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THH WAR LIBRARY
In the town all was uncertainty and con-
fusion.
The horror-stricken people endeavored in
vain to learn from the returning rebels
what had been the real issue of the day’s
tighting.
t was npparent, however, that they were
less assured and confident than they had
been on the preceding night.
Thus closed the second day at Gettysburg.
On the morrow the fight would be renew-
ed, and thousands of those who now peace-
fully slept or stood as sentries over their
slumbering comrades, would yield up their
‘lives for their convictions.
' All through the® hours of that hot night
there was a rumble of artillery moving into
position, of ammunition and supply wagons
driven hither and thither, of sounds of mar-
tial tread as troops on both sides were hur-
ried to new quarters, where, it was believed,
‘the morning would give their side a sharp
advantage.
Lights were gleaming in the hollows, be-
neath the shade of oaks and pines, where
the surgeons were at work, and where,
through the dreary hours wailings and
moanings rent the uir; yet, with all these
horrors of the battlefield around me, I slept
as though upon my couch at home.
CHAPTER XXVI.
OPENING OF THE THIRD DAY'S BATTLE.
Four o’clock Friday morning.
Ilooked at my watch and learned this
much, as the boom of heavy guns awoke
me.
The early morning was sultry.
Over the hills hung heavy clouds, and the
air was anything but pleasant.
In rapid succession came the heavy
shocks, the fire running from the hills and
along the woods bordering Rock creek.
It was the defiance of the Union forces—
they were so well satisfied with the work of
the preceding day that they thus challenged
their foes to begin.
' The struggle opened as we knew it would,
upon our extreme right.
There Ewell had obtained a good foot-
hold, and having been strengthened during
‘the night, intended making a supreme effort
to carry all before him.
Our gallant boys in blue gave him no time
to carry out his plan.
They cheerily prepared to regain their
lost rifle-pits, now blazing with rebel
muskets.
Ewell and Rhodes held on_ with des-
peration, well knowing the advantage of
their gain.
Inch by ineh, fighting well to the death,
the rebels were driven back and pressed out
of our intrenchments, up Rock creek and
our line was our own again, but it took four
hours to do it.
Asthey retreated, a battery placed on a
hill, on the right of the Baltimore pike, and
some distance further south dealt them
tremendous showers of shot and shell, cir-
cling high in the air over the heads of the
pursuing Twelfth corps.
At this time our men were annoyed by the
rebel sharpshooters in Gettysburg.
From the chambers of a certain dwelling
avd behind the chimneys of others they
conducted their. exasperating method ‘of
war, picking off the Union officersas they
showed themselves along the crest of the
ill.
They believed themselves secure as the
Union batteries would be averse to shelling
the town.
The grievance became too serious after a
time.
. “A certain mansion seemed to swarm with
these ‘rebel hornets of dendly sting,’ and
~ at last n storm of shell was directed upon it,
- quickly reducing it to ashes, and probably
estroyiug many of its rebel inmates.
- This was the only house in Gettysburg
seriously injured during the battle. .
- Lsawasight just at this time that made
_ my pulse beat like atrip hammer and a glow
of pride come into. my breast at. being an
American,
On astretcher, borne by 2 couple of stout
privates, and surrounded bya file of sol-
diers, lay General Sickles, but yesterday
eading his corps with allthe dash and en-
thusiasm for which he was noted; to-day,
with his right leg amputated, lying there
grim and stoical, with his cap pulled over
his eyes, his hands calmly folded across his
. breast, and a cigar in his mouth.
Asa Cincinnaticorrespondent remarked to
«me, ‘for aman who had just lost a leg, and
whose life was still in imminent jeopardy, it
was cool, indeed.’”’
General Howard, in the cemetery, leaned
against a gravestone, with his aides around
hin, usipg his glass to watch the sub-
lime sweep of the war-cloud around
em,
“T have seen many men in action,’’ writes
an eye-witness, **but never one so imper-
turbably cool as this general of the
Eleventh corps. I watched him closely as a
minie whizzed overhead. dodged, of
course—I never expect to get over that
habit, but I am confident that he did not
move 2 muscle by a hair’s breadth.”’
The field was now so covered with smoke
where Slocum slowly drove Ewell out of
the Union intrenchmnents that’ Howard
could not make out which side was win-
ning.
Meade's orders were for them to stand to
theirarms and be ready for an emergency;
but, as the reader knows, Slocum did not
need their aid.
Gregg and Kilpatrick’s cavalry—whom we
saw perform such heroic deeds in Dixieland,
and for which Kilpatrick was madea gen-
eral—were enst of Rock creek when an
orderly came dashing down the Hanover
pike with orders from General Pleasanton,
our cavalry leader, directing Gregg to meet
the rebel cavalry under Stuart, who was
about to cut off the Union ammunition trains
parked along the pike, while the dashing
Kilpatrick was to go down beyond Round-
top and as3ault Longstreet’s left.
The notes of the cavalry bugle sounded
loud and clear above the rumbling of pass-
ing wagons, and the two divisions dashed
away, the men eager for a share in the day's
geht.
Half an hour later we saw the smoke of
Kilpatrick’s artillery,and heard the wild
shout of hismen as they dashed recklessly
upon the foe.
In this charge the gallant General Farns-
worth, lately made a general, and almost
a score of other gallant officers lost their
lives.
Gregg’s division formed in the woods east
of Wolf creek.
Stuart had already extended his line
across the Bonnoughtown road. There was
a brisk encounter and cannonade, after
which Stuart retired without accomplishing
his object.
From eleven in the morning to half past
one all was comparatively quiet.
