The Battle of Gettysburg 8

The Battle of Gettysburg 8

Supposing the day lost from the tenor of Howard's despatch,

lacking perhaps the fullest confidence in that general's ability

and experience, and thinking only of how he should save what was

left, Meade forthwith posted Hancock off to Gettysburg, with full

authority to take command of all the troops he might find there,

decide whether Gettysburg should be held or given up, and to

promptly report his decision, to the end that proper steps might be

taken to counteract this disaster if yet possible.

 

[Sidenote: Slocum and Sickles.]

 

Slocum would not stir from Two Taverns without orders, though it

is said the firing was distinctly heard there, and he could have

reached Gettysburg in an hour and a half. A second and still more

urgent appeal decided that commander, late in the afternoon, to

set his troops in motion. It was then too late. Sickles, who might

have been at Gettysburg inside of three hours with the greater part

of his corps, appears to have lingered in a deplorable state of

indecision until between two and three o'clock in the afternoon,

before he could make up his mind what to do. It was then too

late.[40]

 

By contrast we find Ewell promptly going to Hill's assistance

upon a simple request for such coöperation, though Ewell was

Hill's senior; and we further find that his doing so proved the

turning-point of this very battle.

 

[Illustration: Union Positions, July 1, 3 P.M.]

 

Was there a want of cordiality between the Union commanders? Was it

really culpable negligence, or was there only incapacity?

 

While, therefore, one corps certainly, two probably, might easily

have got to the field in season to take a decisive part in the

battle, but remained inactive, the Confederates were hurrying every

available man forward to the point of danger. This was precisely

where Reynolds' fall proved supremely disastrous, and where an

opportunity to acquire a decisive superiority on the field of battle

was most unfortunately thrown away for want of a head.[41]

 

[Sidenote: New Union Line.]

 

The Union line, lengthened out by the arrival of the Eleventh Corps,

had now been carried in a quarter circle around Gettysburg, or from

the Hagerstown road on the left to near Rock Creek on the right, the

Eleventh Corps being deployed across the open fields extending from

the Mummasburg to the Harrisburg road, with Barlow's division on

the extreme right. When this corps formed front in line of battle,

there was a gap of a quarter of a mile left wide open between it and

the First Corps. Furthermore, it was drawn up on open ground which,

if not actually level, is freely overlooked by all the surrounding

heights.

 

That this corps was badly posted was demonstrated after a very brief

trial.

 

[Sidenote: Rodes attacks.]

 

Having got into line facing southward, Rodes began his advance

against the right of the First Corps and left of the Eleventh

shortly before three o'clock, supported by a tremendous artillery

fire from Oak Hill. Our troops stood firm against this new

onslaught. It was only fairly under way, however, when Heth and

Pender joined in the attack.

 

The fighting now begun was on both sides of the most determined

character.

 

[Sidenote: Bloody Fighting.]

 

On his side, Rodes was quick to take advantage of the break existing

between the two Union corps, and promptly pushed his soldiers into

it; but they were not to get possession so easily, for Doubleday

now ordered up his last division to stem the tide surging in upon

his uncovered flank. These troops gallantly rushed into the breach,

where a murderous contest began at close quarters, with the result

that, failing to close up the gap, the division was finally drawn

around the point of the ridge, where the Mummasburg road descends

into the plain, so forming a natural bastion from which the Union

soldiers now drove back their assailants with great slaughter. Many

of Iverson's brigade were literally lying dead in their ranks after

this repulse.

 

In front of Meredith, who still held the wood, and Stone's

"Bucktails," who lay at their right, "no rebel crossed the run for

one hour and lived." Beyond them Biddle was still holding his own

at the left, though his ranks were fast thinning. On both sides

the losses were enormous. In twenty-five minutes Heth had lost two

thousand seven hundred out of seven thousand men. This division

having been fought out, Pender's was brought up, the artillery

redoubled its fire, Rodes pushed his five brigades forward again,

and a general advance of comparatively fresh troops was begun all

along the line.

 

But it was on the right that disaster first fell with crushing force.

 

[Sidenote: Early strikes in.]

 

Here Rodes' assault on the left of the Eleventh Corps met stout

resistance. But while the troops here were fighting or shifting

positions to repel Rodes' rapid blows, Early's division was seen

advancing down the Harrisburg road against the right, which it

almost immediately struck. Thus reinforced and connected, not quite

one-half of Lee's whole army was now closing in around two-sevenths

of the Union army.

