CHAPTER LXXI. THE CONFEDERATE SORTIE TO THE SUSQUEHANNA. THE RETREAT. The Confederate army abandoned the field of Gettysburg, and in a painful retreat fell back to the Potomac, the national army following it slowly. The Confederate army, unmolested, recrossed the river, and successfully regained the position beyond the Rappahannock from which it had set out on the sortie. The field of A NORTH Wind, blowing gently as the battle of Gettysburg closed, drifted the smoke from the field down into the valley of the Monocacy, unveiling the dark blue Alleghanies in the west. It revealed, too, the awful destruction that had been occasioned by Lee's ill-judged attack. Seen from Cemetery Ridge, the track of Pickett's charge was marked with corpses, and wounded men writhing in agony-a spectacle even more appalling than that of Malvern Hill. A As a weapon of offense, to be used in the Free States, Lee's army was totally ruined. All night long that general ruminated on the dreadful disasters that had befallen the Confederate cause, yet even he did not know their full extent. At the very moment that Pickett's charge was being repulsed-4 o'clock at Gettysburg, 3 o'clock at Vicksburg, seven hundred miles to the southwest, Pemberton, reduced to the direst straits, was sitting with Grant under the oak-tree (vol. iii., page 51), surrendering his fortress and army, and with them the Mississippi River. Rumors in Rich the battle. False news had come to the Confederate capital, exaggerated, as is always the case, by each one mond respecting who transmitted it, that the Army of the Potomac had been defeated; that Lee had taken 40,000 prisoners, and was now hesitating whether to conduct his victorious troops to Philadelphia or Washington first. Richmond was in a delirium of delight; the papers were full of gratulations on Lee's magnificent victory. The war was over, the slave-power master of the continent. It only remained to settle how best to deal with the vanquished North-to determine what penalty would be sufficient to exact from the conquered, the abject Yankees. But soon sinister rumors floated in the air-no one could tell whence they came. Lee's victory was not so complete as had been said there had been some heavy losses. At last the dreadful truth made itself heard: Lee was in full flight for the Potomac, and it was doubtful whether he could ever recross it. There was grim truth in Lee's report, that, owing to the Lee is compelled to strength of the enemy's position, and the reabandon the sortie. duction of the ammunition of the Confeder ates, they could not renew the engagement; that the diffi culty of obtaining supplies made it impossible for them to stay where they were, and hence they remained at Gettysburg only during the 4th, and retired at night to Fairfield with 4000 prisoners. On his part, Meade caused a reconnoissance to be made. It was found that the enemy had drawn back his left flank, apparently assuming a new line parallel to the mountain. A council of war determined that it was advisable to remain during the day, and await the development of Lee's plans. On that and the following day the dead were buried, the wounded succored. It was ascertained that the Chambersburg Road was filled with the wreck of the defeated army. Notwithstanding that a severe storm came on, Lee perceived the necessity of retreating at once. He knew that, if the rain should continue, very serious difficulties might ensue at the passage of the Potomac. In spite of the dreadful weather, he therefore began to fall back, though such was the delay that the rear of the column did not leave Seminary Ridge till after daylight on the 5th. On the tops of the hills the Confederate officers lingered to watch the movements of their pursuers on the roads in the valleys below. the retreat. Meade soon discovered that the retreat was taking place The horrors of by the Fairfield and Cashtown Roads. Those roads resounded with wails and groans of agony. It was a repetition of the retreat from Shiloh. At every step, from its wagons and ambulances, the caravan of horrors cast forth its dead on the road-sides. The air was poisoned by putrid effluvia engendered by the sweltering July sun and the pitiless storm-a pollution reaching afar, like the stench of a slave-ship. In many places the water was half-knee deep. Night and day the retreat was pressed on--a march of men mailed in mud. The adjoining fields were full, not so much of stragglers as of soldiers true and brave to the last, but foot-sore and utterly exhausted, who could not take another step. Fate had not intended for them the neatly-paved and gas-lit streets of Philadelphia. The rain was almost blinding. What would have become of the Army of Northern Virginia