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

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[590] defend, being commanded on one side, while its elevation on the other side rendered it impossible for the Federals to recapture it when they had once lost it. It would have been necessary, therefore, in order to take practical possession of the place, either to occupy it with a considerable portion of the army, and surround it with intrenchments, as Steinwehr had done at Cemetery Hill, or simply to place a few troops with instructions to fall back as soon as they had compelled the enemy to disclose his forces.

At four o'clock in the morning, Meade, being desirous of reinforcing his right, which, being nearer the enemy, seemed to him destined to play the principal part, had ordered Geary to abandon his position near Sickles in order to occupy the eastern slopes of Culp's Hill to the right of Wadsworth. Williams being already at Rock Creek, the whole of the Twelfth corps was to be thus assembled on this side. Geary had taken up the line of march at five o'clock, leaving vacant all that portion of the line he had occupied, from Sickles' left to the Little Round Top. The arrival of the Second corps, which came to take position between the First and the Third, enabled the latter to bear to the left in this direction. Between six and seven o'clock in the morning Meade sent his son to Sickles with orders to take the position which Geary had just left. This position, as we have stated, extended as far as the slopes of the Little Round Top, which Geary had strongly occupied since the previous evening. The order was most positive, and Meade has been blamed for not having attended to the execution of said order in person; nor did he endeavor to ascertain if the occupation of the summit of Culp's Hill had been effected, relying upon Slocum and Wadsworth to do that; besides, the commanding aspect of this hill indicated it sufficiently as the most important point to hold along the Federal left. But, Geary having started at an early hour, Sickles, entirely occupied with his own troops, had no knowledge of the position held by Geary, nor of the extent of his line, and, as no one had been left behind to supply the necessary explanations, Meade's order no longer possessed the same clearness in his estimation that it did when received. The Little Round Top, which he perceived at a considerable distance, was separated from him by low grounds which offered no advantage