was no longer able to hold the Lafourche country, and was compelled to abandon the territory he had won. The last serious effort on the line of the Mississippi was at an end; a great prize had passed in the hands of the enemy beyond redemption; and it was already said, by extravagant newspapers in Washington and New York, that the dawn of a conquered peace was breaking upon the country.

CHAPTER XXIV.

FAVOURABLE ASPECTS OF CONFEDERATE AFFAIRS AFTER THE BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE.— ALTERNATIVE OF CAMPAIGNS IN RICHMOND.-VIRGINIA AND TENNESSEE.-WHAT DECIDED THE CAMPAIGN INTO PENNSYLVANIA.-REORGANIZATION OF THE ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA. ITS GRAND PREPARATIONS ON THE PLAINS OF CULPEPPER.-EWELL'S MOVEMENT UPON WINCHESTER. HIS CAPTURES.-ORDER OF LEE'S MARCH TO THE POTOMAC.-HOOKER OUT-GENERALLED AND BLINDED.-LEE'S MARCH TO GETTYSBURG, A MASTER-PIECE OF STRATEGY.-CONDUCT OF HIS TROOPS IN THE ENEMY'S TERRITORY.-GEN. LEE ABSTAINS FROM RETALIATION."-COMMENT OF THE RICHMOND EXAMINER."-GEN. HOOKER RELIEVED, AND MEADE PUT IN COMMAND OF THE FEDERAL ARMY.-ALARM IN THE NORTH.— MEADE MARCHES TOWARDS GETTYSBURG.-THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG.-A CONFEDERATE VICTORY THE FIRST DAY.-HOW IT WAS NOT IMPROVED.-A GREAT ERROUR. THE CRITICAL

66

HEIGHTS OF GETTYSBURG TAKEN BY THE ENEMY.-CEMETERY RIDGE.—“ ROUND TOP.”THE CONFEDERATE LINE OF BATTLE.-WHY GEN. LEE DETERMINED TO ATTACK.-ACTION OF THE SECOND DAY.-LONGSTREET'S DESPERATE ENGAGEMENT.-TEMPORARY POSSESSION OF ROUND TOP."— -SUCCESSES ON THE CONFEDERATE LEFT.-ACTION OF THE THIRD DAY.

-AN OMINOUS SILENCE.-SUDDEN AND TERRIBLE CANNONADE.-HEROIC CHARGE OF PICKETT'S DIVISION.-SUBLIME DEVOTION OF THE VIRGINIANS.—THEY TAKE THE KEY OF THE ENEMY'S POSITION. THE SHOUT OF VICTORY.-PETTIGREW's SUPPORT FAILS.—THE DAY LOST.-GEN. LEE RALLYING HIS TROOPS.-HIS SUBSEQUENT RETREAT TO THE POTOMAC.-SUCCESS OF THE RETREAT.—HE RETIRES TO THE LINE OF THE RAPIDAN.-GETTYSBURG THE CLIMACTERIO OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY.-HISTORY OF THE PEACE MISSION OF VICE-PRESIDENT STEPHENS AS CONNECTED THEREWITH.-AN OSTENSIBLE LETTER OF PRESIDENT DAVIS.-HOW THE MISSION WAS REPULSED. THE HONOURABLE POSITION OF THE CONFEDERATE PRESIDENT.

A SINGLE day before the fall of Vicksburg occurred, far away, what may be emphatically entitled the most important battle of the war. It was fought on the soil of Pennsylvania, on whose wheat-fields President Davis had declared, on the floor of the United States Senate in Washington, when war was first threatened, should be carried the contest for the rights of the South.

During the few weeks following the brilliant victory of Chancellorsville, never did affairs look so propitious for the Confederates. The safety of Vicksburg was not then seriously questioned; Bragg confronted Rose

crans with a force strong enough to hold him at bay; and the Confederates had the choice of two campaigns: either to reinforce Bragg from Lee's army, over a distance that might be accomplished in ten days, with two lines of railroad as far as Chattanooga, or to change the defensive attitude in Virginia, and make a second experiment of the invasion of the North. The alternative of these campaigns was suggested in Richmond. The latter was decided upon. It was thought advisable to clear Virginia of the Federal forces, and put the war back upon the frontier; to relieve the Confederate commissariat; to counterbalance the continual retreat of the armies of Tennessee and Mississippi by an advance into Northern territory, offer a counterpoise to the movements of the enemy in the West, and possibly relieve the pressure there on the Confederate armies. These reasons determined an offensive campaign of Lee's army.

Gen. Longstreet was recalled from North Carolina; and the Army of Northern Virginia, preparatory to the campaign, was re-organized, and divided into three equal and distinct corps. To Gen. Longstreet was assigned the command of the first corps, consisting of the divisions of McLaw, Hood, and Pickett; to Gen. Ewell, who had succeeded to the coinmand of Jackson's old corps, were assigned the divisions of Early, Rodes, and Johnson; and to Gen. A. P. Hill was the third corps given, consisting of the divisions of Anderson, Pender, and Heth. Each of these three corps numbered about 25,000 men, making the total strength of the army 75,000, irrespective of the cavalry.

On the plains near Culpepper were the preparations made for the grand campaign. It was the beautiful month of May. All was bustle and activity; the freshness of the air and the glow of expectation animated the busy scene. Trains were hurried up filled with munitions of war; new and splendid batteries of artillery were added to the army; the troops, as far as possible, were newly equipped, and ordnance trains were filled to their utmost capacity. The cavalry, 15,000 strong, were reviewed at Brandy Station; crowds of ladies attended the display; and Gen. Stuart, the gallant commander, whose only weakness was military foppery and an inordinate desire of female admiration, rode along the lines on a horse almost covered with bouquets. Nearly a week was consumed in reviewing cavalry, infantry, and artillery. By the first of June all was in readiness, and the advance was ordered.

