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

BATTLES OF GETTYSBURG.

•
(F rom the Special Correspondent of the limes.)
HEADQUARTERS OF GEN. LONGSTREET,
NEAR GETTYSBURG, July 2.
Ps was not till 4 in the afternoon that the battle
eosnmenced. Upon the extreme Confederate right
advanced Gen. Hood and the Texans, who would
follow his tall form up to Gehenna's gates, and the
day's disasters commenced by a wound which be at
'once received, shattering his left arm below the
elbow and forcing him from the field. His division
fell to the command of the senior Brigadier-General,
Robertson, who swiftly shared Gen. Hood's fate,
and resigned the command to Gen. Law. On Hood's
left advanced, hardly with sufficient promptitude,
the division of Gen. M‘Laws. Observing some de
lay in their advance, Gen. Longstrcet threw him-
self at the head of Wofford's brigade, and led them
under such a fire as has rarely been witnessed right
-up the slope. Repressing the disposition of his men
to cheer him as he took his place at their head by
the brief exclamation of " Cheer less, men, and
Eget more," Gen. Longstreet, mounted upon the
same charger w,hich he has ridden in a score of
battlefields, without either horse or rider, both
recklessly and constantly exposed, encountering
even a scratch, plunged into the thickest of the
fight. There are in all wars undemonstrative, un-
selfish, and natural men, whose worth is chiefly
known to their soldiers, who seldom attract and care
nothing for public applause, but on whom in the
direst stress of critical battle the sternest and most
hazardous role devolves. To this order belongs
Gen. Longstreet—a man fighting not for praise, or
civil or social distinction, with a repugnance to
those self seeking politicians (a class happily almost
unknown to England) who manipulate for their own
advancement the reputation of such generals as con-
descend to become their creatures. Few, indeed,
among the generals of Lee's army are such self-
seekers—least self seeking of all Generals Lee
and Longstreet themselves. It was natural
that one of the Federal prisoners brought
back in this very charge by Wofford's Brigade
should, upon learning that the big man who led
the advance was none other than Gen. Longstreet,
have exclaimed, "No wonder we are thrashed upon
every field ; there is not in the whole of our army a
Lieut.-General who would have risked his life in
such a charge." Against the first position of the
Federals the advance of Longstreet's two divisions
was completely successful ; against the second and
stronger position he had not men enough to essay
seriously upon this day to prevail.
Meanwhile on the Confederate centre and left
Generals Hill and Ewell mingled in fierce conflict
with their sternly-resisting enemy. Vain indeed
would be the attempt to portray in language the
scene which the Cemetery-hill, held by the Federal
centre, and the lines of their right wing, lying im•
mediately behind Gettysburg, presented to the spec-
tator. If it had not been reserved for me to listen
next day to a still more awful din, I should have
fancied that no such scene had ever before saluted
mortal eye or ear. A thick canopy of smoke, con-
stantly rent by bright darting flashes of flame, cast
its dense pall over the struggling, bleeding thou-
sands who toiled and died in its centre, while out
of the opaque gloom, as though from the bowels of
the earth, one deep prolonged bellowing roar never
ceased to issue. Through the deepening twilight
and on far into the night the fierce struggle con-
tinued, until, in the gloom, the dazzling parabolas
of flame, bursting into sparkling jets and corusca-
tions as the shells cracked and exploded, made a
ghastly pyrotechnic display. It:was not until! ate
in the night that it was learnt that the divisions of
Nudes and Early had at one time actually carried a
part of the Cemetery-hill, and had sent down a
peremptory entreaty for support to Generals Pinder
and Anderson of A. P. Hill's corps. But General
Pinder lay at the moment desperately wounded.
The request was, for some unknown reason, unheeded
by Gen. Anderson. Rodes and Early fell back to
their old positions, and the only advantage gained
by the Confederates consisted in the carrying by
Gen. Longstreet of the first position of the Federals
upon the extreme.right of the Confederate line.
JULY 3.
Between the first and second positions originally
held by the Federal left intervened a large bare
sloping meadow, nearly a mile in width. Across
this Valley of the Shadow of Death the Confede-
rates' advance, committed this morning to the divi-
sions of Generals Pickett and Pettigrew, had no
option but to proceed, swept by the concentrated fire
of the countless Federal guns, and exposed whets
nearing those guns to hailstorms of musketry bul-
lets. The distance was too great to advance at the
double ; it was necessary to move slowly and deli-
berately, that, as the men approached the batteries,
there might be some dash left for the final on-
slaught. Early in the morning General Longstreet's
line stood thus :—On the extreme right the division
of General Hood, commanded by General Law;
next to him the division of 111‘Laws—these two divi-
sions being by General Longstreet held in hand to
launch against the Federals should success attend
the onward movement to their left. Next to M'Laws

