George Meade, The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, Major-General United States Army
George Gordon Meade, Ed.

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[59] as to position, with the greater portion of its troops stretched across an open plain, with little or no advantage for defence from the character of the ground, it was hurried into action before its lines were thoroughly formed. Under these circumstances it was not capable of making the organized resistance which, otherwise, it might, under more favorable auspices, have opposed to the advance of the enemy.

The Confederates, on their part, had fought with their usual courage and pertinacity. Being the attacking force, their losses in their repeated onslaughts on the Federal lines must have been very great. It is impossible to ascertain the exact amount of their losses. What is positively known, however, is that the brigades of Archer, Davis, O'Neill, Iverson, and Scales were, after the fight, mere skeletons of their previous organizations. That their success was not more fruitful of results was owing to the gallant stand made by the First Corps, to the promptness with which the line was re-established by Hancock on Cemetery Hill, and to Lee's ignorance of the exact position of the corps of the enemy that were still moving to the point of concentration.

It is desirable here to glance at the positions of the respective armies at midnight, between July 1 and July 2.¹

Of the Army of the Potomac there were in position, on Cemetery Hill and Ridge, and on Culp's Hill, the First Corps, including Stannard's Vermont Brigade (which, during the evening, had joined the corps after a forced march from the defences of Washington), the Eleventh Corps, the Twelfth Corps, and two brigades of one division (Birney's) of the Third Corps. Out on the plain, and stretching away parallel with Cemetery Ridge, were the lines of the two brigades of cavalry of the ever-watchful and tireless Buford.² The remaining division of the Third Corps (Humphreys's) was making the best of its way, through the darkness of the night, on the road to Gettysburg, and was happily now near at hand. The Second Corps was on the Taneytown Road, about three miles from Gettysburg, where it had been halted by Hancock, to protect the left and rear, when he went in person to make his final report to the commanding general. The Fifth Corps was four miles back on the Hanover Road, at Bonaughtown, making a brief halt after its long march, and only waiting for the dawn to push onward to the front. The Sixth