Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/104

 field I made a thorough study of the contemporary orders relating to it showing its unique importance. The address may be found in the two volumes of Pennsylvania at Gettysburg published by the state. It is my purpose here only to fill in a few additional features and to make some comments rather philosophical than historical. I went as a sergeant with a company from Phœnixville to Harrisburg in June. I had never been in that city before, and that night I slept on the stone steps of the capitol wrapped in a red horse blanket. In view of my election to the governorship of the state, this incident has certain dramatic features, of which the Honorable Hampton L. Carson made good use in the nominating convention. When it was discovered that the men were required to be sworn into the service of the United States, the company with which I had come, composed of my friends, declined to be so sworn and returned to their homes. I went as a private into the Pottstown company among strangers.

It is certainly remarkable that a boy should leave his quiet country home and within a few days' march, as it were, direct to Gettysburg, not only the pivotal point of that tremendous conflict, but the scene of the most important events in all American history.

It seems almost as though there were a fatality which determined that affairs should so be shaped. If my own company had not gone home, I should not have been in the regiment which went to Gettysburg, and I would have experienced nothing of consequence. The Pottstown company had decided to connect themselves with another regiment in the camp, and only after much persuasion and considerable delay were prevailed upon by Colonel Jennings to change their association and unite with him. Had they not made this change I should not have gone to Gettysburg. The delay was likewise essential. The regiments were sent forward as organized, each going further to the southward than its predecessor. If Colonel Jennings had succeeded 94