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Chapter 29: Gettysburg.
July 3, 1863.
Darkness settled like a pall upon the blood-stained sod of
Gettysburg.
Many prisoners were brought in from the left during the evening, and there were numbers of the Nineteenth who went to ‘bed’ supperless, but they slept as soundly as though there was no such thing as a battle, fought or to be fought.
When the distant clock of
Gettysburg tolled the hour of three, aides and orderlies began to hustle about, the sleeping warriors were silently awakened and each addressed himself to the preparation of a repast,—mayhap his last.
From about the centre of the famous ‘
Horse-Shoe’ occupied by
Meade's forces, immediately to left the of the cemetery a knoll projected a little from the general direction of the
Union lines.
The knoll was crowned with a growth of small oaks constituting a prominent feature of the landscape.
The slope of this knoll toward the enemy, and for a little distance to both left and right, was held by the Second Division, Second Corps, under command of
Gen. John Gibbon.
In it were three brigades, that of
Gen. Webb on the right,
Col. Hall in the centre and
Gen. Harrow on the left.
There was but one line of infantry from the left up to
Webb's position where one of his regiments had retired a few paces.
One spirited writer has fixed the immortal stamp upon that ‘Single Line of Blue.’
After early morning,
Lee's artillery could be seen massing in front.
Conjecture easily anticipated the object: a tremendous cannonade on some point of the
Union line, and an infantry assault ensuing.
What point more likely than this conspicuous and central one?
Events proved that
Lee regarded it as the ‘
Key Point’ of the position.
His policy of a fierce assault
