Part 5

In October General John C. Pemberton, a Philadelphian by birth, succeeded Van Dorn in command of the Confederate forces at Vicksburg. General Grant planned to divide the army of the Tennessee, Sherman taking part of it from Memphis down the Mississippi on transports while he would move overland with the rest of the army and coöperate with Sherman before Vicksburg. But the whole plan proved a failure, through the energies of Van Dorn and others of the Confederate army in destroying the Federal lines of communication.

Sherman, however, with an army of about 32,000 men, left Memphis on December 20th, and landed a few days later some miles above Vicksburg, and on the 29th made a daring attack on the Confederate lines at Chickasaw Bayou, and suffered a decisive repulse with a loss of 2,000 men.

Sherman now found the northern pathway to Vicksburg impassable and withdrew his men to the river, and, to make up triple disaster to the Federals, General Nathan Forest, one of the brilliant Confederate cavalry leaders, with 2,500 horsemen, dashed through the country west of Grant's army, tore up many miles of railroad and destroyed all telegraph lines and thus cut off all communication of the Federals.

In the meantime General Van Dorn pounced upon Holly Springs, capturing the guard of 1,500 men and burning Grant's great store of supplies, estimated to be worth a million and a half dollars, thus leaving Grant without supplies, and for many days without communication with the outside world. It was not until about the middle of January that he heard, through Washington, of the defeat of Sherman at Chickasaw Bayou.

Grant changed his plan of attack and decided to move his army below Vicksburg and approach the city from the south. Another plan was to cut a channel through the peninsula opposite Vicksburg and again try the project of changing the bed of the Mississippi so as to leave Vicksburg some miles inland. For six weeks thousands of men worked on this ditch; early in March the river began to rise and on the morning of the 8th it broke through the embankments and the men had to run for their lives. Many horses were drowned and great numbers of implements submerged. The "Father of waters" had put a decisive veto on the project, and the same was abandoned.

On the night of April 16th Porter ran past the batteries of Vicksburg with his fleet after days of preparation. They left their station near the mouth of the Yazoo about nine o'clock. Suddenly the flash of musketry fire pierced the darkness. A storm of shot and shell was rained upon the passing vessels. The water of the river was lashed into foam by the shot and shell from the batteries. The gunboats answered with their cannon. The air was filled with flying missiles. The transport, Henry Clay, caught fire and burned to the water's edge. By three in the morning the fleet was below the city and ready to coöperate with Grant's army.

Grant's army at that time numbered about 43,000 men, and he decided to make a campaign into the interior of Mississippi while waiting for General Banks from Baton Rouge to join him. The Confederate army under Pemberton numbered about 40,000, and about 15,000 more Confederates were at Jackson, Miss., under command of General Joseph E. Johnston. It was against Johnston's army that Grant decided to move. Johnston, on being attacked by Grant, fell back from Jackson and took a position on Champion's Hill, where a hard battle was fought in which the Confederates were greatly outnumbered and gave way in confusion. Part of Pemberton's army had arrived and was engaged in this battle. Pemberton retreated towards Vicksburg, closely followed by Grant, and several short engagements between the two armies took place on the road to Vicksburg. The Federal army now invested the city, occupying the surrounding hills. Around the doomed city gleamed the thousands of bayonets of the Union army. The city was filled with soldiers and the citizens of the country who had fled there for refuge and were now penned in.

On May 22d Grant ordered a grand assault by his whole army. The troops, flushed with their victories of the last few days, were eager for the attack. It is said that his columns were made up with his taller soldiers in front and the second in stature in the next line, and so on down, so as to save exposure to the fire of the enemy.

At the appointed time the order was passed down the line to move forward, and the columns leaped from their hiding places and started on their disastrous march in the face of a murderous fire from the defenders of the city, only to be mowed down by the sweeping fire from the Confederate batteries. Others came, crawling over the bodies of their fallen comrades, but at every charge they were met by the missiles of death. Thus it continued hour after hour until the coming of darkness. The assault had failed and the Union forces retired within their entrenchments before the city. This is considered as one of the most brave and disastrous assaults of the war.

The army now settled down to the wearisome siege, and for six weeks they encircled the city with trenches, approaching nearer and nearer to the defending walls. One by one the defending batteries were silenced. On the afternoon of June 25th a redoubt of the Confederate works was blown up with a mine. When the same exploded the Federals began to dash into the opening, only to meet with a withering fire from an interior parapet which the Confederates had constructed in the anticipation of this event.

Grant was constantly receiving reënforcements, and before the end of the siege his army numbered 70,000.

