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Manchester. On the same day the corps of Hill and Longstreet were
pushed still further forward on the Chambersburg road, and distributed in
the vicinity of Marsh’s creek, while a reconnoissance was made by the Con-
federate General Pettigrew up to a very short distance from this place.-
Thus at nightfall, on the 30th of June, the greater part of the Rebel force
was concentrated in the immediate vicinity of two corps of the Union army,
the former refreshed by two days passed in comparative repose and delibe-
rate preparation for the encounter, the latter separated by a march of one
or two days from their supporting corps, and doubtful at what precise point
they were to expect an attack. -
And now the momentous day, a day to be forever remembered in the an-
nals of the country, arrived. Early in the morning, on the 1st of July, the
conflict began. I need not say that it would be impossible for me to com-
prise, within the limits of the hour, such a narrative as would do anything
like fulljustice to the all-important events of these three great days, or to
the merit of the brave officers and men, of every rank, of every arm of the
service, and of every loyal State, who bore their part in the tremendous
struggle-alike those who nobly sacrificed their lives for their country, and
those who survive, many of them scarred with honorable wounds, the ob-
jects of our admiration and gratitude. The astonishingly minute, accurate,
and graphic accounts contained in the journals of the day, prepared from
personal observation by reporters who witnessed the scenes, and often
shared the perils which they describe, and the highly valuable “notes” of
Professor Jacobs, of the University in this place, to which I am greatly
indebted, will abundantly supply the deficiency of my necessarily too con-
densed statenientfl‘ ’ '
"9 Besides the sources of information mentioned in the text, I have been kindly favored
with a. memorandum of the operations of the three days, drawn up for me by direction of
Major General Meade, (anticipating the promulgation of his ollicial report,) by one of his
aids, Colonel Theodore Lyman, from whom, also, I have received other important com-
munications relative to the campaign. I have received very valuable documents relative
to the battle from Major General Ilalleck, Commander-in-Chief of the army, and have been
much assisted in drawing up the sketch of the campaign. by the detailed reports, kindly
transmitted to me in manuscript from the Adjutant General’s office, of the movements of
every corps of the army, for each day, after the breaking up from Fredericksburg com-
menced. I have derived much assistance from Colonel John B. Bache1der’s oral explana-
tions Of his beautiful and minute drawing (about to be engraved) of the field of the three
days’ struggle. With the information derived from these sources, I have compared the
statements in General Lee’s official report of the campaign, dated 31st July, 1863, a well-
written article, purporting to be an account of the three days’ battle, in the Richmond
Enquirer of the 22d of July, and the article on “The Battle of Gettysburg and the Cam-
.paign of Pennsylvania,” by an oflicer, apparently a colonel in the British army, in Black-
wood’: Magazine for September. The value of the information contained in this last essay
may be seen by comparing the remark under date 27th June, that “private property is t