July, 1868. |
July 4. |
July. |
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[74]
were the services of Merritt and Farnsworth, of Kilpatrick's command, on the Confederate right, for they prevented Hood from turning Meade's left during the terrible battle on the afternoon of the 3d.
both armies were severely shattered by losses and weakened by exhaustion,1 but each rested on the night after the battle, in ignorance of the real condition and destination of the other.
Lee felt that his situation was a perilous one,2 and early in the evening he withdrew Ewell's division from Gettysburg and the hills southeast of the town, and began preparations for a retreat toward the Potomac, by way of the Cumberland Valley.
During that night and all the next day,
while his Army remained on Seminary Ridge, he sent away as many of his sick and wounded as possible, with his enormous wagon-train of baggage, stores, and plunder, and troops of horses, mules, and cattle, captured in Pennsylvania.3 these took the Chambersburg and Hagerstown roads, and were followed on the evening of the 4th by the whole Army along the latter highway, by the village of Fairfield,4 carrying with them about four thousand prisoners. A severe rain-storm had commenced at the close of the day, and the flight was distressing to all who participated in it.
when it was made evident by the reports of cavalry scouts, on the night of the 3d,
that Lee was about to retreat, General Meade was urged by some of his officers to make an immediate advance on the Confederate Army.
Great responsibility makes men conservative and cautious.
It was only about twenty days since the command of the Army of the Potomac, at a most critical time in its history, with all the inherent responsibilities of the act, had been laid upon General Meade.
This, and a consideration of the shattered condition of that Army after the great battle, made him cautious and prudent, and he would not consent to a renewal of the conflict at Gettysburg.
So he lay there, quietly awaiting the development of the disposition and plans of his antagonist, until Sunday morning,. the 5th, when it was well known that Lee's whole Army, excepting a few pickets, was on its way toward the Potomac.
Then, having been re-enforced
1 when the battle ceased, the ammunition of the Army of the Potomac was becoming scarce; and of the. Reserves, only a single brigade of Sedgwick's corps had not, in some way, participated in the battle. The Army of Northern Virginia was equally exhausted. The National loss in men, from the morning of the 1st until the evening of the 3d of July, was reported by Meade to be 23,186, of whom 2,834 were killed, 13,709 were wounded, and 6,648 were missing. A greater portion of the latter were prisoners. Lee, as usual, made no report of his; losses. He spoke of them as “severe.” a careful estimate, made from various statements, places the number at about 80,000, of whom about 14,000 were prisoners. Generals Barksdale and Garnett were killed. Generals. Armistead, Pender, and Semmes were mortally wounded; Generals Hood and Trimble were severely wounded, and Generals Anderson, Hampton, Heth, Jones, Pettigrew, Jenkins, and Kemper, not so badly.
2 “owing to the strength of the enemy's position, and the reduction of our ammunition,” Lee said, in his report, “a renewal of the engagement could not be hazarded, and the difficulty of procuring supplies rendered it impossible to continue longer where we were.”
Lieutenant-Colonel Freemantle, of the British Army, who was with Lee, says, in his narrative (page 269), that it was “difficult to exaggerate the critical state of affairs, as they appeared about this time,” and declares that. “General Lee and his officers were evidently impressed with a sense of the situation.”3 in his diary, July 4, Colonel Freemantle made the following record: “wagons, horses, mules, and cattle, captured in Pennsylvania, the solid advantages of this campaign, have been passing slowly along the road all day; those taken by Ewell are particularly admired.”
4 see map on page 62.
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