Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1863-07-09


proper position for lis centre. an,l at one
arranged the other corps as they came up
on either flank. AMI on the cemetety hill
along the ontside heights. giving to- oril
whole line nearly the shape of a horse
shoe.
{ sThe groubi was quite rolling. withtwo
or three high eminences. and afforded nu.
merous splendid positions for our bate.
ries. and with such dispositions we await
the enemy's attack.
4, THE BATTLE OF. THURSDAY.
Early on Thursday forenoon. all the
corps had come up. and been placed in po-
sition, except Sedgwick's, which had been
sent beyond Westminster, under the im-
preston that our. army would have to
march to York to find the enemy. and
this gave so long detour as to prevent
that corps coming mp till Thursday evening
when it was placed in the rear OF the CEN
tis and held in reserve. si 81 es"
AllThurs,lay forenoon we had nething
bat sharp firing between the enemies Skin
mishers and our own. with an occasional
dischirge of our artillery thrown in, when
the enemy pressed too hard on our Skin
tmishers srrBu Tea rTn ~ hEIaQsTg - p
The enemy did not mask bis artillery at
all, and there was considerable pressing
through the forenoon by some of our di-
vision and corps Generals for heavy at,
tack on the enemy's centre. but Gen.
Meade wisely insisted that the enemy
mus, fight him on the ground he selected
and persisted in retaining the defensive. -
About half past four the enemy made
the long awaited attack. concentrating the
heaviest fore on our left wing. which was
naturally the weakest part of our position.
and making a desperate effo,t to break it,
Of the results Of this engagement. dis
patches have already been forwarded you.
We were successful at all points, and re.
pulsed every attack. and onr troops lay on
their arms on the battle. field. 9'i '
| : THE BATTLE OF FRIDAY.
On Friday forenoon. by ten minutes
past 4. the attack opened fnriously on our
extreme right. held by Slocum's corps
During the night this corps had left the
rife pits it had constructed on Thursday
10 go to reinforce some weaker portion OF
the lire. and aylight showed the rebels in
possession Of these rihe-pit.. and eager to
press their advantage. The fight was con
fined chiefly to muskctry, our artillery be
ling unable to see where to direct their fire.
From half past too a. m., firing was
| very fierce, but we were unable to regain
these rifc-p The rebels made several
charges on our line. striving but unshccess
fully to drive us still further hack.
| From this time till half past 10, fighting
both with musketry and artillery was ter
rife. and ended in our regaini 6 our rifle
lpits. @ iaa -s''ta a.A' - fl
Meantime the rebels at about half-past
10. made sharp attack on our centre and
right. without accomplishing anything ex-
cept rid ing small house occupied for
Gen. Mends's headquarters, with shell an !
round shot. From eleven to one was q
comparative lull. Our troops held their
old position along the whole line and
Iquietly awaited further attack.
| A little after one the rebels opened their
last and most furious attack along the
whole line OF the centre AMI left, and con-
tinued it till twenty inmates past four.
when. repulsed at every point. they slow
iy retired and took up defensive line one
half mile to the north Of Gettysburg.
During this attack occurred much Of the
most desperat, fighting of the war. 1t
was sustained on our part by the. lllh
corps, on the centre by the End and Sd and
part of the 9th corps. On our left the
enemy made several desperate charges, but
each were broken and forced back in conf,-
lsion by orr terrific artillery FIRE. which We
were fortunate enough more than once to
get TO enfilade their advancing lines. :,
The rebel troops making the attack were
A p. Hills and Long,treet's corps, form
ing nearly two thirds Of Lees whole army
Pickett's division of A. p Hills corps. re-
garded as the crack fighting division. was
selected for the most exposed part Of their
attaeking line. In one charge they made
they swept up in three lines. the first We.
NY heavy one of skirmi .hers, the second
their battle line. and the third their reserve
battle line. each stretching for nearly q
mile along our centre and left. AT the
csmetry hill they got within compile Of
hundred Yards before we opened our whole
lire on them. The line WAS instantly shat
terrell and sent fyicg over the field. while
one brigade threw down their arms and
rushed en- masse over ia our lines, and gave
themselves up As prisoners. ia
BY half past four p. m. the battle vas
substantially over. The rebels still kept
lup struggling fire on eur left, aud from
houses in Gettysburg their sharpshooiers
still tried to pick off exposed officers on
the Cemetery Heights. while they kept
tossing occasionally shell into the head
! quarters till nigh,fall. but from hall pas,
four the snlk Of the army retired.
r Our losses are ,,ess than would have been
Expected from SO bitterly cv::tcsted bat
tie. owing to the fact that after tue hrs'
day we acted wholly on the defensive. iH
/ Five thousand to 1000 will propably
cover our entire losses in killed and W un,
died. We lost about i, 500 prisoners the
first day. but meme OF any consequence
afterwards On Friday evening about Z
clock, 3,2c0 rebel prlsoners.s by actual
count, had been turned over to the officers
in charge of the prisoners. and moro were
stul coming ln..ii ii-.m3if IS yas
l. From that time till Saturday noon. nc
further count was made but it must BE-
sale to say that the number was by that
time swellsd to f. 00J. prisoners more OF
lpSa 0nr Loco fxonoral a, ooro No. hoo