GETTYSBURG 



2485 



GETTYSBURG 



On the morning of July 1 the Federal ad- 

 vance was forced through the town to Cem- 

 etery Ridge, where a strong defensive position 

 was taken. Both sides lost heavily during the 

 day. That night and the following day nearly 

 the whole of each army was brought on the 

 field, and the battle was resumed in earnest 



THE FIELD OF GETTYSBURG 



11 Howard's corps 

 12 Slocum's corps 

 13 Sickles' corps 

 14 Sickles' advance, 



July 2. 



15 Meredith's corps 

 16 Cutler 

 17 Reynolds 

 18 Schurz 



1 Rode's division 

 2 Ewell's division 

 3 Johnson's division 

 4 Pickett's division, 



July 3. 



5 Longstreet's corps 

 6 A. P. Hill's corps 

 7 Hith's division 

 8 Ewell's corps 



9 Lee's headquarters 19 Stuart's cavalry 

 10 Meade's headquar- 20 Gregg's cavalry 



ters 



during the afternoon of July 2. The Federals 

 formed their line along Cemetery Ridge, from 

 Gulp's Hill to Round Top. The Confederates 

 opened the attack, driving back the Union 

 left under General Sickles, with terrible loss 

 on both sides, and securing a temporary foot- 

 hold on a section of Gulp's Hill. From this 

 position, however, they were driven out early 

 on the morning of July 3. 



The crucial attack of the battle began at 

 one o'clock, on the third day. Lee, against the 

 advice of Longstreet, decided to make a gen- 

 eral assault on the Union center, under the 

 command of General Hancock. For nearly 



two hours the valley between Cemetery and 

 Seminary ridges reechoed to the sounds of 

 a furious cannonade. Finally the Union com- 

 mander gave the order to cease firing, so that 

 the guns might cool. At three o'clock, Lee, 

 thinking that he had silenced the batteries of 

 the enemy, ordered General Pickett to charge 

 the Federal line. 



Then occurred one of the most magnificent 

 and daring attacks in history, almost worthy 

 to be compared to the famous charge of the 

 Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaklava (see 

 CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE). Fifteen thou- 

 sand of the flower of the Confederate army 

 swept across the valley and up the slopes of 

 Cemetery Ridge, facing a murderous fire that 

 sent great numbers to their death. They car- 

 ried the first line of the Federal center in a 

 desperate hand-to-hand fight, but no human 

 force could withstand the storm of shot and 

 shell that met them. "Here the great wave 

 of attack reached its high-water mark; here 

 its terrible force was spent and the tide turned, 

 never to rise again" (Montgomery). 



This was practically the end of the Battle 

 of Gettysburg, and by the morning of July 5, 

 the Confederates were in full retreat towards 

 Virginia. Meade's losses were so serious that 

 he made no attempt to pursue the retreating 

 army. The official estimate of the Union loss 

 is 23,003; of the Confederate, 20,451. On No- 

 vember 19 of the same year, President Lincoln 

 delivered his immortal Gettysburg Address at 

 the dedication of the National Cemetery on 

 Cemetery Ridge. 



The Gettysburg Address. In ten sentences, 

 containing only 267 words, spoken under the 

 inspiration of a great and solemn assemblage, 

 Abraham Lincoln gave to the ages America's 

 noblest example of oratory. It was a master- 

 piece of logic, faultless in sentence structure, 

 forceful in its choice of words, and above all, 

 breathed the purest patriotism the kind which 

 grips men's hearts and stamps immortal truths 

 upon their minds. In the simple manner char- 

 acteristic of the man, he said: 



Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers 

 brought forth on this continent a new nation, 

 conceived in liberty, and dedicated in the propo- 

 sition that all men are created equal. Now we 

 are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether 

 that nation, or any nation so conceived and so 

 dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a 

 great battlefield of that war. We have come to 

 dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting- 

 place for those who here gave their lives that that 

 nation might live. It is altogether fitting and 

 proper that we should do this. But in a larger 