Bafiied in every attempt to break the Union
lines, and hurled back with terrible loss, the
rebels awaited with sullen ferocity the next
move of their commander, ready to walk
into the gates of helLitselfif he bade them.
Lee was almost in despair.
He determined to make one more most
desperate effort to retrieve the day,
This attempt was to be made upon our
left center, held by General Hancock, and
which was in a direct line with General
Meade’s headquarters.
The scene at this place was all activity.
General Meade was stationed ata farm-
house sixteen feet by twenty, on the west-
ern brow of the ridge, which seemed to be
sheltered from exposure, and from which he
could easily communicate with any part of
the lines. :
His staff were gathered around the door,
Orderlies were continually dashing up
with reports and off again with orders. Sig-
nal officers were briuging in reports tele-
graphed from signal stations on the hills.
The air was filled with the deafening roar
cf the war-tempest. Occasionally a shell
with its demoniac shriek passed over their
heads. Now and then the whizz of a stray
bullet admonished them that the arrows of
death were flying around.
Then came the lullin the storm,
Hardly a shot was fired fur between two
and three hours.
One hundred thousand men, their breath
quick drawn, their nerves strained, their
eyes blinded by the sharp smoke and dim-
med with grief—for their unburied dead lay
thick around them—waited unfalteringly the
hour of their doom.
At six o’clock onthe preceding evening,
when the battle was at its fiercest ebb und
flow, the great armies on the left near
Round-top and vicinity were wrestling like
two mighty serpents, we at headquarters
caught sight of a cloud of dust far down the
Baltimore pike.
At once all was alarm.
Stuart had gained the rear, and there was
danger of his striking a blow that would in
our present distracted state paralyze the
Federal army. :
With what eagerness they watched no one
can tell, but they seemed to live ages in that
short time. . -
At last one officer muGe {he discovery that
it was not cavalry but a long lineof in
fantry.
Quick upon the heels of this came a shout.
“'r'he flag! See, it is the flag of the Sixth
corps!”
It was true.
Teaven knows there were thankful hearts
in that little throng just then.
It was an inspiring sight.
The troops of that corps had marched
thirty-two miles during the day. They
crossed Rock creek, filed into the field,
passed the ammunition train, threw them-
selves upon the ground, tossed aside their
knapsacks and wiped the sweat from their ;
sun-burned cheeks.
When the situation flashed upon them,
and their commander, General Sedgwick,
called upon them to aid the left flank where
Sickles, Hancock and Gibbon were wounded
and the troops desperately engaged, their
fire and zeal Knew uo bounds.
They awaited but the order; and then as
if fresh from camp they swept down upon
the haughty foe like an avalanche.
Therebel column staggered, reeled and
fell back in coufusion.
With such heroic men as these, General
Meade awaited the last mad onset of the foe.
It came at last.
CHAPTER XXVII.
LONGSTREET’S MAD CHARGE.
It was just half past one when the dread-
fulsilence was broken by the still more
dreadful discharge of two hundred and fifty
heavy guns, from the opposite ridges, join-
ing ina cannonade of unsurpassed violence
—the rebel batteries along two-thirds of
their line concentrating their fire upon the |
rave-yard from which cemetery hill takes |
ts name, and the center and left wing of the .
Union army. ,. 3
The sight and sound were awfully sublime.
The hills trembled with the concussion. The
deafening thunder filled the heavens; and
nature, a3 it were, stood still to contemplate
the scene.
Horses were shot down by scores, gun-
carriages were demolished, pieces dismount-
ed, calssons exploded, whole batteries swept
away, and oflicers and men killed and
wounded in numbers almost incredible.
No less than fifteen caissons were explod-
ed on the heights, and two regular batteries
on the right of the cemetery werecomplete- |
ly demolished,
It was Lee's intention to silence Howard's
batteries, because they enfiladed the attack-
ing force, ready to move over the fields to- |
ward the center, our weakest point. :
Meade’s headquarters were in a direct line -
with this fire, aud it seemed to be the focus
for all their heavy guns, .
‘The air,” prrites one who was present,
was alive with all mysterious sounds, and
death in every one of them, here were,
mufiied howls that seemed in rage because ,
their missiles missed you—the angry buzz of;
the familiar minie—the whizz of the com
mon musket ball—hisses, and the great whir-
ring rush of shells; and then there ;came>
others that made the air instinct with warn- §
ing, or quickened it with vivid alarm; long
wails that fatefully bemoaned the death :
they wrought, fluttering screams that: filled
the whole space with their horror, and en-,
compassed one about as with o garment;
cries that ran the diapason of terror ané de-
spair. .
panother well known writer, Mr. Wilkin-
son, the correspondent of the New York
Times, writes vividly: +
“Every size of shell known to British or
American gunnery shrieked, whirled,moan-
ed and whistled, and wrathfully fluttered
over the ground. As many as six in asec-
ond, constantly two in a second, bursting
and screaming over and around headqu
>
cert
TS.
“They burst in the yard—burst next to
the fence on both sides, garnished, as usual,
with the hitched horses of aides and order-
lics. The fastened animals reared and
plunged with terror, Then one fell, then :
another. Sixteen lay dead and mangled be-
fore the fire ceased. i
“Through the midst of the storm. of
screaming and exploding shells, an ambul-
ance, driven by its frenzied driver at full
speed, presenting tu all of us the marvelous
spectacle of a horse going rapidly on three
legs a hinder one had been shot off at the
ock,
“A shell tore up the little step at the:
headquarter cottage and ripped open a bag:
of oats as with a knife. Another soon car-
ried off one of its two pillars, Soon a spheri-
‘
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