of his base of operations on the other side of the Potomac. Having brought up and consolidated his forces with consummate address he was in a position to hurl them wherever he might desire.

On crossing the Potomac, Hooker had taken up a line extending from Washington to Baltimore, expecting General Lee to offer him battle in Maryland. Finding himself disappointed in this, and compelled by his superiors at Washington, or smarting under their distrust, he relinquished his command to George C. Meade, who, finding that Lee had deflected in his march through Pennsylvania, moved towards Chambersburg to meet him.

General Lee had proposed to attack Harrisburg. On the 30th, as General Ewell was preparing to march to Harrisburg, twenty miles distant, an order came to him to unite his corps with the rest of the army near Gettysburg. Major-general Early, of this corps, who, after crossing the river, had moved to York, and who was then at that place, was at once notified, and the corps immediately took up the line of march.

Important news had been received. On the night of the 29th, information was brought to General Lee's head-quarters that the Federal army, having crossed the Potomac, was advancing northwards, and that the head of the column had reached the South Mountain. As our communications with the Potomac were thus menaced, it was resolved to prevent his further progress in that direction by concentrating our army on the east side of the mountains. Accordingly, Longstreet and Hill were directed to proceed from Chambersburg to Gettysburg, to which point General Ewell had been also instructed to march.

A day pregnant with a momentous issue was at hand. The two armies which had ceased to confront each other since the breaking up of the Fredericksburg lines found themselves again face to face near Gettysburg, on Wednesday, July 1st.

Before turning to the bloody page of Gettysburg, the curiosity of the reader naturally inquires into the conduct of the Confederate army on the long march which had at last penetrated the fruitful fields of Pennsylvania. Considering what the country and homes of the Confederacy had suffered from the ferocity of the enemy, it might have been supposed that

Lee's army would have improved their grand opportunity in Pennsylvania, not indeed by an imitation of the enemy's outrages in the South, but by that eminently justifiable retaliation which, while it scorns to mete out in kind the enemy's crime, in arson, pillage and innocent blood, insists upon doing him some commensurate injury by severe acts of war, done with deliberation and under the authority of superiors. Such expectations were disappointed. Every just and intelligent reader of the records of this war must wonder that General Lee gave a protection to the citizens of Pennsylvania which had never been accorded to our own people; that, with an obtuseness that is inexplicable, he confounded two very different classes of retaliation; and that, while forbidding the irregular pillage of the country, and threatening marauders with death (which admirable orders were heartily approved by all people in the South), he also restrained his army from laying waste the country in line of battle, or destroying the enemy's subsistence. Such tenderness, the effect of a weak and strained chivalry, or more probably that of deference to European opinion, is another of the many instances which the war has furnished of the simplicity and sentimental facility of the South.

General Lee attempted conciliation of a people who were little capable of it, but were always ready to take counsel of their fears. The effect of his moderate warfare on such a people was to irritate them without intimidating them; in fact, to compose their alarms and to dissuade them from what had been imagined as the horrors of invasion. In this respect, his movement into Pennsylvania gave to the enemy a certain moral comfort, and encouraged the prosecution of the war.

With reference, now, to the military features of the movement, it must rank with the most remarkable marches on record. Looking back to the Rappahannock, we now see what Lee had accomplished. When he set out upon the northern expedition, he was confronted by one of the largest and bestappointed armies the enemy ever had in the field. Winchester, Martinsburg, Harper's Ferry and Berryville were garrisoned by hostile forces. The cavalry of the enemy were in splendid condition. General Lee marched over the Blue Ridge and across the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers. The mountain

passes and the fords of the rivers might have been effectually blockaded. The whole of the lower valley was in possession of the enemy. And yet, starting from Culpepper Court-house, General Lee conducted his army across the mountains, along the valley and over the rivers, without encountering serious opposition. Except a few cavalry engagements, the army marched from Culpepper Court-house to Gettysburg, in Pennsylvania, without resistance.

The conjuncture which had been reached was the most critical of the war. Meade's army was the only real obstacle which could impede the triumphant march of the army of Lee into the very heart of the Yankee States, and in whatever direction he might choose to push his campaign. The press attempted some ridiculous comfort by writing vaguely of thousands of militia springing to arms. But the history of modern warfare afforded better instruction, for it taught clearly enough that an invading army of regular and victorious troops could only be effectively checked by the resistance of a similar army in the field, or of fortified places strong enough to compel a regular siege. In Richmond, the garish story of the newspapers prepared the public mind for a great victory. There was the renewed and feverish anticipation of an early peace. The elated public of the Confederate capital little imagined that, in a few days, events were to occur to turn back the war for years.

THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG.

The march towards Gettysburg was conducted slowly. At 10 o'clock A. M., on the 1st instant, Heth's division, of Hill's corp, being ahead, encountered the enemy's advance line, the Eleventh corps, about three miles west of Gettysburg. Here a sharp engagement ensued, our men steadily advancing and driving the enemy before them to the town, and to a range of hills or low mountains running out a little east of south from the town.

General Reynolds, who commanded the enemy's advance, rode forward to inspect the ground and select a position for his line of battle. The Confederates, distinguishing him from his uniform to be an officer of high rank, opened upon him with

heavy volleys of infantry fire. He was struck by several balls, and died instantly without uttering a word.

About an hour after the opening of the engagement, which was principally of artillery, General Ewell, who was moving from the direction of Carlisle, came up and took a position on our extreme left. Rodes came into the engagement on the flank of the enemy, who were confronting A. P. Hill, and occupied the most commanding point of the very ridge with artillery which the enemy were upon. This ridge runs in the shape of a crescent around Gettysburg, following the windings of a creek which is between it and the town.

After our artillery had been engaged for some half an hour, with admirable effect, the enemy were observed to be moving rapidly from Hill's front to that of Rodes, and to be advancing their new columns against Rodes from the town. Rodes, his dispositions having been made, advanced his whole line. It had first to cross a field, six hundred yards wide, and enter woods-immediately upon entering which it became hotly engaged.

The Alabama brigade (Rodes' old command) advanced somewhat confusedly, owing, it is said, to a misconception as to the direction which it should take, and, whilst confused, became engaged, and was forced back with its lines broken, though reinforced by the Fifth Alabama, which uncovered Lawson's brigade. This brigade was thought to have behaved badly; it was reported to General Rodes, in the midst of the fight, that one of the regiments had raised the white flag, and gone over in a body to the enemy. The only foundation for this report was, that two of the regiments were almost entirely surrounded, in consequence of the giving way of the Alabama brigade and the concentration of the enemy at that point, and were either killed or captured almost to a man. The gallant resistance, however, which they made is shown by a statement coming from General Rodes himself: that, riding along behind where their line had been, he thought he observed a regiment lying down, as if to escape the Yankee fire. On going up, however, to force them into the fight, he found they were all corpses.

As the battle wavered General Early came up, and got his artillery into position so as to enfilade and silence batteries which were then occupied in an attempt to enfilade Rodes'

battery. As the enemy attempted a flank movement, Gordon's brigade of gallant Georgians was ordered to make a charge. They crossed a small stream and valley, and entered a long narrow strip of an opposite slope, at the top of which the enemy had a strong force posted. For five minutes nothing could be heard or seen save the smoke and roar proceeding from the heavy musketry, and indicating a desperate contest; but the contest was not long or uncertain. The Yankees were put to flight, and our men pressed them, pouring a deadly fire at the flying fugitives. Seeing a second and larger line near the town, General Early halted General Gordon until two other brigades (Hayes' and Hoke's) could come up, when a second charge was made, and three pieces of artillery, besides several entire regiments of the enemy, were captured.

There should not be lost from the records of the individual heroism of the Confederacy an incident of this battle. During a lull in the engagement, when the enemy were reforming and awaiting reinforcements, Lieutenant Roberts, of the Second Mississippi, observing, some distance off, but nearer the enemy's than our own fires, two groups, each consisting of from seven to ten men, and each guarding a stand of colors, called for volunteers to take them. Four gallant spirits from his own, and an equal number from the Forty-second Mississippi regiment, readily responded, and soon a dash is made for the colors. A hand-to-hand fight ensued, in which all on both sides were either killed or wounded, except Private McPherson, who killed the last Yankee color-bearer and brought off the colors, Lieutenant Roberts being killed just as he was seizing one of the colors.

The result of the day's fight may be summed up thus: We had attacked a considerable force; had driven it over three miles; captured five thousand prisoners, and killed and wounded many thousands. Our own loss was not heavy, though a few brigades suffered severely.

Unfortunately, however, the enemy, driven through Gettysburg, got possession of the high range of hills south and east of the town. Here was the fatal mistake of the Confederates. In the engagement of the 1st instant, the enemy had but a small portion of his force up, and if the attack had been pressed in the afternoon of that day there is little doubt that our forces could have got the heights and captured this entire detach