Martial Deeds of Pennsylvania, Samuel P. Bates, 1876 - Part 1, Chapter 13, 298-
312

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                         MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA
                                       by
                                SAMUEL P. BATES.

                     PHILADELPHIA: T. H. DAVIS & CO., 1876.

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 298

                            PART I.  GENERAL HISTORY.

                                   CHAPTER XIII.  

                        THE FINAL STRUGGLE AT GETTYSBURG.

SINCE the Union army had come into its present position, on the evening of the 
1st of July, the rebel leader had exerted his utmost efforts to put it to rout.  
He had, with much skill and daring, attempted, first to break the left flank and 
gain that commanding ground.  With equal pertinacity, he had striven to break 
and hold the left centre.  On the right centre he had made a bold, yea, reckless 
attack, with some of the most daring troops in his army.  Finally, he had sent 
the major part of a corps to fall upon the extreme right, where he made an 
entrance, and for more than twelve hours held it.  But in all these operations 
he had been foiled, and for all the extravagant waste of the strength of his 
army, he had no substantial advantage to show.  Unless he could strike his 
antagonist at some vital point, and send home the shaft, the battle to him was 
hopelessly lost, and he would no longer be able to remain on Northern soil.  To 
stand on the defensive, or attempt to manoeuvre in presence of a victorious foe, 
would be fatal; for he had no supplies except what he foraged for.
  He accordingly determined to hazard all on one desperate throw.  He had one 
division, that of Pickett of Longstreet's corps, which had not yet been in the 
fight, having just come up to the front from Chambersburg.  This, with other of 
the freshest and best of his troops, he determined to mass on his right centre, 
opposite the point where Wright's brigade had, the night before, made so gallant 
a charge on Humphreys' division, and, after having disposed all the artillery he 
could use to advantage on the two miles of line from which he would concentrate 
its fire.

THE FINAL STRUGGLE AT GETTYSBURG - 299

and had subjected the fatal spot on the Union line to a terrific cannonade, to 
hurl this mass of living valor upon that scourged, and as he hoped, shattered 
front, with the expectation of breaking through by the weight and power of the 
shock.  To this end, artillery was brought up from the reserve and from his 
extreme left.  The infantry was likewise gathered in, Pickett's division having 
a place between Anderson's and Heth's of Hill's corps, Hill being charged with 
supporting Pickett when the time of action should come, and Longstreet over all.
  On the Union side, the space from which artillery could be used was much 
shorter than that which the enemy held, and hence a proportionately less number 
of pieces was brought into play.  On the right, commencing with Cemetery Hill 
was Manor Ossborne with the batteries of Ricketts, Weiderick, Dilger, Bancroft, 
Eakin, Wheeler, Hill, and Taft.  But few of these, however, from their location, 
could be used to advantage.  Next him, directly in front of Meade's 
headquarters, commencing at Zeigler's Grove and extending south along Hancock's 
front, was Major Hazzard with the batteries of Woodruff, Arnold, Cushing, Brown, 
and Rosty.  Still further to the left, reaching down to the low ground where, by 
training the guns obliquely to the right, a raking fire could be delivered on 
the assaulting lines, were the batteries of Thomas, Thompson, Phillips, Hart, 
Sterling, Rock, Cooper, Dow, and Ames, under Major McGilvray.  Away to the left, 
on the summit of Little Round Top, were those of Gibbs and Rittenhouse.  "We had 
thus," says General Hunt, Chief of artillery, "on the western crest line, 
seventy-five guns, which could be aided by a few of those on Cemetery Hill."  
From eighty to ninety guns were hence in position for effective service.  Later 
when the enemy's infantry charged, Fitzhugh's, Parson's, Weir's, Cowan's, and 
Daniel's batteries were brought up to reinforce the line and take the place of 
disabled and unservicable guns.  Of infantry, there was the division of Robinson 
of the First corps at Zeigler's Grove, and to his left were the divisions of 
Hays and Gibbon of the Second corps, and that of Doubleday of the First corps.  
Still farther to the left, were Caldwell of the Second corps, and parts of the 
Third, Fifth and Sixth corps.
  At about one o'clock P. M., the enemy, having perfected all his