Day and night the roar of artillery continued without ceasing. Shrieking shells from Porter's fleet rose in grand curves, either bursting in midair or on the streets of the city, spreading havoc in all directions.

The people of the city burrowed into the ground for safety, their walls of clay being shaken by the roaring battles that raged above the ground. The supply of food became scarcer day by day, and by the end of June the entire city was in a complete famine. They had been living for several days upon corn meal, beans and mule meat, and were now facing their last enemy, death by starvation.

At ten o'clock on the morning of July 3d the firing ceased and a strange quietness rested over all. Pemberton had opened negotiations with Grant for the capitulation of the city. It is strange to say that on this very day the final chapter at Gettysburg was being written.

On the following morning Pemberton marched his 30,000 men out of the city and surrendered them as prisoners of war. They were released on parole.

This was the largest army ever surrendered at one time.

BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG

Our colonial fathers from North and South fought together when they brought this republic into being, defended it together in the war of 1812, and triumphed together when they carried the Stars and Stripes into the heritage of the Montezumas. The final and crucial test of the republic's strength and durability was the combat on the field of battle in the war between the states. The battle of Gettysburg is conceded to be the turning point in that war. Abraham Lincoln said in his Gettysburg address, in November, 1863: "This nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, is now engaged in a great civil war, testing whether this nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure."

The great question of that day was the question of state rights and relationship between state and federal government.

It had now come to the point where it could not be determined in the councils of peace, although the illustrious Henry Clay and other statesmen of his day had been the means of successfully deferring from time to time this crisis for almost a half century.

Gettysburg is a small, quiet town among the hills of Adams county, in southeastern Pennsylvania, and in 1863 contained about 1,500 inhabitants. It had been founded by James Gettys in about 1780. He probably never dreamed that his name, thus given to the village, would become famous in history for all time.

The hills around Gettysburg are little more than general swells of ground, and many of them were covered with timber when the legions of the North and South fought out the destinies of the republic on those memorable July days in 1863.

Lee's army was flushed with the victories of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, and public opinion was demanding an invasion of the North.

Lee crossed the Potomac early in June, after leaving General Stuart with his cavalry and a part of Hill's corps to prevent Hooker from pursuing. He began to concentrate his army around Hagerstown, Md., and prepare for a campaign in Pennsylvania. His army was organized into three corps under the respective commands of Longstreet, Ewell and A. P. Hill. Lee had driven his army so as to enter Pennsylvania by different routes, and to assess the towns along the way with large sums of money. In the latter part of June Lee was startled by the information that Stuart had failed to detain Hooker, and that the Federals were in hot pursuit. He soon conceived that the two armies must soon come together in a mighty death struggle, which meant that a great battle must be fought, a greater battle than this western world has heretofore known, which is claimed by historians as being one of the decisive battles of the world.

The Army of the Potomac had changed leaders, and George Gordon Meade was now its commander, having succeeded Hooker on June 28th. Thus for the third time the Army of the Potomac in ten months had a new commander.

The two great armies were scattered over portions of Maryland and southern Pennsylvania. Both were marching northward along parallel lines, the Federals endeavoring to stay between Lee's army and Washington. It was plain that they must soon come together in a gigantic conflict; but just where the shock of battle was to take place was yet unknown.

Meade sent General Buford in advance with 4,000 cavalry to intercept the Confederate advance guard.

On the night of June 30th Buford encamped on a hill a mile west from Gettysburg, and here on the following morning the great battle had its beginning.

On the morning of July 1st the two armies were still well scattered, the extremes forty miles apart. General Reynolds, with two corps of the Union army was but a few miles away and was hastening to Gettysburg, while Longstreet and Hill were approaching from the west, with Hill's corps several miles in advance.

Buford opened battle against the advance division of Hill's corps under General Heth. Reynolds soon joined and the first day's battle was now in full progress. General Reynolds, while placing his troops in line of battle early in the day, received a death shot in the head by a Confederate sharpshooter. This was a great loss to the Federals, as he was one of the bravest and most able generals in the Union army. No casualty of the war brought more widespread mourning to the North than the death of General John F. Reynolds. But even this calamity did not stay the fury of the battle.

Early in the afternoon the Federals were heavily reënforced, and A. P. Hill had arrived on the field with the balance of his corps, and the roar of battle was unceasing. About the middle of the afternoon a breeze lifted the smoke from the field and revealed that the Federals were falling back towards Gettysburg. They were hard pressed by the Confederates and were pushed back through the town with the loss of many prisoners. The Federals took a position on Cemetery Hill and the first day's battle was over.

If the Confederates had known the disorganized condition of the Federal troops, they might have pursued and captured a large part of the army.

