Page:Civil War The 42nd Infantry Division of Bedford County Virginia.djvu/26

 During the night of July 2nd General Lee held a meeting with his Corps commanders and decided the center of General Meade's line must be the weak spot, so tomorrow they would hit there. General Longstreet voted against this plan as he figured Meade was strong there also. The plan was drawn and General Pickett was to lead the charge with 12,000 infantry troops after the artillery softened the area with about 3 hours of shelling. The Union artillery traded shot-for-shot with Lee's artillery. The firing died down and the bugle call sounded and 13,000 gray clad troops stood up and started towards General Meade's lines one-andone and [sic] one-half miles away.

The Union artillery cut holes after holes in this line, but it never once stopped, and closed holes in rank and kept moving. "These were brave men". The line of gray moved on and on, finally they came within rifle range of General Meade's men which were behind stonewalls. Very few units made it back to General Lee's line. This brought the battle of Gettysburg to a close with over 50,000 men killed, wounded, and missing, in the three days of fighting. The books list 23,186 Union troops and 27,063 Confederate troops. The battle had crippled both armies and the battle did not resume on July 4th and General Lee gathered his wounded together as best he could and started the long trip back to Virginia.

The 42nd Infantry Division now under the command of Lt. General Richard S. Ewell; he had been appointed commander of the Second Corps. After General Jackson was killed at Chancellorsville they did their heaviest fighting on July 2nd, but were also involved on the 3rd holding as many Union troops away from the fighting in the center of the line. They were in Brigadier GEneralGeneral [sic] John M. Jones' brigade and commanded by Lt. Colonel R. W. Withers.