Part 49 (2/2)

416. Lee's Second Invasion, 1863.--”Fighting Joe Hooker” was now in command of the Army of the Potomac. Outwitting Lee, he gained the rear of the Confederate lines on Marye's Heights, But Lee fiercely attacked him at Chancellorsville and drove him back across the Rappahannock. Then Lee again crossed the Potomac and invaded the North. This time he penetrated to the heart of Pennsylvania. Hooker moved on parallel lines, always keeping between Lee and the city of Was.h.i.+ngton. At length, in the midst of the campaign, Hooker asked to be relieved, and George G. Meade became the fifth and last chief of the Army of the Potomac.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BATTLEFIELD OF GETTYSBURG, LOOKING SOUTH FROM ROUND TOP.]

[Sidenote: Lee retires.]

[Sidenote: Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863.]

417. Gettysburg, July 1, 1863.--Meade now moved the Union army toward Lee's line of communication with Virginia. Lee at once drew back. Both armies moved toward Gettysburg, where the roads leading southward came together. In this way the two armies came into contact on July i, 1863. The Southerners were in stronger force at the moment and drove the Union soldiers back through the town to the high land called Cemetery Ridge. This was a remarkably strong position, with Culp's Hill at one end of the line and the Round Tops at the other end. Meade determined to fight the battle at that spot and hurried up all his forces.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAP: Battle of Gettysburg.]

[Sidenote: The second day.]

418. Gettysburg, July 2, 1863.--At first matters seemed to go badly with the Union army. Its left flank extended forward from Little Round Top into the fields at the foot of the ridge. The Confederates drove back this part of the Union line. But they could not seize Little Round Top. On this day also the Confederates gained a foothold on Culp's Hill.

[Sidenote: The third day. _Source-Book_, 323-327.]

[Sidenote: Pickett's charge. _Hero Tales_, 227-236.]

[Sidenote: It fails.]

[Sidenote: Lee retreats, July 4, 1863.]

419. Gettysburg, July 3, 1863.--Early on this morning the Union soldiers drove the Confederates away from Culp's Hill and held the whole ridge. Now again, as at Malvern Hill (p. 321), Lee had fought the Army of the Potomac to a standstill. But he would not admit failure. Led by Pickett of Virginia, thirteen thousand men charged across the valley between the two armies directly at the Union center. Some of them even penetrated the Union lines. But there the line stopped. Slowly it began to waver. Then back the Confederates went--all who escaped. The battle of Gettysburg was won. Lee faced the Army of the Potomac for another day and then retreated. In this tremendous conflict the Confederates lost twenty-two thousand five hundred men killed and wounded and five thousand taken prisoners by the Northerners--a total loss of twenty-eight thousand out of eighty thousand in the battle. The Union army numbered ninety-three thousand men and lost twenty-three thousand, killed and wounded. Vicksburg and Gettysburg cost the South sixty-five thousand fighting men--a loss that could not be made good. We must now turn to eastern Tennessee.

[Sidenote: Rosecrans and Bragg, 1863.]

[Sidenote: Chickamauga, September, 1863.]

[Sidenote: Thomas and Sheridan.]

[Sidenote: Grant in command in the West.]

420. Chickamauga, September, 1863.--For six months after Murfreesboro' (p. 326) Rosecrans and Bragg remained in their camps. In the summer of 1863 Rosecrans, by a series of skillful marchings, forced Bragg to abandon Chattanooga. But Bragg was now greatly strengthened by soldiers from the Mississippi and by Longstreet's division from Lee's army in Virginia. He turned on Rosecrans, and attacked him at Chickamauga Creek. The right wing of the Union army was driven from the field. But Thomas, ”the Rock of Chickamauga,” with his men stood fast.

Bragg attacked him again and again, and failed every time, although he had double Thomas's numbers. Rosecrans, believing the battle to be lost, had ridden off to Chattanooga, but Sheridan aided Thomas as well as he could. The third day Thomas and Bragg kept their positions, and then the Union soldiers retired unpursued to Chattanooga. The command of the whole army at Chattanooga was now given to Thomas, and Grant was placed in control of all the Western armies.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GENERAL THOMAS.]

[Sidenote: Sherman's attack.]

[Sidenote: Hooker's attack.]

[Sidenote: Thomas's attack.]

[Sidenote: Rout of the Confederates, November, 1863.]

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