morning of the 2d, halting at last, after passing through Hanover, near McSherrystown. Thursday, July 2d. After only two hours rest, reveille at 4 a. m., and marched immediately without waiting even to make a cup of coffee. Pretty hard this, but the weary men now understanding that the emergency was pressing, and forgetting the want of much-needed sleep and food and rest, pushed forward cheerfully and eagerly towards what they knew must be a bloody battle. After marching about an hour we were halted long enough to make our coffee, and then once more moved rapidly forward until about 10 o'clock we reached Rock creek, some two miles southeast of the town of Gettysburg. Here we learned of the disastrous fortunes of the preceding day to the Union forces, and worst news of all, the untimely death of one of our best loved generals, one whom the Pennsylvania Reserve Volunteer Corps was proud to have claimed as its own commander-the beau ideal soldier, the gallant General Reynolds. From 7 o'clock a. m., of July 1st to 11 o'clock on the 2d, twenty-eight hours, with only about three hours given to sleep and rest, our regiment had marched forty-two miles. Is it any wonder that when the halt was sounded the weary men threw themselves upon the ground, under that burning July sun and slept away the hours, while the battle was preparing? About 4 o'clock in the afternoon the fiery storm suddenly burst in fierce fury on Sickles' Third Corps. Immediately the Fifth under Sykes was hurried forward to the succor of the Third, then badly broken up and forced back in shattered fragments from its too-far-advanced position. It must have been about 5 o'clock when our division, the Third of Sykes' Corps, under the gallant General Crawford, passed over the crest of the ridge out yonder to the right of Little Round Top, and first came under fire. How vividly the fearful scene of that dread hour comes back to you old soldiers of the "Ninth," as you now look out over yonder quiet woods and peaceful fields. The sun, a dull, red ball of fire, was going down "wrapped in drifts of lurid smoke." The appalling roar of cannon; the screaming shells exploding in mid-air; the sharp rattling and continuous crash of infantry firing; the charging masses of the enemy; the broken columns of our side slowly falling back, contesting every foot of ground, and yielding one position only to make a more stubborn stand for another; the whole atmosphere thick and heavy with the sulphurous smoke of battle. Yon field of ripened grain just ready for the harvest, blasted below the dun hot breath of war " Oh, comrades, it was not a cheering scene that then opened on our view. On the contrary, we might truly say that at that moment "disaster stared us in the face." The two brigades of United States Infantry, the "Regulars," had just ad vanced across yon piece of level ground, while our two brigades of Pennsylvania Reserves, by General Crawford's orders, were massed in column by division," in the open space just north of this rocky spur of Round Top. Vincent, and O'Rorke, and Hazlett, and Weed, with their gallant commands, had but a few moments before wrested this master-post of Little Round Top from the grasp of Hood. But, oh! at what a cost! Vincent and O'Rorke, Hazlett and Weed, all four, lay dead upon this mount of glory. The question then was, could the survivors of the terrible struggle to secure this vantage ground, thus bereft of all their leaders, could they withstand another impending charge of the now exulting rebels? The stake was great, too great to be left in doubt. 66 Humphreys was changing front to the rear," but to no good purpose. Sweitzer's Brigade fiercely beset on its flank and rear was forced from its position. The "Regulars," attacked in front and flank, were compelled to fall back. You all remember how they looked. How firmly they held themselves together, firing and falling back, firing and falling back, their front diminishing at every volley until only one-half of their charging column was left to fire! It was just at this critical moment that our gallant General Crawford put his two brigades of Pennsylvania Reserves in motion, our Third Brigade in front. Advancing rapidly we were very soon within range and under a heavy fire from the enemy. But we had not gone more than fifty yards when the urgent call for re-inforcement for the few survivors of the gallant regiments that had at such a heavy cost plucked Little Round Top from the clutch of Hood and his Confederate veterans, and who now crippled, and exhausted by the deadly struggle, their leaders cold in death, still lying where they fell, awaited among these rocks and on this rugged hill, the still more desperate charge the baffled rebels were preparing to overwhelm their decimated ranks and seize this granite key of the battle-field-reached General Crawford. He was not slow in responding to the call. Ours, the leading brigade, was halted and ordered to go at once to the succor of the exhausted comrades of the Vincent and O'Rorke's commands. Without a moment's delay, the Fifth, Ninth, Tenth and Twelfth Regiments of Reserves changed direction and moved by the left flank, almost on a doublequick over the hill, to this, its western slope, and joined the remnant of Vincent's Battalion. The movement was in the very nick of time. The plan of Hood and Law, to seize this "coigne of vantage." was foiled, for with the accession of Fisher's Brigade to the gallant men who had so desperately fought for and so tenaciously held this almost impregnable position, any new attack would be madness, and could only result in a repulse more sanguinary and crushing than the first had been. Little Round Top, found and proclaimed by Warren to be the key to the whole Union battle line, was saved-and safe-for General Meade, whatever might befall on other portions of the field. A little later when darkness had settled over these woods, the Fifth and Twelfth Regiments were taken by Colonel Fisher, with other troops, to drive the enemy from Round Top and occupy its lofty summit, while the Ninth and Tenth were left to hold and guard this gap which Hood and Law had deemed their open gateway to our left and rear. We did not then know the supreme importance of the position we had to protect, but we do know now from General Hill's official report that "Hood's right was held as in a vise." About 10 o'clock that night, our line being established and our pickets set a few yards in advance, we lay down, each soldier in his place and “with all his armor on " ready for any night attack the rebels might attempt; and notwithstanding an occasional shot from a picket post to remind us of impending danger, and the pitiful moaning of the wounded all around us, we slept as only exhausted soldiers can. With the earliest dawn of day on July 3d, our line was up and on the alert. How vigorously you all