Confederate Army at End of Third Day at Gettysburg

At night the Confederate army held the same position from which it had driven the enemy two days previous.

Continuing Battle of Gettysburg,
with a selection from The Lost Cause by Edward A. Pollard published in 1866. This selection is presented in 5 installments, each one 5 minutes long. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Battle of Gettysburg.

Time: July 1-3, 1863
Place: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

As Pickett got well under the enemy’s fire, our batteries ceased firing, for want, it is said, of ammunition. It was a fearful moment, one in which was to be tested the pride and mettle of glorious Virginia. Into the sheets of artillery fire advanced the unbroken lines of Pickett’s brave Virginians. They have reached the Emmetsburg road, and here they meet a severe fire from heavy masses of the enemy’s infantry, posted behind the stone fence, while their artillery, now free from the annoyance of our artillery, turn their whole fire upon this devoted band. Still they remain firm. Now again they advance. They reach the works —- the contest rages with intense fury —- men fight almost hand to hand —- the Red Cross and the Stars and Stripes wave defiantly in close proximity. A Federal officer dashes forward in front of his shrinking columns, and with flashing sword urges them to stand. The noble Garnett is dead, Armistead wounded, and the brave Kemper, with hat in hand, still cheering on his men, falls from his horse. But Kemper and Armistead have already planted their banners in the enemy’s works. The glad shout of victory is already heard.

[A correspondent of a Northern paper thus alludes to the traces of the struggle at the cemetery:

Monuments and headstones lie here and there overturned. Graves, once carefully tended by some loving hand, have been trampled by horses’ feet until the vestiges of verdure have dis appeared. The neat and well-trained shrubbery has vanished or is but a broken and withered mass of tangled brushwood. On one grave lies a dead artillery horse fast decomposing under a July sun. On another lie the torn garments of some wounded soldier, stained and saturated with his blood. Across a small headstone bearing the words “To the memory of our beloved child Mary’ lie the fragments of a musket, shattered by a cannon-shot. In the center of the space enclosed by an iron fence and containing a half-dozen graves, a few rails are still standing where they were erected by our soldiers and served to support the shelter tents of a bivouacking squad. A family shaft has been broken to fragments by a shell, and only the base remains, with a portion of the inscription thereon. Stone after stone felt the effect of the feu d’enfer that was poured upon the crest of the hill. Cannon thundered, and foot and horse soldiers trampled over the sleeping-places of the dead. Other dead were added to those who are resting there, and many a wounded soldier still lives to remember the contest above those silent graves.”]

But where is Pettigrew’s division? — where are the supports? The raw troops had faltered and the gallant Pettigrew himself had been wounded in vain attempts to rally them. Alas, the victory was to be relinquished again. Pickett is left alone to contend with the masses of the enemy now pouring in upon him on every side. Now the enemy move around strong flanking bodies of infantry, and are rapidly gaining Pickett’s rear. The order is given to fall back, and our men begin the movement, doggedly contesting for every inch of ground. The enemy press heavily our retreating line, and many noble spirits who had passed safely through the fiery ordeal of the advance and charge now fall on the right and on the left.

This division of Virginia troops, small at first, with ranks now torn and shattered, most of the officers killed or wounded, no valor able to rescue victory from such a grasp, annihilation or capture inevitable, slowly, reluctantly fell back. It was not given to these few remaining brave men to accomplish human impossibilities. The enemy dared not follow them beyond their works. But the day was already lost. The field was covered with Confederates slowly and sulkily retiring in small parties under a heavy fire of artillery. There was no panic.

Never did a commanding general behave better in such trying circumstances than did Lee. He was truly great in disaster. An English colonel who witnessed the fight says:

I joined General Lee, who had in the mean while come to the front on becoming aware of the disaster. General Lee was perfectly sublime. He was engaged in rallying and encouraging the broken troops, and was riding about a little in front of the wood quite alone —- the whole of his staff being engaged in a similar manner farther to the rear. His face, which is always placid and cheerful, did not show signs of the slightest disappointment, care, or annoyance, and he was addressing to every soldier he met a few words of encouragement, such as, ‘All this will come right in the end; we’ll talk it over afterward; but in the meatime all good men must rally. We want all good and true men just now.’ He spoke to all the wounded men that passed him, and the slightly wounded he exhorted ‘to bind up their hurts and take up a musket’ in this emergency. Very few failed to answer his appeal, and I saw many badly wounded men take off their hats and cheer him.”

At night the Confederate army held the same position from which it had driven the enemy two days previous. The starry sky hung over a field of hideous carnage. In the series of engagements a few pieces of artillery were captured by the Confederates and nearly seven thousand prisoners taken, two thousand of whom were paroled on the field.

Orville J. Victor begins here. Edward A. Pollard begins here. Abraham Lincoln begins here.

More information here and here, and below.

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