The Portland daily press., 1885-12-04
REcoLLEcTIoNs oFcETTYsBuRc
An Entertaining and Instructive Lee
ture by Major n. S. Melcher.

The vestry of the Free street Baptist
church was well filed last night, and Major
Meleher's admirable talk, treating OF the
third day of the battle of Gettysburg proved
very entertaining. Mr. Meleher was intro
duced by Judge BOnney. The following IS a
brief abstract of the lecture, the speakers
descriptions being aided by reference to
map of the field.
Gettysburg is of about 300 inhabitants,
and is situated in Adams county, Pennsylya-
mia, of which county it is the shire town. 1t
is beautiful village, in a splendid agricultu
raj country. 1t was on the morning Of the
first day of July, 1868, that the gun was fired
which commenced the terrible conflict which
raised that quiet little town to a position of
greater prominence than Marathon and Wa
terloo Eleven roads and one railway center
in Gettysburg, and it was these roads which
rendered the place of strategic importance.
The battle opened to the west Of the town
by the meeting of Hills corps of the Confed-
crate army and Buford's cavalry. Our losses
in the first days battle were very severe. The
Union army fell back during the day, and
made stand on Cemetery Hill. Lee here
lost his golden chance of sweeping the Union
forces from the field and winning the battle
But reinforeements arrived, and after the Sc
we're fighting of the second day, the Union
army retained its position.
This brings us to the third day of the bat
tie, when the Union armyS line was four
miles long, the COnfederates on larger
curve having line five miles in length. AT
the right of the Union line the rebels were
lying in the woods, occupying position
which threatened the safety of the Union
army. 1t was here that the Second Massa-
ehusetts made their famous charge, in which
with a total of 3l2 engaged, 145 men were
killed and 80 wounded. The position was
taken by the Union forces after a terrible
struggle,
After my regiment had been ordered to its
position in the third line ON this last day, it
became the duty to call the roll, and out of
carried the cOlors of the goth Maine into the
fight at Little Round Top the day before, %
were killed or wounded. The command now
devOlved upon me, and 1t was the first time
ever knew what war really was, and tell
you that the soldiers are the last men who
want to go to war again.
The regiment now has handsome monu-
ment at the field. This is the monument on
the extreme left, the monument of the Sec
ond Massachusetts being on the extreme
right, Maine thus occupying one extremity
and Massachusetts the other the m0nu-
mentS standing there to show to succeeding
generations what the men bore and suffered.
We had nothing scarcely to do during the
first part of the third day, but early in the
afternoon, his generals not considering it
possible to take Little Round Top, Lee mass
ed 145 guns to bear on the Union centre pre-
vious to charging. Owing to the less extent
of the Union line only eighty guns could be
massed against Lee. Lees cannon entirely
swept the Union field for an hour and three
quarters At the expiration Of that time the
Union batteries having been silenced to al
fha fYrr,1c 70 0NO hotter
work before them, the charge was made by
the Confederates, with Fickett's fresh divi-
sion in the centre, the whole number sweep
ing across the field being about equal to the
number of men in line at the procession OF
the reunion in this city last June. Fickett's
men, torn by shot and shell, swept across the
field to be met by lines as firm as the giant
hills of the north. The Confederates were
hurled back leaving two-thirds of the 1900
in the charge behind them, either dying,
dead or wounded upon the field, or as prison.
ers in the hands of the Union army. Only
one field officer in Fickett's division was left
on the field. Gen. Wilcox next charged the
Union line to meet with similar resistance.
After the charge the rebels fell back,
broken and discouraged. and had their great
loss been understood in the Union ranks
counter charge would have been made, and
many military authorities think that such
charge would have entirely broken up the
Confederate army. The whole Union army
understood the victory and the diSagreeable
night with its darkness and rain was forgot
ten in the midst of the rejoicing. Every
private felt that the tide had turned and the
future Of the Army of the Potomac was to
be successful one
That night we were driven from our sleep
ing places by the water gathering on the
ground, the man at the end getting out first,
allowing the water to run to the next until
all were wet
fensiYe, but Mead made no atfaot s - ffis fifss
of July, feeling unable to do so owing to the
crippled condition of his forces. The village
was seized, however, and many wounded
Union soldiers who had been left there after
the first days fight and had been without
food. 1t was during the day that we heard of
the fall of Vicksburg-n news which made re-
joicing enough even for the Fourth of July.
At the conclusion of the lecture some
thirty stereoptcOn Illustrations of the battle
field. bnth-as 1t appeared at the time of the
battle and as it now looks, were shown upon
the screen.