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ridges, every summit of which affords a location for a battery.
Through these passes the little valley of
Rock Creek, crossing the
Baltimore turnpike a couple of miles or so from town, and thus affording a good covered way for a rebel movement to attempt (by passing down the valley from the woods beyond this range of hills) to pierce our right wing, and penetrate to the rear of our centre.
On the left the hills are lower, afford fewer eligible positions for batteries, and are commanded by the heights on the rebel side.
The space between these lines is rolling, and in parts quite hilly; partially under cultivation, the rest lightly timbered; passable nearly everywhere for infantry and cavalry, in most parts for artillery also.
Our line of battle.
The reader can now in an instant trace for himself our line of battle on the bisected A. Near the apex, the
Cemetery, of course; batteries around the crest; infantry in line of battle down the declivity, in the orchard, and sweeping over the
Taneytown road and up to that to Emmetsburgh.
Then along the stone fence which skirts the hither side of the Emmetsburgh road for say half a mile.
Then, bending in from the road a little, leaving its possession to our skirmishers alone, and so passing back for a mile and a half farther, in a line growing more and more distant from the Emmetsburgh road, and nearer that to
Taneytown.
These are the lines of centre and left.
Beginning at the
Cemetery again, our right stretches
across the
Baltimore pike and along the range of hills already described, in a direction that grows nearly parallel with the pike, (at a distance from it of a quarter to half a mile,) and down it a couple of miles.
Measuring all its sinuosities, the line must be about five miles long.
The rebel lines and order of battle.
All the country fronting this remarkable horseshoe line is virtually in the hands of the rebels.
It will be seen that their lines must be longer than ours, and that in moving from one point to another of the field they are compelled to make long
detours, while our troops can be thrown from left to right, or from either to centre, with the utmost ease, and by the shortest routes.
Take the crescent of the new moon, elongate the horns a little, turn the hollow side toward our positions, and you have the general direction the rebels were compelled to give their line of battle.
As was seen in Wednesday's fight,
Jackson's old corps, under
Ewell, formed their left — opposite our right; while
A. P. Hill held their centre, and
Longstreet, who arrived early Thursday morning, their right.
Our order of battle.
On our front the line of battle was arranged by
General Meade, at an early hour on Thursday morning, as follows: On the centre, holding
Cemetery Hill and the declivity in its front,
Major-General Howard, with his Eleventh corps.
Across the pike, on the adjacent hill to the right, what was left of the First corps.
Next to it, and stretching to our extreme right,
Major-General Slocum, with his Twelfth corps.
Beginning again at the
Cemetery Hill, and going toward the left, we have first, next to
Howard, the Second corps,
Major-General Hancock; next to it, the Third,
Major-General Sickles; and partly to the rear of the Third, and subsequently brought up on the extreme left, the Fifth corps,
Major-General Sykes.
The Sixth corps,
Major-General Sedgwick, was kept near the
Taneytown pike, in the rear, and constituted the only reserve of the army.
Corps and division commanders.
General readers are scarcely likely to be interested in minute details of the organization of the army, but perhaps it will be convenient to have a roster by corps and divisions, at least.
Of
Sedgwick's splendid Sixth corps, which only became engaged as reserves, were brought in on Friday, I cannot give the division commanders now, (there have been such changes since
Fredericksburgh,) with any assurance of accuracy.
Our troops were not concentrated so early as those of the rebels, and but for their caution in so long feeling about our lines before making an attack, we might have suffered in consequence.
Sedgwick's corps did not all get up till nearly dark Thursday evening, having been sent away beyond
Westminster with a view to the intended movement on
York.
The Twelfth corps had arrived about sunset, Wednesday evening, a couple of hours or more after our repulse beyond
Gettysburgh;
