For days, and even weeks, before the army was ready to move, spicy edi torials in their leading papers discussed the comparative advantages of the different routes by which the army might reach its destination, and gloated in premature delight over the golden plenty with which they would be feasted and supplied, through love, by their Copperhead friends, and through fear, by their foes. Every day brought reports from all sources, minute and reliable, of these boasts, and of the preparations for movement of which they were the forerunners. But there seemed, in some quarters, and in those, too, where it would have been least looked for, a strange insensibility to the approaching danger-none the less real that it was so boldly unmasked. Most apathetic of all were the farmers, whose lands lay plainly in the road of the invaders, and upon whose granaries and stables, the hungry and revengeful eyes of the approaching foe were fixed. It was impossible to rouse them to any concerted action; almost impossi ble to convince their phlegmatic indifference that there was any necessity for action at all.

Fortunately General Hooker was on the alert, and by his attack on General Stuart at Beverly Ford, most seriously deranged the entire rebel plan. This attack was made by a cavalry force under General Pleasonton, and besides compelling Stuart to fall back and abandon his intention of harassing and diverting Hooker's advance, gave us the incalculable advantage of a perusal of the private papers of the discomfited commander. Among these were found the general order for a rapid advance into Pennsylvania-thus making apparent both the plan of the rebels and the means needful to thwart it. General Hooker, with his characteristic energy, put his army at once in motion, and then commenced the race, which was one neither of swiftness nor of strength, but of subtle caution. The intricacy of the positions at this crisis has hardly been appreciated. Too precipitate a concentration northward for the defence of Pennsylvania would leave Washington open. Too exclusive regard to Washington might bring ruin on the border. The masterly skill with which General Hooker, while hurrying on by forced marches, still held his forces so disposed as to guard against both these perils, so as to be instantly ready to meet either, has written him a general for all time, and will forever lead the student of the history of this war to regret, that there should have been occasion for his sudden removal from command at the very crisis of danger.

In the mean time the authorities of Pennsylvania were not idle. On the 11th of June, General Couch and Major-General W. S. H. Brooks had been detailed for the command of its defence; General Couch to the Department of the Susquehanna, with his head-quarters at Harrisburg, which was seriously menaced, and Major-General Brooks to the Department of the Monongahela, with his head-quarters at Pittsburg. The next day stirring appeals were issued by both commanders, and by Governor Curtin of Pennsylvania, summoning the inhabitants of the State to the defence of their homes. The response was tardy and incomplete: Distrust of Government measures, uncertainty as to what point would be the one of most real and immediate danger, and, more than all, phlegm, held back the

feet which should have flown to the service of their threatened State. New York and New Jersey militia were more promptly offered; and after the rebel Jenkins, with his cavalry, had swept through Chambersburg and the valleys west of the South Mountain, gathering up audaciously the horses, cattle, and stores of all kinds, which had not been concealed from them, Philadelphia opened her eyes, and arose with some show of earnest activity.

The week was one of terror, confusion, and doubt. The vast army of Lee, like a giant monster preparing to spring, turning its head now in this direction, now in that, making deceptive dashes, and then retiring stealthily into concealment, was working its way slowly onward, but to what precise point, no one knew, no one could dare predict. Philadelphia and Washington were equally in panic, since, though but one was in immediate danger, it might be either. Baltimore also, on Monday evening, the 29th, had been startled nearly out of its disloyal wits, by the impudent daring of a few rebel horsemen, who had ventured sufficiently near the city to insure the report of their presence being carried in by swift-running fright. Anxious patriotism, all over the country, held its breath, and waited from day to day, and hour to hour, for some decisive news. On Saturday, the 27th, in the simple but forcible words of one of the clearest-sighted corrospondents of the war, "nobody knew what Lee was about." On Monday all was changed. It was apparent that he was concentrating in the vicinity of Gettysburg-devoted, hallowed Gettysburg! The rebel Generals Longstreet and Hill were at Fayetteville, and on the night of Monday, the 29th, their camp-fires blazed on the eastern slope of the mountain, in full view of Gettysburg.

General Meade, who had assumed the command on the 28th, made instant and corresponding changes in the position of his troops, sending General Buford, on Tuesday, the 30th, with a cavalry force of six thousand men, to make a reconnoissance on the Chambersburg road, where they encamped for the night. The First Corps, numbering eight thousand men, under the lamented General Reynolds, and the Eleventh Corps, numbering fif teen thousand men, under General Howard, were sent to a position on the southwest, within four miles of Gettysburg, where they also encamped. Of the rebel forces, Hill's Corps, and that of Longstreet, with two divisions of Ewell's, were encamped within a short distance of the town. Strange sight for the peaceful stars of heaven, through the hours of that summer night one hundred and five thousand sleeping men, who were to meet each other in deadly fight on the morrow, to thousands of whom the next sleep. would be the sleep of death! Before entering upon the details of this battle, it will be necessary to give some general idea of the situation of the town of Gettysburg, and of the points occupied by the different corps of each army. By a reference to the accompanying map, the doscription will be intelligible. Between two ranges of hills, the Catoctin and the South Mountain, is a narrow valley which has always been distinguished for its fertile beauty. At the head of this valley, on a gentle western slope, and forming a focal centre for roads running north, south, east, and west, lies the town of Gettysburg. A mile to the east of the town

VOL. II.-26

runs Rock Creek, the chief of the head-waters of the Monocacy River. The situation is one of surpassing beauty, and as it is the shire town of Adams County, and a town of some eight thousand inhabitants, it is quite a business and social centre for that part of the State. We will imagine that we are approaching the town from the southeast, on the Baltimore road.

