The daily Green Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1861-1865, 1863-07-11

as to dim even the heroic record OF
the band that fell upon the acre of Tourney.
The corps against which this deadly fire was
mainly directed was the Second, the position
being commanded by Gen. Hayes
The artillary fire continued without intermis-
sion for three hours, when suddenly, having
been formed under cover of the smoke Of their
own guns, the rebel troops were hurled against
our lines by their officers IN masses the very
tread of whose feet shook the declivity up which
they came, with cries that might have caused
less dauntless troops than those who awaited
the onset, to break with terror. Not man IN
the federal ranks hinched from his position.
Not an eye turned to the right or left in search
of security, not hand tresmbled as the loug
array Of our heroes grasped their muskets at
charge and waited the order to fire. On and
up came the enemy, hooting, crowding showing
their very teeth in the venom Of their rage until
within thirty yards of our cannon. AS the |
turbulent mass of grey uniforms, of flashing
bayonets and cleaning eyes, lifted itself In
last leap forward almost to the very mouths OF
our guns, volley of shot, shell, schrapnel and
bulet went crashing through it, levelling it as
scythe. Its overwhelming onward rush was
in the next instant turned to the hesitatng leap
forward of few soldiers more daredevil than
than few mortally wounded heroes, and the
succeeding backward surge of the disjointed re-
mander, which eliminated in a scamper down
the slope that was in some instances retarded by
the pursuing bullets OF our men.
The carnage of this assault among the rebels
was 80 fearful that even Federal soldiers who
rested on their arms triumphant, after the foe
had retreated beyond their fire, as they cast
their eyes downward upon the panorama of
death and wounds Illuminated by the sun that
shone upon the slope before them, were seen to
shudder and turn sickening away.
Then the Third and Fifth corps joined in the
fight. AS the rebels rallied for an instant and
attempted to make stand they we're met by
such combined volleys as threatened to reduce
their columns to fragments The panic which
eDsued is unparalleled in any battle in which the
Army of the Potomac has ever been engaged.
The enemy qualed like ewes before tempest
Their main line again receded, but numbers pal
sled by the horror and tumult, fell upon their
knees, upon their breasts, upon their faces,
shrieking and lifting up clasped hands in token
of surrender and appeal for mercy. Gen. Dick
Garnett's brigade surrendered almost entire, but
Garnett himself, by the aid of two of his men,
succeeded, though wounded, in making his es-
cape. Longstreet who LED the reinforcements
which enabled the rebels to make their second
brief stand was wounded, captured, and is now
d prisoner The musketry firing slowly ceased,
and the discharge of artillery continued for a
brief period but even these reverberations final
ly died away.
General Meade was not deceived in anticipat-
ing another onslaught. Lees columns were
collected and reformed with magical haste
Within an hour what seemed to be his whole
force was again massed directly in our front
where the contest once more opened. The as
sault this time was made with fury even sur
r passing that OF the first. 1t would seem as il
the entire rebel army had resolved itself into a
gigantic Forlorn Hope, and bore in its collect
i've bosom the consciousness that the effort now
made was the last and the only one that could
be made toward retrieving the fortunes of that
, army, or preventing the inevitable disgrace
which hovered over it.
T.. 1t is said by rebel prisoners taken in the later
& part Of the engagement that this charge was
l. led by Lee in person. The prestige of his name
a and his presence could not have added to it
a power or enthusiasm. Yet the cool and gallant
\ pbalanx which, secure in its position and conf
dent in its leader, waited with a silence, only
, broken by the occasional roar of artillery, tn,
: approach of the foe, and viewed it as calmly
:. and met it as unfalterngly as before. Back, a
. easily as a girl hurls the 8huttecock, did th
8 soldiers of our gallant army hurl into chaotic
I retreat the hosts chat came on and on over th
4 stones and bitches, over the bodies of faler
comrades, piing its dead in heaps and making
= the soil over which it trod ghastly and aliv
# with struggling wounded.
= The firm array of Union soldiers which, pre-
a yiousy remaining stationary, now became
!. pursuipg Nemesis to the hordes that in groa
i numbers went reelng westward through th
d streets Of Gettysburg, and beyond, az the brav