It is thought by many that if "Stonewall" Jackson had lived to be there that at this particular time is where he would have delivered his crushing blow to the Federals and no doubt would have changed the final result of the battle. Meade was still some miles from the field, but on hearing of the death of Reynolds sent General Hancock to take command until he himself should arrive.

The Union loss on the first day was severe. A great commander had fallen and they had suffered the fearful loss of 10,000 men.

Hancock arrived late in the afternoon, after riding at full speed. His presence brought an air of confidence, and his promise of heavy reënforcements all tended to inspire renewed hope in the ranks of the discouraged army.

Meade reached the scene late at night and chose to make this field the place of a general engagement. Lee had come to the same decision, and both called on their outlying legions to make all possible speed to Gettysburg. The night was spent in the marshaling of troops, getting position, planting artillery, and bands playing at intervals on the arrival of new divisions on the field.

General Gordon says that during the night the sound of axes and the falling of trees in the Federal entrenchments could plainly be heard, and that he became convinced during the night that by morning they would be so well fortified on Cemetery Hill that their position would be almost impregnable, and that he succeeded in getting a council of officers during the night to take under advisement a night attack on the enemy, but was told that General Lee had given orders that no further attack should be made until Longstreet arrived, and he had not yet arrived.

The dawn of July 2d broke into a beautiful summer day. Both armies hesitated to begin the battle and remained inactive until in the afternoon.

The fighting on that day was confined chiefly to the two extremes, leaving the center inactive. Longstreet commanded the Confederate right and the Union left was commanded by General Daniel E. Sickles, whose division lay directly opposite that of Longstreet. The Confederate left was commanded by General Richard Ewell, who succeeded to the command of this division after the death of "Stonewall" Jackson at Chancellorsville. While the Federal right, stationed on Culp's Hill was commanded by General Slocum.

Between these armies was a hollow into which the anxious farmers had driven and penned large numbers of cattle, which they thought would be a place of safety, and could not conceive that any battle could affect this place of refuge, but when the battle began and the stream of shells was directed against Round Top this place of refuge became a raging inferno of bursting shells.

There was a gate at the entrance of the local cemetery at Gettysburg that had written on it this sign: "All persons found using firearms in these grounds will be prosecuted with the utmost rigor of the law." Many a soldier must have smiled at these words, for this gateway became the very center of the crudest use of firearms yet seen on this "terrestrial ball."

The plan of General Meade was to have General Sickles connect his division with that of Hancock and extend southward near the base of the Round Tops. Sickles found this ground, in his opinion, low and disadvantageous and advanced his division to higher ground in front, placing his men along the Emmettsburg road and back toward the Trostle farm and the wheat-field, thus forming an angle at the peach orchard, thus leaving this division alone in its position far in advance of the other Federal lines. This position taken by Sickles was in disobedience of orders from General Meade, and was considered by Meade, as well as President Lincoln, as being a great mistake, but General Sickles always maintained that he did right, and that his position was well taken.

Longstreet was quick to see this apparent mistake and marched his troops along Sickles' front entirely overlapping the left wing of the Union army. Lee gave orders to Longstreet to make a general attack, and the boom of his cannon announced the beginning of the second day's battle. The Union forces answered quickly with their batteries and the fight extended from the peach orchard along the whole line to the base of Little Round Top. The musketry opened all along the line until there was one continuous roar. Longstreet swept forward in a line or battle a mile and a half long. He pressed back the Union forces and for a time it looked as though the Federals would be routed in utter confusion.

At the extreme left, near the Trostle house, was stationed John Biglow, in command of a Massachusetts battery, with orders to hold his position at all hazards. He defended his position well, but was finally routed with great loss by overwhelming numbers. This attack was made by Longstreet again and again, and was one of the bloodiest spots on the field at Gettysburg.

The most desperate struggle of the day was to get possession of Little Round Top, which was the key to the whole battleground west and south of Cemetery Ridge. General Longstreet sent General Hood with his division to occupy it. The Federals, under General Warren, defended this position and were charged on by General Hood's division with fixed bayonets time after time, which finally became a hand-to-hand conflict, but the Confederates were pressed down the hillside at the point of the bayonet, and thus was ended one of the most severe hand-to-hand conflicts yet known.

Little Round Top was saved to the Union army, but the cost was appalling. The hill was covered with hundreds of the slain. Many of the Confederate sharpshooters had taken position among the crevasses of the rocks in the Devil's Den, where they could overlook the position on Little Round Top, and their unerring aim spread death among the Federal officers. General Weed was mortally wounded, and, as General Hazlett was stooping to receive his last message, a sharpshooter's bullet laid him dead across the body of his chief.

