At full speed.
General Lee was still west of the mountain when he heard the firing. He did not understand it, and rode forward at full speed to the battle. He arrived on the field just at the close. The battle had been brought on without his knowledge, and without his orders, and lasted from early in the morning until 4 o'clock in the evening. It is clear that Hill took the two divisions to Gettysburg just for an adventure. When General Lee arrived on the field he found about half of his army there. He had been so compromised that he was compelled to accept battle on those conditions, and ordered up the rest of his forces. That morning every division of his army was on the march, and converging on Cashtown. That night the whole army—infantry, cavalry, and artillery—would have been concentrated at Cashtown, or in supporting distance, if this rash movement [353] on Gettysburg had not precipitated a battle. A British officer— Colonel Freemantle—was present as a spectator, and spent the night of July 1st at General Lonstreet's headquarters. In his diary he says:‘I have the best reason for supposing that the fight came off prematurely, and that neither Lee nor Longstreet intended that it should have begun that day. I also think that their plans were deranged by the events of the 1st.’
The record shows who is responsible for the loss of the campaign, and that it was not Stuart. There were no orders to make a reconnoissance on July 1st, and no necessity for making one.
The success of the first day, due to the accident of Ewell's arrival on the field when he was not expected, was a misfortune to the Southern army. It would have been far better if Ewell had let Hill and Heth be beaten. They had put the Confederates in the condition of a fish that has swallowed a bait with a hook to it.
