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78

MEMENTOES OF THE BATTLE.

with the name and regiment marked on each, and planted a small evergreen. close by, a tender memorial of heavenly emotions in the midst of the hellish deeds of war. We passed on to the peach-orchard so prominent in the records of the battle, and then rode back to Gettysburg, observing the fields on our right, over which Pickett swept with his division to the attack of Hancock,' thickly strewn with the graves of men and horses, the former marked by small head-boards, and the latter distinguished by large mounds.

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Expecting to revisit Gettysburg soon, we did not then go over the Confederate line of battle. The remainder of the day was spent in visiting the head-quarters of the benevolent Commissions, already mentioned; the hospitals of the National wounded, in the town, and the College where the Confederate sick and wounded lay. Sad, indeed, were the sights that met us.. Many, mostly young men, were maimed in every conceivable way by every kind of weapon and missile, the most fiendish of which was an explosive and a poisoned bullet, represented in the engravings a little more than half the size of the originals, procured from the battle-field there by the writer. These were sent by the Confederates. Whether any were ever used by the Nationals, the writer is not informed. One (figure a) was made to explode in the body of a man, and the other (figure b) to leave a deadly poison in him, whether the bullet lodged in or passed through him.3

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b

Among the Confederates wounded at the College were boys of tender

1 See page 72.

2 See page 77.

3 Figure a represents the explosive bullet. The perpendicular stem, with a piece of thin copper hollowed, and a head over it, of bullet metal, fitted a cavity in the bullet proper, below it, as seen in the engraving. In the bottom of the cavity was fulminating powder. When the bullet struck, the momentum would cause the copper inverted disk to flatten, and allow the point of the stem to strike and explode the fulminating powder, when the bullet would be rent into fragments which would lacerate the victim. In figure b the bullet proper was hollowed, into which was inserted another, also hollow, containing poison. The latter, being loose, would slip out and remain in the victim's body or limb, with its freight of poison, if the bullet proper should pass through.

It may be here remarked that wonder is often expressed because of the comparatively small loss of life in great battles. The explanation lies in the fact that a great proportion of the combatants are highly excited at the time of action, and as a general ule, when raising the musket to fire, bring it up with a jerk that makes the elevation of the piece, when fired, too great. The writer observed in the woods on Culp's Hill, between the lines of combatants, the bullet marks on the trees were thicker at a height above a man's head than below it. Again, in all armies there are a vast number of cowards and incompetents, who actually "lose their senses " in action, and perform accordingly. In a report of the number and condition of the small arms picked up on the field of Gettysburg, appears the curious fact, that of 27,554 gathered up, at least 24,000 were loaded. One-half contained two loads each, and many contained ten loads, showing that the bearers

of them had loaded but did not fire. In some the balls were put in before the powder, and in many instances a large number of cartridges were found in one musket, having been put in without being torn. In one percussion smooth-bore

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mated by experts, that a soldier in battle fires away, on an average, his weight in lead, before he kills a man.

WOUNDED CANNON AT

GETTYSBURG.

The effect of blows upon fire-arms in battle is often very curious. Lieutenant C. A. Alvord, Jr., of General Caldwell's staff, who was in the Battle of Gettysburg, has in his possession an Austrian musket, which was struck by a cannon-ball while in the hands of a soldier, bent in the form seen in the engraving, and nearly every screw of the piece wrenched from its position, without being knocked from the hand of the bearer. The writer saw in the street at Gettysburg, a 12-pound brass cannon, with a bruise at the

QUAKERS IN THE BATTLE.

