MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE G. MEADE, U. S. A. Union Commander at the Battle of Gettysburg.
order, the rear, covered by the 7th Wisconsin, turning when necessary to check pursuit . Colonel Wainwright, mistaking the order, had clung with his artillery to Seminary Hill, until, seeing the infantry retreating to the town, he moved his batteries down the Cashtown pike until lapped on both sides by the enemy’s skirmishers, at close range, when they were compelled to abandon one gun on the road, all its horses being killed. The Eleventh Corps also left a disabled gun on the field. Of the troops who passed through the town, many, principally men of the Eleventh Corps, got entangled in the streets, lost their way, and were captured.
On ascending Cemetery Hill, the retreating troops found Steinwehr’s division in position covered by stone fences on the slopes, and occupying by their skirmishers the houses in front of their line. As they arrived they were formed, the Eleventh Corps on the right, the First Corps on the left of Steinwehr. As the batteries came up,
heavy losses, until finally all three reached the foot of Seminary Bidge, where Colonel Wain-wright, commanding the corps artillery, had planted twelve guns south of the Cashtown pike, with Stewart’s battery, manned in part by men of the Iron Brigade, north of it. Buford had already thrown half of Gamble’s dismounted men south of the Fairfield road. Heth’s division had suffered so severely that Pender’s had passed to its front, thus bringing fresh troops to bear on the exhausted Federal line.
It was about 4 p. M. when the whole Confederate line advanced to the final attack. On their right Gamble held Lane’s brigade for some time in check, Perrin’s and Scales’s suffered severely, and Scales’s was broken up, for Stewart, swinging half his guns, under Lieutenant Davison, upon the Cashtown pike, raked it. The whole corps being now heavily pressed and its right uncovered, Doubleday gave the order to fall back to Cemetery Hill, which was effected in comparatively good
ASSAULT OF BBOCKENBROUGH’S CONFEDERATE BRIGADE (HETH’S DIVISION) UPON THE STONE BARN OF THE MCPHERSON FARM.
and its left on the McPherson woods, ־where apart oi Archer’s Confederate brigade of Heth’s division was captured by Meredith’s brigade.
The iine of the stone barn was held by Stone’s brigade, Pennsylvania Bucktails (Doubleday’s division), its right resting on the Chambersburg pike (the left of the picture)
bers, and the troops retreated to Cemetery Hill, Ewell entering the town about 4:30 P. M. These retrograde movements had uncovered the flank of the First Corps and made its right untenable.
Meanwhile, that corps had been heavily engaged along its whole line; for, on the approach of Bodes, Hill attacked with both his divisions. There were thus opposed to the single disconnected Federal line south of the Cashtown pike two solid Confederate ones which outflanked their left a quarter of a mile or more. Biddle’s small command, less than a thousand men, after a severe contest was gradually forced back. In McPherson’s wood and beyond, Meredith’s and Dana’s brigades repeatedly repulsed their assailants, but as Biddle’s retirement uncovered their left, they too fell back to successive positions, from which they inflicted
The arrival of Early’s division had by this time brought an overwhelming force on the flank and rear of the Eleventh Corps. On the east of Eock Creek, Jones’s artillery battalion, within easy range, enfiladed its whole line and took it in reserve, while the brigades of Gordon, Hays, and Avery in line, with Smith’s in reserve, advanced about 4 p. M. upon Barlow’s position, Doles, of Eodes’s division, connecting with Gordon. An obstinate and bloody contest ensued, in which Barlow was desperately wounded, Wilkeson killed, and the whole corps forced back to its original line, on which, with the aid of Coster’s brigade and Heckman’s battery, drawn from Cemetery Hill, Sclrnrz endeavored to rally it and cover the town. The fighting here was well sustained, but the Confederate force was overpowering in num-
HALL’S BATTERY ON THE FIRST DAY RESISTING THE CONFEDERATE ADVANCE ON THE CHAMBERSBURG ROAD