ing, and going forward to get a better view of the enemy's position.

On riding to the rear of our present position on the Fairfield road, we met with Colonel Walton, chief of artillery to General Longstreet, and his adjutant, Captain Owens, and for some time we lay in a meadow under a hedge awaiting

events.

Colonel Walton is a New Orleans man, who in the beginning of the war was in command of "The Washington Artillery," a picked corps raised in that city, which boasts that every member of it is a gentleman of property and position. Of course their commander was a man of mark in his native city, where he was, I believe, a wealthy merchant. Like many others, Colonel Walton, though not a young man, had cheerfully sacrificed all his worldly advantages to his principles, preferring the hardships of camp life and "the cause," to luxury and ease at home under Yankee tyranny. But such instances are the rule and not the exception in the South. There are thousands of men now carrying a musket in the ranks, who before the war were gentlemen of wealth and property, which they are now deprived of "it may be for years, or it may be for ever," as one of them said to me; but not one seems to regret it, or would for an instant dream of submission to the North in order to regain what he has lost.

Almost all the young men from Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, the overrun portions of the Carolinas, Virginia, and Florida, many too from Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland, are in this position; but they seem to be none the worse soldiers for having been brought up in luxury and comparative idleness.

At about three o'clock in the afternoon werejoined General Longstreet, who, after a long consultation with the Commander-in-Chief, was at this moment riding down with his Staff towards the front. We found his corps already forming for the attack in a wood.

Longstreet rode up the line and down again, occasionally dismount

The ground just before us was plain and open, but beyond were those hills, since so celebrated, covered with Federal breast-works and rifle-pits, and bristling with cannon. The Federals had also possession of the open ground below in front of their works, and their foremost guns were about a quarter of a mile from the wood we were in.

I especially remarked a battery in a peach orchard, which was blazing away at one of ours not far off.

As we passed Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade the General came up eagerly to Longstreet; "I wish you would let me go in, General; I would take that battery in five minutes." "Wait a little," said Longstreet; we are all going in presently."

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The men were as eager as their leader, and those in the front line began to pull down the fence behind which they were crouching.

"Don't do that, or you will draw the enemy's fire," said Longstreet, who sees and observes everything.

We passed on, and very soon afterwards the General called for his horse, mounted, dashed to the front of the line, gave the word, and led them on himself. We all followed him.

It was a glorious sight. The men who had been lying down sprang to their feet, and went in with a will. There was no lagging behind, no spraining of ankles on the uneven ground, no stopping to help a wounded comrade. Not one fell out of the line unless he was really hurt. On swept the line, breaking out with an occasional yell when they came face to face with the foe, but on the whole silently. The guns in the peach orchard were pounced upon, and half of them taken in a trice, whilst the others limbered up and made off. Hundreds of prisoners were captured, and everything was going so satisfactorily that for a time we hardly doubted that the enemy would be

driven from his very strong position on the hills in front.

But at a critical moment General Hood was severely wounded, General Barksdale killed, and their men, at the very moment of apparent victory, when they had overcome almost all the difficulties that lay between them and entire success, hesitated, halted, and at length fell back, losing thereby far more men than they would have done if they had continued their advance.

But still we gained decided advantages, taking prisoners and guns, and getting possession of the ground up to the foot of the hill.

General Lee, in his report to the Government, describes this day's fight as follows:

"The preparations for attack were not completed until the afternoon of the 2d of July. The enemy held a high and commanding ridge, along which he had massed a large amount of artillery.

General Ewell occupied the left of our line, General Hill the centre, and General Longstreet the right. In front of position, from which, if he could be General Longstreet the enemy held a driven, it was thought that our army could be used to advantage in assailing the more elevated ground beyond, and thus enable us to reach the crest of the ridge. That officer was directed to endeavour to carry this position, while General Ewell attacked directly the high ground on the enemy's right, which had already been partially fortified. General Hill was instructed to threaten the centre of the Federal line, in order to prevent reinforcements being sent to either wing, and to avail himself of any opportunity that might present itself to attack.

"After a severe struggle, Longstreet succeeded in getting possession of and holding the desired ground. Ewell also carried some of the strong positions which he assailed, and the result was such as to lead to the belief that he

would ultimately be able to dislodge the enemy."

The battle ceased at dark. As we rode back from the field, General Longstreet spoke with me about the failure to take the position on the hill, saying, "We have not been so successful as we wished;" and attributed it chiefly to the causes before mentioned Hood's wound and Barksdale's death. Perhaps if the attack had been made a little earlier in the day it might have been more successful; for Sedgwick with the 6th Federal corps reached Meade just in time to assist in repelling the assault, and without this reinforcement the Northerners would probably have been defeated. The men might have been put in position a good deal sooner; and in fact one of the commanders of division, Major-General M'Laws, was blamed by some people for having been too slow.

