The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1888-07-13

menus OF tne Union army, UnaU was III Ciio
field to watch and oppose him. Until it was
too late, Lee rushed headlong northward on
Pennsylvania soil, wholly unaware that his
antagonist was moving vigorously in the
same direction to intercept his columns.
Blinded by want of knowledge in this re-
spect, he marched his widely scattered corps
into northern territory dangerous distance
Here, on hostile soil, believing himself safe
from pursuit, he divided his troops into three
bodies, and allowed them to become removed
from each other by more than days march
When Lee was abandoning central Vir-
ginia to move north, the Union forces lay
on the Rappahannock line, facing southwark,
and threatening to push on to Richmond;
and as the Confederates sped their way to-
ward Philadelphia and Harrisburg, they
hoped that Hooker would remain there, Lees
skillful lieutenants keeping up the appear
ance of having a southern force in that Vi
entity in order to delude the Union com
mander as to the real situation. But acct
dent enabled Hooker to foil Lee in his calcu-
lations. By means of lucky captures of dis
patches and incidental cavalry skirmishes,
Hooker gained accurate knowledge that the
main part of the Confederate army had not
only vanished from his front, but had left
NlIRlIlli, dIiu Wdo oCouctiJ opPioASiAAA6 viz
very gates of great northern cities.
On receipt of this unexpected but timely
intelligence the whole Army of the Potomac
turned northward in pursuit. just as the in
vader was prepared to seize his first prize,
Harrisburg; and, had it not been for the
knowledge thus accidentally obtained, Lee
would have been enabled to strike a heavy
blow before anything could have reached him
s,,4 Of mn fnrPn
1t was through accident also that the Con-
federate leader found himself in this emer-
gency, without any swift moving cavalry to
bring reports of Hooker's threatening opera
tions in his rear to his headquarters, and
when the situation became suddenly revealed
to him through chance scout, there was no
flying column at his command to fall upon
the advance of the different Union corps, as
they marched toward him by several distinct
routes For a leader like Lee this was an
unusual circumstance
A few squadrons Of troopers, with their
horse batteries drawn up on each road, might
have harassed the Union infantry and
INSTRUCTED their progress considerably. But
the Army of the Potomac transferred to the
leadership of Meade, as it entered Pennsyl-
yania June 2S) moved on freely and conf
IDENTIFY into territory practically under the
control of Lees hostile bands. Meade did
not encounter so much as a cavalry picket,
and this accident of having no Confed-
crate cavalry in the way explains how it
happened that when Lee, who had had so
many days the lead of his opponent, had got
ten his scattered corps into conjunction to
meet the foe he saw springing SO lightly
across his track-the foe he had so carefully
arranged to misead and retard, this foe
was actually in his presence, in line, ready
for combat.
Of the actual battle field events at Gettys-
burg there are series of strange things to
relate During these three days, of the
warmest portion of the year, the unusual
heat was very much mitigated by light
breezes, the sun being frequently yelled by
the clouds; yet not a drop of rain fell till the
afternoon of the 4th. Seventy-six degs
marked the extreme heat the first day, 81
degs the I'd, 81 degs the Sd. The average
for the three entire days was n dogs. Had
the rain, which fell from the 4th to the 9th,
come on the I'd. the roads would have been
impossible, the forced marches of the Union
soldiers could not have been made, and the
slopes of the ridges on the field would have
been SO slippery as to make the scaling OF
them difficult, if not impossible. Had it not
rained on the night of the 18th of June, 1915,
the future of Europe would have been
changed. A few hours Of water, more or less,
Frustrated Napoleon at Waterloo; storm
on the LIST or I'd of July, 1868, might have
been fatal to Meade's army and to the Union
Again the commanding general of the
Union advance, Reynolds, who had selected
the field and made the plans to fight the
opening battle, fell MORALLY wounded in the
first hour of conflict, and of the four gen.
erals-Howard, Hancock, Sickles and Slo-
cum-who next made their appearance on the
scene, it so happened that the last one to arrive
was superior in authority to the ones preced-
ing, and by virtue of his rank assumed COM
mand. So there was no permanent director
of affairs until after a desperate battle had
been lost, an army crushed and good ground
abandoned A greater misfortune still, OF
more vital consequence than all, was the fact