River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1913-07-03


VI III Gettysburg changed utterly
the course of American his
tory. 1t was a great fight between
armies of Americans, for probably
fully ninety per cent. of the men who
fought on the two sides were born
natives to the American soil. The
bravery shown at Gettysburg was of
shown on every field and which re-
fleets credit upon the hardy and
heroic ancestry of the men engaged,
no matter from what race they may
have sprung.
At Gettysburg there was nothing to
choose between the valor of the North
and the South. The South lost the
fight, but it lost it honorably and
with the prestige of its soldiery un-
dimmed. The charges made on that
field have gone down into history as
assaults made under conditions which
every man felt might mean death at
the end. The defenses made at Gettys-
burg were of the kind which it takes
iron in the blood to make perfect. At
Gettysburg Northerners and South
erners replenished their store of re-
spect for their antagonists. The bat
tie marked the high tide of the war
between the states. After it the
South largely was on the defensive,
but It's defense was maintained with
fortitude and in the face of privations
which could not chill the blood of
men fighting for what they thought
was the right.
The Northern armies were persis-
tent in their attacks through the cam
paigns which after few months were
started aginst the objective point,
Richmond Brave men here and brave
men there and after the end came it
was the qualities which keep com
pany with bravery which made the
soldiers of the North and South SO
ready to forget and to forgive and to
work again for the good of COM
mon country.
The great battle of Charlottesville
was fought not long before the oppos-
ing Union and Confederate forces met
on the field of Gettysburg. Chancel-
louisville was a Confederate victory
The Southern government believed
that the victory should be followed up
by an invasion of the North for, &C
cording to it's reasoning, if An import
ant engagement could be won upon
Northern soil the chances of foreign
intervention or at least foreign aid to
the Southern cause, would be forth
coming.
General Robert e. Lee late in the
spring of 1863, made his preparations
to conduct his campaign Northward
into the state Of Pennsylvania. He
had under his command three corps
General James Longstreet command
ing the First, General Richard S.
Ewell commanding the Second, and
General A. P. Hill commanding the
Third. In the Union army which aft
erward confronted Lee at Gettysburg
there were seven corps, but the num-
Der of men in each was much less
than that in a Confederate corps, the
military composition of each being
different. The Union corps comman-
ders who under Meade were at Get
tysburg, were Generals John F. Rey-
holds, w. S. Hancock, Daniel E.
Sickles, George Sykes, John Sedgwick,
o. o. Howard and III. w. Slocum.
Forces Almost Evenly Matched.
1t never has been determined be-
yond the point of all dispute just how
many men were engaged on each side
in the battle of Gettysburg. 1t is
known that the armies were very
nearly equal in strength, the proba-
bilities being that the Confederate
force was a few thousand men strong
er than the Union force, difference
which was balanced perhaps by the
fact that the Union armies at Gettys-