Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1885-11-23
Pickett's Charge.

| LII tllc ul!uU VI Tue ndooCo -out Silu- :
ply the one decisive struggle which
either in its immediate or remote Sc
quence closes the conflict. Of the
hundred battles of the great Napole-
on, Waterloo alone fingers in the
memory. The Franco Prussian War,
so fraught with changes to Europe,
presents but one name that will never
| fade.-Sedan. Even in our own
country, how few battles of the Rev.
olution can we enumerate but is
there a child who does not know that
Bunker Hill sounded the death -knell
of English rule in in the land? And
now, but twenty years since the
greatest conflict of modern times was
closed at Appomattox, how few can
we readily recall of the scores of
blood stained battle-fields on which
our friends and neighbors fought and
fell; but is there one, old or young,
cultured or ignorant, of the North or
of the South, that cannot speak of
Gettysburg? But what is Gettysburg
either in its first days Federal defeat,
or it's second days terrible slaughter
around Little Round Top, without
the third days immortal charge by
Pickett and his brave Virginians. In
it we have the elimination Of the Re-
bellion. 1t took long years after to
drain all the life blood from the foe,
but never again did the wave of Re-
bellion rise so gallantly high as when
it beat upon the crest of Cemetery
Ridge.
The storming OF the heights of Ink
erman, the charge of the noble Six
Hundred, the fearful onslaught OF
the Guards at Waterloo, the scaling
of Lookout Mountain, have all been
sung in story, and perhaps always
will be but they all pale beside the
glory that will ever enshroud the he
roes who. with perhaps not literally
"cannon to right of them,' and
"cannon to left of them," but with q
hundred cannon belching forth death
in front of them, hurled themselves
into the center Of great army and
had victory almost within their grasp.
To describe this charge, we will go
back to the evening of the I'd of
July, and recall upon what basis the
cautious Lee could undertake so fear
full responsibility. The victorious
Southrons fresh from their triumphs
fredericksburg and Chancellorsville
had entered the North carrying con-
sternation and dismay to every ham,
let, with none to oppose; their for
ward march was one of spoil, and i
was not till the 1st of July that the.
met their old foeman, the Army O
the Potomac, IN the streets of Gettys
burg, and after fierce conflict drove
them back. The second days con
flct was terrible slaughter, and a
its close the Federal army, although
holding its position, was to certain
extent disheartened. Many OF on
best generals and commanding offic
ers were killed or wounded, scores o
regiments and batteries were nearl,
wiped out, Sickles' line was broker
and driven in and its position wa
held by Longstreet. Little Roun'
Top, the key of the position, was hel'
only by frightful loss of life. ant
Ewell upon the right had gained ;
footing upon the Ridge. The Rebe
army joyful and expectant ofvictory
The morning of the Sd of July open
+ cd clear and bright, and one hundre'
thousand men faced each other await
= ing the signal of conflict but, excep
the pushing of Ewell from his pos
ton, the hours passed on relieve
only by the rumbling or artillery car
;. riages as they were massed by LIE
e upon Seminary Ridge, and by Mead
upon Cemetery Ridge. At twelv
: O'Clock Lee ascended the cupola @
n the Pennsylvania College, in quie
;, surveyed the Union lines, and deci6
ed to strike for Hancock's Centre
Meanwhile, Pickett with his thre
= Virginia brigades had arrived frol
:. Chambersburg and taken cover in th
woods of Seminary Ridge. Wha
) Lees feelings must have been, as b
o looked at the hundred death-dealin
cannon massed on Cemetery Hill, an
/ the fifty thousand men waiting pa
tiently in front and behind them, me
whose valor he knew we'll in many
J. bitter struggle-and then looked {
It his handful of brave Virginians, thre
small, decimated brigades which /
a was about to hurl into that vortex {
d death.-no one will ever know. I'll
blunder that sent the Light Brigad
to death at Balaklava was ba
= enough, but here were FIVE thousan
,e men waiting to seek victory whel
|, only the day before ten thousand ha
n lost their lives or their limbs in I'll
same futile endeavor. Leaving tt
a college, Lee called a council of h
. Generals at Longstreet's headquar
;, ers, and the plan of attack was form
ed. 1t is said that the level-heade
,e Longstreet opposed the plan, and
in SO 1t was but in keeping with his T.
I'd markable generalship. The attae
ef was to be opened with artillery fl
- to demoralize and batter the FEEDER
line. and was to be opened by 81,
nal of two shots from the Washin,
ng ton Artillery. At half-past one Il