Local History: Chapters XXXVI-XXXIX: Davis's 1877 History of Northampton Co, PA

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                                  HISTORY

                                    OF

                       NORTHAMPTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


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92

                              CHAPTER XXXVI.

                           NORTHAMPTON IN 1861.

  OVER a period of twenty-two years -the various events of which will be 
found noticed in other parts of this work -we pass to the great Southern 
Rebellion.

  During thee years the war of our country against Mexico had been fought 
to a victorious issue, but with that struggle, Northampton county can 
hardly be said to have been identified. It is true that individual 
volunteers from among her people, fought under Scott and Taylor but they 
did so by enlistment, either in the regular army, or in other 
organizations outside of Northampton, as no regiment or company was raised 
here for service in Mexico. This being the case, no correct list of their 
names, on record of their services can be given.

                                 SUMTER

  Long before the break of day, on the twelfth of April, 1861, there were 
congregated behind the strong parapet, and within the sand-bagged 
casemates, of a fortification, which food, and still stands, on a low, 
sandy island, in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, a hand of men, 
as brave as the old buccaneers of the Spanish Main, and as traitorous as 
Cataline.

   The busy hum of preparation ran along their line, and the flickering 
light of the battle-lanterns, which shone on their pale determined faces, 
showed that some unusual and desperate deed was to be done. How little they 
then realized of its tremendous import!

  Opposite to them, across the main channel of the harbor, not very far 
away, through the deep gloom which precedes the dawn, could be just 
discerned, the dark, imposing outline of that now historical fortress, 
Sumter! High above its black bulk, in relief against the sky, they could 
see "that our flag was still there;" and they had resolved to turn their 
hands against that flag with the coming of the morning light. Well had 
they chosen, out of all the days of the seven, Friday-that day of foul 
omen-for their impious attack. When at last, the faint red flush began to 
spread, along the ocean horizon, they called from his sleep an aged man, 
bending under the weight of eighty years, that he might, enjoy the coveted 
privilege of having the first shot at the flag which had waved over him in 
his infancy. At a little past four o'clock, the rebel gunner gave a last 
verifying glance along the cannon-sights -the tremulous hand of Edmund 
Ruffin, drew the lanyard, the shell screamed across the water, bursting 
right above the brown ramparts, and the white smoke floated gracefully 
away, in the soft air of the April morning.

   The thunder of that cannon shot resounded to the shores of the Potomac, 
and thence, in long reverberations, it rolled away over the Free States, 
and across the summits of the Adironacks and the Alleghenies; striking on 
the ear, of farmers, as they turned their spring furrows, of workmen in 
mills and mines, and of hardy lumbermen in the forests of Maine and 
Michigan; and each and all received it as it summons to arms.

  The telegraph, which still remained open to Charleston, spell away the 
momentous news, which, an hour or two later, was received at Philadelphia 
and Harrisburg; and from thence, it was spread on the wings of the 
lightning to the farthest corners of the State.  Frequent dispatches came 
during Friday and Saturday, each announcing the progress; and particulars 
of the bombardment; and men ground their teeth, and turned pale with anger, 
as the successive bulletins appeared. So deep was the feeling of patriotic 
indignation in Northampton, that, on the announcement of the attack, a 
public war meeting was called by the citizens of the county, and was held 
in the public square at Easton, on Saturday, the thirteenth; while the 
red-hot shot were, yet being rained on the fort and its unyielding garrison.

  Those who recollect the opening days of the great tragedy, well know what 
those war meetings were. Hundreds of men and women were there, pale, 
apprehensive, indignant, and intensely excited. Nearly all wore the 
national colors-red, white, and blue-on some part of their dress. Eloquent 
and patriotic speeches were made by the most influential citizens, 
appealing to the love of country, and calling for volunteers to enroll and 
organize themselves for the serious work, which all now realized to be so 
near at hand.

  Instantaneous was the response to these appeals. Five companies of 
volunteers were organized-one at Bethlehem, and four at Easton-with such 
dispatch, that when, on Monday, the fifteenth, the Presidents proclamation 
was promulgated, calling for seventy-five thousand men for a term of three, 
months, these companies promptly offered their services to the Governor of 
Pennsylvania, and, being at once accepted, they, on Thursday the  eighteenth,
left their homes and families, for the rendezvous at  Harrisburg, where, on
the twentieth of April-just one week front the day  of the surrender of
Sumter-they were mustered into service with the First  Regiment of
Pennsylvania Volunteers; of which Samuel Yohe, of Easton, was  made
colonel. Four days later, April 24th, another company from Easton was 
mustered at Camp Curtin, as "G," of the Ninth Regiment, of which Charles 
Glanz, of Easton, was chosen Major. 

The first of the Northampton county volunteers for the three years service, 
which went forward, was the Company of Captain Horn (a name which had been 
suggestive of patriotism and military ardor since the days of the. Revolution.) 

This was mustered its company "E," of the Forty-first Regiment 
(Twelfth Pennsylvania Reserves.), on May 30th, at Camp Curtin.
Next went forward two companies raised in Easton, which entered the service 

September 16th, and were designated as companies "A" and "E" of the Forty-seventh Regiment.
Following these, in the numerical order of regiments, there entered for
service from Northampton county:
Two companies of the Fifty-first Regiment.
One company of the Fifty-ninth Regiment (Second Cavalry).
One company of the Sixty-fourth Regiment (Fourth Cavalry)
One company of the Sixty-seventh Regiment.
One company of the One Hundred and Eighth Regiment (Eleventh Cav.)
One company of the One Hundred and Thirteenth Regiment (Twelfth Cav.)
Four companies of the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth Regiment,
The One Hundred and Fifty-third Regiment -entire.
Two companies of the One Hundred and Seventy-fourth Regiment,
One company of the Two Hundred and Second Regiment.
One company of the Two Hundred and Fourteenth Regiment.
One company of the Two Hundred and Fifteenth Regiment.
Four companies of the Fifth Regiment-militia of 1862.
One company of the Twenty-seventh Regiment -emergency men of 1863.
One company of the Thirty-fourth Regiment -militia of 1863.
Seven companies of the Thirty-eighth Regiment -militia of 1853,
One company of the Forty-sixth Regiment -militia of 1863,
An artillery company, raised at Easton, known is Seymour's Battery 
afterwards designated as Battery "D," Fifth United States Artillery.
Besides these, squalls of men, raised in Northampton, were mustered with 
Spencer's Battery, at Philadelphia, and also with the Third New Jersey 
Cavalry.

  The rolls and records of the organizations will be given in their 
appropriate place.


93

                               CHAPTER XXXVII.

                THE SEVEN DAYS' - SOUTH MOUNTAIN - ANTIETAM.

  WITH the exception of an inconsiderable skirmish or two, the first 
fields where the soldiers from Northampton county smelt powder, and heard 
the dread whisperings of hostile bullets, were those of the bloody Seven 
Days' fight of McClellan, before Richmond.

  For two days preceding the twenty-sixth of June, 1862, mysterious 
movements of the enemy bad been constantly reported by the Union scouts." 
"Stonewall" Jackson, on his way down from the Valley, was known to have 
passed Frederick's Hall on the twenty-fourth, and this, with many other 
indications, told the commanding general what he must hold in expectation, 
and he kept the entire army well in hand for the emergency, which he knew 
was imminent. The rank and file, however, believed that it was to be that 
final and overwhelming attack on the city, which had been so long looked 
for and expected; and all felt full confidence that before the church bells 
of' Richmond should again ring out their Sabbath morning call, the stars 
and stripes would float above their spires.

  Late in the night of the twenty-fifth, the Commander-and-Chief received 
positive information that Jackson was approaching our extreme right, 
probably with the expectation of executing a successful flanking movement. 
To meet this, the proper dispositions were made, but at the same time 
Hooker's and Kearney's divisions were ordered to make a brisk attack on the 
enemy's right, directly in front of the previous battle ground of Fair 
Oaks; this for the purpose of creating the belief in the mind of the 
Confederate leader, that a general movement was to be, made on Richmond, 
the roofs add steeples of which could plainly be, seen from the point where 
Hooker directed the fight By this means, it was hoped not only that the 
main body, encamped at, and around Richmond, might be prevented from 
massing against the Union right, but that perhaps Jackson might be, reduced 
to abandon his Movement.

  This not only failed of its purpose, but it decided Lee -who fully 
understood the feint -to do the very thing it was desired he should not do; 
co-operate with Jackson and mass against our right; the position which was 
held by McCall's Pennsylvanians, strongly pasted along the left bank of 
Beaver Dam Creek. In this command was the regiment containing the 
Northampton boys the Forty-first Pennsylvania, Twelfth Reserve.

  At three o'clock in the bright afternoon of Thursday, the twenty-sixth of 
June, the attack opened; and steadily it was met by the brave soldiers from 
the Keystone State. It was a fearful enemy for them to meet, now in their 
first battle experience, for in all the Southern host, there was no name so 
redoubtable, none so dreaded, as that of Stonewall Jackson; and he, they 
knew, it was who now confronted them. Again and again, the veterans of the 
Valley made their plunging attacks-each time, heralded by their never-to-
be-forgotten yell-but again and again they were forced to recoil from the 
storm of lead which received them. The twelfth Regiment laid behind a low, 
imperfect, rifle-pit parapet, and just in their rear, and above them, was 
posted a section of artillery, which threw its shells and shrapnel directly 
over their heads, into the faces of the unblanching foe.

  It seemed as if the light of that long summer day would never deepen
into the gloom of night, so anxiously did our brave men watch for the 
coming of that darkness which alone could give them relief from the fierce
attacks, which they knew they could not much longer repel; but it came at
last, and the battle of Mechanicsville was over; though the artillery 
continued to howl its lend defiance till far into the night.

