Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 3.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[584] the Federal left with the troops he had at his disposal as far as the sugar-loaves of the Round Tops, so as to present a solid line to the enemy's troops, which he then perceived on Seminary Hill. Birney, with Graham's and Ward's brigades of the Third corps, bearing to the left of Robinson, extended along the ridge which prolongs Cemetery Hill as far as the depression where the latter seems to lose itself for a while, to rise again afterward toward the Round Tops. Geary, in this direction, with a division of the Twelfth corps, was developing on Birney's left as far as the smallest of these two hills, which he had caused to be occupied by two regiments.¹ Williams, with the other division of the same corps, had halted within a mile and a quarter in the rear of Cemetery Hill, on the left bank of Rock Creek, near the point where the Baltimore road crosses this stream. Finally, Humphreys, who had been on the march since four o'clock in the afternoon, arrived on the ground, and the darkness not allowing him to select his place, he massed his two brigades a little in the rear and to the left of Birney's line.

In the mean while, after a long conference with Hancock, Howard, and some generals of his staff, Meade had not waited for daylight to reconnoitre the position where the fortune of war had just brought him. Being very near-sighted, he required considerable time to study the ground. The moonlight enabled him to visit the positions of his soldiers with ease, but it was only toward four o'clock, when the early rays of the sun imparted to the objects around their natural appearance, that he could form a correct idea of the whole. He was at once struck with the weak points they presented: being convinced, however, that it was too late to look for others, he thought only of drawing the best possible advantage from those which circumstances had placed within his reach. At this moment, in fact, all the troops that had not already gathered around him were about to start for the purpose of joining him.

The Second corps, which had halted a few miles from Gettysburg, on the Taneytown road, resumed its march; De Trobriand's and Burling's brigades left Emmettsburg; and the Fifth corps had arrived the day before at Bonaughtown, a village about six miles