[127]
portion of the Confederate line had evidently been much weakened.
After some resistance, they abandoned the hill and retreated from the seminary.
The Federals did not pursue.
During the night the Confederates retreated still further, abandoning their entire line of battle.
It is a coincidence worthy of note and remembrance, that, at the moment the last Confederate charge was being repelled at Gettysburg, Grant was receiving Pemberton's sword at Vicksburg.
...
Accounts of this battle have been singularly silent in regard to the influence of the Sixth Army Corps upon the fortunes of the campaign.
After a march unsurpassed in military annals, our three divisions arrived at just the instant when the Confederates, spurred by success, were penetrating our lines to the right of Round Top. In three parallel lines then advanced our infantry.
Gen. Wright, then commanding our First Division, he who was, during the Shenandoah campaign, and thence to the close of the war, the able and honored chief of the corps, says: ‘The volley from our front line was perhaps the heaviest I ever heard; and it had the effect, not only of checking the enemy's triumphant advance, but of throwing his ranks into the utmost confusion.’
What would have been the final result of the second day's contest had the Sixth Army Corps failed to reach the field at that critical moment?
Did it do but little fighting on that day?
It did all that was necessary for it to do.
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Boston. Press of Deland and Barta, 1886.
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