worked, comrades, on this stone wall! A labor of love it was, of love of life, of honor, of country; for well you knew how this low breast-work, rude and rough in form, might help to gain and save them all, in the storm of battle that then seemed sure to burst upon us ere the sun was high. And here we lay all that long summer day awaiting calmly, yea hoping, for the charging columns of the rebels. But no attack in force was made on our position. Skirmish firing in our front and the crack of the sharpshooters' rifle were the only sounds of war that broke the stillness of these woods, until, sudden as a flash of lightning in the sultry afternoon, these “rock ribb'd hills" were made to shake and quiver by that terrific roar of three hundred cannon thundering from the opposing lines. Oh! how great and grand it was, and yet how dreadful. These rocks and woods that seemed to promise refuge and safety became an added element of danger when the iron hail that filled the air cut off large limbs from these tall trees and hurled among us granite fragments whenever a heavy round shot struck and shattered some protruding boulder. But with all that fearful shelling the casualties in the Ninth were very few. The records show we had but two men killed and five men wounded in this great battle. But the wounding of one of our comrades, one who but lately, "after life's fitful fever," has gone to his long rest, was an incident of that day which may have special mention. Here it was, right here, that brave and generous Sergeant McMunn of Company G, moved only by an impulse of pity for a suffering man, laying aside his gun and holding up his hand in token that he went only on a deed of peace and mercy, stepped out from the protection of our wall of stones, to carry to the parched lips of a sorely wounded foe, a cup of water. And while bending over the death-stricken body of the rebel soldier in this ministration of pity and compassion, a bullet from the rifle of some ruthless rebel sharpshooter hidden in the tree top crushed through his face. It was a most dastardly deed! But sudden and sure vengeance followed on the instant, and the rebel miscreant fell pierced by more than one ball from the sergeant's comrades of Company G. The battle ended with the setting sun of that third day of mighty conflict and slaughter, and victory at last rested with the side which was contending for the righteous cause of our national unity and the perpetuation of that beneficent system of government which had been handed down to us, a precious legacy, by the patriotic fathers, the wise and far-seeing statesmen and sages of the old revolutionary times. When the morning sunlight gilded these mountain heights and rugged rocks, and spread in splendor over all these blood-stained plains and ridges on that 4th of July, 1863, the ever-joyous anniversary of our nation's natal day, the nation's existence which had been ruthlessly threatened and imperiled by its Confederate enemies, was once more firmly established on its sure foundation, its underlying corner-stone, strong and enduring as this great rock of Round Top under whose shadow we now stand-that ever-living principle which appeals to the common sense of the common people among all races and in all times-the principle, namely. " of government of the people, by the people, for the people." That, comrades, was the great stake for which we of the Union army battled here and on a hundred other glorious fields all over the Union's wide extended realm. And may I not now, after the lapse of these many years, adopt the beautiful language of Edward Everett, the venerable and eloquent orator on the occasion of the dedication, a quarter of a century ago, of yonder National Cemetery to the sacred dust of the martyr heroes who gave up their lives, "that wheresoever throughout the civilized world the accounts of that great warfare are read, and down to the latest period of recorded time, in the glorious annals of our common country, there will be no brighter page than that which relates The Battle of Gettysburg." DEDICATION OF MONUMENT C 39TH REGIMENT INFANTRY (TENTH RESERVES) SEPTEMBER 2, 1890 ADDRESS BY GEORGE W. MCCRACKEN, ADJUTANT OMRADES and friends :-It is unnecessary for me to remark that the time, to which I am limited on this occasion, entirely precludes anything that could be fairly denominated history. The history of the Tenth Regiment would require a volume of several hundred pages. What I offer is a brief sketch of its organization, what might be called an itinerary of its campaigns, and a few statistics. During the month of June, 1861, there assembled in the old “Fai~ Grounds,” on Penn street, in Pittsburg (for the time-being called "Camp Wilkins") seven companies of young men, who had enrolled themselves, at as many different places, scattered over territory embraced in six of the counties of western Pennsylvania. Three others of the same make-up had, at the same time, come together at Camp Wright, at Hulton Station, about ten miles up the Allegheny river. On the 28th of June these companies were organized as a regiment of infantry. John S. McCalmont of Venango county, was colonel; James T. Kirk of Washington county, lieutenant-colonel, and Harrison Allen of Warren county, major. This organization was designated by the Governor of Pennsylvania, "The Tenth Regiment of Infantry of the Pennsylvania Reserve Volunteer Corps." The Pennsylvania Reserve Corps was a military organization then being formed in pursuance of an act of the general assembly, approved May 15, 1861, and designed primarily for the defense of the State, but subject at any time to be called into the service of the United States. To bring the regiment into one camp, the companies at Camp Wilkins, which were those known during their service as Companies A, B, C, D, G, I and K, marched on the afternoon of July 1, to Camp Wright. In Camp Wright, along with Colonel J. W. McLane's old Erie Regiment, and the Ninth and Eleventh regiments and Battery B, of the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps, the Tenth was exercised in drill and instructed in guard duty until the afternoon of July 18, when it marched aboard a train of twenty-one cars, and, after an all-night ride over the Pennsylvania railroad to Huntingdon, and thence over the Huntingdon and Broad Top railroad, landed at Hopewell, Bedford county, Pa., next morning. In afternoon marched to Bloody Run, near Everett; next evening marched back to Hopewell; again took the cars; about midnight were bountifully fed by the good ladies of Huntingdon, and shortly after daylight, July 21, 1861 (day of battle of Bull Run), landed in Harrisburg, put up at Camp Curtin. That afternoon the regiment was mustered into the service of the United States for the term of three years, being the first of the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps so mus |