The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-06-07

by holding tncn AZ check I'M
til REYNOLDS came up with his
first corps the confederates would be
defeated and turned back. Whatever
his theory. he started in with a tire.
mendous display of energy and pluck
and for several hours he must have
mystified the fiery confederates with
the vigor of his defense. When Rev.
nolds with his infantry reached the
field it was to meet a mighty outpour-
ing CT the very flower of the confed-'
crate army. It was little known then,
that Lee had issued an order to his de-.
tached wings to concentrate at Gettvs-
burg, and, while Doubleday was max,
ing his heroic fight on the west of the
town and Towards Eleventh CORPS
were forming on the north, down came
the hordes of Ewen from Carlisle and
westward marched the legions of Early
from York; so that by four o'clock
on that dread afternoon mere segment;
of the army of the Potomac was Crap
ping in deadly embrace with almost the
mass of Lees army OF 10000 men. AL
save Pickett's division of 5000 men.
which had been left at Chambersburg. ;,
were brought to Gettysburg on the first
day. 1t is little wonder that these bat
tered and bruised men of the First and,
Eleventh corps were forced to retreat.
But the country can never know what
it owes to that excellent soldier, Gen.
Hancock, who, galloping up from:
Meade's headquarters twenty miles
away, met the routed forces rallying.
upon their reserves on Cemetery hill
and forced them to make stand. The
desperate resistance on Culp's hill and
Cemetery hill that awful evening,
checked the enrolling tide of the con-
federacy, and when the morning sun
arose Seminary ridge and it's tanks
were filed with the worn and haggard
but undismayed veterans of the army;
of the Potomac. That made victory for.
our army at Gettysburg, and that VIC
tory sealed the fate of the confederacy.
A visitor to this battlefield, finding
himself standing at the point known as
the Bloody Angle" against which
Pickett's great charge was made, and
where Gen. Armistead fell inside the
union lines, waving his hat upon his
sword, is surprised to note that Sem
mary ridge just here lis not ridge at
all, viewed from the front. I had
always supposed until my first visit to
the field that Pickett's doomed 1900
men not only marched across an open
plain to the assault, but that they had
been compelled to climb the rocky sides
IF 0cf o+1 Jofa NJ
tell the truth that charge was delivered
across comparatively level plain
against troops who had scarcely any adj
vantage in the matter of ground, bar
ring the trivial stone wall which fringed
the front. Looking at the field from this
standpoint anyone can understand how
Gen. Longstreet might well have opposed
Lees determination to assault the fed
eral center, and can imagine how sick
his heart must have been when be saw
those three brigades of Virginians
marching to certain death and destruc-
ton. But Lee had fought two detached
corps of the army of the Potomac on
the list, and had failed to crush them;
he had assaulted desperately both tanks
on the End and had failed, and on the
3rd there was left for him only the Ma
poleonic tactics of breaking the center.
That awful charge would never have
been made, l presume, if Lee had not
believed that his terrible two hours
cannonade had silenced the batteries
along the federal front. Had it been sup
ported as it should have been, it might,
perhaps, have succeeded, but all that
was vital and forceful in Lees armies
marched with Pickett in that fateful
charge. Col. Freemantle, the English
officer of the guar6s who had accom-
panied Lee in his invasion of Virginia,
sat on the fence on Seminary ridge
when Pickett came down the slope and
moved against the federal center with
the precision of parade, and when the
thin and broken ranks had almost
reached the famous Bloody Angle he
swung his cap in the air and shouted:
eft will succeed; it is the grandest
charge the world ever sawl" But Gen.
Longstreet says that he knew that the
effort had failed; first, because no body
of men on earth could stand such
storm of l&aden and iron hail as Pick
ett's men endured, and, second, because
there was absolutely no support on
flank or in rear for the brave men who
had been blindly sent to destruction.
There is one sad and pathetic picture
of this battle which has always touched
me, but which the field guides seem to
have overlooked. On the last days bat
tie, when Gen. Lee was preparing to hurl
himself against the federal center,
cavalry charge was made on his right
wing lying around the Round Tops and
the DEVILS Den, which for absolute fulfil
ity, fatality and absurdity has not been
equaled since the famous six hundred
rode against the batteries of Balaklava.
Clusters cavalry was lowering on the ex-
IRENE left when it entered into the
head of Gen. Farnsworth to make a
diversion by charging headlong into the
midst of the confederate troops at that
time not actively engaged. Hehad just
been promoted to a brigadier-generalship
a few days before, and had borrowed a
pair of generals shoulder straps from
one of his brother officers. These
he had stitched upon linen
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