The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-18 00:00:00

rose as it were out of the ground, until the spec-
tator, a prey to that whimsical caprice which at
moments of fierce and absorbing excitement seizes
on men's minds, found himself wandering in thought
to strange and far-off scenes, to happy valleysvihich
had never seen war, and vaguely speculating how
their echoes would awake and resp)nd to such a
thunderous din.
Precisely at 1 o'clock, responsive to the warning
summons of two signal guns, the 140 pieces in the
Confederate centre and right opened fire; nor were
their voices hushed until 40 minutes after 2. Then
came General Pickett's turn, and nobly did he
spring to the head of his undaunted men, and mar-
shal them to the attack. With long floating locks,
with a seeming recklessness, which is, perhaps,
partly assumed, bat which stamps him of the Murat
type, General Pickett, of more demonstrative
courage than other generals, but not less unflinch-
ing than his own sword, seemed as he advanced to
lead his men into the very jaws of death. Slowly
emerging into the open ground, with shells
singularly ineffective, as it seemed to me (consider-
ing
the apparently murderous precision with which
they air burst) cracking and snapping over them at
every stride, Generl Pickett's men seemed to take
hours to surmount the mite of interval which divided
them from the Federal batteries. At length their
destination is reached; with a wild yell they spring
into the Yankee earthworks; astride of each Federal
gun rides a Confederate soldier ; the group around
General Longstreet congratulates him that the ad-
vance is a complete success, and for a few moments
eye of
breath is drawn more freely, but the quick
sGi
oe
nn ruapl
oLn own gh
whose
tsree eat l
mo s t discernssi
mutl ht
aant
ero
ue
st t iagdrve
awn' se
ed idvie
ipse ni
nd se
confusion
hn ef
ursei
ot enn. t i oun
pboyn P
ti chke
rt t
loe ff
tt hreect adtipgt
ruerwe
,8
menguns,
when close up to the Yankee
descending batteries,
theperceive
hill
to
large column of Feer
flank them. Retaining
h is so
that faptearinichabit
to ofa
thinking for themselves which
soldier, the Confederates first halted, then got into
confusion, then broke and fell back. The
frightful damage from grape and:canister which,
shrinking at this perilous moment, they could
not but sustain, was compared by an eye-witness
of both scenes to the punishment inflicted on
the Federala from the heights of Fredericksburg
in December last. In vain did General
Longstreet send Major Latrobe to General Petti-
grew, shortly before the latter's troops broke, urging
him, in military language, " to refuse his left"—
that is, to meet the flanking column bya line thrown
obliquely out to meet it. Major Latrobe's horse
was shot as he sped on his message, and on foot he
could not get up to General Pettigrew in sufficient
time tolnstruct and guide him. When Pettigrew
and his men fell back, the flanking column of
Yankees, meeting with no resistance, swept round
until they approached and overlapped Pickett.
Then, and not till then, he commenced to give way.
" Hide, blushing glory, hide" the cost of that re-
treat. Out of a division of 4,300 men he brought
out, in the first instance, about 1,500, though I be-
lieve that another 1,000 straggled in the next day.
His three Brigadier-Generals lay dead or desperately
wounded upon the field ; out of all his field officera
only one major came out unwounded; 11 out of the
13 colours which he carried into action were lost.
Since the commencement of this war I know of no
division on either side which has ever made so
resolute an advance, or been so rudely and mur-
derously handled. Long will the 3d of July be
remembered in anguished Virginia, from which
State almost all Pickett's division was drawn. Gen.
Pickett and his staff, all of whom miraculously
escaped, were torn by grief at the loss of friends
known for a lifetime, but doubly and trebly en-
deared by the common perils and sufferings of these
last two years.
Bat if at an earlier stage of this letter I fancied
that less than his usual calmness was visible in
General Lee's face, all trace of cloud and anxiety
passed away in this the hour of our deepest gloom.
Riding from knot to knot of the stragglers, with
kind, firm, calm words encouraging the disheartened,
rallying every man who could carry a musket or was
only slightly wounded, he infused confidence and
spirit into his men at the moment which of all
others is most trying to volunteers. General Will-
cox, riding up to him, with tears in his eyes, ex-
claimed, " General, I have tried to rally my men,
but as yet they will not stand." General Lee re-
sponded, " Never mind, General, the fault is all
mine. All that you have to do is to help me to
remedy it so far as you can." If any testimony to
the affection and confidence inspired by General
Lee were wanting, it might be found in the cheers
issuing from the interior of ambulances as they
passed him, bearing their ghastly load of wounded
to the rear. This scene was witnessed by Colonel
Fremantle, of the Coldstream Guards, who has
returned to England, leaving behind him many a
friend in the Confederate army, which he has ac-
companied for the last three weeks.
After the repulse of General Pickett's division
the struggle was virtually over. It is true that on
the extreme Confederate left General Johnson, of
Ewell's corps, captured a hill which would have
been important had complete success attended
Longstreet's attack. As it was, both armies, fear-