  That the result of this engagement was a victory to the Confederates, 
cannot be denied, though the reserves made their fireless bivouac upon the 
field. In the latter part of the night, however, they evacuated the 
position, and retired down the road towards the farm and mill of Dr. 
Gaines-a most notorious rebel, whose property had been occupied by the 
Federal troops for several weeks-and there, hungry, worn, and, it must be 
confessed a good deal dispirited-as soldiers always are when retiring 
before the enemy-they lay in the blistering Virginia sun for many long and 
weary hours, knowing that Jackson's braves were on their track and would 
surely, renew the battle before night. About one o'clock, the battle 1 
commenced upon the right, and the Twelfth was ordered to that part of the 
line, to support Griffin's battery, which was already sharply engaged. In 
this duty they were exposed to a terrific fire, both of artillery and 
musketry, for nearly four hours and then late in the afternoon, the enemy 
made a desperate attack on the right, in the expectation of turning the 
position, but were bravely met and repulsed. The tide of battle, however, 
bad during the entire engagement, set in favor of the Confederates, and, 
had the daylight lasted two hours longer, the unquestioned defeat which the 
Union arms sustained on that day, would have been turned to rout and 
destruction, for when night fell, Jackson's left tested at Bottom's Bridge, 
on the Chickahominy, and the Union right was completely, turned. But four 
other bridges across the stream were yet held by McClellan, and across 
these, the defeated army poured in a continuous stream during the whole of 
the night.

  The Twelfth crossed before midnight, by the bridge known as "Woodbury's," 
and during the following day, lay quietly upon the High ground, near the 
house of Dr. Treat. After dark they moved down to the bridges and set them 
on fire, by the light of which the exultant enemy could be plainly seen on 
the opposite shore.

  The next day-Sunday, the twenty-ninth-they moved towards the James
River, the new base of operations which had been forced on McClellan by his 
two defeats. They acted as a guard for the reserve artillery, and the
match was one of excessive fatigue and hardship, on account at the great
heat of the weather, and lack of water. Concerning that march, and their
night's bivouac, Colonel Taggart, in his report, said: "The White Oak 
Creek, which we crossed about noon, was a complete quagmire, from the 
thousands of horses, teams, and artillery, which were continually passing, 
and water to drink was not to be had. Some of the men became almost 
delirious from thirst, and once, when I halted for rest a few minutes, I 
discovered them drinking from a stagnant puddle, in which was the putrid 
carcass of a dead horse. Poor fellows, I pitied them, but I could not 
permit this, and I promised them good water at White Oak Swamp (as I was, 
informed there was by an engineer officer), but as we arrived there we 
found it utterly unfit to drink. The disappointment war intense; but we 
pushed on, and at evening, when we halted on the green, and General McCall 
came up and told us there was plenty of good spring water in a rivulet near 
by, the joy of the men knew no bounds. Alas! little did they think that on 
that very spot, in less than twenty-four hours, many of them would pour out 
their life's blood, and the waters of that little brook would be reddened 
by the vital current. Yet so it was."

  The enemy had shown the greatest activity and energy in his movements,
as was always the ease with the operations of that wonderful man, Jackson.
Already they bad crossed the bloody Chickahominy, and were again within
striking distance of the retreating Union Army. All that night the Twelfth
laid on their arms, and in the morning, before daylight, were in position 
to repel attack. Another forenoon was passed in fearful expectancy, 
standing to their arms, under the terrible heat of the sun, while the long 
trains hurried on towards the shelter of the river and the gunboats, Two 
o'clock came, and with it, the attack which they had been for hours 
expecting. It fell like an avalanche. There was no skirmish line, no 
preliminary manoeuvring only one tremendous artillery volley, and then, out 
from the battery smoke, charged the brown-gray column, bent on turning the 
flank. The fusillade which was poured on them from the Union ranks, had no 
effect to check them; their overwhelming numbers, and the momentum of their 
onslaught, forced the Twelfth from its position, and obliged
on the support of Hooker's Division.

 In the Report on the, Conduct of the War, reference is made to this 
particular part of the engagement, in these words:

  Our regiments had necessarily become somewhat disordered by the very 
impetuosity of the charge, and were weakened by the detachments required to 
take their prisoner to the rear; the enemy, greatly superior to numbers, 
were upon them before they had time to re-form and they were compelled to 
retire. At the same time, the Twelfth Regiment (which had been divided and 
detached by General Seymour, of the Third Brigade, commanding the left wing 
of the division after it had been established in line by General McCall) 
was cut off from the line, and driven into the left and rear. The 
cannoneers of a section of a battery belonging to Porters Corps, left that 
day with McCall, fled with their horses and limbers at, the first approach 
of the enemy, breaking through four companies of the Twelfth, and trampling 
the men; these men, with six company of the Twelfth, and the detachments 
from the Fifth, Eighth, and Tenth, with the prisoners, hurried down the 
road between Sumner and Hooker, and, in part, on the latter, closely 
followed by the enemy."

  Rallying on Hooker's line, the Twelfth stood gallantly to, their work, 
throughout the action. This battle, of Charles City Cross Roads, was not a 
defeat like the two preceding engagements, but neither was it a decided 
victory, The Union forces held the re-established line, and during the 
night resumed their march to the strong position which the advance had 
taken up, at Malvern Hill. In the fierce battle which was fought on that 
field, the next day, the soldiers of the Twelfth Regiment were not called 
on to take part, but were held in reserve at the farm house on the summit 
of the hill, from which point an excellent view of the battle could be 
had-so far as it was possible to be seen through the dense clouds of dust 
and smoke which hung over it. The fight was not opened until late in the 
day, but during the time of its continuance, it was one of the most 
tremendous of the whole war. On a circling Crest, lower than the summit, 
and yet commanding the field, stood, in position, more than a hundred 
pieces of  Union artillery-not light guns, but many of them as high as 
thirty pounders-shelling the rebel position, and Making the earth tremble 
with their discharges, while a little lower, the field-batteries of Griffin 
were scattering havoc, and adding to the deafening uproar. Deeper and 
heavier cattle the thundering explosions from the hundred-pounder rifles of 
the iron-clads which lay below in the river, and when their huge 
projectiles came howling overhead-for, from their position, they were 
obliged to fire entirely over the Northern army-their unearthly shrieklings 
appalled even the veterans of like Peninsula and of the Valley.2
___________________________________________________________________________

1. The battle of Gaines' Mill -or, as some call it, Gaines' Hill -Friday 
  June 27, 1862.

2. The rebel prisoner who were captured on that day said, that those shells 
as they as they came screeching and crashing through the woods, where their 
army lay, created a perfect panic among them, demoralizing even the most 
seasoned and experienced troops.


94


  It was nearly sunset, when the Confederates made the desperate and 
determined charge by which their leader meant to decide the fare of the day.

  Steadily and gallantly they came to their work. There were no spiked 
helmets, glistening in the light of the declining sun, no uniforms of 
green or scarlet; Defiling but masses of men, clad in butternut, or dull 
dray, with muskets at a trail, and yet those who saw their advance, wished 
they had been Prussian hussars, or lancers, or British guardsmen, anything 
else but those men who had "stood like it stone wall" on the plain of 
Manassas. Magnificently they, came up, line behind line, like the surges of 
the ocean, and apparently as irresistible.

       "To hero boune for battle strife
         Or bard of martial lay,
        "Twere worth ten years of peaceful life,
          One glance at their array."

  Nearer and nearer they came on their unwavering charge, till within close 
range-and then!-the Parrotts upon the crest, belched forth their fire, and 
from Griffin's field-guns-loaded to their throats with canister-leaped out 
whirling rim, of white smoke, and, when these had lifted, the rebel line 
was out there. Human frames could not stand before that fire; they were 
shattered, they had recoiled, but they were not routed. Sullenly retiring 
to a cover, they re-formed, and again they came on, as desperately as 
before, clambering over the winrows of their own dead, to reach the guns, 
once more the lightnings flashed, and again was heard the hum and sickening 
crash of the canister, and-this time they did not return. A Union brigade 
dashed in, pursuing them to the cover of the woods, and, save the 
artillery duel which now commenced between the Federal and Confederate 
batteries, and which continued until nine o'clock, the fight had ended.
There could be no mistake as to the result of the conflict it won the 
heights of Malvern, on that first day of July. The Confederate army, 
notwithstanding the presence of Jackson, had sustained a defeat, and were 
preparing to retreat up the river towards the defences of Richmond, and the 
Union forces, having repelled the enemy's attacks, with great slaughter, 
now laid down to sleep on the field of victory; and so unusual a thing it 
was for them, in those days of 1862, that the weary, worn-out, hungry 
soldiers, felt as if their beds, upon that trampled field, would be soft, 
and their sleep, under the canopy of the heavens, sweet and undisturbed. 
The hope was delusive; for at midnight came the whispered order to hill in 
for the march to the river. It was with many angry mutterings that it was 
obeyed, and as they marched on, hour after hour, in the darkness, the 
mutterings, in some of the commands, grew almost to open mutiny, About 
sunrise, rain began to fall, and increased so much that the men became 
soaked to the skin ; and in this miserable, despairing condition, they 
reached Harrison's Landing, twelve miles below City Point, on the James. 
Here, after the hardships, and hunger, and blood of the Seven Days' fight, 
they could be sure of food, and of safety, under the sheltering guns of the 
war-vessels in the river.

  A Northampton company ("A") of the Fourth Pennsylvania Cavalry, also 
participated in the Peninsula campaign, but was not present in any of
the series of lights here mentioned.

