GAP IURG OF COMLI“gs.WLt.

‘THE SECOND DAY AT GETTYSBURG.

By N. W. RAY, Carrarn Company D, Sixru REGIMENT NEC SEs

I had the pleasure, a few weeks ago, of going over the bat-
tlefield of Gettysburg in company with old comrades; and
we met there with Union soldiers who fought against us and
directly in front of us. There are perhaps 500 monuments,
some of them very costly and perhaps as many more sub-
stantial granite markers, all set up by the different com-
mands of the Union army, to show their positions and to
mark the notable places. On many of these monuments are
inscriptions, giving a brief record of the part performed
by the different commands. I have no desire to detract from
the glory of those Confederates who fought near “The Devil’s
Den,” across “The Valley of Death,” in “The Wheat Field,”
_ “The Peach Orchard,” and on the third day went into “The
Bloody Angle” at “High Water Mark.” But those who
drove the Union army from their strong, well chosen posi-
tions behind the stone walls along “Seminary Ridge,” and
the fields north of the town on the first day, and those who
on the second day charged, and captured, and for a while,
held “Cemetery Hill,” ought not to be so ignored by those
who write up “Gettysburg” by telling only of the charge in

the third day’s fighting.

No one ean go there, look over that battlefield and consider
the different movements and positions, and undisputed events
as recorded, without being convinced that the fighting of the
Confederates on the first and second days was as valiant and
as praiseworthy, as that of the third day.

The positions of the Confederates are not yet marked with
monuments of any kind, but they are well established, and
we were told that they are to be marked by durable markers.
But although the poor Confederate may not have his name in-
scribed on polished granite or bronze tablets, yet the brief