We did not return to the camp, but lay down in a meadow near the battle-field, tying up our horses to a fence, and using our saddles as

VOL. XCVI.-NO. DXC.

pillows. Some of the officers had blankets, but, as I had none, Major Latrobe shared his with me, and we slept soundly after the fatigues of the day.

At early dawn on Friday, again the sound of cannon awoke us, and told of the bloody fight that was to be renewed that day. The morning was spent in riding over the battlefield of yesterday, the Generals holding a long consultation, and reconnoitring the position to be attacked to-day. I was standing in the road with Dr Cullen and some officers, when Pickett's division of three brigades, which had been left at Chambersburg, and was to take a prominent part in the fight, passed us. They halted and rested for about half-an-hour, and I conversed with several of the officers; among others with Colonel Allen and Major Wilson, whom I had met at Chambersburg. They were both killed a few hours later; and indeed but few of those I met that morning came unhurt out of the terrible

2 Y

charge made by Pickett's division that afternoon.

One hundred and forty-five guns, I was subsequently informed by Colonel Walton, were on this day placed in position, to open fire simultaneously on the enemy, preparatory to the assault which was to be made on their works. Whilst the preliminary arrangements were being completed, General Longstreet rode with his Staff to the rear of the guns, where his men were lying down in line in the woods. Here it would have been impossible to have a view of the battle; and we were recommended to ride into Gettysburg, and take our station on the top of a certain churchtower, whence we should have a very good view. Accordingly Colonel F. and I started in that direction. We had just reached the top of a hill from whence we could overlook both positions, when in one instant, at a given signal, the whole hundred and forty-five Confederate guns burst into a roar of cannonading. They were quickly answered by the enemy, and the effect was grander than words can express. We could see but few of the guns on either side, as both they and the men were hidden from our view by the woods; but the smoke rising above the trees presently formed a dense cloud above them, and showed us where the work was going on. We left the hill and rode on towards Gettysburg; but as we approached the town we found that we could not reach it without passing through a sharp fire from both sides, as Ewell on our side and the Yankees on the Cemetery Hill were pounding away at each other across the road. A shell or two bursting not far from us, warned us to proceed no further. Colonel F. rode back to rejoin Longstreet, and I, who was feeling quite faint with hunger, fortunately fell in with General Heth, who gave me and my horse a feed, after which I returned to the hill where we had witnessed the grand spectacle of the commencement of

the battle, and where I now found a good many officers assembled watching the fight.

The assault by Pickett's division had just been repulsed. They had gone in splendidly, led in gallant style by their daring chief, had stormed the breastworks, and taken the enemy's cannon. Heth's division, commanded by the senior Brigadier Pettigrew, was to have supported them, and they went in for that purpose, steadily at first, but soon got shaken by the storm of shot and shell that met them. Presently a small column of the enemy, emerging from a wood, began to form on their flank; the men saw it, wavered, stopped, and then fell back in a panic, getting terribly punished as they did so. In vain were all efforts to stop them. Longstreet, who had seen the threatening move, sent off Latrobe to warn General Pettigrew, but the rout had commenced before he could meet him. Pickett, whose men were now well in, and in the full flush of the victory they deserved and would have gained if they had been supported, galloped down and implored the men to rally. Many other officers did the same, but it was all in vain; it was a panic such as will strike the bravest troops sometimes, and no efforts could induce them to form anew whilst under that terrific storm of fire. The division lost frightfully, but the worst effect was that Pickett's men, who had behaved gloriously, were now left to fight alone against overwhelming odds. Encouraged by their success, the enemy, freshly reinforced, now turned upon them with redoubled energy and courage, and soon their fate was sealed. Some surrendered at once, the rest retreated, nearly half the men of the division were killed, wounded, or captured. But they had won undying fame by their glorious onslaught, and as long as the war is remembered, so long will the charge of Pickett and his Virginians be spoken of by their countrymen with the same proud

and yet regretful satisfaction with which Englishmen tell of the charge of the Six Hundred at Balaklava. Another assault was made, I think, under Trimble, but it was unsuccessful; 'nor, indeed, had it much chance of success, and would, perhaps, not have been made but for the confusion inseparable from the state of affairs in the battlefield. The grand assault had already miscarried, and Colonel G., an Englishman, who was wounded in the charge, told me afterwards that before they made it he had seen and spoken to Pickett, and said that as he had been repulsed, he did not think that they were going to succeed. However, they went in very gallantly, but had to retire, losing a good many men.