During this attack, and for some time thereafter, the battle continued in the valley below, where many thousands were engaged. Longstreet and Sickles were engaged in a determined conflict, and it was apparent to all engaged that a decisive battle was being fought, and they were making a determined effort. Sickles' line was being pressed back to the base of the hill. His leg was shattered by a bursting shell, while scores of his officers and thousands of his men lay on the field to dream of battlefields no more. The coming of darkness ended the struggle. This valley has been rightly called the "Valley of Death."

While this battle was going on in this part of the field another was being fought at the other extreme end of the lines. General Ewell was making an attack on Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill, held by Slocum, who had been weakened by the sending of a large portion of his corps to the assistance of General Sickles. Ewell had three divisions, two of which were commanded by Generals Early and Johnston. Early made the attack on Cemetery Hill, but was repulsed after a bloody and desperate hand-to-hand fight. Johnston's attack on Culp's Hill was more successful, but was at length repulsed after the Federals had been heavily reënforced.

Thus closed the second day's battle of Gettysburg. The harvest of death had been great. The Federal loss during the two days was about 20,000 men; the Confederate loss was nearly as great. The Confederates had gained an apparent advantage on Culp's Hill, but the Union lines, except as to this point, were unbroken.

On the night of July 2d Lee held council of war with his generals and decided to make a grand assault on Meade's center the following day. Against this decision Longstreet protested in vain, but Lee was encouraged by the arrival of Pickett's division and Stuart's cavalry, which had not yet been engaged. Meade had held council with his officers, and had come to a like decision to defend.

That night a brilliant July moon shed its luster upon the ghastly field, over which thousands of men lay unable to rise. With many their last battle was over, but there were great numbers of wounded who were calling for the kindly touch of a helping hand. Nor did they call wholly in vain. They were carried to the improvised hospitals where they were given attention. The dead were buried in unknown graves soon to be forgotten except by their loving mothers.

All through the night the Confederates were massing their artillery along Seminary Ridge. The disabled horses were being replaced by others. The ammunition was being replenished, and all was being made ready for their work of destruction on the morrow.

The Federals were diligently laboring in the moonlight arranging their batteries on Cemetery Hill. The coming of morning revealed the two parallel lines of cannon which signified too well the story of what the day would bring forth.

On the first day of July, 1863, Pickett's division was encamped near Chambersburg, Penn., about twenty miles from Gettysburg.

This division was composed of three brigades, commanded by Armistead, Garnett and Kemper. They had no intimation that they would be called on to take part in the battle that was going on at Gettysburg. They had been following up as the rear guard of the Army of Northern Virginia.

The men were quietly sleeping after a most fatiguing march, and many no doubt dreaming of their homes along the Atlantic and Chesapeake, and others of their beautiful mountains and beautiful valleys, and in their dreams, perhaps, felt the warm kiss of their loved ones. All at once the long roll was sounded, and these visions vanished as they awoke and realized that grim war was still rampant. The division was ordered, about 1 A. M. on the morning of July 2d, to pack up and make ready to march, and while doing this it was rumored along the lines that Hood's division of Texans had been repulsed in charging Cemetery Heights at Gettysburg with frightful loss, and that it was the intention of General Lee that their division should charge the strong position as a forlorn hope.

About 3 A. M., on July 2d, the division began to move towards Gettysburg and marched as rapidly as circumstances would permit, as the roads were blocked with wagons, artillery, and the wounded of both armies. At length it arrived at about two o'clock in the evening within two miles of Gettysburg and immediately went into camp. While they were doing so a courier rode up and informed the officers that McLaws' division of Georgians had just made a charge on Cemetery Heights and had been repulsed with great slaughter. This division, together with Hood's and Pickett's, made up Longstreet's corps, and it seemed that each of his divisions was to have the honor of making an assault on Cemetery Heights. General Pickett now informed his men that he had orders to hurl his division against this position on the next day unless the artillery should succeed in dislodging the enemy.

On the following day this division took position in line of battle directly behind the Confederate artillery line on Seminary Ridge, with a line of timber between, and had orders to lie down. General Lee had massed in front of the division about 120 pieces of artillery, and they were to open on Cemetery Heights and endeavor if possible to dislodge the enemy. This cannonading began about noon, and was answered by the enemy with a hundred pieces. A more terrific fire has never been witnessed by man than occurred there on that July afternoon. The earth was shaken by its roar, such as probably the younger Pliny mentioned in his description of the eruption of Vesuvius when Pompeii and Herculaneum were destroyed. The sky was black with smoke, and livid with the flame belching from the mouth of the cannon.