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the silence was soon broken by the awful roll of musketry.
So compactly did the assailing force move, that its front did not cover more than two of Hancock's brigades, which were so reduced that they did not number, in the aggregate, more than six thousand men. Shot and shell from Hancock's batteries made fearful lanes through the ranks, yet they moved steadily on, and pressed up to within musket-range of the National line of infantry, where Gibbons was in command, Hancock being wounded.
Half concealed, the infantry of the Second Corps kept silence.
Suddenly Stannard's Vermonters, of Doubleday's command, posted in a little grove, opened terrible volleys on Pickett's flank, doubling it a trifle.
Yet he pressed onward, when the divisions of Hayes and Gibbons opened an appalling and continuous fire upon him. This was too much.
Pettigrew's North Carolinians wavered a moment, fought well for awhile, and then gave way, when two thousand of them were made prisoners, and, with fifteen battle-flags, became trophies of victory for Hayes and his divisions.1 still Pickett moved on with his Virginians, and, with the greatest courage and fortitude, his men, following Generals Armistead and Kemper, scaled Cemetery Hill, burst through Hancock's line, and planted the Confederate flag on a stone wall.
In this onset they drove back a portion of General Webb's brigade.2 these were soon rallied, and, with other troops,3 so effectively filled the breach that Pickett could go no further.
At the same time Stannard's Vermont brigade, of Doubleday's division, opened a destructive fire on Pickett's flank, which broke the spirit of his men, and very soon twenty-five hundred of hem were prisoners, and with them twelve battle-flags were captured.4 three-fourths of the gallant brigade were dead or captives.
Wilcox, who tailed to attack until Pickett was repulsed, met a similar fate in the loss of men, being also struck in the flank and ruined by Stannard's Vermonters.
1 these were mostly raw troops, and generally behaved well. They had been deceived, it is said, with the assurance that they would meet only Pennsylvania militia, but when the terrible fire was opened upon them, the fearful cry spread through their ranks, “the Army of the Potomac!” --see Dr. Jacobs's Rebel invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania, page 43, and Swinton's Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, page 359. Pettigrew's brigade was terribly shattered when it gave way. Its. Commander was badly wounded, and all but one of its field officers were dead or maimed. It fell back under the command of a major. It was about 3,000 strong when it went into the battle, but only 800 answered to their names at roll-call the next morning.
2 Sixty-ninth, Seventy-first, and Seventy-Second Pennsylvania.
3 the brigades of Hall and Harrow; the one hundred and fifty-first Pennsylvania, and Twentieth New York, under Colonel Gates; the Nineteenth Massachusetts, Colonel Devereux, and Wallon's Forty-Second New York.
4 General Garnett was killed, General Armistead was mortally wounded, and General Kemper was badly hurt.
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