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 300

plans, made the attack.  Silence, for more than two hours, had reigned, when, of 
a sudden, 150 guns were run to the front.  No sooner were they planted and 
sighted, than from their mouths tongues of flame leaped forth throughout the 
whole lurid circumference, and the ground rocked as in the throes of an 
earthquake.  For an instant, the air was filled with a hissing, bursting, fiery 
cloud, and a torrent, as if suddenly let loose in mid-sky, hitherto all glorious 
and serene, descended, in its death-dealing mission, upon the long lines of the 
living crouched below.  Nor was it the casual dash of a fitful April day; but in 
steady torrents it descended.  The Union guns were not unprepared, and from 
eighty brazen throats the response was made, in tones

          "That mocked the deep-mouthed thunder."

  The Union infantry officers had cautioned their men to hug closely the earth 
and to take shelter behind every object which could afford them protection, well 
knowing that this cannonade was only the prelude to an infantry attack.  The 
enemy's infantry was out of harm's reach.  But notwithstanding every precaution 
was taken to shelter the Union troops, the destruction was terrible.  Men were 
torn limb from limb, and blown to atoms by the villainous shells.  Horses were 
disembowelled, and thrown prostrate to writhe in death agonies.  Caissons, 
filled with ammunition, were exploded, cannon rent, and steel-banded gun-
carriages knocked into shapeless masses.  Solid shot, Whitworth, chain shot, 
shrapnell, shells, and every conceivable missile known to the dread catalogue of 
war's art, were ceaselessly hurled upon that devoted ground.  Major Harry T. Lee 
relates an incident that occurred while lying prostrate near General Doubleday, 
whose aid he was, which illustrates the indifference with which one long 
schooled in military duty may come to look upon the most appalling dangers.  The 
General, having been busy manoeuvring his troops, had had no dinner.  He had 
already had two horses killed, and having thrown himself upon the ground, had 
pulled from his pocket a sandwich, which he was about to eat, when a huge 
missile from one of the enemy's guns struck the ground within a few feet of his 
head, deluging his sandwich with sand.  Coolly turning to the Major,

THE FINAL STRUGGLE AT GETTYSBURG - 301

he remarked, "That sandwich will need no pepper," and immediately proceeded with 
his lunch.
  Scarcely had the battle opened, ere the powerful missiles began to fall in the 
very midst of the little farmhouse, where General Meade had made his 
headquarters.  As the shots began to strike about him, the General came to the 
door and told the staff who were in waiting, that the enemy manifestly had the 
range of his quarters, and that they had better go up the slope fifteen or 
twenty yards to the stable.  "Every size and form of shell," says Mr. Wilkinson, 
in his correspondence from the field to the New York Times, "known to British 
and American gunnery, shrieked, moaned, and whistled, and wrathfully fluttered 
over our ground.  As many as six in a second, constantly two in a second, 
bursting and screaming over and around the headquarters, made a very hell of 
fire that amazed the oldest officers.  They burst in the yard--burst next to the 
fence, on both sides garnished as usual with the hitched horses of aids and 
orderlies.  The fastened animals reared and plunged with terror.  Then one fell, 
then another.  Sixteen lay dead and mangled before the fire ceased, still 
fastened by their halters, which gave the impression of being wickedly tied up 
to die painfully.  These brute victims of cruel war touched all hearts.  Through 
the midst of the storm of screaming and exploding shells, an ambulance, driven 
by its frenzied conductor at full speed, presented to all of us the marvellous 
spectacle of a horse going rapidly on three legs.  A hinder one had been shot 
off at the hock.  A shell tore up the little step at the headquarters cottage, 
and ripped bags of oats as with a knife.  Another soon carried off one of its 
two pillars.  Soon a spherical case burst opposite the open door.  Another 
ripped through the low garret.  The remaining pillar went almost immediately to 
the howl of a fixed shot that Whitworth must have made.  During this fire, the 
horses at twenty and thirty feet distance were receiving their death, and 
soldiers in Federal blue were torn to pieces in the road, and died with the 
peculiar yells that blend the extorted cry of pain with horror and despair."
  For an hour and three-quarters this angry storm continued.  During this space, 
which seemed an age to the unhappy victims upon whom it beat, the enemy had 
delivered a ceaseless fire.