had Grant and Sheridan been here? Meade follows on Meade had dispatched the 6th Corps in pursuit on the Fairfield, and the cavalry on the Cashtown Road, and by the Emmettsburg and Monterey Passes. The 6th Corps, on reaching the Fairfield Pass, found that position very strong-one in which a small force could hold in check for a considerable time any pursuer. Meade therefore determined to follow the enemy by a flank movement, and, leaving a detachment to harass him, put his army in motion for Middletown, Maryland. Lee was now making his way as quickly as he could to The Confederates Williamsport, on the Potomac, a march of 40 reach the Potomac, miles. In spite of the great difficulties of the roads, with so much energy was his movement conducted that he reached that place on the 7th. He found, to his dismay, the river so swollen as to be unfordable. His communications with the South were intercepted. It was hard to procure either ammunition or subsistence, the dif ficulty as to the latter being enhanced by the high waters impeding the working of the neighboring mills. Meade had sent orders to French, at Frederick, to reoccupy Harper's Ferry, and to dispatch a force to occupy Turner's Gap. French had, however, not only anticipated these orders, but had pushed some cavalry to Williamsport and Falling Waters, where they had destroyed the enemy's pontoon bridge and captured its guard. On the 12th of July Meade was in front of Lee, who occupied a strong position on the heights of Marsh Run, in advance of Williamsport. That day Meade held a council of hist corps commanders to consider the expediency of attacking next morning. Two were in favor of it, five against it until reconnoissances were made. The following day (13th) was therefore devoted to that object. into Virginia. In the mean time Lee had recovered part of the ponand escape over it toon bridge, and had built new boats, so that he had now a bridge at Falling Waters; and the river, though still deep, being pronounced fordable, he began to withdraw to the south side on the night of the 13th, a part of his forces crossing by fording, and a part over the bridge. The movement was attended with no loss of material except a few disabled wagons and two pieces of artillery, which the horses were unable to move through the deep mud. During the slow and tedious march to the bridge, in the midst of a violent rain-storm, some of the men lay down by the way to rest. Officers sent back for them failed to find them in the obscurity of the night, and these, with some stragglers, fell into the hands of the enemy. Lee had vanished into Virginia. His escape was reported at daylight by a negro who came from Williamsport. At first the rumor was discredited; but, to the bitter vexation of the army, which thus a second time had forced its antagonist to the brink of the Potomac, it proved only too true. Comparison of the invasive move ments of the war. In 1862 Lee crossed the Potomac on September 5th, and, having fought the battle of Antietam, recrossed on the 18th. In 1863 he again crossed on June 26th, and, having fought the battle of Gettysburg, recrossed on July 13th. In his first sortie he was 13 days in the Free States, and lost 30,000 men; in his second he was 17 days in those states, and lost 60,000 men. Few facts are more instructive to those who desire to compare the resources of the National government and the Confederacy, and the generalship of the commanders on the two sides, than those connected with these invasive movements. To say nothing of his Vicksburg campaign, Grant crossed the Rapidan, in his final campaign, on May 4, 1864, and maintained himself in the heart of Virginia for nearly a year, not coming back until his purpose was completed by the surrender of Lee. Sherman left Chattanooga on May 5, 1864, fought his way through three states, and never turned back. Even after he had received the surrender of his antagonist, Johnston, he marched onward through Virginia to Washington. They who amuse themselves with speculations on the abilities of the opposing generals should compare them not only in what they did against each other, but in what each did for himself under circumstances that were similar, as in these invasive movements. Lee reaches the Lee now continued his retreat up the valley of the Shenandoah, and through the gaps of the Rapidan. Blue Ridge, till he reached the south bank of the Rapidan, near Orange Court-house, where he took a defensive position to dispute the crossing of the river. Meade continued his flank pursuit by Harper's Ferry, Berlin, and Warrenton. His cavalry had crossed the Potomac on the 14th at Harper's Ferry, moving thence toward Martinsburg, where it had a combat with the Confederate |