Looking towards the north, we see a high wooded ridge, which we ascend by a gradual slope. At the summit of this ridge, on our left, is holy ground, long since baptized in tears, where for years the cherished dead of Gettysburg have been laid to sleep that sleep which no thunders but those of the archangel's final trump can disturb.

"Life's labor done, securely laid in this their last retreat,

Unheeded o'er their silent dust, the storms of life shall beat."

On their right, half a mile distant, is ground now no less holy-newly consecrated by the baptism of blood-the God-inspired position of Steinwehr early in Wednesday's fight.

These two positions are most essential to be remembered.

As we follow this Cemetery Ridge southward, we find it at first curving towards the east, diminishing in height, and crossed by the Taneytown road; but it rises again suddenly at the distance of a mile from the cemetery, and forms two hills, well defined and rock-sided, called Round Top and Little Round Top. Upon the summit of Round Top, General Meade established his signal-station, and posted the extreme left of his line.

A mile away to the northwest rises Seminary Hill, with its wooded crest sloping gracefully towards the south. At its base is the Lutheran Seminary. Upon this outer and lower ridge, which, bending in towards the town, crossed the Chambersburg, Hagersion, and Emmetsburg roads, General Lee concentrated his army in a line about eight miles in extent. Thus posted, they formed a circling sweep around the higher Cemetery Ridge, upon which the patriot troops were stationed.

Early on the morning of Wednesday, July 1st, General Reynolds, in pursuance of his orders to occupy Gettysburg, sent forward a reconnoitring body of cavalry, under General Buford, which was almost immediately engaged by the rebel advance. General Reynolds, who was following closely with the First Corps, kindled to martial rage by the first sound of battle, dashed into and through the town, and, forming his line under cover of Seminary Hill, opened instantly a furious attack a furious attack upon the enemy, boldly hurling his eight thousand war-worn veterans against twenty thousand unwearied by marching. Realizing, however, the fearful odds, he sent an urgent message to General Howard to advance as rapidly as possible with the Eleventh Corps. For two hours, the gallant eight thousand not only held their ground, but fiercely drove back their foes, whenever they charged upon them; the left wing standing firm as a rock, and the right, though weaker and often so heavily pressed that it was forced to yield temporarily, dashing up the hill again, and defiantly regaining, with a thinner line, its original position. Glorious among the Spartan corps flashed the Iron

Brigade *-well named-resistless as Western nerve and muscle can beclutching helpless in their grasp the entire rebel brigade of General Archer, which had sought to turn their flank. Foremost in the fray rode the undaunted Reynolds, to meet, alas! the relentless death which had marked his brave life for that day's first crown of holy sacrifice. No time was there, however, to stay even for a look at the dead.† The courageous Doubleday, who had brought tried nerves from Sumter's walls, sprang into the breach, and the fight went on. Noon came, and passed, and no help for the dwindling band, who stood among their dead immovable. At last, at one o'clock, came Barlow's and Schurz's Divisions of the Eleventh Corps, burning to wipe out the memory of Chancellorsville, and eager to save the hard-pressed First. They formed on the right, and stayed the faltering line for a space. The remainder of the Eleventh Corps, under Steinwehr, was moved rapidly forward to occupy Cemetery Hill. This order on the part of Howard, the noble and Christian general, was one of those divine inspirations on which destinies turn. It gave him a stronghold of defence and shelter, when it became necessary to retire, as his military eye clearly foresaw that it must soon be, when sixteen thonsand men were confronted by forty thousand. From one until nearly four they struggled against the constantly increasing odds. But no human bravery, no endurance could outlast such a concentration of the fire of superior numbers. The wearied right, which had been most sorely tried through the day, yielded first, but fell back steadily till they reached the town. Here an ill destiny awaited them. Confused by their officers attempting to manoeuvre them through cross-streets, and stung by the familiar battle-yell of "Stonewall" Jackson's men in their rear, they broke into inextricable confusion, and fell an easy and wholesale prey to their pursuers, losing one thousand and two hundred men in the incredibly short

* "Well-tried troops those-no fear of their flinching; veterans of a score of battles—in the war, some of them, from the very start; with the first at Philippi, Laurel Hill, Carrick's Ford, Cheat Mountain, and all the Western Virginia campaign; trusted of Shields at Winchester, and of Lander at Romney and Bloomery Gap; through the campaign of the Shenandoah Valley, and with the Army of the Potomac in every march to the red slaughter-sowing that still had brought no harvest of victory. Meredith's old Iron Brigade was the Nineteenth Indiana, Twenty-fourth Michigan, Sixth and Seventh Wisconsin-veterans all, and well mated with the brave New Yorkers whom Wadsworth also led."-Cincinnati Gazette.

"General Reynolds fell a victim to his cool bravery and zeal. As was his custom, he rode in front of his men, placing them in position, and urging them to the fight, when he was shot through the head, as was supposed, by a rebel sharpshooter, and died shortly afterwards. lle has been charged with rasliness, with prematurely bringing on the battle. It would be more just to say that he had but little agency in bringing it on; that it was forced on us by the rebels; that if they had not been held in check that day, they would have pressed on and obtained the impregnable position which we were enabled to hold; and that, most of all, the hand of Provi dence, who gave us, at last, a signal victory, was in the arrangements of that day."—Notes on the Battle of Gettysburg, by M. Jacobs, p. 27.

"The other division of the Eleventh Corps, under General Steinwehr, by the prudent forethought and wise generalship of General Howard, was at once sent forward to occupy Cemetery Hill, on the south side of the town, and to provide for the contingency which happened three hours afterwards, and which he must have foreseen. To this happy forethought we may, in a great measure, under God, attribute the favorable results of the battle of the two succooding days." -Id., p. 25.