Part 44 (2/2)
( 1) _Mana.s.sas to Appomattox_ (Longstreet), pp. 242, 257, 401.
( 2) _Ibid_., 263.
( 3) _Abraham Lincoln_ (Nicolay and Hay), vol. vi., p. 159.
( 4) In letters, dated in May, 1863, to Col. Wm. S. Furay (then a correspondent (Y. S.) of the Cincinnati _Gazette_ with Rosecrans'
army in Tennessee, I detailed the general plan of Lee's advance northward, and gave the date when the movement would commence.
( 5) _War Records_, vol. xxvii., Part III., p. 36.
( 6) _War Records_, vol. xxvii., Part II., p. 125. Piatt, June 11th, wired Schenck from Winchester, after inspecting the place, that Milroy ”can whip anything the rebels can fetch here.”--_Ibid_., p. 161.
( 7) _War Records_, vol. xxvii., Part II., pp. 130-7, 159-81.
( 8) A few days before this event I peremptorily ordered all officers' wives and citizens visiting in my command to go North, but the ladies held an indignation meeting and waited on General Milroy, with the request that he countermand my order, which he did, at the same time saying something about my being too apprehensive of danger. I had the pleasure of meeting and greeting these same ladies in Was.h.i.+ngton, July 5th, on their arrival from Winchester _via_ Staunton, Richmond, _Castle-Thunder_, the James and Potomac Rivers.
( 9) _War Records_, Early's Rep., vol. xxvii., Part II., p. 460.
(10) His son, Major Hugh H. Gordon, served efficiently on my staff in Florida, Georgia, and Cuba (Spanish War), as did Captain J. E.
B. Stuart, son of the great Confederate cavalry General; also Major John Gary Evans (ex-Governor South Carolina), and others closely related to distinguished Confederate officers. See Appendix F.
(11) _War Records_, vol. xxvii., Part II., p. 491.
(12) _War Records_, vol. xxvii., Part II., p. 46.
(13) General Johnson's Report (Confederate), _War Records_, vol.
xxvii., Part II., p. 501.
(14) An orderly who attempted to carry on horseback a valise containing papers, etc., of mine, threw it way in a field as he rode into the mountains. A Quakeress, Miss Mary Lupton, witnessed the act from her home, and found the valise and returned it to me with all its contents, after the battle of Opequon, Sept. 19, 1864.
(15) _War Records_, vol. xxvii., Part II., p. 136.
(16) _War Records_, vol. xxvii., Part II., pp. 501-2.
(17) _Ibid_., p. 443.
(18) _War Records_, vol. xxvii., Part II., pp. 88-197.
CHAPTER II Invasion of Pennsylvania--Campaign and Battle of Gettysburg--Lee's Retreat Across the Potomac, and Losses in Both Armies
At Harper's Ferry, June 16th, I was a.s.signed to command a brigade under General W. H. French, a regular officer. General Joseph Hooker, in command of the Army of the Potomac, June 25th, ordered French to be ready to march at a moment's notice. French took position on Maryland Heights, where, June 27th, Hooker visited him and gave him orders to prepare to evacuate both the Heights and Harper's Ferry. French had under him there about 10,000 effective men. Halleck, on being notified of Hooker's purpose to evacuate these places and to unite French's command with the Army of the Potomac for the impending battle, countermanded Hooker's order; thereupon the latter, by telegram from Sandy Hook, requested to be relieved from the command of that army. His request being persisted in, he was, on June 28th, relieved, and Major-General George G.
Meade was, by the President, a.s.signed to succeed him. Meade, also feeling in need of reinforcements, on the same day asked permission to order French, with his forces, to join him. Halleck, though placing French under Meade's command, did not consent to this.
French, however, with all his troops (save my brigade), under orders from Was.h.i.+ngton, abandoned Harper's Ferry and Maryland Heights, and became a corps of observation to operate in the vicinity of Frederick, Maryland, in the rear of the Army of the Potomac. And though no enemy was threatening, nor likely to do so soon, I was ordered to dismantle the fortified heights, load the guns and stores on Chesapeake and Ohio Ca.n.a.l boats, and escort them to Was.h.i.+ngton, repairing the ca.n.a.l and locks on the way. This work was done thoroughly, and we arrived with a fleet of twenty-six boats in Was.h.i.+ngton shortly after midnight, July 4, 1863. It was my first visit to that city.
Under orders from Halleck, I started on the 6th, by rail, to reoccupy Harper's Ferry, but was stopped by Meade at Frederick, and there again reported to French. French had been a.s.signed to command the Third Army Corps (to succeed General Daniel E. Sickles, wounded at Gettysburg), and his late command became the Third Division of that corps, under Elliott; my brigade, consisting of the 110th and 122d Ohio, 6th Maryland, and 138th Pennsylvania Infantry regiments, became the Second Brigade of this division. This brigade (with, later, three regiments added) was not broken up during the war, and was generally known as ”_Keifer's Brigade_.”
It is not my purpose to attempt to write the full story of the battle of Gettysburg, the greatest, measured by the results, of the many great battles of the war. Gettysburg marks the high tide of the Rebellion. From it dates the certain downfall of the Confederacy, though nearly two years of war followed, and more blood was spilled after Lee sullenly commenced his retreat from the heights of Gettysburg than before.
About this stage of the war, President Lincoln took an active interest in the movements of the armies, although he generally refrained from absolutely directing them in the field. It was not unusual for army commanders to appeal to him for opinions as to military movements, and he was free in making suggestions, volunteering to take the responsibility if they were adopted and his plans miscarried. Hooker, in an elaborate dispatch (June 15th) relating to the antic.i.p.ated movements of Lee's army from the Rappahannock to the northward, said:
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