We all got up at 3.30 A.M., and breakfasted a little before
daylight. Lawley insisted on riding, notwithstanding his illness. Captain and I
were in a dilemma for horses; but I was accommodated by Major Clark (of this
Staff), whilst the stout Austrian was mounted by Major Walton. The Austrian, in
spite of the early hour, had shaved his cheeks and ciréd his mustaches as
beautifully as if he was on parade at Vienna.
Colonel Sorrell, the Austrian, and I arrived at 5 A.M. at
the same commanding position we were on yesterday, and I climbed up a tree in
company with Captain Schreibert of the Prussian army. Just below us were seated
Generals Lee, Hill, Longstreet, and Hood, in consultation — the two latter
assisting their deliberations by the truly American custom of whittling sticks.
General Heth was also present; he was wounded in the head yesterday, and
although not allowed to command his brigade, he insists upon coming to the
field.
At 7 A.M. I rode over part of the ground with General
Longstreet, and saw him disposing M'Laws's division for to-day's fight. The
enemy occupied a series of high ridges, the tops of which were covered with
trees, but the intervening valleys between their ridges and ours were mostly
open, and partly under cultivation. The cemetery was on their right, and their
left appeared to rest upon a high rocky hill. The enemy's forces, which were
now supposed to comprise nearly the whole Potomac army, were concentrated into
a space apparently not more than a couple of miles in length. The Confederates
enclosed them in a sort of semicircle, and the extreme extent of our position
must have been from five to six miles at least. Ewell was on our left; his
headquarters in a church (with a high cupola) at Gettysburg; Hill in the
centre; and Longstreet on the right. Our ridges were also covered with pine-woods
at the tops, and generally on the rear slopes. The artillery of both sides
confronted each other at the edges of these belts of trees, the troops being
completely hidden. The enemy was evidently intrenched, but the Southerns had
not broken ground at all. A dead silence reigned till 4.45 P.M., and no one
would have imagined that such masses of men and such a powerful artillery were
about to commence the work of destruction at that hour.
Only two divisions of Longstreet were present today — viz.,
M'Laws's and Hood's — Pickett being still in the rear. As the whole morning was
evidently to be occupied in disposing the troops for the attack, I rode to the
extreme right with Colonel Manning and Major Walton, where we ate quantities of
cherries, and got a feed of corn for our horses. We also bathed in a small
stream, but not without some trepidation on my part, for we were almost beyond
the lines, and were exposed to the enemy's cavalry.
At 1 P.M. I met a quantity of Yankee prisoners who had been
picked up straggling. They told me they belonged to Sickles's corps (3d, I
think), and had arrived from Emmetsburg during the night About this time
skirmishing began along part of the line, but not heavily.
At 2 P.M. General Longstreet advised me, if I wished to have
a good view of the battle, to return to my tree of yesterday. I did so, and
remained there with Lawley and Captain Schreibert during the rest of the
afternoon. But until 4.45 P.M. all was profoundly still, and we began to doubt
whether a fight was coming off today at all. At that time, however, Longstreet
suddenly commenced a heavy cannonade on the right. Ewell immediately took it up
on the left. The enemy replied with at least equal fury, and in a few moments
the firing along the whole line was as heavy as it is possible to conceive. A
dense smoke arose for six miles; there was little wind to drive it away, and
the air seemed full of shells — each of which appeared to have a different
style of going, and to make a different noise from the others. The ordnance on
both sides is of a very varied description. Every now and then a caisson would
blow up — if a Federal one, a Confederate yell would immediately follow. The
Southern troops, when charging, or to express their delight, always yell in a
manner peculiar to themselves. The Yankee cheer is much more like ours; but the
Confederate officers declare that the rebel yell has a particular merit, and
always produces a salutary and useful effect upon their adversaries. A corps is
sometimes spoken of as a “good yelling regiment.”
So soon as the firing began, General Lee joined Hill just
below our tree, and he remained there nearly all the time, looking through his
field-glass — sometimes talking to Hill and sometimes to Colonel Long of his
Staff. But generally he sat quite alone on the stump of a tree. What I remarked
especially was, that during the whole time the firing continued, he only sent
one message, and only received one report. It is evidently his system to
arrange the plan thoroughly with the three corps commanders, and then leave to
them the duty of modifying and carrying it out to the best of their abilities.
When the cannonade was at its height, a Confederate band of
music, between the cemetery and ourselves, began to play polkas and waltzes,
which sounded very curious, accompanied by the hissing and bursting of the
shells.
At 5.45 all became comparatively quiet on our left and in
the cemetery; but volleys of musketry on the right told us that Longstreet's
infantry were advancing, and the onward progress of the smoke showed that he
was progressing favourably; but about 6.30 there seemed to be a check, and even
a slight retrograde movement Soon after 7 General Lee got a report by signal
from Longstreet to say “we are
doing well” A little before dark the firing dropped off in
every direction, and soon ceased altogether. We then received intelligence that
Longstreet had carried everything before him for some time, capturing several
batteries, and driving the enemy from his positions; but when Hill's Florida
Brigade and some other troops gave way, he was forced to abandon a small
portion of the ground he had won, together with all the captured guns, except
three. His troops, however, bivouacked during the night on ground occupied by
the enemy this morning.
Every one deplores that Longstreet will expose
himself in such a reckless manner. To-day he led a Georgian regiment in a
charge against a battery, hat in hand, and in front of everybody. General
Barksdale was killed and Semmes mortally wounded; but the most serious loss was
that of General Hood, who was badly wounded in the arm early in the day. I
heard that his Texans are in despair. Lawley and I rode back to the General's
camp, which had been moved to within a mile of the scene of action. Longstreet,
however, with most of his Staff, bivouacked on the field.
Major Fairfax arrived at about 10 P.M. in a very bad humour.
He had under his charge about 1000 to 1500 Yankee prisoners who had been taken
to-day; among them a general, whom I heard one of his men accusing of having
been “so G-d d----d drunk that he had turned his guns upon his own men.” But,
on the other hand, the accuser was such a thundering blackguard, and proposed
taking such a variety of oaths in order to escape from the U.S. army, that he
is not worthy of much credit. A large train of horses and mules, &c,
arrived to-day, sent in by General Stuart, and captured, it is understood, by
his cavalry, which had penetrated to within six miles of Washington.
SOURCE: Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle, Three
Months in the Southern States: April-June, 1863, p. 262