fully exhausted by their losses, fell back on the night
of the 3d, to commence on both sides preparations
for retreat on the 4th ; the initiative in retreating,

as was subsequently believed, having been taken by
General Meade. The incidents of the day's battle,
the struggles of individual companies, which, to
borrow Napoleon's expression, " belong rather to
the biography of a regiment than the history of an
army," would fill a volume. Suffice it to say. that
while the particulars of the Confederate loss being

more known to me are given in more detail, there
is abundant evidence that ttie Federals, with their
heavy columns of troops massed behind their bat-
teries, and fearfully exposed to artillery fire, suffered
a loss as unprecedented as was the valour which,
for the first time in its existence, the Grand Army
of the Potomac on this occasion displayed.

JULY 4.
A steady downpour of rain from a low brooding
leaden sky—a day in keeping with the fortunes of
the nation whose once joyous national holiday,
the 80th since the acknowledgment by England
of its independence, was rolling gloomily, and
unobserved away ; the sight in every grove and
almost under every tree of burying parties, some-
times with tears of convulsive and agonised
grief, rendering the last sad offices to the Allen,
depressed every heart; nor was the prospect of a
night march in such weather known to be immi-

nent so soon as darkness should fall, calculated

to cheer or elevate the spirits. All day long, while
the big guns on either side frowned at each other in

angry silence, Gen. Ewell's enormous train, swollen
to vast bulk by the plunder in horses and wagons

which on their first incursion into Pennsylvania he

had abundantly collected, was filing off behind the
Confederate centre and right, and pushing into a

pass of the South Mountains (not the same as we

had traversed when advancing from Chambersburg),
which leads obliquely to Hagerstown. Towards
evening the wagon train of A. P. Hill's corps, which

occupied the centre, followed Ewell ; and it was not
till long after midnight that the train of Longstrcet's
corps got under weigh. From 7 in the evening till
3 in the morning we lay silent and moody upon the
soaking muddy ground, clinging to the log fire
which the damp and chilly night made most accep-
table, deluged by frequent dashes of heavy rain,
watching Gen. Longstreet as, in deep thought, he
walked ceaselessly backward and forward like a
Bailor
on his quarterdeck. Presently we were joined
by Gen. Lee. It cannot be
pretended that the
1 spirits of the party, under circumstances which
would h
drawnheavily on the resources of Mark
sd
radiant as usual, but even to this
,i:,1:, , ~::::ee
~:ia :
ea
ena
n
to witness. Thha.tklast. It was a strange scene
all-pervading seat
ote,
iutincus slimy mud, and
gloom, the heavy rain, the
through it knee dee ,
s g
times with trousers turneeatinaes barefooted, some-
p
tramping file after file of men,
eltvahl:c along the roads
of whip
above the knee,
side the bright camp fires, st for thousands
r.ider's eye-
of yards, dazzled and bewildwe;dtihntrhoeu
fort.whearind:
fiercelygu droves of
sight, as he tried to steer his
oxen goaded with much shouting
among flocks of terrified sheep, and through
terstices of mile after mile of wagons, and caissons
eatseons,
and guns, and attendant camp-followers.
At length, on the morning of the sth, the rain