The National tribune., 1908-09-10


was eXpending ammunition unnecessary
ly, and notified Gen. Siocum to that
effect. Geary's regiments, after they
bad fired away all their cartridges,
could be relieved, retire to the rear,
clean their guns. and come back for q
fresh session with their enemies. Some
of Geary's regiments fired $50 rounds.
and the 1902 enlisted men expended
277,G00 rounds of ammunition.
Col. Fox's excellent story of the bat-
tie, from which many of these facts
are obtained. says that the best e;i-
dence that there was no waste of am
munition was the ground itself when the
flight was over. AT no place on the
field of Gettysburg did the dead lie
thicker than in front of Geary's Divi-
sion. In Johnson's own division he lost
2,015, which does not include the cas-
ualties in brigades sent to his as
sistance. lie Twelfth Corps repeated
on this fsr,. the record it had made on
others of infiicting a terrible css upon
the enemy while suffering a m /, h
smaller damage itself. Altogether IL
lost only 1,156, or about one-half of
Johnson's loss, and yet, with the exr1p-
tion of Greene's Brigade, it had fought
as Extensively as the enemy. So severe
was the fire that it destroyed most of
the trees upon the battlefield. those not
being cut down receiving such njur: IS
as to cause their decay and death one
of the incidents of the fight WIS the
direct duel between the 1st Nd, e. s.
A, of Steuart's Brigade, and tie 1st
Md, U. S. A, of Lockwood's Brigade.
The importance of the Victory.
Before IL o'clock the battle was over,
all of Johnsons men except the dead
and wounded had disappeared from the
front, and that flank of the army vas
safe
There were so many extremely cfiti-
eel points in the battle of Gettysburg.
so many times when the issue seemed
TO be hair-hung and decided by trife,
| that the momentOus Importance of this
struggle has never received Its proper
| recognition. Meade had little concep-
| ton of it, and his mind was so occupied
I by the other tremendous events that he
| treated 1t curtly and unsatisfactory in
| his report of the battle. He did not
even mention the name of Gen. A. S.
Williams, to whom large share of the
! credit for the victory is due Thcr
Gen. Meade's attention was called t.
this oversight he made ample amends
/ and in a letter to Gen. Slocum, dated
Feb. rs, 1864, he said that he had al.
ways placed the highest value on the
Twelfth Corps, and that Gen. Williams
was the last man in the army he would
4
that he had not given Greene the credit
| he should have, but said this was large
iy due to his report having been written
very hurriedly. owing to the failure OF
the corps commanders to send in Their
reports.
| IT is rather tiresome work, rccapitu-
lating the 'ifs" of the battle of Gcttys-
| burg, because there are so many OF
\ them, and they are so tremendous tha,
| IL one is admitted the others must al
least be discussed. And it must be said
| that the "ifs" on the Union side are
quite as potential as those on the Con-
| federate side. Still. it can hardly be
| gainsaid that the situation on the ex-
1 treme right at midnight on July was
as critical, il not more so, than at any
| otner moment of time during the three
days battle. The enemy were IN force
within so rods of the Baltimore pike
with only one brigade of Union troops
| had any conception of the immense
advantage they had gained, greater re-
suits were within easy reach of them
| then than at any other period of the
| battle. strong movement by Ewell
| would have carried him around our
| flank in the rear of at least one-ti1Ird
| of our army, and where the greater
part of the supplies of the Army of the
Potomac were directly under his hand
If" on the other hand, Gen Geary's
Division had not been sent away on an
entirely useless errand, johnson would
| have met with a crushing defeat at the
outset.