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age, and men who had been forced into the ranks against their wills; and a large portion of them were even then satisfied that on the part of the slaveholders, for whose special benefit the rebellion had been begun, it had been made, as thousands expressed it later in the contest, "The rich man's war and the poor man's fight." At a late hour we left these scenes of woe and returned to Mr. McConaughy's, where we passed another night, and departed for Baltimore the next morning on a cattle-train of cars, which bore several hundred Confederate prisoners, destined for Fort Delaware, on the Delaware River, which was used for the safe-keeping of captives during a great portion

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of the war. We arrived in Baltimore in the evening in time to take the cars for Philadelphia, whence the writer went homeward, reaching the City of New York when the great "Draft riot," as it was called, at the middle of July was at

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FORT DELAWARE.

its height, and a considerable portion of the city was in the hands of a mob. The writer, with friends, revisited Gettysburg in September, 1866, and had the good fortune to go over nearly the entire ground on which the battle was fought, in the company of Professor Stoever, of Pennsylvania College, and the Rev. Mr. Warner, who had thoroughly studied the localities and incidents of the battle. Industry had changed the aspects of the theater of strife since our first visit, but many scars yet remained. Tradition had already treasured up a thousand touching stories of the conflict; and John Burns, a solitary "hero of Gettysburg," was yet a resident of the place, but absent at the time of our visit. It would be an interesting task to here record the many incidents of personal courage, sublime fortitude, holy selfdenial, patient suffering, and Christian sympathy, at Gettysburg and else

muzzle, and its ball about half-way out. It had been struck by a heavy solid shot, which made the piece recoil so suddenly and swiftly, that its own ball was made, by the momentum, to rush to the muzzle, where it was arrested by the crushed edge of the bore at that point.

1 There were some Friends, or Quakers, from North Carolina, in the battle at Gettysburg, who were forced into the ranks, but who, from the beginning to the end, refused to fight. They were from Guilford County, which was mostly settled by their sect, and who, as the writer can testify by personal observation, presented the only region in that State where the evidences of thrift which free labor gave in a land cursed by slavery might be seen. These excellent people were robbed and plundered by the Confederates without mercy. About a dozen of them were in Lee's army at Gettysburg, and were among the prisoners captured there. They had steadily borne practical testimony to the strength of their principles in opposing war. They were subjected to great cruelties. One of them, who refused to fight, was ordered by his colonel to be shot. A squad of twelve men were drawn up to shoot him. They loved him as a brother, because of his goodness, and, when ordered to fire, every man refused. The remainder of the company was called up, and ordered to shoot the first twelve if they did not execute the order. The intended victim folded his hands, raised his eyes, and said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" The entire company threw down their muskets, and refused to obey the order. Their exasperated captain, with a horrid oath, tried to shoot him with his pistol. The cap would not explode. Then he dashed upon him with his horse, but the meek conscript was unharmed. Just then a charge of some of Meade's troops drove the Confederates from their position, and the Quaker became a prisoner. He and his coreligionists were sent to Fort Delaware, when the fact was made known to some of their sect in Philadelphia. It was laid before the President, and he ordered their release.

80

NATIONAL CEMETERY AT GETTYSBURG.

where, related to the writer at different times; but it is not his province to do so in this chronicle.' Yet there is one incident, related by Professor Stoever, as coming under his own observation, which so vividly illustrates. the character of a true man and Christian soldier, that it should not be left unrecorded, and is here given. When orders were issued for the army to pursue Lee, General O. O. Howard, commanding the Sixth Corps, hastened to the bedside of Captain Griffith, one of his beloved staff-officers, who had received a mortal wound. After a few words, the General opened his New Testament, read the 14th chapter of John, and then, kneeling, commended his dying friend to God. An embrace and a hurried farewell followed, and so the friends parted, never to meet again on the earth. That night Captain Griffith died, and Howard, in pursuit of Lee, bivouacked in a drenching rain near the base of the South Mountain range.

Soon after the Battle of Gettysburg the State of Pennsylvania purchased seventeen acres of land adjoining the Evergreen Cemetery, on Cemetery Hill, near that village, for the purpose of a burial-place for all the Union soldiers who fell in that battle. On the 19th of November following, the ground was consecrated, with appropriate ceremonies, in the presence of the President of the United States, members of his cabinet, the governors of several States, generals of the army, and a vast concourse of other citizens. Edward Everett delivered an oration, and President Lincoln a brief but remarkable and touching dedicatory address.