The enemy made no attempt to follow up their advantage, and it was well for them they did not. I see that a General Butterfield, in evidence given before some Federal committee, blames General Meade for not attacking Lee's right after the repulse, imagining that enormous captures of guns and other great successes would have been the result. It was, however, well for the Federals that General Meade did not do so, for he would have found M'Laws's and Hood's divisions there perfectly ready and willing to give him a much hotter reception than he would have liked. But in fact the Yankees were a great deal too much cut up themselves to think of anything more than holding their own. They had been huddled up in masses in their contracted position (which was not half so extended as that of the Confederates) in order to repel the expected assault, and the artillery had done tremendous execution among them. Then, though partially protected by breastworks, they had lost very heavily by musketry fire during the assaults, for the Southerners possess a great superiority in this weapon. Almost every individual Southerner has been accustomed to use the rifle from his earliest youth, and has

thus acquired a skill in handling the weapon which no amount of drilling can supply, and which the Irish, Dutch, and city Yankees, who form the mass of the Federal army, can never hope to attain. Altogether, I am perfectly convinced that in the three days' fighting the Federal loss was far heavier than the Confederate in killed and wounded; and it is only the fact of about 6000 Confederate wounded having been left behind in the hospitals around Gettysburg that gave the Northerners even a nominal preponderance in the number of prisoners taken. Longstreet's corps, which was the most heavily engaged, lost 6920 men. Pickett's loss was 3500, M'Laws's 1660, and Hood's 1760. I do not know the numbers lost in A. P. Hill's, nor in Ewell's corps.

We returned to the camp after the battle, and spent the evening rather gloomily. In the night it began to rain heavily; and whilst we were asleep a thief came into our encampment and stole two trunks out of the tents in which we were lying—one from Major Moses, which had 5000 dollars of public money in it, and one from Dr Barksdale containing personal effects. Both were, naturally, much provoked; and Dr Barksdale's disgust seemed only increased when his trunk was found in the course of the morning in a neighbouring field, open, robbed of its most valuable contents, and the rest saturated with rain. Major Moses' trunk was also found in the same state.

Colonel F. and I had returned our horses to their owners, but L. still had his (a very seedy animal); and the officers of the Staff and the medical department being occupied with their respective duties, we sallied forth together after breakfast, two on foot and one riding alter nately, and in this way we wandered about the lines.

We met General Longstreet, who had been much amused by hearing, through a flag of truce, that he was severely wounded and in the

enemy's hands, but would be well taken care of. We also met the Rev. General Pendleton, chief of

artillery to the army, and remained some time in conversation with him.

L. presently rode off to see General Lee, and when he returned, told us that a retreat had been decided on. We were kept a long time at the cottage of a silly old Dutchman, by a heavy downfall of rain, and then went to Bream's tavern on the road to Fairfield, which lay in the direction of our retreat. The road was crowded with waggons, as the whole train had but two roads to move on-the Fairfield and the Cashtown one. When Lee's army entered Maryland, the waggon-train alone, without the artillery, was forty-two miles long, and it was now larger than ever, though most of the waggons and teams procured in Pennsylvania had been already sent to the rear.

Bream's tavern, house, stables, barn, and every out-building, were full of wounded men, some of whom were being moved into the ambulances, and others more badly wounded were being removed to the better accommodation left thereby vacant.

It was a grievous sight to see these fine young fellows, many of them probably crippled for life, and yet all were cheerful and smiling. Looks of deep sympathy greeted them on every side as they were borne past on stretchers. And sometimes the wounded men would address a few encouraging words to some friend who stood near, himself too sad to speak.

Many were to be left behind, too severely wounded to bear removal; and it struck me very much that it should be they who would speak words of comfort to their more fortunate friends who had escaped the dangers of the battle.

Not one complained. All bore themselves in the same proud manly way.

For a time the yard in front of Bream's tavern seemed a regular rendezvous for generals and their staff-officers, and all who passed stopped on their way and entered into conversation.

Here I met General J. E. B. Stuart for the first time, and was introduced to him, and to many others too numerous to name.

When it was dusk we went on a mile or two farther on the Fairfield road, and presently came upon a blazing fire, around which were Generals Lee and Longstreet, with all their Staff.

We were to remain here till the train had passed, when the main body of the army would be withdrawn from its position and join the retreat.

It soon grew pitch dark, and then the rain began again. Oh, how it did pour! I never saw anything like it. Now and then it would relax a little, and then again and again would rush down in torrents. "This is too heavy to last,' I thought to myself many a time, but it did last.

Fortunately for me I was tolerably weatherproof, as Colonel F. had very kindly lent me his indiarubber overcoat, he and L. having gone off in an ambulance, as a covered four-seated "buggy," specially belonging to the headquarters of the medical department, was called.

It was certainly a dismal night. The fire was kept up and protected from the rain by continually piling on fresh wood, and it was a roaring one, yet I wondered that it was not extinguished. It lighted up the scene with a strange glare.

Lee and Longstreet stood apart engaged in earnest conversation, and around the fire in various groups lay the officers of their Staffs.