two armies, who were " effective " thirty-six
hours before, were dead or wounded. The advantage seemed to be with the
Confederates, for they held the ground in advance of Gettysburg which the
Nationals had held the previous day. During the night Meade made provision
for expelling the Confederate intrusion on the National right by placing a
heavy artillery force in that direction.
GENERAL PICKETT's CHARGE AT
CEMETERY HILL.
Under cover of these guns a strong force made
an attack, and for four hours Geary's division kept up a desperate struggle.
Then the Confederates fell back, and the right was made secure. Now
Ewell
was repulsed on the right, and Round Top, on the left, was impregnable; so
Lee determined to strike Meade's centre with a force that should crush it.
At noon (July 3) he had 145
cannon in battery along the line occupied by
Longstreet and
A. P. Hill. All night
General Hunt, of the Nationals, had been
arranging the artillery from Cemetery Hill to Little Round Top, where the
expected blow would fall. Lee determined to aim his chief blow at Hancock's
position on Cemetery Hill. At 1 o'clock P.M. 115 of his cannon opened a
rapid concentrated fire on the devoted point. Four-score National guns
replied, and for two hours more than 200 cannon shook the surrounding
country with their detonations. Then the Confederate infantry, in a line 3
miles in length, preceded by a host of skirmishers, flowed swiftly over the
undulating plain. Behind these was a heavy reserve. Confederate
General George Pickett, with his
Virginians, led the van, well supported, in a charge upon Cemetery Hill. In
all, his troops were about 15,000 strong. The cannon had now almost ceased
thundering, and were succeeded by the awful roll of musketry. Shot and shell
from Hancock's batteries now made fearful lanes through the oncoming
Confederate ranks. Hancock was wounded, and Gibbons was placed in command.
Pickett pressed onward, when the divisions of Hayes and Gibbons opened an
appalling and continuous fire upon them. The Confederates gave way, and
2,000 men were made prisoners, and fifteen battleflags became trophies of
victory for Hayes. Still Pickett moved on, scaled Cemetery Hill, burst
through Hancock's line, drove back a portion of General Webb's brigade, and
planted the Confederate flag on a stonewall. But
Pickett could go no
farther. Then Stannard's Vermont brigade of Doubleday's division opened such
a destructive fire on Pickett's troops that they gave way. Very soon 2,500
of them were made prisoners, and with them twelve battleflags, and
three-fourths of his gallant men were dead or captives. Wilcox supported
Pickett, and met a similar fate at the hands of the Vermonters. Meanwhile
Crawford had advanced upon the Confederate right from near Little Round Top.
The Confederates fled; and in this sortie the whole ground lost by Sickles
was recovered, with 260 men captives, 7,000 small-arms, a cannon, and
wounded Unionists, who had lain nearly twenty-four hours uncared for. Thus,
at near sunset, July 3, 1863, ended the battle of Gettysburg. During that
night and all the next day Lee's army on Seminary Ridge prepared for flight
back to Virginia. His invasion was a failure; and on Sunday morning, July 5,
his whole army was moving towards the Potomac.
VIEW FROM LITTLE ROUND TOP.
This battle, in its far reaching effects, was
the most important of the war. The National loss in men, from the morning of
the 1st until the evening of the 3d of July, was reported by Meade to be
23,186, of whom 2,834 were killed, 13,709 wounded, and 6,643 missing.
Lee's
loss was probably about 30,000. The battleground is now the National
Soldiers' Cemetery, nearly all of the Confederate dead having been removed
to Southern cemeteries. The battlefield is now studded with State and
regimental monuments marking the most important spots in the three days'
battle. Near the centre of the battlefield stands a national monument of
gray granite, erected at a cost of $50,000, and also a bronze statue of
General Reynolds.
Almost immediately after the battle the
government determined to acquire and set apart the battlefield for a
National Soldiers' Cemetery. On Nov. 19, 1863, the field, which then
contained the graves of 3,580
Union soldiers, was dedicated by
President
Lincoln, who delivered the following memorable speech:
Abraham Lincoln's
Gettysburg Address
 "
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent
a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that
all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war,
testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated,
can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have
come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for
those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is
altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a
larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow
this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have
consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will
little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget
what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here
to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly
advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task
remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased
devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of
devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died
in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom,
and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall
not perish from the earth."
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