  The, regiments containing Northampton, troops, which participated in the 
campaign of South Mountain and Antietam, were the Fourth and Twelfth
Pennsylvania Cavalry, and the Forty-first and Fifty-first of the Infantry; 
the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth, in which were four companies belonging to 
the county, only arriving at the Antietam field on the morning following 
the battle.

  After his operations on the Peninsula, and against Pope, on the 
Rappahannock, Lee had crossed the Potomac, at Williamsport and 
Shepherdstown, and entered on the soil of Maryland. The Northern army 
having followed all the Potomac by way of Washington, Monocacy, and 
Frederick, found the rebels occupying the slopes and summit of South 
Mountain, which furnished an exceedingly strong position of defence, and 
where he evidently intended to stand for battle.

  At seven in the morning, on the fourteenth of September, 1862, General 
Cox's Division, of Reno's Corps, moved to the attack. The enemy, from the 
mountain side, poured down an avalanche of shot and shell on the advancing 
column, and for five hours, the ravines mild clefts of the hill shook and 
reverberated with the thunder of the tremendous explosions. About noon the 
rebel infantry charged fiercely on our batteries, but were severely 
repulsed. Still no progress had been made towards their dislodgment.

  About, two o'clock, as Reno's troops stood at the foot of the mountain-
baffled but not repulsed-the fighting column of Hooker appeared, steadily 
and swiftly approaching to augment the attacking force, and cheer after 
cheer went up from the tired soldiers, who had held their post there, 
under the artillery fire, since the early hour of the morning. Quickly, the 
new line of battle was formed and the order given to advance. Right up the 
rugged slope, facing the iron storm, they went, never wavering for a 
moment, until they had closed in close conflict with the Confederate host. 
For three interminable hours the smoke and flame enveloped the wooded 
steeps of the mountain, and the crags shook and trembled under the 
unceasing roar of the fusillades; but nothing could bar the upward sweep of 
the invincible line of Hooker and Reno, and before the twilight fell on the 
scene, the Union forces rested, in victory, upon the summit, and the gray 
legions of Lee were in retreat down the western declivity, and along the 
road to Sharpsburg.

  During this fight, the Twelfth Reserve was engaged in the centre of the 
attacking line, and nobly performed its duty. The Fifty-first, in Ferrero's 
Brigade, had moved towards the summit, on the left of the Sharpsburg road, 
gallantly receiving a determined charge of the rebel infantry, almost on 
the spot where the heroic Reno fell. Neither the Fourth, nor the Twelfth 
Cavalry, although present for duty, were, actively engaged at South Mountain; 
the Twelfth being held in reserve, with the corps of General Sumner.

  Following the advantage gained in the mountain battle, the army of 
McClellan moved on, the next day, in pursuit of the enemy, and at evening 
came up with him, posted in an almost impregnable position, along the right 
bank of Antietam Creek, with his left protected by that sluggish stream, 
and his right resting on a bend of the Potomac, which, at this point, 
approaches near enough to Antietam to render such it disposition possible. 
It was an admirable position, protected on the flanks, as has been said, 
and embracing a line of detached hills, increasing in height as they 
receded from the stream-those in the rear commanding those in front, so 
that, if the first had been carried, the victorious assaulters would still 
be within range of the batteries upon the others; while the wooded hollows 
between these, would effectually conceal the movements of the hostile 
troops. A direct advance upon such a position would have been madness, and 
the commanding general decided to make the attack at both flanks, its 
nearly simultaneously as possible. Four stone bridges crossed the creek, at 
different points opposite Lee's, position; the upper one being nearly seven 
miles from the mouth, and the lower one being nearly abreast of his extreme 
right. This last named was a three-arched structure, with a stone parapet 
above the roadway, and this parapet extended a considerable way beyond the 
bank, on both ends, forming a sort of flanking work to its approaches. This 
bridge was destined to become the scene of one of the fiercest struggles of 
the day.

  Pursuant to McClellan's plan, Hooker's Corps, embracing Meade's, 
Ricketts', and Doubleday's divisions, were ordered, in the afternoon of the 
sixteenth, to cross the upper bridge, attack Lee's extreme left, holding 
the ground he might gain, until joined by Mansfield, who was to cross 
during the night, and Sumner early in the morning.

  Hooker's passage of the bridge was accomplished with comparative ease, 
but no general attack was made by him that evening; only some skirmishing 
and light work, until, at dark, he found himself closely confronting the 
enemy's main line of battle, where his soldiers-among whom were the 
Northampton boys of the Twelfth Reserve-halted in bivouac, to sleep upon 
their arms. And there, along that locust-fringed stream, where, of old, the 
autumn night heard no sounds but those of the katydid and the whippoorwill, 
there arose, among the slumbering hosts, those strange, subdued, mysterious 
noises, that always fill the hours of darkness which precede the morning of 
battle.


95


  Dark and lowering opened the morning of the sixteenth of September, and
its coming, found the fighting commander of the corps already astride the
white, horse which he was wont to ride in the day of conflict. There was no 
delay in the attack; first, were heard the rapid shots: of the pickets, 
then almost immediately, the continuous roll and rattle of the deadly 
musketry. On an open space, embracing some corn-fields, was where, the 
battle opened, and this ground was contested with equal bravery, and 
determination by Federal and Confederate. Finally the Pennsylvanians, under 
Meade, forced the enemy from the field, and pursued him with fun, to the 
shelter of the woods; but, of a sudden, out from that leafy, cover burst a 
sheet of flame and thin blue smoke, which made the pursuers, waver, 
stagger, and then retreat. Out from the dark forest then poured the yelling 
rebel horde, and swept the field like the irresistible course of a 
hurricane. Hurriedly, Hooker ordered Hartsuff and Mansfield to interpose 
their veteran brigades to stay the tithe of flight, but both those brave 
generals fell in the onset -Mansfield killed, and Hartsuff severely wounded.

  Affairs now looked dubious enough on the right, and Hooker determined to 
put in all his troops and end the struggle; but just then he was himself 
wounded and carried from the field.

  Now the command fell on Sumner, who at once, ordered Sedgwick to carry 
the field at all hazards. But Sedgwick was in turn added to the list of 
wounded, and this placed the command of the corps in the hands of General 
Howard. Desperately did he renew the attack, but all in vain; the Union 
troops were driven back and forced from the field, and the battle on the 
right seemed decisively lost; when Franklin arrived, and, with the 
divisions of Slocum and "Baldy" Smith, charged with such overwhelming fury 
that the field was cleared, and the Confederates, retreated in disorder to 
their first shelter in the woods.

  Meanwhile, how went the day, on the left?  Burnside, with his corps, had 
been ordered to carry the lower bridge and crush the enemy's right, then 
sweep up the heights towards the centre, and complete the victory. This 
attack was intended to be simultaneous with that of Hooker on the right, so 
as to prevent the enemy's reinforcement of either flank. But, for some 
unexplained cause, the order had not been strictly followed. The attack was 
delayed beyond the designated time, and this delay enabled them to 
concentrate against Hooker with the result which has just been seen. Orders 
were again sent to Burnside to carry the bridge at once, and at all 
hazards, and then to proceed to the execution of the remainder of the work 
assigned him-to fight his way along the crests to the enemy's rear.

  At last, at one o'clock, many hours after Hooker had opened battle on the
left, an assaulting charge was ordered across the arch bridge, and was made
with most furious desperation, and entire success, by the Fifty-first 
Pennsylvania and the Fifty-first New York regiments. Heavy bodies of troops
were at once thrown across to their support, and the enemy retired to their
works on the heights. At, three o'clock these heights were assaulted, and 
the rebels driven with such impetuosity, that the Northern boys found 
themselves almost within the village of Sharpsburg. But just then, heavy 
reinforcements, came to Lee, from Harper's Ferry, and Burnside was, in 
turn, forced back, and secured in danger of titter overthrow. Despairingly, 
he sent in greatest basic to the commander for help, from the fifteen 
thousand men of Porter's Corps, who had not yet been in the fight His 
answer was, to hold the ground till dark, at every hazard, or, if all else 
was, lost, to expend his last man in keeping possession of the arch bridge, 
He did hold the bridge against the desperate attempts of the foe to retake 
it, but was obliged to relinquish the ground which he had gained on the 
heights beyond.

  And so darkness at last gathered once more around the struggling hosts, 
and they laid down, in titter exhaustion, to rest, amid groans and 
mutilation and death, on the red field of Antietam.

  As has been said, the Fifty-first was one of the two regiments which so
brilliantly charged across the tons bridge, while the Twelfth Reserve was
under Hooker, on the right. Its loss in the battle was sixty-one, killed 
and wounded.  The total loss of the Sixty-first was one hundred and twenty
five. The Fourth Cavalry crossed the stone bridge, and supported
Clark's Battery during Burnside's engagement, and lost its commanding
officer, Colonel Childs; killed by a solid shot. The Twelfth Cavalry, 
during the battle, was deployed in the rear of the centre and right of the 
army, to prevent straggling and disorder.

 The next day was one of inaction. It seems probable that the Union 
commander was unaware of the decisive nature of his victory, and that this 
was the reason why the attack was not renewed in the morning.  At four 
o'clock, in the afternoon of the battle, there is no doubt he believed it 
lost, and that he held in reserve the fifteen thousand men of Porter's 
command to cover the retreat which he then thought inevitable, and on that 
account it must have seemed marvelous to him that the lost battle should 
have been transformed into a victory; and, besides, he knew that his loss 
on the field had been twelve thousand, with a very great proportion of 
officers, and that ten thousand men were scattered around the surrounding 
country, straggling from their commands; and it is little wonder that under 
these circumstances he should have been slow to reopen the, fight. But, 
however this may have been, when, on the morning of the nineteenth, the 
troops advanced under orders to attack the Confederate position, it, was 
discovered that it was evacuated, and a further reconnaissance showed that 
the rebel army had already crossed the Potomac, and was safe on the soil of 
Virginia.


