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The battle of Gettysburg.
The great battle opened on the 1st July.
The enemy's advance, consisting of the Eleventh Corps, was met by
Heth's division, and shortly thereafter
Ewell hurled the main body of his corps on the
Federal column.
When within one mile of the town, the
Confederates made a desperate charge.
The Federal line was broken; the enemy was driven in terrible confusion; the streets of the small town soon became thronged with fugitives; and
Ewell, sweeping all before him, charged through the town, strewing every step of his progress with the enemy's dead, and taking five thousand prisoners. The crowded masses of fugitives poured through the town in rout and confusion, ascending the slopes of a hill towards a cemetery that covered its apex.
It was not later than five o'clock in the evening, but the success was not followed up. As
Ewell and
Hill prepared for a fresh attack, they were halted by
Gen. Lee, who deemed it advisable to abstain from pressing his advantage until the arrival of the remainder of his army.
The unfortunate inaction of a single evening and night enabled
Meade not only, on his part, to bring up all his forces, but to post them on an almost impregnable line, which the
Confederates had permitted a routed detachment of a few thousand men to occupy and hold.
The failure of
Gen. Lee to follow up the victory of the 1st, enabled the enemy to take at leisure, and in full force, one of the strongest positions in any action of the war, and to turn the tables of the battle-field completely upon the
Confederates.
On the night of the 1st July,
Gen. Meade, in person, reached the scene of action, and concentrated his entire army on those critical heights of
Gettysburg, that had bounded the action of the first day, designated by the proper name of
Cemetery Ridge.
This ridge, which was just opposite the town, extended in a westerly and southerly direction, gradually diminishing in elevation till it came to a very prominent ridge, called “
Round Top,” running east and west.
The Confederates occupied an exteriour ridge, less elevated, distant from the lines occupied by the
Federals from a mile to a mile and a half.
On this sunken parallel was arranged the
Confederate line of battle-Ewell's corps on the left, beginning at the town with
Early's division, then
Rodes' division; on the right of
Rodes' division was the left of
Hill's corps, commencing with
Heth's, then
Pender's and
Anderson's divisions.
On the right of
Anderson's division was
Longstreet's left,
McLaw's division being next to
Anderson's, and
Hood on the extreme right of our line, which was opposite the eminence upon which the enemy's left rested.
There was long a persistent popular opinion in the
South that
Gen. Lee,