1 After the Battle of Gettysburg, the body of a Union soldier was found in a secluded spot, partly reclining. In his cold hand was an ambrotype likeness of three little children, upon which his open, but then rayless eye had evidently been gazing at the last moment of his life. A notice of the fact was given in a Philadelphia paper. Public curiosity was excited, for there was no clew to the name of the soldier. Copies of the ambrotype were made. The touching story found its way through numerous newspapers, with a description of the soldier and the faces of the three children. By this means the widowed mother was informed of the fate of the husband and father. The soldier proved to be Sergeant Hunniston, of Portville, in Western New York, and to his afflicted family Dr. J. F. Bourns, of Philadelphia, conveyed the precious ambrotype, and some substantial presents from citizens of Philadelphia, early in January, 1864.

2 See page 74.

3 The following is a copy of Mr. Lincoln's remarks:

"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, an dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We are met to dedicate a portion of it as the final resting-place of those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. The world will little note or long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work that they have thus far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom; and governments of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

CHARACTER OF THE VICTORY AT GETTYSBURG.

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CHAPTER III.

POLITICAL AFFAIRS.-RIOTS IN NEW YORK.-MORGAN'S RAID NORTH OF THE OHIO.

HE escape of Lee into Virginia, with the remainder of his army, his artillery, and spoils, was a great disap pointment to the loyal people of the country, and the commander of the Army of the Potomac was freely charged with tardiness, over-cautiousness, and even incompetency-alleged causes for which Hooker had been relieved of command. General officers of merit, but of different temperament, who had urged him to more energetic action, added the weight of their opinions to the censorious judgment of the unknowing multitude; and criminations and recriminations followed, which were perfectly intelligible only to military experts. It is not the province. of the writer to sit in judgment upon this matter, and he leaves the recorded facts with readers competent to do so.'

The public disappointment was of brief duration. The victory for the National cause was too decisive and substantial to allow regret to interfere with rejoicing. The battle had been won by Meade and his army, and that was quite sufficient for the contemplation of those who saw in men only the instruments for achieving the triumph of great and good principles-the principles enunciated in the golden rule. They saw in the discomfiture of the army of the conspirators against those principles a victory of righteousness over unrighteousness of light over darkness of democracy over an oligarchy of God over Satan. They believed that the turning point in the war had been reached, and that the victories of Gettysburg and Vicksburg, occurring simultaneously in widely-separated regions of the Republic, were sure prophecies of the ultimate and perhaps speedy suppression of the rebellion. And so the President, as the representative of the Government and of the faith and patriotism of the loyal people of the country, called upon the latter, in a public proclamation, to set apart a time in the near future," "to be observed as a day for National thanksgiving, praise, and prayer," to Almighty God, "for the wonderful things he had done in the nation's behalf, and to invoke the influence of

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"July 15,

1863.

Aug. 6.

1 On the 28th of August, an elegant sword was presented to General Meade by the officers of the division of Pennsylvania Reserves-a token of affection and esteem which had been ordered before the Battle of Gettysburg. The presentation ceremonies took place at the head-quarters of General Crawford, in Virginia, and the presentation speech was made by him. The handle of the sword was gold, inlaid with diamonds and rubies, and on the scabbard were inscribed the names of eleven battles in which the Pennsylvania Reserves had been engaged, from Mechanicsville to Gettysburg. A large number of officers of the army, the Governor of Pennsylvania, and several members of Congress, were present. A similar token of esteem had been agreed upon, to be presented to the now slain General Reynolds.

On the 26th of August, a horse and accouterments, sword and belt, were presented to General Sedgwick, commanding the Sixth Corps, by the officers of the second division of the Second Corps, which he had commanded. The ceremony was at Warrenton, and General Meade and staff participated in it.

VOL. III.-84

82

FALSE CHARGES BY JEFFERSON DAVIS,

His Holy Spirit, to subdue the anger which has produced and so long sustained a needless and cruel rebellion; to change the hearts of the insurgents; to guide the counsels of the Government with wisdom adequate to so great a national emergency, and to visit with tender care and consolation, throughout the length and breadth of our land, all those who, through the vicissitudes and marches, voyages, battles, and sieges, had been brought to suffer in mind, body, or estate; and finally to lead the whole nation, through paths of repentance and submission to the Divine will, back to the perfect enjoyment of union and fraternal peace." And the Secretary of State, satisfied that the rebellion would soon be crushed, sent a cheering circular Aug. 12, letter to the diplomatic agents of the Republic abroad, in which he recited the most important events of the war to that time; declared that "the country showed no sign of exhaustion of money, material, or men;" that our loan was "purchased at par by our citizens at the average of $1,200,000 daily," and that gold was selling in our market at 23 to 28 per cent. premium, while in the insurrectionary region it commanded twelve hundred per cent. premium."