 

Obstinate fighting now took place all along the line. The First

Corps held out some time longer against repeated assaults, losing

men fast, but also inflicting terrible punishment upon their

assailants, Rodes alone losing two thousand five hundred men before

he could carry the positions before him. The Confederate veterans,

though not used to praising their opponents, freely said that the

First Union Corps did the fiercest fighting on this day of which

they ever had any experience.

 

[Sidenote: His Attack is decisive.]

 

But Early's attack on the right, though sternly resisted by Barlow,

proved the last straw in this case. The right division being rolled

back in disorder by an assault made both in front and flank, the

left also gave way in its turn, and soon the whole corps was in full

retreat across the fields to the town, which the exultant enemy

entered along with them, picking up a great many prisoners on the

way or in the streets, notwithstanding a brigade of the reserve came

down from Cemetery Hill to check the pursuit.

 

[Sidenote: All in Retreat.]

 

[Sidenote: Union Losses.]

 

The Eleventh Corps being thus swept away, the First fell back

rather forsaken than defeated, a few regiments on the left making a

final stand at the seminary to enable those on the right to shake

off their pursuers. But at last the winding lines came down from

Seminary Ridge into the plain. Buford's cavalry again came to the

rescue in this part of the field, riding with drawn sabres between

pursuers and pursued, so that the Confederates hastily formed some

squares to repel a charge, while the wreck of the Union line,

disdaining to run, doggedly fell back toward the town, halting now

and then to turn and fire a parting volley or rally its stragglers

round their colors. It was not hard pushed except at the extreme

right, where some of Robinson's division fell into the enemy's

hands; nor did resistance cease until its decimated battalions

again closed up their ranks on the brow of Cemetery Hill--noble

relic of one of the hardest-fought battles of this war. Of the

eight thousand two hundred men who had gone into action in the

morning, five thousand seven hundred and fifty had been left on the

blood-dyed summit of Oak Ridge, or in the enemy's hands. The losses

were frightful. In one brigade alone, one thousand two hundred and

three men had fallen. In all, the losses more than equalled half the

effective strength.

 

The Eleventh Corps also lost heavily, though mostly in prisoners. In

both corps ten thousand soldiers were missing at roll-call.

 

[Sidenote: The Enemy in Gettysburg.]

 

Early's soldiers were now swarming about Gettysburg in great

spirits. Hays' brigade alone entered the town, Avery going into

a field on the East, and the others out on the York road. Rodes

presently came up at the west, much disordered from his pursuit

of Robinson. These Confederates then set about re-forming their

shattered ranks, under the fire of the Union artillery from Cemetery

Hill and of the sharp-shooters posted in the houses along its

slopes. This fire became so galling that the enemy's infantry were

obliged to get under cover of the nearest ridges or houses. In this

way Ewell's Corps came to be planted nearest the approaches to

Cemetery Hill.

 

[Sidenote: Heth and Pender.]

 

Heth and Pender did not advance beyond Seminary Ridge. They had had

fighting enough for one day.[42] Lee was also there examining the

new Union position through his glass. Notwithstanding the general

elation visible about him, the victory did not seem quite complete

to Lee so long as the Federals still maintained their defiant

attitude at the Cemetery. There was evidently more, and perhaps

harder, work ahead.

 

There is no evading the plain, if unwelcome, truth that this

battle had been lost, and two corps of the Union army nearly

destroyed, for want of a little more decision when decision was most

urgently called for, and a little more energy when activity was

all-important. The fate of most great battles has been decided by an

hour or two, more or less. Two of indecision decided this one.

 

[33] Buford's information was quite exact. "June 30, 10.30 P.M. I am

satisfied that A. P. Hill's corps is massed just back of Cashtown,

about nine miles from this place. Pender's division of this corps

came up to-day, of which I advised you. The enemy's pickets,

infantry and artillery, are within four miles of this place, at the

Cashtown road."--_Buford to Reynolds._

 

[34] Colonel Chapman Biddle puts the Confederate force in camp

around Cashtown or Heidlersburg, each eight miles from Oak Ridge, at

thirty-five thousand of all arms; perhaps rather an over-estimate of

this careful writer.

 

[35] His horse carried him a short distance onward before he fell.

His body was carried to the rear, in a blanket, just as Archer was

being brought in a prisoner.

 

[36] When attacked in this way a battery is at the mercy of its

assailants.

 

[37] General Abner Doubleday succeeded to the command of the First Corps on Reynolds' death.