The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-07-01

Fifty years ago today began the fierce three days battle at Gettysburg which marked high tide for the hopes of the Confederate cause. Today the Farmer publishes the reports of that G-frst days fight as printed in the Re publican Farmer of that period. Here you see the news of the fight as, it was reported in the Farmer and read in Bridgeport fifty years ago
 Tomorrow and on July we shall continue the story reproducing from our nles of the time the tale of the light as it progressed day by day. No matter how many stories you have read of Gettysburg you will want to read these stories for they comprise the news from the front as it came to Bridgeport while the great battle was in progress
 The military press censor was rersorage unknown at that time and these stories Of Gettysburg were writ ten by war correspondents who were eye witnesses Of what they describ- ed were constantly on the firing line and many times as much exposed as the troops who took part in the bat tie
 Many Bridgeport men were in the thick Of the three days light at Geftysburx and 1t requires little stretch of imagination to picture how eagerly The Farmer-s accounts of the battle were read by their relatives and friends fifty years ago.
 Today is reproduced from the files of the Republican Farmer the story uf the fight of July 1st. The fight at zarlorv.s knoll in which the 17th Conn. behaved so saIlantIy and the death of Tne gallant Reynolds are graphicaaiy described by the war correspondent
 There was intense excitement in Rra6xeport fifty years ago today as citizens who were here then will re- call The war had been going on for more than two years and though the North had brought to the field enormous resources in men and nun 1tions of war no apparent advantage rested with either side
 Now came the news that while the Union army had been placed in a strong position to which Lee and promptIy turn back any threatened attack on Washington, that able stratexisf. ssMarse Robert had stol- en quietly away around the Union right flank and was now raid1ng in Peuusyivania on free soil'' This was no threatened invasion of the north, the North had been invaded and the Union sarTny was hurrying north into Pennsylvania in an effort to head off Lee before he could reach Harrisburg which then seemed his objective point
 A new commander directed the Army Of the Potomac, George B. Meade, an able soldier as he proved but then almost unknown and this fact added to the anxiety of the situation. That the armies would meet somewhere in Pennsylvania and their grapple would admitted in Bridgeport and people here waited with almost bated breath for the news Of that meeting.
 Wounded soldiers home furIough those who for any cause had left the colors for the time being, were sought out and questioned by the citizens. Though many of these men were prfvates whose sources of in- formatioRs were no better than those of the citizens yet their opinions on the situation were listened to with the utmost respect and attention and they rheered or depressed the auditor as the case might be-
 Some of the Bridgeport business men Of that day were keen to take advan- 4aRe of the feeling of the people as of W. D. Clark, natter, with a store mt 20 Main street. His adv in the Republican Farmer reads in part:
 Great Excitement Lees Army heard from Is Marching North. Clark. the Hatter Is Determined to Re- ducs His Stock Before the Rebels Get Here
 On the Fourth of July three days af- ter this advertisement appeared, it was reported in Fairfield that Lees army
  A lady of that town upon hearing the report locked herself in the Epis- copal church and rang the church bell violently until some men forced the door and told her the report was un- true Then she became hysterica1
 The news despatches to The Farmer covering the first day of the memor- able battle are to be found in full on page ii where will be found also the addresses delivered today at the Gettysburg exercises, including that or mander-in-C1lief A. E. Beers ot the G. A. R.
 Gettysburg. Pa. July 1.-Despite Che strenuous efforts of the regular. army to do impossible things, thou eands of veterans spent the night on Gettysburg field with nothing between them and the stars but their clothes and their courage and nothing be- tween them and the hard earth but a little more of the same thing.
 IL wasn't the fault of the regulars and it wasn't the fault of the veterans. The railroads poured the thousands into Gettysburg the best they could but train after train that was looked for early came crawling in near mid night and until long after daybreak.
 Major Normoy1e. of the quartermas- ter'a department. U. S. A., and the Iittls force of army officers co-operat-