Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-11-11

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word to Early. who was making for
t Cashtown, away from Gettysburg, that
he (Hiln was marching on the latter
place. Ewell turned his corps from its
southwestern march to the southeast
and brought up on the flank of Hill on
Seminary ridge three miles from Get
| tysburg about noon. or just as Heth
was staggering back and bleeding ter
ribly from his encounter with the ad-
vance corps of the Army of the Potomac
| 1t was Reynolds First corps of
Meade's army which had given Heth
his bloody reception on his second at
tempt to enter Gettysburg. and Reyn-
olds was there simply because the cav.
airy which caught sight of Heth the
day before had reported back to him th1
presence of the enemy. Going beyond
bis orders, Reynolds marched to aud
through Gettysburg and out on the rci Il
which Heth had taken westward the
ufiN UtlOit. SO 1t CttiHt dDutl tui't
Reynolds advance division met Heth $
Tennesseeans. Mississippians and Fir
ginians along Willoughby run. ON the
Cashtown road, where the great battle
opened in the forenoon of July |
Heth's attack upon Reynolds was :.
terrific onslaught. but he was compelled
to charge across creek ana meet trooi@
in position on high ground and support
ed by batteries He was checked, bat
with another division in the second lin
he attacked again. and the ground IN
Seminary ridge was fought for all day
with appalling slaughter on both sides
Reynolds was killed. and Heth fell
wounded
Before Reynolds was killed he sent
word back to Howard. who was miles
south of Gettysburg to come up for
there was fight on. Howard got up ia
time to check Ewell before he could
pass Reynolds corps by the flank and
get into the town. Howard had sent
word back to the generals waiting souib
of Gettysburg for developments, and
before night on July / Siekles with his
Third corps and Slocum with his
Twelfth Were at Gettysburg, called
there hy the fight which Heth had put
up against Reynolds
The next turn of fate was Meade
selection of Hancock to 10 to the field
at Gettysburg and take command
Hancock was a bulldog fighter ton
and he placed the troops III position 10
held the town and sent word to Mea,,e
that Gettysburg was the place to fight
not some point in the rear of it. lik.
Pipe creek
Of course the Confederates marched
up at the sound of the guus to back NJ
Hill and his wounded bulldog Ewell
was there for that purpose expressly
and Lee sent Longstreet forward to the
same end Longstreet' S original desti
nation had been Cashtown. the same as
Ewell's, and he was being held back in
order that he might defect southwark
to guard some of the lower gaps in
South mountain. providing Meade at
tempted to break through westward
Longstreet got up two divisions the
morning of the 2d. and it is idle to say
that he came mp pursuant to Lee S or
ders of the 29th for an eastward move
ment since he marched but % miles in |
all
When Lee saw how the First and |
Eleventh Federal corps had suffered in |
their encounter with Hill and Ewell the !
first day. and that they had been driven !
back to the heights behind the town -
heights which. although they proved !
impregnable to assault, might be flank
ed-he decided to risk all in an effort to
destroy the Army OF the Potomac. What |
followed is threadbare history Meade
and some of his generals wished to re-
treat and draw Lee back to u better
field for their purposes. but few voted
and fight it out. Stay they did
and fight they did. but they did no,
fight because Meade wanted to They
staid because it was risky to retreat in
the face of Lee and fought because Lee
forced it upon them. Lee forced it as
an afterthought, for he saw that with
the armies confronted and the enemy
half whipped in battle and as good as
half whipped by its family position there
was chance for success But for Heth
Meade would have awaited Lee between
Gettysburg and Baltimore and Lee
would have waited for Meade to divide
his army in striking at some of the
gaps westward to reach his