Gen. Ewell's corps, in the lead, pushed rapidly forward, and marched across the Blue Ridge Mountains, by way of Front Royal, into the Shenandoah Valley upon Winchester. Here he surprised Gen. Milroy, defeated him; and it was with difficulty that the Federal general, with a few of his officers, escaped through the Confederate lines under cover of the night, and succeeded in crossing the Potomac at Harper's Ferry. Three thousand prisoners, thirty pieces of artillery, over one hundred wagons, and a

GEN. LEE'S MOVEMENT ACROSS THE POTOMAC.

403 great quantity of stores were captured in and near Winchester, and seven hundred men surrendered to Gen. Rodes at Martinsburg. With this auspicious opening of the campaign, Ewell promptly moved up to the Potomac, where he occupied all the fords.

Longstreet's corps had been directed to march on Culpepper, his right flank guarded by detachments of Stuart's cavalry, which watched the fords of the Rappahannock, while A. P. Hill's corps remained near Fredericksburg, to deceive the enemy by an appearance of strength. These movements were not entirely unobserved by Gen. Hooker. He had reason to suppose that some of the Confederate forces had been withdrawn from his front; and accordingly, on the 5th of June, a strong reconnoissance was sent across the river on Lee's right. But the skilful Confederate commander, who was now performing a great master-piece of strategy, succeeded in masking his real strength, and leading Hooker to suppose that his entire army was still in the neighbourhood of Fredericksburg. On the 7th June another reconnoissance was directed, and an expedition of cavalry, which had crossed the Rappahannock at Beverly's and Kelly's Fords, attacked Gen. Stuart at Brandy Station. This force of the enemy was routed by Stuart, and forced to recross the river, after having lost four hundred prisoners and three pieces of artillery. Although this later reconnoissance developed to a certain extent the direction of Gen. Lee's march, Hooker was too dull to comprehend its importance, and, never dreaming of any movement into the Northern territory beyond perhaps a raid for commissary purposes, contented himself with making a disposition of his forces to cover Washington, and taking up a strong position between Manassas and Centreville, so as to interpose his army between the Confederate forces and what he supposed to be the object of their campaign.

Lee marched rapidly forward in pursuance of his plans. He had played with the enemy so as to mislead him entirely. Hooker followed Lee to the passes of the Blue Ridge, but was so uncertain whether he meant to give battle there, or move up the Valley, that time was lost, and instead of bringing the point to an issue at once in Virginia, the Federal commander had to hastily cross the Potomac, and take position in Maryland. Lee crossed the Potomac in the vicinity of Shepherdstown, on the 24th of June. The corps of Ewell had preceded him two days before, and on the 23d had occupied Chambersburg. On the 27th of June the whole of Lee's army was at Chambersburg. An advance on Harrisburg had been contemplated; but the design was abandoned on the 29th, in consequence of the information that the Federal army was moving northwards, and so menacing the communication of the Confederate army with the Potomac. To check the enemy's advance, therefore, Gens. Longstreet, Hill, and Ewell were ordered to proceed to Gettysburg. Thus within twenty days the great Confederate commander had brought his entire army from Fred

ericksburg, by the way of the Shenandoah Valley to Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, without obstruction, and executed a wonderful feat of strategy. It is true that other commanders in the war had made longer marches and accomplished more magnificent distances. But to estimate properly the generalship of Lee, it must be remembered that when he set out on this expedition, he was confronted by one of the largest and best appointed armies the enemy ever had in the field; that Winchester, Martinsburg, Harper's Ferry, and Berryville were garrisoned by hostile forces; that the Federal cavalry were in splendid condition; and yet in the face of all these facts, he had marched along the Rappahannock, over the passes of the Blue Ridge, up the Shenandoah Valley, and across the fords of the Potomac into Pennsylvania, without his progress being arrested.

When the Confederate army obtained a footing on the soil of Pennsylvania, there were many people who supposed that as here there was no friendly disposition of the invaded, no reputation of political sympathy, as in Maryland, to interpose between them and the penalties of war, the troops would be prompt to exact a severe retribution for the cruelties of the enemy displayed in the desolated homes and fields of the South. But no such thing occurred; no such expectation was answered. On the contrary, no sooner had Gen. Lee crossed the line than he announced that private property would be respected, and proceeded, by general orders, to restrain all excesses of his troops, and, in fact, to give to the invaded people of Pennsylvania a protection which even those of the South had not always had against the impressments and other exactions of the war. No house was entered without authority; no granary was pillaged; no property was taken without payment on the spot; and vast fields of grains were actually picketed by Confederate guards, mounted on almost starved horses.

So far as these orders of Gen. Lee maintained the discipline and morals of his troops, prevented them from degenerating into ruffians, and declined retaliation of this sort, they were generally sustained by the public opinion of his countrymen, for exasperated as they were by what they had experienced of the enemy's barbarities in their own homes, the Southern people were so proud of their reputation for chivalry, and plumed themselyes so much on this account, that they were willing to sacrifice for it almost any other passion of the war. But there was an obvious distinction in this matter, and the Richmond Examiner indicated it in a striking and powerful censure of Gen. Lee's course. It was said that only a few persons in the South recommended retaliation in kind; that it was not advised that houses should be burned, or robbed, jewelry stolen, and women raped in Pennsylvania, in exact imitation of the acts of Northern troops in Virginia and Mississippi; but that such guard on the discipline and honour of Confederate soldiers was not inconsistent with a devastation of the