came the spes gregis of the moment—the division of
General Pickett, supported and assisted on its left
by the far larger division of General Pettigrew,
belonging to A. P. Hill's corps, and ordinarily com-
manded by General Heth, who received a singular
wound on the first day. He was struck in the

centre of his forehead by a Minie bullet, which laid
bare the bone, and then glided off. He attributes
his escape to the fact that he was wearing a Yankee
hat which was too large for him, and in front of

the forehead be had inserted a thick wad of paper,
which was strong enough in its resistance to the
bullet to save the General's life. It should be
noticed that most of Pettigrew's division consisted

of mcn who had never been seriously engaged

before. They have recently been drawn horn

North Carolina, where for months and months they
have been engaged in watching the fantastic me-

mtces of Generals Hunter and Foster, and others in

the neighbourhood of Newbern—menaces which

must have caused the Federal Government untold

millions of dollars, and which have been productive
of no good to them beyond the larceny of a few

negroes and the sack and pillage of sundry houses
ofB non-combatants. It would have been easy to
enure the only material advantage sought by the
_e
derals on that coast—the suppression of the shad
a'aek herring fisheries in Pamlico and Albemarle
Soinad
s---by the presence in those waters aof few
sloops Of war.
The dsi,v;i,sio;,l of Gen. Pickett, shorn of two of its
gl
believe,
left in the vicinity of Suffolk, but
in number shortly to join Lee's army, did not
division
ofu'i)til..exceed 4,000 men. The strong
the lbt, agsiot ttl6,rew, which in its engagement of
siderable loss, numbered
Reynolds, sustained incon-
cox's Brigade,
temered, With the addition of Wil-
ti
10,000 men. It wa3P:rarilY attached to it, about
attack was deliverea r allydesirable before their
the Confederate batterleast a
heavy
cannonade from
exhaust and perhaps siitslaould, as far as possible,
guns. Accordingly, and etisonae of the Federal
Walton, Chief of Artillery toh ,4 instructions of Col.
Col. Walker, Chief of Artillery z. Longstreet, and
battalions of artillery, number no ell. A. P. Hill,
were got into position, while sitalfial all 140 guns,
were made by Gen. Ewell on the lefrtaz.r"gernents
upon the Confederate side alone there must
that in all
been a concert of about 200 guns. It eatrilist have
a
doubted that their thunder was echoed backrfdlY be
similar number of pieces on the Federal side, ando
the reader's imagination must it be left to conceive
the diapason of 400 guns. The thundering roar of
all the accumulated battles ever fought upon earth
rolled into one volume could hardly have rent the
skies with fiercer or more unearthly resonance and
din. Far back into the mountains the reverbera-
tions rolling from hillside to hillside startled strange
and unmusical echoes. Vast cumuli of cloud, such
as would have shrouded 10,000 Homeric goddesses,
had they cared in these days of villainous saltpetre
to mingle in the nteMe, floated over the strife;
horses, the suffering and tortured ministers of man's
fury and wrath, lay thickly dead or horribly muti-
lated upon the ground ; constantly from out of the ,
white pall of vapour issued wounded and mangled

men, and rumours that this or that General was

killed, that this or that regiment was reduced to a
corporal's guard, traceable to no authentic source,
neither believed nor disbelieved by the listeners,