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 302 

General Howe, an accomplished soldier, testifies: "I have never heard a more 
furious cannonade, nor one where there was greater expenditure of ammunition on 
both sides." The Union guns did not, however, continue to answer the whole time; 
but, that the guns might have time to cool, and ammunition be saved for the 
emergency which was sure to follow, the order was given to cease firing.  "I 
ordered them," says General Hunt, Chief of artillery, "commencing at the 
Cemetery, to slacken their fire and cease it, in order to see what the enemy 
were going to do, and also to be sure that we retained a sufficient supply of 
ammunition to meet, what I then expected, an attack.  At the same time, 
batteries were ordered up to replace those guns which had been damaged, or which 
had expended too much ammunition."
  The enemy, perhaps interpreting this silence in part to the accuracy and 
telling effect of his fire, soon after ordered his own to cease. And now was 
discovered the indications of the part which his infantry was to play.  Just in 
front of the rebel fortified line, which was concealed from view by a curtain of 
wood, a mass of infantry suddenly appeared, and were quickly marshalled in 
battle array.  Pickett's fresh division was formed in two lines, Kemper and 
Garnett leading, supported by Armistead, with Wilcox and Perry of Hill's corps 
upon his right, so disposed as to protect his flank, and Pettigrew commanding 
Heth's division, and Trimble with two brigades of Pender, also of Hill's corps, 
for a like purpose upon his left.  Thus compactly formed, presenting as it were 
three fronts, this powerful body, estimated at 18,000 men, moved forward to the 
assault.

       "Firm paced and slow a horrid front they form, 
        Still as the breeze but dreadful as the storm."

  No obstacle intervened to prevent the sight of the enemy's formation and 
advance by nearly the entire Union line, so that the dullest private, alike with 
the General, saw plainly from the start the cloud that was gathering over him.  
Each as he grasped his weapon, felt that the impact of that well-wrought and 
high-tempered mass would be terrible.  Was there strength enough in that thin 
line against which it was hurrying, to withstand the dreadful shock, and send it 
back in fatal rebound?

THE FINAL STRUGGLE AT GETTYSBURG - 303

  The position of that portion of Hays' troops, commencing near Bryan's well, 
just south of Zeigler's Grove, was favorable for resistance.  For a shelving 
rock crops out along the ridge, three or four feet in height, looking towards 
the Emmittsburg pike upon the crest of which, extending a quarter of a mile, is 
a low stone fence composed of loose boulders, and behind this, affording very 
good shelter, they were lying.  To the left of Hays the fence makes a sharp 
angle jutting out towards the pike, for a few rods, when the same low stone 
fence, surmounted by a single rail, continues on towards the left along the 
ridge which gradually falls away, and at the plain it is met by a post-and-rail 
fence, in front of which a slight rifle-pit had been thrown up.  Commencing at 
the angle and extending south was General Owen's brigade, now temporarily 
commanded by General Webb, comprising the Sixty-ninth Pennsylvania, Owen's own, 
- composed mostly of Irishmen, whose fighting qualities had been proved in many 
desperate conflicts, and who had received the commendations of Kearney, and 
Sumner, and Hooker, upon the Peninsula for their gallantry, - the Seventy-first, 
originally recruited and led by the gallant Edward D. Baker, untimely cut off at 
Ball's Bluff, since commanded by Wistar the friend and associate of Baker, and 
now by Colonel R. Penn Smith; and the Seventy-second, Colonel Baxter.  The two 
former were upon the front; the latter held in reserve, in a second line just 
under the hill to the rear.  To the left of this brigade were Hall and Harrow, 
and General Doubleday, who that day, in addition to Stone's (now Dana's), and 
Rowley's, had Stannard's brigade of Vermont troops, of which the Thirteenth, 
Fourteenth, and Sixteenth were present for duty.  Doubleday had put the One 
Hundred and Fifty-first Pennsylvania and the Twentieth New York State militia 
upon the front, with the remainder in two lines in rear, except Stannard's men, 
whom he had thrown out to a little grove several rods in advance of the whole 
line, where they were disposed to resist a front attack.
  As the rebel infantry began to move forward, its direction was such that 
Pickett's centre would strike Stannard; but when half the distance had been 
passed over, the column suddenly changed direction, and, moving by the left 
flank till it had come opposite