                           CHAPTER XXXVIII.

                  FREDERICKSBURG AND CHANCELLORSVILLE.

  AFTER Lee's escape across the Potomac, the army lay quiescent in upper 
Maryland for more than five weeks, during which time the rebel General 
Stuart, with eighteen hundred men, raided entirely around our forces, 
penetrating as far as Chambersburg, and the people of the country became 
considerably irritated at the delay, and demanded another forward movement. 
Whether this clamor was just, and reasonable, is not now to be discussed. 
It is sufficient to our payment purpose, to know that this sentiment had 
its effect, and peremptory orders issued from the war office to cross the 
army at once, and resume the offensive. In obedience to this order, the 
commander put his forces in motion, and crossed the river at, Berlin; the 
plan being to move southward, parallel to the Blue Ridge, and hold each 
mountain gap, on the advance. The headquarters were established at 
Warrenton about the first of November, and, on the fifth of that month, 
orders from Washington arrived, directing McClellan to turn over the 
command of the Army of the Potomac to General Ambrose E. Burnside.

  Ten days later, the new commander broke camp, and commenced a rapid
march towards Fredericksburg; his intention being to capture and fortify
that town before the main army, of Lee could come to its rescue. He hoped,
by this means, to embarrass the rebel leader's retreat to Richmond, and to
compel a decisive battle in the open field. But again there intervened one
of those unforeseen accidents which, through all the world's history have
marred the most carefully perfected military plans, and reversed the 
fortunes of battle on many a field of blood. The pontoon trains, upon which 
the army entirely depended to accomplish the passage of the Rappahannock-
on the farther shore of which, lay the old town of Fredericksburg-were 
delayed, on their way from Washington, and did not arrive on the field of
operations until about three weeks after the time when they were 
confidently expected by the commanding general. During all this time the 
great host lay idly on the north bank of the river, unable to avail itself 
of the opportunity which was so soon to pass away. The columns of Lee were 
now given ample time to reach the menaced town, and to Post, and fortify 
themselves in most advantageous positions along its frowning heights.

  Bitter was the disappointment of Burnside at this shattering of his 
cherished plans, but, nevertheless, be resolved not to abandon the project 
of attack, but to pursue a course which, from its very audacity, might take 
the enemy by surprise; to cross the river under their fire, and move 
straight on the slope, in direct assault on his trebly fortified position. 
It seemed certain that the Confederate commander could never anticipate a 
movement so desperate, on the part of his antagonist, and for that reason, 
Burnside deemed success to be not impossible, and fully resolved on the 
tremendous venture.

  Behind the town of Fredericksburg, the country rises in  terrace-like 
eminences, and along these, lay the veteran army of Lee-the assaulters of
Malvern Hill and Antietam-impregnably intrenched. Their positions,
however, afforded one advantage to the attacking army, for they lay on it
curve with the concavity facing the Union army, which gave to them the
advantage of short interior lines. W, here. the right of the enemy's curved
line approached near the bank of the river, three miles below the town, it
was covered with woods, and at this point, the corps of General Franklin
was ordered to cross, and if possible, turn the Confederate right, 
simultaneously with the grand assault on the heights behind the town.


96


   For forty-eight hours preceding the morning of the day of slaughter, the 
banks of the river, where the Union army lay, presented a, scene which can 
never be forgotten by those who beheld it, The incessant moving of masses 
of troops taking up their positions, the tramp of cavalry, and file 
continual rumble of artillery wheels, evidenced the vast proportions of the 
host who were preparing to hurl themselves against those bristling heights, 
which frowned beyond and above the little town, from the houses and 
shelters of kept up a galling fire on all who exposed themselves upon the 
north bank of the stream.  To dislodge these, one hundred and eighty cannon 
opened their tremendous fire on the town itself, paying no attention, for 
the time, to their antagonists upon the hill beyond. Through long and lurid 
hours, the awful uproar of the bombardment went on, and so numerous and so 
rapidly served were the batteries, that the explosions were not 
distinguishable. It was one rolling volley of artillery, under which the 
earth reeled, and the very river trembled. The town, upon which the vials 
of wrath had been so suddenly opened, was enveloped, and nearly hidden, in 
it thick fog, but us the infernal work progressed, there were soon seen, 
heavy columns of smoke arising through the vaporous curtain, where 
dwellings and warehouses had been fired by the exploding shells.  But there 
was no relaxation of the fire from the batteries; no flagging of the 
frightful energy with which they were served, still the gunners leaped to 
their pieces, bare-armed, powder-grimed, and reeking with sweat-though it 
was the middle of December-and still the hot guns hurled the pitiless iron 
into the town.  "As the air darkened, the red flashes of the guns gave a 
new effect to the scene-the roar of each report being preceded by a fierce 
dart of flame, while the explosion of each shell, was announced by a gush 
of fire on the clouds. Towering between us and the western sky, which was 
still showing its faded scarlet lining, was the huge, sombre pillar of 
grimy smoke that marked the burning of Fredericksburg. Ascending to a vast 
height, it bore away northward, shaped like a plume bowed in the wind."

  But after all this tremendous cannonade, the rebel sharp-shooters, were 
not dislodged, for the reason that it was found impossible to depress the 
guns sufficiently to bear upon the houses which stood close upon the 
opposite bank, and in which the riflemen were hidden. This being the case, 
on the succeeding morning volunteers were called for to cross the river 
under the fire of the marksmen, drive them out at the bayonet's point, burn 
the houses which still remained, and then lay the pontoons for the passage 
of the army.  One Michigan and two Massachusetts regiments responded to 
this call, and most gallantly performed the service.  The three pontoons 
being in position, the crossing of the troops was at once commenced, and 
all day long the steady tramping of the hosts continued across, the bridges 
and up to their positions on the opposite shore. The crossing of the whole 
army, including Franklin's Corps was accomplished during the day and 
succeeding night, and now, on Saturday morning, the thirteenth of December, 
the actors were all in their places, the audience-a whole nation-held their 
breath, and the curtain rose on the tragedy of Fredericksburg.

  It was nearly noon when, by the lifting of the fog, which during the 
morning had enveloped the town and the lower portions of the field, the 
position of the enemy could be seen, and the movements of his own troops 
followed, by the eye o the commanding general, who then gave the order for 
the corps of General Couch to advance and open the assault. That column at 
once moved forward, and were received by such a storm of lead and iron as 
has seldom ever swept a field of battle.

  Other corps were hurried into the fight, and hurled themselves with more 
than human valor against the invulnerable works on Marve's Heights, but not 
one inch did they gain in all that afternoon of blood. Over and over again 
did our troops charge, with headlong impetuosity, over the piles of their 
dead comrades, right up to the fatal stone wall, behind which lay their 
for, there to melt away before the crashing discharges, and then, 
retreating, make room for another assaulting column, to attempt the 
impossible, and to wither and vanish like their predecessors. The language 
of Colonel Stevens, of New Hampshire, truthfully describes the scene: "For 
three-fourths of an hour," said he, "I stood in front of my regiment on the 
brow of the hill, and watched the fire of the rebel batteries, as they 
poured shot and shell from sixteen different points, upon our devoted men 
on the plains below. It was a sight magnificently terrible. Every discharge 
of the enemy's artillery, and every explosion of his shells was distinctly 
visible in the dusky twilight of that smoke-crowned hill. His direct and 
enfilading batteries, with the vividness, intensity, and almost the 
rapidity of lightning, buried the messengers of death into the midst of our 
brave ranks, vainly struggling through the murderous fire, to gain the 
hills and guns of the enemy."

  On the left, Franklin's Corps had advanced to the attack before noon,
and for a time seemed to be making some progress, the division of Meade 
carrying some of his positions near the edge of the woods.  One of these 
was carried by Jackson's (Third) Brigade, in which were the Northampton 
boys of the Twelfth Reserve. This regiment succeeded in flanking the 
enemy's intrenched line, and capturing one of the works on the Bowling 
Green road. But the refluent tide of war soon forced them to abandon it, 
and to retire with the loss of their brigade commander. The loss in the 
regiment was thirteen killed, seventy wounded, and thirty-four taken 
prisoners. In no part of the fighting on the left, however, was the carnage 
so awful as it was in the repeated attacks on the stone wall defence of 
Marye's Heights.

  It was a mercy that the day was nearly the shortest of the year, for it 
seemed that night alone could put an end to the slaughter; and it was not 
until utter darkness closed her wing over the combatants, that the 
slaughter ceased. And how stood the account? Twenty thousand men had been 
lost on the Union side, and still the defiant rebels held every foot of the 
ground, and every piece of artillery which they held in the morning. 
Accustomed as the Army of the Potomac bad become to loss and disaster, it 
had never known such loss, nor such defeat its that day's work bad brought.
Be-sides the Twelfth Reserve, there were the Fifty-first, and the One 
Hundred and Twenty-ninth regiments-both containing companies of Northampton 
troops-engaged in the battle. The last-named regiment lost one hundred and 
forty-two, in killed and wounded, during the action. They advanced almost 
to the face of the famous stone wall, and company "D" -Northampton -lost an 
officer and seven men, taken prisoners at that point. The brigade 
commander, General Tyler, in his official report of the battle, says: 
"Colonel O'Brien, One Hundred and Thirty-fourth, led the right front; 
Colonel Frick, One Hundred and Twenty-ninth, the left; Colonel Elder, One 
Hundred and Twenty-sixth, the right rear; and Colonel Gregory, 
Ninety-first, the left rear. These officers discharged their duties 
creditably and satisfactorily, their voices being frequently heard above 
the din of battle, urging on their men against the terrible shower of shot 
and shell, and the terrific musketry, as we approached the stone wall. Of 
their conduct, I cannot speak too highly, it may not be improper for me to 
say, that Captain Thomas, Acting Inspector General, on the staff of the 
division commander, having his horse shot, and thus prevented from serving 
him, joining his company, in the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth, and was 
severely wounded while leading his men in the charge."

