Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/448

414 who had waylaid, in the Cumberland valley, a courier from Davis to Lee and captured his dispatches, reached Meade's headquarters. These dispatches showed that, through fear of a threatened Federal attack on Richmond, it would be impossible to comply with Lee's urgent request for concentrating a force in Culpeper, under Beauregard, and threatening Washington. This information relieved Meade's apprehensions about the safety of the capital which he had been charged to guard, and nerved him to hold on at Gettysburg for another day. The weight of testimony, especially that of President Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton, shows that but for this timely arrival Meade would have fallen back that night to the line of Pipe creek, and there halted in defensive position, covering the approaches to Baltimore and Washington.

Lee determined to renew the attack on the 3d of July, as he had first planned it. Longstreet, now reinforced by Pickett's division, which had arrived from the Cumberland valley during the afternoon of the 2d, was to again attack the Federal left, advancing from the position he had gained at the Devil's Den; while Ewell was at the same time to assail the Federal right, after reinforcing Johnson with two brigades from Rodes and one from Early. Hill was again to advance from the center. When the morning of the 3d came, it was found that the Federal Fifth corps, supported by the Sixth, had during the night taken possession of the Round Tops, with both infantry and artillery strongly intrenched in that naturally strong position which dominated Lee's right and protected Meade's left. This wise action of the Federal commander forced Lee to change his plan. Ewell's artillery was already opening the way for his assault, and delay was dangerous. Lee promptly ordered Longstreet to organize a column of attack against Meade's center on Cemetery ridge, and breaking that to join Ewell by taking the Federal right in reverse. Hood and McLaws were to engage the Federal left, and if opportunity offered, to attack it. The two columns of attack by Longstreet were made up of Pickett's division on the right, and Pettigrew's (Heth's) division of Hill's corps on the left. Wilcox and Perry, of Anderson's division, were to guard Pickett's right, while Trimble, with the brigades of Lane and Scales, was to guard Pettigrew's