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1863.

But while the loyal people were rejoicing because of the great deliverance at Gettysburg, and the Government was preparing for a final and decisive

success.

1 On the day when the loyal people were assembled for the purposes set forth in this proclamation, so glowing with the spirit of Christianity, an official address by the leader of the Conspirators, at Richmond, was read to the soldiers of Lee's army, then confronting Meade's on the Rappahannock, in which the following paragraph occurred: "Your enemy continues a struggle, in which our final triumph must be inevitable. Unduly elated with their recent successes, they imagine that temporary reverses can quell your spirits or shake your determination, and they are now gathering heavy masses for a general invasion, in the vain hope that by des perate efforts success may at length be reached. You know too well, my countrymen, what they mean by Their malignant rage aims at nothing less than the extermination of yourselves, your wives, and your children. They seek to destroy what they cannot plunder. They propose as spoils of victory that your homes shall be partitioned among wretches whose atrocious cruelty has stamped infamy on their government. They design to incite servile insurrection and light the fires of incendiarism whenever they can reach your homes, and they debauch an inferior race, heretofore docile and contented, by promising them the indulgence of the evilest passions as the price of their treachery. Conscious of their inability to prevail by legitimate warfare, not daring to make peace, lest they should be hurled from their seats of power, the men who now rule in Washington refuse even to confer on the subject of putting an end to outrages which disgrace our age, or listen to a suggestion for conducting the war according to the usages of civilization."

No man in the Confederacy knew better than Robert E. Lee, the willing associate of the Conspirators in crime, the absolute untruthfulness of the charges with which that paragraph was burdened; yet, in obedience to the diabolical spirit which incited the rebellion, he allowed his soldiers and the people to be thus deceived and wronged, that he might, aided by a merciless conscription then in operation, fill his shattered army, and to make the soldiers fight with the idea that they were contending with cruel savages, who deserved no quarter. The raising of the black flag could not have been more wicked in intent.

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Davis's address, countersigned by Judah P. Benjamin, was dated August 1, 1563. The allusion in the closing sentence of the above paragraph is explained by the fact that, on the 4th of July, when Davis felt confident that Lee was victorious at Gettysburg, instead of preparing to fly before a conquering army, as he really was, he sent Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-President" of the Confederacy, to Fortress Monroe, with instructions to proceed to Washington and lay before the President "a communication in writing from Jefferson Davis, Commander-in-Chief of the land and naval forces of the Confederate States, to Abraham Lincoln, CommanderIn-Chief of the land and naval forces of the United States." Stephens proceeded to Fortress Monroe in the flagof-truce boat, and said in a note addressed to Admiral S. H. Lee, “I desire to proceed directly to Washington in the steamer Torpedo." Lee referred the matter to the Secretary of the Navy, who refused to allow Stephens to go to Washington, the customary channels for communication being all that was needful.

Stephens's mission seemed to have a twofold object, namely, to seek, by an official reception at Washington, a recognition by the Government of the existence of a real government at Richmond; also if Lee (as it was expected he would by the time Stephens should reach the capital) was marching in triumph on Philadelphia, to demand peace upon terms of the absolute independence of the "Confederate States." A Rebel War Clerk," in his diary, under date of July 10th, wrote: "We know all about the mission of Vice-President Stephens. It was 'll-timed for success. At Washington news had been received of the defeat of General Lee." On the 16th he recorded: "Again the Enquirer, edited by Mitchell, the Irishman, is urging the President to seize arbitrary power." On that day news reached Richmond that Lee had been driven across the Potomac.

2 According to a report of Memminger, the Confederate "Secretary of the Treasury," the Confederate debt, on the 24th of August, 1863, was over $600,000,000, equally divided between Treasury notes, and bonds into which currency had been funded.

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