  The Fifty-first was deployed at, the lime-kiln, and advanced to a line 
joining the left of the Second Corps. Its behavior was most gallant, during 
the whole of the dreadful engagement, The Sixty-fourth (Fourth Cavalry) was 
stationed, to guard the fords of the Rappahannock, above Fredericksburg, 
during the progress of the battle. The One Hundred and Fifty-third were 
marching towards the Rappahannock, but did not succeed in reaching the 
field to participate in the fight.

  It was the intention of General Burnside, to inaugurate another advance 
movement, to retrieve the overwhelming disaster of Fredericksburg, but 
before this could be done, very heavy rains set in, and rendered the 
movement of artillery simply impossible, and so the decimated army sadly 
took up it, winter quarters in the vicinity of Brooke's Station, north of 
the Rappahannock.

  On the twenty-sixth of January, General Burnside wag superseded in the 
command of the Army of the Potomac, by General Joseph Hooker, the fighting 
commander of the Centre Grand Division in the engagement at Fredericksburg. 
He at once set about re-organizing the army, and placing it in condition 
for the spring campaign, which, he never doubted, would result in the 
destruction of Lee's forces, and the capture of Richmond.

  Five miles south of the United States Ford, of the Rappahannock River, 
was Chancellorsville, which was by no means a town, as many people have 
supposed; but a single large house which had doubtless been at some time, 
if not then recently, used as a tavern. It stood at the point where the 
Gordonsville Plank Road was crossed by the Orange County turnpike; and at 
this house, the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac were established, 
on Saturday, the second day of May, 1863.

  It was the plan of General Hooker, to mass all his cavalry, under command 
of General Stoneman, who was to raid at Lee's rear, and sever all railway 
communication between him and his base of supplies at Richmond. At the same 
time, the entire army, excepting some twenty thousand men under Sedgwick, 
were to cross the Rappahannock, at the fords above Fredericksburg, and take 
position in the vicinity of Chancellorsville, by which menace, he believed 
he would force the rebel leader to come out from his intrenched position 
and meet him in the open field. But it wag also a part of his plan, that 
Sedgwick, with his strong corps, should cross the river at the town, and 
give battle, driving the enemy before him, until he should form a junction 
with his chief, and the main body.


97

  The plan seemed a perfectly feasible one; and now, on this second of May, 
it had progressed successfully so far as this: that the army was safely 
across the river, and had coiled its huge form around the headquarters of 
its commander, at Chancellorsville, while Stoneman was away to the 
southward, sweeping the country as with the besom of destruction. All 
seemed auspicious, and the Commander-in-Chief, in his exultation, said to 
one of his corps generals, that the Army of the Potomac was the best 
military organization on the planet, and that the rebel army of Northern 
Virginia was its legitimate property. But, alas! there was one fact which 
be ignored in these calculation and that fact was -Stonewall Jackson- who 
was, at, that moment, nearing the devoted Union columns, like the swoop 
of the Destroying Angel.

  There is no doubt, that when Hooker executed that part of his general
plan which swiftly crossed his army over the Rappahannock, and intrenched
it within a comparatively short radius from the Chancellorsville house, he
took the rebel general by surprise, just as, he expected to, and that, so 
far, the plan had succeeded to admiration. Lee had come out from his 
intrenchments, but when out, he had found just what Hooker had supposed be 
would find, that to remain in Fredericksburg in force, would be fatal, and 
that, to make a direct attack on the Union army, would be not less so. What 
should be done? At that juncture, Lee recollected the fact which Hooker had 
forgotten-Stonewall Jackson! And now let us see what came of it. In a
rebel publication, called "The Battle-fields of Virginia," we are told that
Lee and Jackson passed the night of the first of May under some pine
trees on the left of the Plank Road, just where the Confederate line 
crossed it.  The difficulty of attacking the Federal Position in front, had 
induced General Lee to order his cavalry to reconnoitre the right flank of 
the Union army. During the night, they reported favorably to an attack in 
that direction. At day-break, General Jackson dispatched two of his staff 
to ascertain ifs practicable route, existed by which, with speed and 
secrecy, he might move round the flank, of the hostile army.  The needed 
information was soon obtained. Seated upon two cracker-boxes, the debris of 
an issue of Federal rations the day before, the Confederate leaders held 
their consultation. With a map before him, General Jackson suggested an 
entire circuit, of the right of the opposing army, and that the attack be 
made on it, rear. Lee inquired, with what force he would do this? Jackson 
replied, with my whole corps, present. Lee then asked, what would be left 
to him with which to resist an advance of the enemy towards Fredericksburg? 
The divisions of Anderson and McLaws, said Jackson.  Jackson was directed 
to carry out the plan."

  The corps of Jackson, with which he executed this flanking movement, 
comprised nearly three-fourths of the entire Confederate army, and left Lee 
with the fragment, liable to be ground to powder between the upper and the 
nether millstone of Hooker and Sedgwick. He saw and feared this, but he had 
learned, by experience, that Jackson's bold counsel was always the best, 
and on this occasion, as on others, he deferred to it. So Jackson marched 
away to the southwest, with the main body, leaving his superior, with 
merely a menacing detachment, in the vicinity of Fredericksburg.

  It would seem impossible that so large a force could make so long a 
March, almost in the very presence of another great army, without 
discovery; but Jackson infused the utmost of his wonderful energy into the 
movement, marching with great rapidity and without a moments delay, 
covering his right with bodies of cavalry, whose presence, when detected by 
the Union outposts, seemed sufficiently to account for the tell-tale clouds 
of dust which constantly arose away beyond the right of the Federal army, 
while Lee, to divert the attention of the Northern commander, made constant 
demonstrations with his artillery.

  After all, the movement was not accomplished entirely without the 
knowledge of the Union generals, though its purpose was never suspected. 
Bodies of rebel infantry were observed at several points, moving towards 
the Southwest, but, instead of recognizing these as portions of a great 
flanking column, they were believed to be the advance of the army of Lee, 
retiring to Orange Court House, or Culpepper. General Howard said, in his 
Report: "I should have stated that, just at evening of May 1st, the enemy 
made a reconnoissance on our front with a small force of artillery and 
infantry. General Schimmelfennig moved out with a battalion, and drove him 
back. During Saturday, the second, the same general made frequent 
reconnoissances. Infantry scouts and cavalry patrols were constantly pushed 
out on every road. The unvarying report was, 'the enemy is crossing the 
Plank Road, and moving toward Culpepper.'"
  
  Such was the fatal misconception on the part of the Union commaders,
of the true character of that masterly manoeuvre of Jackson. From the
same authority, before quoted-The Battle-Fields of Virginia-we again 
extract: "The turnpike reached, the Confederate column turned down it, 
towards Challcellorsville. Every precaution was taken to conceal the 
presence of troops, orders were given in a low tone; no guns were permitted 
to be fired; no cheering was allowed as the general passed along. Passing 
town the road some distance, Jackson formed his force in three lines of 
battle, perpendicular to the turnpike, and extending about one mile on each 
side of it. Rhodes occupied the front line, with his brigades in the 
following order: Iverson's and Rhode's brigades on the, left of the road, 
Doles' and Colquitt's on the right. Two hundred yards in the rear, Colston 
(commanding Trimble's Division) was drawn up; Nicholl's and Jones' brigades on 
the left of the pike, and Colston's Brigade on the right, Remseier's 
Brigade, of Rhodes Division, extended the line on the right, in support of 
Conquitt. Part of A. P. Hill's Division, as fast as it arrived, was formed 
in line, in support of Colston, and the remainder marched in column, along 
the Old Turnpike." This, then, was the rebel disposition, as the sun drew 
towards the horizon on the afternoon of the second of May.

  The Eleventh Corps, commanded by General Howard, field the extreme right, 
of the Army of the Potomac, and lay right before Jackson, on the turnpike, 
two miles from the Headquarters, at Chancellorsville, The First Division 
held the right of the corps line: the First Brigade, the right of the 
division; and the One Hundred and Fifty-third Pennsylvania, with a New York 
regiment (the Fifty-fourth), held the right of the brigade, being the 
extreme right of the Army of the Potomac.  It was to be a wild initiation 
of Northampton's own regiment, to encounter the lion of the Confederate 
army, as their very first experience in the hostile field!

  A little before sunset, on that balmy Saturday afternoon, a sharp and
sudden blast of bugles rose out of the copse-wood in Howard's front, and
then, almost instantaneously, a triple line of gray burst out from the 
cover, and, with that charging yell-as terrible as the Indian 
war-whoop-fell, like the resistless sweep of a mountain avalanche, on the 
right of the attenuated Union line The Northampton regiment was the first, 
which received the overwhelming blow, and they received it with the 
steadiness of veterans pouring their volley right, into the faces of the 
charging columns. But they might as well have sent the leaden shower 
against the crags of the Blue Mountains. Nothing could withstand the 
momentum  of that terrific onslaught. The battery and its support, which 
had joined them on the left, had broken for the rear, on the first 
appearance of the enemy. To retain their position was impossible; it could 
only result in capture or utter destruction, and so the order was given to 
retire before the attack they could not hope successfully to resist.

