We take
the following thrilling description of the late great battle of
Gettysburg
, by an eye-witness, from the special correspondence of The Tribune.
It is the best account yet written:
"Early on Thursday morning the enemy commenced feeling the line of Gen.
Meade's army. Shirmishing
continued more or less severe until 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
Suddenly, at about this hour, the enemy opened a terrific fire on the
Cemetery Hill held by the 11th Corps on the right--center held by
the 2d Corps. The artillery in front
of the enemy's fire replied vigorously, and for two hours the roar and thunder
of flame and smoke of artillery, and the screech of shells, so completely filled
the heavens that all else seemed forgotten.
"On form, however, with mind intent on high purposes, stood on an eminence
leaning slightly forward, and with eagle eye pierced the vail of smoke, and saw
and felt, and knew that an hour more terrible far than the present was coming
rapidly, was even present. It was
evident that the wry rebel commander had determined on a desperate charge, ---
--- what manner was unknown to the man who stood calmly, yet with anxious
solicitude, regarding every pulsation of the battle.
"On the left, through the woods, black masses were seen moving--larger,
more frequent and nearer! Skirmishing
in that part of the field becomes sharper. Gen
Sickles is ordered forward to develop the enemy's intentions.
The black columns come out of the woods and suddenly the thunder of the
artillery ceased, and with cheers and yells, the roar of musketry and flash of
bayonet, full 50,000 men from Longstreet's and Hill's corps, rushed against
our lines. The 3d corps stood firm
for awhile, but afterwards gave way beneath the weight of the attacking column;
and on they came ten fold more furious than before.
"Sickles fell severely wounded in the leg, and his corps was literally cut
to pieces. The 2d corps was thrown
into the breach from the right, and the 5th from the left.
The 2d suffered fearfully. Hancock
was severely wounded in the thigh, but would not leave the field.
Gen Gibbon was wounded in the shoulder.
The terrible charge and fierce battle raged with unabated fury.
The 5th corps, including the Regulars and the Pennsylvania
Reserves, struggled in the Herculean labor with the determination of men born to
conquer.
"The aid of the 12th Corps, from the extreme right, was called
for, and a division was ordered up, and about the same time Sedgwick came up
with the 6th Corps, after a march of 30 consecutive hours.
The men were footsore and many shoeless, hungry, and ready to drop with
exhaustion. When, however, the
situation flashed into the minds of these weary soldiers, the fire and zeal for
which this corps is celebrated, was kindled anew in their hearts.
When the order came, they went down upon the foe like an avalanche.
The rebel column staggered and reeled, and recoiled in confusion, leaving
their dead lying against and across each other in the field of slaughter.
"The sun went down. Suddenly
the battle carnage ceased on the left. Equally
sudden, a fierce charge dashed against the weakened lines of the right wing.
The suddenness of the attack and the weight of Ewell's column gave some
advantage to the enemy. Re-enforcements
were promptly up, and the enemy checked in his advance.
"The rebel general was determined to break through the right and gain
control of the valley roads. The
failure to turn the left, snatching the victory from their grasp, and hurling
their broken columns back defeated, and confused on the left, made their case
more desperate, and the attack on Slocum was furious even to madness.
The 1st and 6th Corps came up promptly to the
support of the 12th. From
dark until 9 ½ o'clock the battle raged with unabated fury.
The lines moved to and fro, each in turn advancing and falling back.
At this hour of the night the enemy made his final charge on the left of
the right wing, held by Gen Geary's division.
He was repulsed with great slaughter, and refused to renew the attack.
At 10 o'clock the battle ceased, and during the night all was quiet.
"On Friday morning, at 4 o'clock, Slocum's line opened a terrific fire
on Ewell's men. The enemy
responded in a most furious charge, for which mode of fighting they are justly
celebrated! The fighting on Thursday
on the left, were Longstreet and Hill fought with most terrible desperation for
three hours, and the subsequent battle on the right by Ewell, were regarded by
the oldest officers in the army as the most obstinate and deadly contest of the
war. Officers and men lay dead in
fearful numbers. But the enemy's
charge in response to Slocum's fire seemed ten times more furious.
"With fiendish yell and such contempt of death during six full hours, they
hurled their solid masses against the well-defended lines.
The National troops stood like a wall of fire, whose flaming tongues
enwrapped in death whatever came near, whose foundations were firm with the
primal rock on which it rested.
"Nothing during the war has equaled that six hours of carnage.
In front of Grant's position were more Rebel dead than the number of
the entire list of casualties in the 12th Corps.
The dead were lying literally in heaps, many hit in all manner of
degrees, from a clean shot through the head to bodies torn to pieces by
exploding shells.
"At 10 o'clock Slocum had repulsed and driven back the enemy at every
point, and reoccuopied his original position.
The battle ceased at 11 o'clock, and there was a pause like to the
stillness of death rested for three hours on the living and dead.
"No matter how long pressed by the enemy the Union troops felt even in the
front rifle pits that the Commanding General was conversant with their
situation, and would not suffer them to be overwhelmed.
The officers would say to the men, and the men to each other, "Meade
will send you help--just hold on a little longer."
"At 2 o'clock on Friday afternoon Lee opened a line of artillery fire
from about one hundred guns, concentrated against Cemetery Hill and the position
along the center held by the Second and a part of the First Corps.
"The firing was responded to by all the batteries on the hill, and then
ensued three hours of cannonading unsurpassed in incessant fierceness by any
artillery battle on this continent. The
sight and sound was awfully sublime. The
hills trembled beneath the percussion. The
sound filled the heavens, and Nature, as it were, stood still to contemplate the
scene.
"Horses were shot down by scores, gun-carriages were demolished, pieces
dismounted, caissons exploded, whole batteries were swept away and cannoniers
and officers killed and wounded in numbers almost incredible.
No less than fifteen caissons were exploded on the heights, and two
regular batteries on the right were completely demolished.
"The silent abode of the dead was made the theater of deadly conflict.
Tombstones and beautiful monuments were demolished; great holes were torn
in the earth by the explosion of shells, and the surface checkered with furrows.
"The artillery fire continued till 4 o'clock, when the solid columns of
Rebel infantry were again seen moving in the wood in front of the center, held
by the 1st and 2d corps.
"During the fierce cannonading the men and officers were ordered to
shelter themselves behind the hills and rocks.
When, however, the Rebel infantry was seen in the woods, several officers
came to Gen. Doubleday, volunteering to carry messages to Meade and ask that the
center be strengthened.
"Doubleday replied to the officers that they might trust to Gen. Meade;
that he would keep his eye on movements of the enemy and have his forces ready
to meet his attacks. Out they came,
and rushed rapidly over the fields in a solid mass, but evidently with less fury
than before.
"The head of the column was directed against a position held by Gen. Webb,
commanding 2d Brigade, 2d Division, 2d Corps.
His troops were old, and steadily and bravely withstood the charge.
The steady fire of the National troops staggered the enemy, and the Rebel
Gen. Armistead, who led the charge, wishing to steady his column, halted it for
a moment at a fence.
"Gen. Webb seeing this, called out to his brigade, "Charge! The enemy is
ours." And true enough he was.
The commanding Gen. Armistead and 3,500 men were captured by the closing
in of the Second Corps on the right and the First on the left.
"The enemy was driven back over the fields with great slaughter.
The enemy then withdrew from the field, and the battle ended."
