The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-11-02
51,aes

tysburg, at o'clock a. m., July 2, orders came for an instant march to the placo last named In an hour the brigade was
 on the road, fasting and almost wholly
 without rations or water. The march to
 Seminary Ridge, 1t is said, was made
 without a resting halt. Arriving there
 in the afternoon it was sent to the right
 southward about four miles along that
 ridge until about opposite to Round Top.
 There 1t was formed in line of battle, on
 Longstreets extreme right, to assail the most formidable position held or attack
 ed during the whole civil war. Why
 body of men, thus exhausted by hunger.
 thirst and weariness, after a forced
 march of twenty-seven miles in ten
 hours under a burning July sun, should
 have been selected to be sent to the
 hurled against the remotest, yet strong
 est hostile position on it, instead of other
 good troops present, who had been rest
 ing for hours, is one of the sombre mys-
 teries of Gettysburg.
 The field and the work before those 14.O00 men of Hoods and McLaw's sdivis- ions. as they formed under heavy artillery fire, on Cemetery Ridge, at 4 o'clock p. m. on July 2, 1863, might well stagger nerves and hearts of steel. Over against them, a mile away were the Round Tops to be stormed, overlapping their position respectively 100 feet and 200 feet, and the valley between which, with Plum Run on its east side, was to be crossed,-10o feet more. These hills and the spaces be- tween them were so wooded on their near CT slopes as to conceal troops and guns there posted. They were steep, rugged, covered with boulders of all sizes and shapes, except where continuous granite, walls shot up through them in varying heights, everywhere affording a shield to- .<t.. Ix~ ordnance ever known. So rough and diff fcult was their long, steep ascent, that to one passing over it soon after on the route taken by the assaulting confeder-s ates 1t seemed almost impossible that men could scale it as they did, even if fresh sunincumbered and unopposed. It is undsputed, that at 4 o'clock D. m., and even later, both these heights, Round Top and Little Round Top, were vacant and
 undefended though it would have been contrary to all reason to suppose them so.
 The failure of Meade to occupy thems when he must have known that they conn
 manded the valley east of them, where
 were collected all his trains his reserved artillery and ammunition. his hospitals, his own quarters, in one word his whole
 position and force, from Culps Hill all
 the way to Little Round Top evinced about as much common sense and mlh-
 tary cagacity, as did Longstreet's failurS to seize them, when he could haNe uVho so without resistence. The space per tween the Round Tops and the conieder- ate position, varying from 200 to lSov yards in width, was much of It covereaa by a rank growth of wheat. in Heius sep-
 erated mainly by stone walls, almost per- feet protection to infantry against ins fantry, and crossing in several piacef
 the direction of the confederate advanceH During Longstreets inaction in the fore.l noon, General Sickles pushed forwaroi his whole corpse, two divisions lz'ooo tor 15. GOO men. to the ridge obliquely project- ing between Cemetery Ridge and the. Round Tops. along which passes the Elm mettsburg road, one of his divisions benga posted along or near that road. and thea tcontinued on Twentieth Paael