Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 20.djvu/258

 252 Southern Historical Society Papers.

more of artillery than he carried with him into Pennsylvania. (See Report of Lieutanant-Colonel Briscoe, Chief of Ordnance, "Offi- cial Record" Vol. XXVII, page 357.)

At ten minutes past 4 o'clock P. M. on the 4th General Meade says that he " would make a reconnoisance the next day (5th) to see where the enemy was/' and in that telegram reports his effectives, "exclusive of cavalry, baggage guards, ambulance attendants, etc., as 55,000." Now, supposing the cavalry corps which was present at Gettysburg, 12,653, na ol lost as many as 653, it would leave 12,000 to be added to the 55,000, making 67,000 outside l< baggage guards and ambulance attendants," to which add 23,003, losses in the bat- tle, and it gives General Meade 90,003 as present in the fight or on the field. Even on this basis, General Meade had 20,000 more sol- diers present on the field than had General Lee.

While the Federals reaped the material as well as the moral fruits of that victory, yet the fact that a part of Lee's army lingered around Gettysburg for two days after the battle, and that it was ten months before Meade's army was ready for an advance on Richmond, shows at what a great cost the victory was achieved. The personal loss of friends on both sides at Gettysburg was so great, and the wounds are yet too fresh for us to contemplate without passion that field of slaughter; but the coming bard in the far-off years will tell how the Tennesseans, Alabamians, Virginians and North Carolinians charged with Pickett and Pettigrew, Armistead and Garnett, into the very "gates of hell" on Cemetery Hill.

Ten months after the battle of Gettysburg these same armies con- front each other on the Rappahannock. Meade's head has joined company with McClellan, Pope, Burnside and Hooker, and General Grant, who, with the aid of Porter's fleet with 300 cannon and 75,000 men, had, between November i, 1862, and July 4, 1863. overrun the State of Mississippi and captured Vicksburg, whose largest force within the campaign had only been 40,000, was there as commander; not as a general of a particular army, but as generalissimo of the armies of the United States.

General Grant, perhaps because he did not wish to follow in the footsteps of McClellan, adopted the overland route to Richmond by way of the Wilderness, Spotsylvama and Cold Harbor. He crossed the Rappahannock with 118,000 veteran troops, while General Lee confronted him with 62,000. (See "Battles and Leaders" Vol. IV, page 179.)