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 304 

Owen's brigade, again changed front and moved forward.  Whether this manoeuvre 
was premeditated, or whether the discovery of Stannard's position, and strong 
front, or the fire of the batteries away to the Union left, caused this veering 
of the rebel line, is uncertain.  Unfortunately fox the enemy, when he made this 
turn, Wilcox, who commanded the right flanking column or wing, instead of moving 
to the left with Pickett, kept straight on leaving Pickett's right uncovered, 
and open to a flank attack.  Fortunately for the Union side, Stannard was thrown 
out a considerable distance in front, so that when Pickett came forward, 
Stannard was precisely in the right place to deliver a telling fire full upon 
Pickett's exposed flank.  Unfortunately again for the enemy, Pettigrew's men, 
who formed Pickett's left flanking column, were raw troops who were ill fitted 
to stand before the storm which was to descend upon them, and had been 
frightfully broken and dispirited in the first day's fight.  But Pickett's own 
men were of the best, and they moved with the mien of combatants worthy of the 
steel they confronted, obedient to their leader's signal, and ready to go as far 
as who goes farthest.
  This infantry column had no sooner come within cannon range, than the 
batteries to the right and left opened with solid shot, but, as it came nearer, 
shells, shrapnell, and canister were poured upon it in unstinted measure.  Never 
was a grander sight beheld upon a battle-field than that of this devoted body of 
men, unflinching in their onward march, though torn by the terrible fire of 
artillery, and executing with the utmost precision the evolutions of the field.  
As they came within musket range the Union infantry, who had reserved their 
fire, poured it in with deadly effect.  So decimated was the front line, that 
for an instant it staggered, but, recovering itself, and being closely supported 
by the second, moved on.  When it came near, the fire was returned; but to what 
effect?  The Union men were crouching behind the stone wall on the shelving 
rock, and few bullets could reach them.  Nothing daunted, the enemy kept boldly 
on, crossed the Emmittsburg pike, and rushed madly upon that part of the line 
where the Sixty-ninth and Seventy-first regiments were.  Two or three rods to 
the rear of this was a little clump of small forest trees on the very summit of 
the ridge. Towards this they