  On, like the whirlwind, swept, the rebel assault, shattering into fragments 
the regiments and brigades which opposed them. The corps commander, 
Howard-as brave and true a man as ever stood upon a battle-field-rode 
recklessly into the infernal crater, waving his armless sleeve as a 
gonfalon, in his despairing attempts to rally his broken and flying 
columns. It was all in vain; Sickles too, made a desperate, trial to
attacks, but  nothing could stay the progress of the careering wave of 
destruction which swept every part, of that crimson field; and the aides 
and couriers from the overpowered generals, carried to Hooker the frightful 
tale of havoc. Then he remembered the old days of battle, when, at the head 
of his division, he had reveled in the wild work they made.  At once he 
ordered that division (now Berry's) to the breach, to steel the tide of 
disaster, and he, himself, to animate them, rode, with their general at 
their head. Nothing could exceed the enthusiasm with which they greeted their 
old commander. To them, he was no longer the supreme general, but, Fighting 
Joe, Hooker; the same who had led them at Malvern Hill and Antietam. Firmly 
they moved up to meet the advancing tide, and their thirty pieces of 
artillery sent their double loads of canister crashing incessantly into the 
solid ranks of Jackson's veterans, who still pressed up to fill the places 
of the slain, and still the battle went on. But time had been given for 
Howard and Sickles to rally their troops on the succoring division, and by 
eleven o'clock the fury of the assault bad been checked, the fire 
slackened, and, at last, a lull fell over the scene of death.

  Hooker at once set about changing his position, to render his lines more 
solid and compact, to resist the attack, which he was well aware would be 
renewed in the morning.  The One Hundred and Fifty-third Regiment with the 
remainder of the brigade, had retired as far as the open fields just west 
of Chancellorsville. Here they rallied, and while a strong detail was sent 
to bury the dead, and bring off the wounded, others commenced the throwing 
up of temporary defences. Their commander, Colonel Charles Glanz, had 
fallen into the hands of the enemy, Lieutenant-Colonel Dachrodt was 
wounded, and Major Frueauff was now in command.


98


  Early the following morning-Sunday, May 3d -the attack was reopened
along the line of the turnpike from the west. It was received by the 
divisions of Berrt and Birney, with two other divisions in support. Forty 
pieces of cannon sent their merciless canister and shell into the solid 
masses as they came on and the heads of the, columns incited away like snow 
in the warm rain of spring. The divisions of Birney and Berry charged to 
meet them, and the guns still vomited their incessant discharges, but 
nothing could stand, against their determined charge. The Union troops were 
forced back at every point, though not broken nor demoralized. The battle 
raged with unabated fierceness for six hours, and then, for a time, the 
enemy withdrew. Another attack was made during the afternoon, but with less 
vigor, and it resulted in no loss of ground to the army of General Hooker.

  Sedgwick, with his twenty thousand men, had, in the meantime, attacked 
the enemy at Fredericksburg, and had carried the heights by a most brilliant 
assault, and then, with the greater part of his corps, advanced towards the 
main army, but was met by a superior force, and after a severe engagement 
compelled to retreat across the Rappahannock. It was almost a miracle that 
he escaped utter destruction, in recrossing, over his pontoons, with so 
active an enemy as Lee, pressing upon him.

  Heavy rains now began to fall, and the river rose with great rapidity, so
that Hooker, fearing for his communications, thought no more of an advance,
but only how to save his army, and with a sad heart, gave the order to 
recross to the north side of the river. This was accomplished without loss, 
on the night of Tuesday the fifth; and now they survived-reoccupied the 
position from which it had marched with such confidence of victory, less 
than a week before.

  During the engagements of Sunday, the One Hundred and Fifty-third was 
under a heavy cannonade for hours, and was galled by the fire of the 
sharp-shooters, but fortunately incurred no great loss. The loss of the 
regiment, in the entire battle, was three officers and nineteen men 
killed, fifty-three wounded, and thirty-three prisoners; total one hundred 
and eight.

  The Sixty-fourth (Fourth Cavalry) reached the field of action on 
Saturday, and was assigned position in support of the Eleventh Corps, which 
it held through the battle.

  After the tremendous engagement of Saturday night was over, and the 
exhausted soldiers of both armies had laid down to rest on the field, each 
of the commanders actively set about making their disposition for a renewal 
of the fight in the morning. Hooker to contract and fortify his lines, and 
Jackson to make a critical survey of the ground, to decide where and how he 
would deliver his next blow on his paralyzed antagonist. In this duty he 
rode along the entire front, between the picket lines of the two armies, 
and while thus engaged he was fired on, and mortally wounded. By his own 
people, it is claimed that it was done by mistake by their own men; by 
ours, it was asserted that the shot came from the Union side. None will 
ever know which statement is the true one, nor is it material. Certain it 
is that to the rebel army, and to the cause of the Confederacy, the death 
of Thomas J. Jackson was an appalling disaster; one that far over-balanced 
all the advantage, great as it was, which they had gained on the field of 
Chancellorsville. When his spirit took its flight, the genius of victory 
left the Confederate standard forever, and the Army of the Potomac might 
then breathe freer, for it was no more to he under the humiliation and 
sickening consciousness of fore-ordained defeat.



                             CHAPTER XXXIX.

                            1863 - GETTYSBURG. 

  WHEN the rebel commander found himself a victor at Chancellorsville, and 
the Northern army had retired behind the Rappahannock, his old scheme of 
the invasion of Pennsylvania flamed up anew, and, with the promptitude 
which was characteristic of all his actions, he at once set about its 
execution.  Summoning his lieutenant, Longstreet, and his command, from the 
scene of their unsuccessful operations at Suffolk, and in North Carolina, 
he soon had his army, thus reinforced, well on their way towards Harpers 
Ferry, and the fords of the upper Potomac. To the people of the States 
north of Virginia, his movements were wrapped in mystery, and it seemed 
strange to them, that no blow was struck against a line so far extended.

  By the first of June, it began to be known that he was approaching the 
Potomac river, down the Valley. The intelligence came suddenly. On the
eleventh of June, General Milroy, in command of the post of Winchester, in 
the Valley, received a telegram from Colonel Piatt, chief of staff, 
ordering him to fall back on Harpers Ferry. He chose to disregard the 
order, for what he considered the good and sufficient reason that he did 
not believe, there were enough rebels west of the Blue Ridge, to overcome 
the seven thousand men, he had under his command. He soon found, however, 
that both Longstreet and Ewell were, in his immediate front, and on the 
morning of Sunday the fourteenth, four batteries suddenly opened a 
concentric fire upon him, and ten thousand men in gray precipitated 
themselves on the outwork commanding the western approach, and carried it 
like a tornado. They were, however, soon dislodged by the guns of the main 
work, but then followed an artillery fight between the fort and the four 
batteries of the rebels, and this continued until after dark. At one in the 
morning Milroy abandoned the post, and pressed-secretly as he 
supposed-towards the Potomac, on the Martinsburg road. The enemy had 
anticipated this movement, and stood right across his way, a short distance 
from the, town. He attempted to cut his way through, and did so, but in 
doing so divided his command, and suffered terrible loss in men, and all 
his trains and artillery.

  A few days later, Lee had crossed the Potomac, and occupied Hagerstown, 
Maryland, near the line of Pennsylvania.

 When his plans had first become evident, an order of the War Department 
had issued (June 9th), establishing two new military departments,
viz, the Department of the Monongahela, under command of Major-General
Brooks, and the Department of the Susquehanna, under command of Major
General D. N. Couch, who established his headquarters at Harrisburg. In
his order, issued on assuming command of the department, General Couch
appealed to the people of Pennsylvania to volunteer for the defence of the
State against invasion.  "To prevent serious, raids of the enemy," he said,
"it is deemed necessary to call upon the citizens, of Pennsylvania to 
furnish, promptly, all the men necessary to organize an army corps of 
volunteer infantry, cavalry, and artillery, to be designated the Army Corps 
of the Susquehanna." And, on the twelfth, Governor Curtin issued his 
proclamation, calling the attention of the people to the appeals of 
Generals Couch and Brooks, and further urging the importance of raising a 
force for the defence of the State, is, he says: "Information has been 
obtained, by the War Department, that a large rebel force, composed of 
cavalry, artillery, and mounted infantry, has been prepared for the purpose 
of making a raid into Pennsylvania." At first the call was very slowly and 
feebly responded to, for not only was it the season when the crops demanded 
the continual attention of those men who had  been left at home, but the 
people would not, could not, believe that an organized invasion of the 
State of Pennsylvania was imminent, or indeed possible; and still further, 
it being announced that the troops raised under this call were "to be 
mustered into the service of the United States, to serve during the 
pleasure of the President, or the coutinuance of the war," although not to 
serve outside the State of Pennsylvania, there were many who were unwilling 
to enlist for o indefinite a period, though they would not hesitate a 
moment, if called on, to give their services when, and so long as, the 
emergency of actual invasion of the State should exist. So the enrollments 
were made slowly. But when, on the night of the fifteenth of June, a rebel 
brigade, under General Jenkins, entered the town of Chambersburg, and it 
was known that the corps of Ewell was closely following-having already 
crossed the Potomac-it began to be apparent that the invasion of the State, 
by the veteran army of Lee, was almost an accomplished fact, the people at 
last awoke to the real danger of the situation. Governor Curtin visited the 
camp named in his honor, at Harrisburg, and in order that all doubt might 
be removed, as to the speedy return of the troops, after the danger of 
invasion should be past, he said: "he would tell the troops that they were 
called out only while this emergency lasted, and when that was over, they 
would be returned to their homes. Our soil has been invaded, and we want to 
drive the invaders from it. You are called out for this emergency and no 
longer."  If I have kept my faith with the volunteers, you call trust my 
promise now." And (on the same day, he telegraphed to Colonel S. B. Thomas, 
at Philadelphia  "Have your men mustered for the present emergency, and I 
will, as Governor of the State, determine the matter, and return them to 
their homes at the earliest date consistent with the safety of the border." 
This assurance and appeal, coming simultaneously with the rude awakening to 
the fact that the enemy's infantry, in strong force, were already present 
in the State, had its immediate, effect.  On the ears, and to the hearts of 
Pennsylvanians, the call and the exigency struck like the pibroch of Donuil 
Dhu:-
            "Leave the deer, leave the steer, leave nets and barges,
             Come with your fighting-gear, broadswords and targes."


