Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1910-02-22

| moved the Confederate army or III
vasiOn, the various sections Of 1t COM
ing together near Gettysburg, Pa.
There they were met by such bodies
Of northern troops as could be brought
to the spot, and thither by forced
marches was rushed the Army of the
Potomac, the finest body of fighting
men in all the north. General Hooker
had just been replaced by General
, Meade as its commander. Should the
Army of the Potomac arrive at Gettys-
burg too late or fail to stop Lees on
rush the whole north might lie at the
invaders mercy.
General Meade reached Gettysburg
early on the morning Of July 2. AS
! the Confederates advanced to the Sec
ond days attack early that morning
gasp ran along their line as, instead of
the raw militia they had expected to
brush easily from their path, the bronx
ed faces of the Army Of the Potomac
rose before them. a clash between
the outpostS at about o a. IN. OH July
opened the battle. A little later the
f, full forces of north and south came
| together All day, all the next day
and the day following the battle wag-
ed fiercely, with varying fortunes.
Meade's left center was Oh hillock
called Cemetery ridge. About a mile
to the west the main body of Lees
army was massed OH Seminary hill.
| Almost mile of open ground lay be-
tween, swept by fearful cross fire.
Lee tried to prepare the way for the
charge by bombarding the fortitica-
tons on the ridge with 135 gun bat
terry. An eighty-five gun Union battery
replied. For two hours deadly artil-
lery duel ragged, duel whose magni-
! tude was almost unparalleled in war
| fare. At last the Union batteries
: slackcned fire to cool their reeking hot
, cannonS. This was the moment for
which Lee had waited. Pickett and
Pettigrew. with their 1900, were hurl-
. ed ut Cemetery ridge. They had ], 400
yards of open ground to cross before
they could reach the Federal outworks.
| Scarcely had they started when the
! northern batteries opened on them,
while from the nearby fortified hill of
Round Top Il furious crossfire poured
in upon the advancing Confederates.
. Unfaltering, Pickett's men plunged on,
! falling by hundreds rs the artillery
tore huge rents in their line. Finally
they came within closer range of their
| foes, and whitening whirlwind Of
Federal musketry swept their ranks.
On staggered the Confederates, hope
. lessly facing that battle wind, the in
tervening space between ridge and hill
strewn thick with their dead. The
sout hern general, Armistead, was in
the forefront of the charge. With
hundred men he broke through the
| northern outpoStS and seized can
non. Before he could move it from
the spot he and all his followers were
killed. Under the close quarters fighting
the shattered remnants Of the $4,000
charging southerners halted, wavered
and tumbled back in broken confusion.
The bloodiest, most daring charge Of
all the civil war had failed. And with
it had failed Lees invasion of the
| north. Even as the battle of Gettys-
burg was the turning point of the civil
war. so was pickett's charge the turn
! ing point of the battle. Its failure
spelled defeat for the Confederacy.
Back reeled the once dread army Of
invasion, retreating in mad haste over
the ground it had so hopefully trav-
ersed on its northward march. But on
the field Of Gettysburg were left about
10000 southern dead and wounded.
! Nearly 14.000 prisoners. with $4,000