Read an Excerpt
chapter{Section 4THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG INTRODUCTION THE man who at this remove from the events in question ventures upon a fresh survey of the campaign and battle of Gettysburg, particularly in view of the body of literature already bearing on that theme, owes to himself and to the public a representation of the sufficing reasons which may be alleged to justify the enterprise. . Accordingly, my motives in the preparation of this work, and an intimation of the special features which distinguish it, may herewith be rehearsed. (1) Although but a stripling, I was an officer in the battle. While serving as First Lieutenant, Company B, Eighty-fourth Pennsylvania Infantry, I was detached from my regiment, at the opening of the campaign, two days after we had left our winter rendezvous at Falmouth, and assigned to duty at the headquarters of that great soldier, Brig. Gen. Andrew A. Humphreys, as assistant provost marshal, Second Division, Third Army Corps. In this capacity I took part in the campaign, my duties on the march and in battle giving me unusual opportunities, in view of my youth, to be in personal touch with the great movement. (2) For a dozen years after the war I resided almost continuously in the Cumberland Valley, Pennsylvania, and in Adams County adjoining, of which Gettysburg is the county-seat, for three years of that time in Gettysburg itself; my duties as a "circuit-rider" leading me in due time, week by week, over all the roads traversed by the two armies which fought on that field. I thus became in a singular way familiar with every village, thoroughfare, and mountain-pass connected in any way with the campaign, from the Potomac to the Susquehanna and throughoutthe intervening territory. During those years the different landscapes, along with th...