99


  And from all parts of the State they came leaving crops and harvests,
said flocking to the defence of their State against, invasion. So deep was 
the feeling, that old men who had passed the years of man's life-allotment, 
came in bodies to offer their services, to the Governor. The following, 
which appeared in the Philadelphia Press of the 24th of June, 1863, from 
its Harrisburg correspondent, tells the thrilling story: -

  "I was about to commence this letter, when I heard the sound of drum
and fife. Looking out of the window I saw a small company of men marching 
up the, street and hearing three colors, one, a small, worn and tattered,
silk flag, and the other, new and fresh. As they approached nearer, I 
discovered they were very old men, and my curiosity being excited, I ran 
out and followed them to the Capitol, whither they were marching. And here 
is what I learned  there were seventeen in all, members of the Soldiers 
Association of 1812, of Harrisburg. The oldest was seventy-six and the 
youngest sixty-eight. Every man had served in the War of 1812, and had 
belonged to it regiment commanded by General Foster, who had lately died,
and who is remembered with respect, and affection, as one of the best 
Citizens of this county. They were reviewed by General Scott, at Baltimore, 
after he was wounded. He rode up and down the ranks with his arm in a 
sling. The tattered flag was borne by a Pennsylvania regiment at the battle 
of Trenton in 1777, and has been cherished in Harrisburg ever since that 
time. These veterans marched up to the Governors room, and tendered their 
services for the emergency. They wished to be put behind intrenchments, but
if any other and harder services was required of them, they would 
cheerfully accept, it.  In a few appropriate words, they addressed the, 
Governor, and he accepted them.

  "The only favor they asked, was to be armed with the old flint-lock 
muskets, such as they used to carry when they were young. It was a grand 
and inspiring sight! those old men, scarcely hoping to live through the 
war, their locks white with the frosts of many winters, their frames bowed 
by age and long toil in the journey of life, marched as briskly and as 
accurately to the drum and fife, as any of their grandsons could. They 
seemed almost, carried back to the olden time, so inspiring was the 
occasion.

  "When they came out of the Governor's room they marched, according to
the old, fashion, in single file.  They were halted on the green. It was 
curious, to modern ears, to hear the orders of the captain-so different 
from our tactics. It was: 'by sections of two, march;' 'instead of 'file 
right,' or , 'left', it was, right, or left, wheel;' instead of the sharp, 
short, peremptory 'front', it was, 'left face.'  So they marched down in 
the town, carrying the old tactics of the Revolution with them.  They kept 
their places, and kept step, and obeyed orders, with a precision that showed 
that the drill they had gone through in those stirring times, had gone not 
merely to the ear but to the heart. Wherever they passed a squad of soldiers, 
they were loudly cheered-three. cheers for the veterans of 1812! and such lusty 
shouts as split the heavens, you never heard, They were observed by every 
one, and some would ask who they were. The bowed forms, the gray heads, and 
the small, torn and decayed ensign, told the whole story. I hope I shall 
not trespass on your space by giving their names. They, ought to be written 
in letters of gold. They ought to be posted on every corner of Harrisburg.
 
They are as follows,: 
Charles Carson, Captain Andrew Knauss, Lieutenant (were in the battle of 
Lundy's Lane, and all through Scott's campaign)
James R. Boyd
Wm. Bastick
Geo. Heiney
John Heisler
David Harris (Secretary of the Association)
Samuel Holman
Allen Sturgeon
David J. Krause
W. P. Brady
Geo McKnight
Leonard G. Cookie
George Prince
John Shannon
Geo. J Heisler
Jacob Kohn
These old heroes will go into the rifle-pits, tend fight as of yore, for 
liberty and the Union.  What they say they mean; and their earnestness is 
proven by their asking for old flint-lock muskets, such as they were used 
to. Let the young men beware, or their grand-sires will set them as example 
they will blush not to have forestalled."

  The Army of the Potomac followed abreast of Lee, and on the 
twenty-seventh of June, Hooker arrived at Frederick City, Maryland, and, on 
the following day, an order was received by him, relieving him from the 
command of the army, and conferring it on Major-General George G. Meade.

  It was reported that this change was the result of a quarrel between
Hooker and the General-in-Chief, Halleck. However this may have been,
it gave much disquietude to the public mind, for Hooker, whose magnificent,
fighting qualities were well known, was still strong in the country's 
confidence, notwithstanding, the disaster of Chancellorsville; while Meade 
had been, at that time, but little heard of. He applied himself vigorously 
to the work before him, however, and pressed so close upon the right flank 
and rear of Lee, that he, becoming alarmed for the safety of his 
communications, turned aside front the direct march on Harrisburg, which 
had been at first, his objective point, and determined to move to the 
vicinity of Gettysburg, where be ordered Hill, Ewell, and Longstreet to 
concentrate.

  These movements of the enemy convinced Meade that Gettysburg, or its 
immediate neighborhood, must be the theatre of the decisive struggle. 
Therefore, he ordered General Reynolds, with the First, Third, and Eleventh 
Corps, to move up and occupy the town. Arriving there, he found that the 
head of Hills columns had already made their appearance on the Cashtown 
Road, and were fiercely engaged with Buford's Cavalry.

  Without entering the town, he marched directly for the scene of conflict, 
at the same time sending orders to Howard to hurry forward his Eleventh corps 
with all possible dispatch.

  Almost at the outset of the engagement, Reynolds fell, mortally wounded, 
at the head of his column. So, when Howard arrived, at to little past noon, 
he, by virtue of seniority of rank, took command of the troop, present -the 
First, Third, and Eleventh Corps. Von Gilsa's, Brigade, which included the 
One Hundred and Fifty-third Regiment, halted at the Almshouse, just out of 
the town, on the Harrisburg road, deposited knapsacks, and then advanced, 
at, the double-quick, into a, piece of woods skirting the extreme right of 
the corps, to dislodge a body of the enemy which laid in their cover. This 
advance of the brigade was made in superb style, as might have been 
expected, clearing the intervening ground; but when it was found that two 
rebel brigades-Hoke's and Have's-were right before it, and that heavy 
supports were rapidly coming up while a murderous enfilading fire of 
artillery was poured in from the flanks, it was seen that to invite, such 
slaughter would be useless, and sullenly the command retired. Some idea of 
the fury of the struggle may be had from the fact that, in that brief 
assault, the Northampton regiment lost thirty-three killed, one hundred and 
one wounded, and eighty-two prisoners and missing.

  Howard's Corps now retired, to take position and fortify along the ridge 
of Cemetery Hill, in the rear of the town, and in this mannner was fixed 
the grand central point which was to bear the weight of the heaviest 
assault, in this, the most tremendous battle of modern times.

  When the fall of the brave Reynolds was reported to Meade, he at once
sent Hancock to assume the command which had temporarily devolved on
Hancock, and, learning also of the strong position which Howard had 
selected on the Cemetery Hill, the commanding general resolved to sinful 
right there and fight to victory or annihilation, for he well knew that 
there, if anywhere, he could win. Swift couriers were dispatched to 
Sedgwick, and the other corps commanders, who were on the way, to come up 
with all possible speed to Gettysburg, and Meade himself left immediately 
for that point, where he arrived about midnight.

  All night long the tramping squadrons were pressing on towards the point 
of concentration; all night was heard the clattering of horses and the 
heavy, rumbling of artillery wheels, as they moved along the turnpikes and 
through the streets, of Gettysburg, to their positions; and when the sun 
rose on that sultry second of July, he shone on the grave faces of officers 
and men who had known no sleep, but who, many of them, would sleep soundly 
enough before his next, rising; and he shone on the pallid features of the 
townpeople-

            "-with terror, dumb
         Or, whispering, with white, lips-'the foe! they come, they come!'"

  Who among them could ever have dreamed that their little town, nestled 
away there amid the rural quiet and beauty of southern Pennsylvania, would 
ever see the sight it saw that day; would ever reel and shudder under the 
volleyed thunder of five hundred cannon, and the rush and charge of two 
hundred thousand armed men?

  At daylight, the anxious commander of the Union army was in his saddle, 
riding among the entire line, arranging the positions of his troops, and 
noting, the advantages and capabilities of the field. Above the roads, in 
his rear, great clouds of dust were rising, which showed that his brave 
troops were pressing up, at the top of their speed, regiments, brigades, 
and divisions; and before the day was far advanced, the rear columns of the 
Third Corps, as well as those of the Fifth and Second, had reached the 
field and taken their positions. Sedgwick, with his corps, the gallant 
Sixth, were still many miles to the rear. All night long, they had kept on 
the wearying march, struggling, and straining every nerve to reach the 
scene of strife as soon as their services might be needed. And the eager 
eye of the commander gazed away to the southward, as anxiously as, on 
another, not more momentous day, Wellington had watched and longed for the 
coming of Blucher.


100


  The length of our line of battle was about five miles, Its salient point
was Cemetery Hill, the position of the Eleventh Corps. Von Gilsa's Brigade 
held position opposite the gate of the Cemetery, and behind it were two 
Pennsylvania batteries-"F," and "G"-of the First Artillery. In the rear of 
the hill, laid more of the Northampton boys, in the Twelfth Reserve, not 
yet in position. Later in the day, when the left was attacked, they were 
hurried into thee fight to the right of Little Round Top.

