Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Harvard Memorial Biographies

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[149] with even more than usual honor. At Gettysburg the disposition of the Union lines bore a rough resemblance to the form of a horseshoe, the Rebel forces being upon the outside. Late in the day, on the 2d of July, the Second Regiment, which till then he had been posted behind intrenchments on the right, was ordered to march across the mouth or opening of the horseshoe to the reinforcement of the left wing, which was engaged and under a hot artillery fire. But they had not been long in this new position before darkness fell, and they were ordered to march back again and occupy their old position, which the colonel commanding the brigade told them they would be able to do without opposition. The middle portion of the space to be traversed by them was a marshy field, and then intervened a belt of woodland, upon the farther side of which ran the line of their old intrenchments. The regiment came into the wet ground, marching by the flank. But the military instinct of Colonel Mudge whispered to him that, before marching in this unguarded manner into the shadowy grove in front, it would be well to have some surer knowledge than the mere surmise of the colonel commanding the brigade. He accordingly sent out a few skirmishers, who reported that a line of Rebels was in position among the trees. Not yet quite satisfied, Colonel Mudge again sent out his largest company, under command of a gallant and trustworthy officer, Capain Thomas B. Fox, with orders to come back with the whole story. They found a strong force of Rebels holding the old position of the Second, and, having come close to them, drawn a volley from them, and taken a couple of prisoners, they returned and reported. Their situation now was trying and dangerous in the extreme. Colonel Mudge did not know what might have taken place in this part of the field since he had left it in the afternoon, nor in how great peril he might be. The men, too, evidently appreciated the awkward state of affairs; but of them he felt no fear. They had always stood by their officers; their conduct depended upon his; and he now showed the coolness, the ready resource, and the tactical skill of a soldier born and bred. He at once gave the order for the regiment to change