THE FINAL STRUGGLE AT GETTYSBURG - 305

rushed as though it had been the mark set for them to reach.  Cushin's guns, 
which stood just in rear of the Sixty-ninth, had been for the most part 
disabled, the gunners having all been killed or wounded; but two of these were 
still serviceable, and the men of the Sixty-ninth and Seventy-first had wheeled 
them down to the stone wall within the front line, and here they were worked 
with terrible effect.  Unchecked by the fire, the enemy pushed resolutely 
forward.  Just before this, Colonel Smith, with the right wing of the Seventy-
first, had retired a few rods and taken position behind the wall coming in from 
the right, where his men would be less exposed to the fierce fire of canister of 
the Union artillery in its immediate rear, and where it could act with greater 
effect.  The left wing, under Lieutenant-Colonel Kochersperger, in conjunction 
with the Sixty-ninth, hugged closely the stone wall, and continued to pour in 
death-dealing rounds with frightful rapidity.  But the enemy, discovering that a 
portion of the wall was vacant, rushed over.  This caused the flank to be 
exposed, and Kochersperger, with two companies of the Sixty-ninth, swung back, 
in order to protect it.  The struggle was now desperate and hand to hand.  A 
stalwart and determined rebel soldier, having reached the wall behind which the 
left of the Sixty-ninth still clung, called out to James Donnelly of company D 
to surrender, levelling his musket in readiness to fire.  "I surrender," cried 
Donnelly, and suiting the action to the word, felled him to the earth with the 
barrel of his gun.  Donnelly was at the time but a youth of eighteen.  Corporal 
Bradley, of the same company, while attempting to beat back an infuriated rebel, 
had his skull crushed in by a single blow.  Rebel flags waved upon the wall 
within the Union line.  General Armistead, who led one of Pickett's front 
brigades, reached the farthest point of the enemy's advance, and with his hand 
upon a Union gun near the little grove, while under the shadow of the flags of 
his brigade, fell mortally wounded.  But still only a small breach had been 
made, and that had been left in part by design.  The vigor and power of the blow 
had been robbed of its blighting effect, long before it had reached the vital 
point of the Union line.  As the column moved past the grove where Stannard's 
brigade had been thrust out in front by Doubleday, 

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 306 

Stannard suddenly formed the Thirteenth and Sixteenth regiments at right-angles 
to the main Union line, facing northward, and poured in a withering enfilading 
fire.  This, Pickett's troops were able to withstand but a few minutes, and over 
2000 of them laid down their arms and were conducted to the rear.  On Pickett's 
left, a like disaster befell.  For Pettigrew, with his green and already 
decimated levies, quailed before the terrific fire of Hays' men, and a number 
fully as large was swept in from that wing.  The front centre of Pickett's own 
men continued the struggle through mere desperation.  But no equal body of 
troops could have effected a lodgment there, or done more than had these.  For 
the Union line, though slightly broken upon its front, was in a situation, 
unaided, to have beaten back the assailants, the Seventy-second regiment being 
but a few paces in rear of the little cluster of trees which marked the farthest 
rebel advance, and was in condition to have made a stubborn resistance.  But 
beyond the original lines, the moment it was seen that the enemy was about to 
strike at this point, supports were hurried forward.  The brigades of Hall, and 
Harrow, the Nineteenth Massachusetts, the One Hundred and Fifty-first 
Pennsylvania, the Twentieth New York State militia, and the Forty-second of the 
line, being in close proximity, had reached the threatened ground, and stood 
four lines deep, ready to receive the foe, had he pushed his advantage.
  The struggle was soon over, the greater portion of the living either 
surrendering or staggering back over the prostrate forms of the dead and the 
dying which strewed thickly all that plain.  In the few moments during which the 
contest lasted, by far the greater part of that gallant division, that marched 
forth "in all the pride and circumstance of glorious war," had disappeared.  
Four thousand five hundred of them were prisoners, many more were wounded and 
weltering in their blood, and a vast number were stiff and stark in death.
  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

THE FINAL STRUGGLE AT GETTYSBURG - 307

opened upon them; yet they kept on until they had reached a point within a few 
hundred yards of the front.  But now Stannard 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, deliberate; 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 Bucktail (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

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 308 

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 
Baltimore before to-morrow night," and exclamations of similar import 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 countenance, 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 complete 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.

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 310 

  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 Hampton, 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 skirmish 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 saber, 
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

THE FINAL STRUGGLE AT GETTYSBURG - 311

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 
further 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 manoeuvred his command.  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 preparation 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

MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 312 

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.