  To the right of the Eleventh, were the First and Twelfth Corps, along the 
crests of Wolf's and Culp's hills, while to the left, were the Second and 
Third, to which was afterwards added the Fifth, under Sykes. Opposite 
these, the rebel fine was formed by the right wing of Longstreet, the left 
under Ewell, and the centre under A. P. Hill. Thus they stood when, about 
the middle of the afternoon, Lee ordered Longstreet to attack. The blow 
fell on Sickles, who had injudiciously advanced his line too far. The crash 
of artillery, along the whole line, heralded the movement, and then, out 
from the battery smoke, moved the terrible gray columns of the enemy, 
swiftly, firmly, confidently, and with resounding yells, right upon the 
devoted corps. They were received by an appalling fusillade, and a score of 
batteries sent an infernal tornado of fire in their faces, but they defied 
death, and rushed on, regardless of lead and canister. The force of the 
assault shook the whole Union left, and although it could not be broken, it 
was forced back, foot by foot, before the fury of that resistless charge. 
General Sickles had fallen his leg shattered near the hip-and was borne 
from the field. His corps, shattered, bleeding, and decimated, wavered and 
fell back. The fate of the day trembled in the balance, and it seemed as 
if, after all, the Army of the Potomac was once more to experience defeat, 
when the heads of the Fifth Corps columns were seen approaching. It was a 
grateful sight to the overpowered ones, and cheer on cheer went up as the 
succoring corps moved fearlessly into the fire. But even now, no check 
could be given to the exultant rebels. With full confidence in their own 
prowess, they never wavered nor bleached at sight of the strong 
reinforcement; but, heedless, of everything except victory, they charged 
on, with a ferocity which seemed every moment to increase. Steadily our 
line retired, notwithstanding the presence of Sykes' veterans. So alarming 
was the crisis, that Meade ordered in the worn-out corps of Sedgwick, just 
arrived after an unhalting march of thirty-two miles. In silence, without a 
cheer, foot-sore and exhausted, but with the light of battle in their faces, 
the grim Sixth interposed its line, to check the tide of defeat.  And they 
were successful. Against that wall the rebel fury dashed itself for hours, 
in repeated assaults, in vain; our line would neither break nor yield, The 
slaughter on both sides was frightful, and still the work of death went on, 
till darkness closed over the combatants. It seemed as if the battle of the 
day was over, but it was not so. A little later, an unexpected attack was 
opened, most furiously, against our extreme right, by which the enemy 
succeeded in advancing his position; carrying and holding several of our 
rifle-pits in front of Culp's Hill.

  With the cessation of the days hostilities, how stood the account, for 
and against the Northern army? It cannot be said that the balance was in 
our favor.  Both wings, had been forced to retire, although all our troops 
had been brought into action. We had done our best, and yet the enemy slept 
(if deep he could) on a very considerable portion of the ground which our 
army had held in the morning. What would be the result of another day of 
fight, God alone knew, but this much was certain-and all knew it, from 
commander to private soldier-that on this field, the Army of the Potomac 
must win, or be exterminated.

  The morning of Friday, July 3d, opened with sharp and incessant firing 
all along the line, though there was no determined attack made, except on 
our right, against which Ewell hurled his veteran troops with the greatest 
obstinacy, in the attempt to advance his line from the rifle-pits which he 
had carried in the assault of the preceding evening. The engagement at this 
point was of the fiercest character, and was continued incessantly, for, 
more than five flours. It was in itself a most bloody battle, and only 
lessened in importance by the terrific struggle which followed. The rebel 
general, how. ever, did not succeed in advancing his lines; he had hurled 
his utmost fury against our adamantine walls, in vain, And, now, for three 
hours, a comparative quietude reigned over the field; a lull which preceded 
the tornado. Lee was preparing now, for the earthquake assault, which 
should be final and decisive.

  Who can tell, with what bitter regret, his mind then reverted to that 
fatal night, when his great confederate-the right arm of his strength-had 
yielded up his life in the wilderness copse at Chancellorsville?
          "Where, where, was Roderick then?
           One blast upon  his bugle-horn,
           Were worth it thousand men."

  If Jackson could have come from his grave, and joined his old commander 
upon the field of Gettysburg on that day, it would have been better to Lee 
than a reinforcement of twenty thousand men. But he had no Jackson now; his 
right arm was gone; and to other hands he must entrust the tremendous 
venture-the experiment of the cross-which he was about to make.

  Between one and two o'clock, the discharge of two pieces of artillery 
from the enemy's position, opposite the left of the Union centre, was the 
signal for a hundred and forty rebel cannon to launch their thunder against 
the Federal lines. Our guns were, not slow to reply, and the world has 
seldom seen a more infuriate bombardment. There was no perceptible interval 
between the discharges, but one continuous explosion; an unbroken rolling 
volley of artillery that shook the foundations of the everlasting hills, 
The cemetery was a particular target for the hostile guns, which sent into 
it a storm of missiles, that broke and tore the grave-stones from their 
places, and almost disinterred the dead.

  Through three long hours of terror, this cannonade was continued; and 
then came the last act in the bloody drama. At about four o'clock, from out 
the cover of the woods that skirted the Seminary Ridge, close by Lee's 
headquarters, and about a mile distant from the Union line, emerged a body 
of eighteen thousand men, moving with the precision of a day of parade, and 
with flags of the Southern Cross fluttering defiantly above their heads. 
They were the very flower of the Confederate army; the veterans of 
Stonewall Jackson. Now, God help the Republic! Swiftly, yet steadily and 
with perfect confidence they came on, and moved unflinchingly into the 
artillery fire, at first apparently making for the position of Doubleday, 
but suddenly veering to the left, and failing full on the left centre under 
Hancock. That general had just fallen, wounded, and was carried from the 
field; the command devolving upon Gibson, who gave orders for the troops to 
reserve their fire until the charge was close upon them. An unintermitting 
fire of canister was pouring right in their faces, but still, like the 
billows of the ocean, they came on. Arrived within short range, our whole 
line delivered its fire in a crashing, rolling, unceasing fire of musketry. 
Before that withering volley, the first line of the assailants melted and 
disappeared; but over their bodies came the second line, undismayed and 
yelling, through the rifle pits, and up to the guns, bayoneting the gunners 
at their position and fiercely shouting-as they thought-in victory. But it 
was annihilation rather than victory that they had reached, for the point 
they had carried was right in the enfilading range, of the tremendous 
batteries on Cemetery Hill, which at this moment opened on the entrapped 
rebels, a fire, which no language can describe; so fierce, so 
overwhelmingly destructive. Of it, might have been said, what Marshal 
Lannes said of the slaughter of Montebello: "I could hear the bones crash 
in my division, like glass in a hail-storm." It was as if the great gates 
of hell had suddenly been thrown wide open. The fight was ended! The 
appalled line wavered, gave back, broke into fragments, and fled. The Union 
lines, with wild cheers, dashed in pursuit, and the routed, crushed 
Confederates, threw down their arms and surrendered, by whole regiments and 
battalions.

  No general pursuit could be made, for Meade had no reserves-his troops 
had, to the last man, been put in the fight-and his ammunition was almost 
gone. A single army corps, reinforcing Lee, would, even then, have turned 
defeat to victory, and two divisions of fresh troops, in Meade's hands, 
would have utterly annihilated the rebel army.

  Lee made a show of throwing up earthworks during the night of the third, 
but it was only to cover his design of retreat, which was commenced on the 
next day, and by the fifth, the remains of his army had vanished, on their 
way to recross the Potomac. He left thirteen thousand six hundred
and twenty-one prisoners in our hands, and twenty-five thousand muskets 
scattered over the field. The total loss of the Union army was twenty-three 
thousand one hundred, and eighty-six.

  The One Hundred and Fifty-third Regiment suffered, during the entire 
battle, an aggregate loss of three hundred and eight men. The Twelfth 
Reserve arriving, as we have seen, at ten o'clock in the morning of the 
second, was hurried away to support the line on the crest of Little Round 
Top, and during the succeeding night was transferred thence to the apex of 
Round Top, and remained on that line during the succeeding stages of the 
battle; not feeling the weight of the terrible charges which were made on 
the left centre and the right, but being continually, from first to last, 
tinder a galling fire of artillery and sharp-shooters. The Second 
Pennsylvania Cavalry faithfully performed the duties which fall to the 
share of cavalry in engagements of infantry and artillery, such as was 
Gettysburg. Companies "A," "H" and "K," having been, before the opening of 
the battle detailed on more distant duty, reached the field on the third, 
and formed part of the line posted to check stragglers. At night on the 
third, they were. Sent to escort the rebel prisoners to Westminster, 
Maryland, and returned on the fifth to join in the cavalry pursuit. The 
Fourth Cavalry also joined in the pursuit, having been under fire with 
Pleasanton, during the two last days of the battle. Battery "D" of the 
Fifth United States Artillery company which was recruited in Northampton, 
and familiarly known in the county as Seymour's Battery, was in the 
heaviest of the fire during the entire battle.  It was posted on the 
smoke-crowned crest of the ridge at the Cemetery, and so effective was the 
work which it performed through the battle, and so gallant was its service, 
that the officer, and men received the especial thanks and commendation of 
General Meade. This was one of the batteries which, in the afternoon of the 
third, poured in on the enfiladed columns of Pickett, that overwhelming fire 
which was the finishing blow of the struggle.


101


  Meade having buried his dead, and received considerable reinforcements 
commenced a pursuit of the rebel army, on the seventh, but nothing came of 
it beyond the capture of some trains by the cavalry, and so once more, and 
for the last time, Lee crossed his army to the Virginia shore of the 
Potomac, and took his way, in defeat and disappointment, towards the south.