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Chapter 28: arrival at Gettysburg.
July 1-2.
At nine o'clock in the morning of July 1, the regiment bivouacked in the woods near
Cemetery Ridge, on the ground of the famous battlefield of
Gettysburg.
The desperate fights at
Seminary Ridge and
Willoughby Run, between
Gen. Reynold's, with the First Corps, and
Gen. Ewell, had already taken place.
Reynolds had lost his life.
His First Corps had been almost annihilated after a magnificent resistance, and
Howard, with the Eleventh Corps, who had come up late in the afternoon, had been driven back through
Gettysburg to
Cemetery Hill.
Success at one moment had been with the
Union forces and then with the
Rebels, according as each received reinforcements.
Reynold's and
Howards' Corps rallied on the heights of
Cemetery Ridge, under cover of a fresh brigade which had been left there by
Gen. Howard, and at this crisis
Gen. Hancock's Second Corps came up and bivouacked.
In the morning the Third Corps arrived and took position on its left.
A peak, which from its shape was called
Round Top, threw out a spur toward
Gettysburg, forming first another little peak, called
Little Round Top, and then a ridge extending as far as the
Cemetery, just out of
Gettysburg, where it turned off to the right, making a turn like a
horse-shoe.
Round Top formed a strong position for the
Union left, held by the Sixth Corps.
Then the Fifth Corps had the ground behind
Little Round Top. Then were the Third Corps under
Sickles, Second Corps under
Hancock, Eleventh, First and Twelfth Corps forming Right and Right Centre.
In front of the Third, Second and Eleventh Corps, a gentle slope led down the valley, through which also ran another spur
