The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1880-03-26

Grey was shot through the stomach and,
with entrails protruding, managed to drag
himself along and succeeded in escaping
with us.
1t was now getting late; the sun was near
ing the horizon, but the battle of the day
was not yet ended The wheat field was to
have more victims. As Caldwell retired,
Ayers came up and went in with his Regu-
| lars another effort to gain the wooded crest
that extended from Little Round Top to-
ward the peach orchard. AS he advanced
! he must have struck the flank of the Confed-
crates that had but short time before pour
| ed destruction into the rear Of CaldwelPs di-
vision. Ayers doubled them up, driving
everything before HIM to somewhere near the
point from whence we had just been driven.
| Then McCandless took up the fight and, with
the Pennsylvania Reserves, succeeded in
gaining and holding some of the lost ground.
The fighting at this point, during the even.
ing of July >, was of most sanguinary char
acter, each side fighting with a dreadful
earncstuess. -Four or five of our best divi-
sion. had charged over the same spot and
were met every time by the choice troops
Of the cnemy-both determined TO hold the
ridge in front of the wheat field. General
Buiord says of the first days fight: There
seems to be no directing head This might
be applied to the fighting of the left on the
second day If there was any directing head
it was no; especially visible Until toward
dark the fighting had certainly gone against
Us and the battle had extended along the
line, to the right, almost half way to the GEM
etery The evening and our prospects grew
dark together. The Third corps had been
driven back, broken and shattered, its COM
mardcr wounded and carried from the field,
the troops that had gone to its support Jared
no better, aud every man felt that the situa-
ton was grave.
HANCOCK To THE RESCUE.
However all was not yet lost Meade had
again thought Of Hancock and as yesterday
he sent him to stop the rout of the First and
Eleventh corps, so to- day he orders him to
assume command on the left. Once more
| he is in the fight 4 half hour Of daylight
yet remains but it is long enough to rally
some of our scattered troops, face them once
| more to the front, gather reinforcements, drive
back the enemy, and restore our broken
lines. At Waterloo, Wellington petitioned
to God for might or Blucher.' At Gettys-
burg, on this evening, we had no Blucher to
pray for. Our whole force was up but,
while Omitting the last part of the great
Englishman's prayer, we had every reason to
| adopt the first portion. As the fight was
closing upon the left OF our army, Ewell was
striking terrific and successful blow OF the
right. We reformed our division on the
Taneytown road, and after the rough hand
ling we had received had some difficulty in
getting things in shape. AS we were thus
occupied, away to the right and rear we
heard the yclls of the Louisiana Tigers as
they rushed over our works at Culp's hill.
This was the most anxious hour of all in the
great battle. We had been driven on the
left and on the right the rebs had effected
lodgment in our works, one of our strongest
positions, and were, in fact, in our rear,with-
out any adequate force to oppose them. An
other hour of daylight, and unless some
lllldCle ndu lu'tINCntu VIC WOulu uOsl lkely
have left Gettysburg without waiting to bid
the inhabitants good evening But fortu-
nately for us there was no Joshua around
Lees headquarters, so the sun went down on
almanac time, utterly regardless of the little
troubles that we were trying to settle. Dark
ness fell upon the scene and prevented the
Johnnes from taking further advantage of
their success, giving Us chance to repair
= our dsas.u.s
= Few Of us slept during this night. Our
division went back and was put in position
on Cemetery Ridge by General Hancock,
who all the night long aborcd to strengthen
this line. The men gathered rocks and fence
rails and nsed them to erect a light breast
work. Had the necessary tools been distrib-
. u'cd to the troops we could have entreached
a this line and made it formidable, but we
: could not find a pick or a shovel, and the
u works hat we did attempt were very light,
Il scarcely sufficient to stop a musket
u ball. During the whole night mounted off.
( GERS gaIloped to aud fro, aud troops were
10 hurried to important points. At the first
: faint gray of the morning Of July the figh
u was resumed on Culp'S hill, where darkness
T. had interrupted it the night before, and from
: then until long after daylight the firing wa
I heavy ard inrrS>ant We knew that SIocuu
" wa. tr,in, - drive the Juhnuies out of ou
-' work, which they bad slept in and occupie,
Ia without invitation the night before, Culp'
e' hill was ABOUT mile from where we lay, an
81 we could hear the cheers of Geary's mel
le which came 10 Us on the morning air, ming
nu led with some rebel bullets, which had mis-,
~ ed the mark for which they were intende
no and, almost spent, went singing over OF
'S' heads As the day advanced sounds of IL
ne artillery mingled with the musketry, and v
IT. knew that a hard fight was in progress. TT
'p' men in our line almost held their breath wi,
10 anxiety About o'clock the firing suddel
ly CEASED. A tremendous cheer went up, al
a minutes later every man in the army kne
n that we were again in possession of Culp
get hill Then came few hours of peace,
I'M, perfect ca'm. From Cemetery hill to Rou
ba, Top not a movement had been observed OF
,er shot fired all the morning.
ors ON SEMINARY RIDGE.
and About noon we could see considerable ,
the tiyiy along Seminary Ridge Battery af
rd. battery appeared along the edge of
An. woods, Guns were unloaded, placed in
the >ition and the horses taken to the rear.
doy one side officers sat around in groups al
r,.. through field glasses, anxiously watched tn
he movement. in our front and wondered W
too 1t all meant Shortly after O'Clock, h
,,ar ever, We knew all about it, The headq,
,ook ter wagons had Just come up and Gen
.rc- Gibbons had invited Hancock and staff