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414 NortH CAaro.tina Troops, 1861-’65.

more distinct; a rush forward and the Stars and Stripes were
seen in full retreat. As the conflict neared our position the
effect was marvelous; the men were wild with excitement,
and when their time came they went in with the wildest of en-
thusiasm, for from where they stood they could see two miles
of the enemy’s line in full retreat. It looked indeed as if
the end of the war had come. The Fifty-seventh Regiment
was on the extreme left of the Confederate line, and its op-
ponents broke at the first fire, in fact they scarcely waited to
receive the fire, and consequently the loss of the regiment at
this point was comparatively slight. On the right of the
brigade, however, the Sixth and Twenty-first Regiments had
a bloody combat with their portion of the enemy’s line. The
Federal troops retreated to Cemetery Hill, broken and ap-
parently utterly routed. There was not an officer, not even a
man, that did not expect that the war would be closed upon
the hill that evening, for there was still two hours of day-
light when the final charge was made, yet for reasons that
have never been explained, nor ever will be, under the eye
of that matchless commander, that the South loves and re-
veres, and the whole world honors, some one made a blunder
that lost the battle of Gettysburg, and, humanly speaking, the
Confederate cause.

CEMETERY HILL.

During the night of the 1st, the brigade lay in position be-
tween the town and Cemetery Hill. The night passed qui-
etly, except that we could hear the picks and shovels of the
enemy engaged in fortifying their line, and the rumble of
guns and the tramp of infantry, as at intervals during the
night their reinforcements arrived. When morning came,
they had worked wonders in fortifying that hill in so short a
time. Towards evening heavy cannonading began on our
right, extending all along the full extent of our line from
the town towards Round Top. Immediately afterwards
Longstreet assailed this position with part of his corps, but
was unsuccessful. Late in the evening General Hays, of
Louisiana, received orders to attack the ridge in front of us
with his brigade and ours, he being the senior of Colonel

Firry-SEVENTH REGIMENT. 415

Isaac E. Avery, who was in command of our brigade
(Hoke’s). The Louisiana brigade, though composed of five
regiments, was small in numbers, and of our brigade only
three regiments were present, the Fifty-fourth having been
detached at Harper’s Ferry on special duty. All during the
day these two brigades, Hoke’s and Hays’, had lain quietly
in a depression that in some measure protected them from
the fire of the enemy’s guns. The sun was low when the
order came, and when the bugle sounded the advance, the line
advanced in beautiful order, and as it pointed to the south-
west there was a glint all along the line of bayonets that was
very striking and marked how beautifully they were aligned.
In an instant after becoming visible the enemy opened fire
with artillery, but the brigades went forward in the same beau-
tiful order across the interposing valley lying between the
town and Cemetery Hill. Not only from the front but
away out towards Culp’s Hill, on the enemy’s extreme right,
artillery had opened on us. Before the hill was reached,
the musketry fire had become very heavy, and the Fifty-sev-
enth Regiment, which was on the extreme left of the line,
suffered heavily from both artillery and infantry. At the
point where this attack was made there was a sort of bay or
indentation in the ridge which compelled the Fifty-seventh
Regiment, or rather the left battalion of it, to swing round
almost half a turn before it struck the face of the ridge. In
the meantime the Sixth and Twenty-first Regiments and the

‘right battalion of the Fifty-seventh had reached the foot of

the ridge and were driving the enemy from his intrenchments
up the hill, so that when the Fifty-seventh was fully in posi-
tion a rush was made and the enemy driven to the top and
over the crest of the hill. There was but little daylight left
when the attack commenced and twilight and then darkness
settled on the conflict as this comparatively small force
reached and occupied the summit of the historic Cemetery
Hill. They had driven everything before them and dis-
lodged every portion of the enemy’s line in their front except
a redoubt occupied by a battery of artillery and a body of
infantry. The two brigades had lost heavily and were more-
over much exhausted by the labor of the struggle, otherwise