the Union force had fully occupied the heights, it was resolved not to attack until the arrival of Longstreet, two of whose divisions, those of Hood and McLaws, had encamped within three miles of Gettysburg. Hill's remaining division under Anderson reached the ground soon after the close of the engagement.

Nevertheless, to neither of the opposing chiefs could the situation, as it presented itself on their arrival that night, be either encouraging or satisfactory. General Meade found affairs pressing to a culmination, and the rolls of the First and Eleventh corps showed as the result of an encounter which in its general relations was but a reconnoissance in force, the formidable loss of near ten thousand men! He did not know but that Lee had his whole force massed in front of him, while his own army was much scattered, and a part distant by a full day's march.* Yet the position seemed favorable, and above all it secured to him the advantage of the defensive, forcing upon his antagonist all the perils of attack.t Dropping at once, therefore, as now obsolete, all previous contingent plans looking to other lines of defence, he had the moment he learnt the nature of the position given orders for the rapid concentration of the whole army at Gettysburg.

To Lee, on the other hand, though the action of the 1st had been on the whole favorable, yet the situation in which he found himself was very different from what he desired. It must be borne in mind that Lee's sudden movement to the east side of the South Mountain range, just at the moment he was heading his columns to cross the Susquehanna and ad

*The two corps furthest off were the Fifth and Sixth, the former of which was distant twenty-three, and the latter upwards of thirty miles.

+ General Meade makes no secret of his strong desire, at the time, to secure the advantage of the defensive. "It was my desire," says he in his testimony before the War Committee (Report, p. 439), "to fight a defensive rather than an offensive battle, for the reason that I was satisfied my chances of success were greater in a defensive battle than in an offensive one; and I knew the momentous consequences dependent upon the result of that."

vance on Harrisburg, was solely prompted by the menace to his communications with the Potomac resulting from the manœuvres of his antagonist. It was, therefore, with the view of checking the latter that Lee threw his forces to the east side of the mountain but in doing so, he was far from expecting or desiring to take upon himself the risk of a general battle, at a point so distant from his base. He was willing to do so only in case he should, by manoeuvring, secure the advantage of the defensive, or some special opening for a blow, should his opponent make a false move. Indeed, in entering upon the campaign, General Lee expressly promised his corps-commanders that he would not assume a tactical offensive, but force his antagonist to attack him. Having, however, gotten a taste of blood in the considerable success of the first day, the Confederate commander seems to have lost that equipoise in which his faculties commonly moved, and he determined to give battle.*

In adopting this course he committed a grave error, as the event proved, and judging from a merely military point of view; but this is not the first case in which it has been seen that other considerations than those of a purely military order enter into the complex problem of war. General Lee states as his main motive for giving battle, the difficulty that would have been experienced in withdrawing through the mountains with his large trains an excuse that can hardly be considered valid. A considerable part of the trains had not been advanced to the east of the mountains, and he could readily have withdrawn all under cover of his line of battle; and then retired his army by the same routesthe Cashtown and Fairfield roads-over which he ultimately retreated. Besides, there was open another and still bolder move. Longstreet, holding the right of the Confederate line,

*This, and subsequent revelations of the purposes and sentiments of Lee, I derive from General Longstreet, who, in a full and free conversation with the writer, after the close of the war, threw much light on the motives and conduct of Lee during this campaign.

had one flank securely posted on the Emmettsburg road, so that he was really between the Army of the Potomac and Washington; and by marching towards Frederick could undoubtedly have manœuvred Meade out of the Gettysburg position. This operation General Longstreet, who foreboded the worst from an attack on the army in position, and was anxious to hold General Lee to his promise, begged in vain to be allowed to execute.*

What really compelled Lee, contrary to his original intent and promise, to give battle, was the animus and inspiration of the invasion; for, to the end, such were the "exsufflicate and blown surmises" of the army, and such was the contempt of its opponent engendered by Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, that there was not in his ranks a barefoot soldier in tattered gray but believed Lee would lead him and the Confederate army into Baltimore and Washington, if not into Philadelphia and New York.t To have withdrawn, therefore, without a battle, though materially easy, was morally impossible; for to have recrossed the Potomac without a blow, and abandoned the invasion on which such towering hopes had been built, would have been a shock beyond endurance to his army and the South. Such were the causes that, under providential ordainment, resulted in the mighty shock of arms that hurled the invading force from the soil of the loyal States, and dealt the army of Lee a blow from which it never afterwards recovered. To the events of this action I now return.

By morning of the 2d of July the entire Union army, saving the corps of Sedgwick, had reached Gettysburg; and the whole Southern force, with the exception of Pickett's division of Longstreet's corps, had come up.

The officer named is my authority for this statement.

+ Colonel Freemantle, of the British service, who was with the Confederate arney during the battle of Gettysburg, thus testifies to this feeling: "The staffofficers (on the night of the 1st) spoke of the battle as a certainty; and the universal feeling in the army was one of profound contempt for an enemy whom they have beaten so constantly, and under so many disadvantages.”— Three Months in the Confederate States, p. 256.

Meade, following the natural line of defence, disposed his forces as follows: The Eleventh Corps (Howard) retained its position on Cemetery Hill, where it was supported by Robinson's and Doubleday's divisions of the First Corps (Newton) on its right was placed Wadsworth's division of the same corps, which together with the Twelfth (Slocum) held the right of the whole army, on Culps' Hill; the Second (Hancock) and Third (Sickles) corps occupied the crest of Cemetery Ridge the former connecting with the left of the Eleventh, and the latter (which formed the left of the line) connecting with the left of the Second. The Fifth Corps

(Sykes) was held in reserve on the right.

Lee placed his troops along the Seminary Ridge, separated from the Cemetery Ridge by an interval of about a mile, and inclosing it with a wider curve. Longstreet, with the divisions of Hood and McLaws, held the right, facing Round Top and a good part of Cemetery Ridge, on which Sickles and Hancock were placed. Hill's three divisions continued the line from the left of Longstreet round the Seminary Ridge, and fronted, therefore, the remainder of Cemetery Ridge. Ewell, with his three divisions, held from the Seminary through the town; and sweeping round the base of Cemetery Hill, terminated the left of the hostile line in front of Culps' Hill, occupied by Slocum's corps, which formed the Union right. The Confederate line was about five miles in stretch, and was in great part well concealed by a fringe of woods. Both sides placed in position a powerful artillery force.

VII.

GETTYSBURG-THE SECOND DAY.

When morning revealed to Lee the position of the Union army drawn up on that ridge of rocks, he must have keenly realized all the perils of the attack; for upon a like position held by him at Fredericksburg he had seen the army under