river and was so near him, for Stuart, who had received orders in this case to rejoin him, gave no sign of life. The few cavalry regiments which remained with the bulk of the army formed, under Jenkins, Ewell's advanced guard towards Harrisburg. The others, under Imboden, scoured the country to the west of the Confederate line of march as scouts.

Stuart had pushed his reconnoitring expeditions to Fairfax Court House, and finding the enemy had crossed the river, he himself also crossed it lower down, at Seneca Falls, on the 29th. Passing by Westminster, he arrived at Carlisle, after having made the circuit of the Federal army, only to learn there the concentration of Ewell's troops at Gettysburg.

The northern direction taken by the Federals was the cause why Stuart could be of no use to his chief; he did not rejoin him till the very day of the battle of Gettysburg, having constantly had Meade's army between him and the Confederates.

This was the only time Stuart was in fault, but his absence led to fatal results. Lee found it impossible to hide his movements, according to his custom, behind a cloud of flying squadrons, and to penetrate the designs of his adversary, thanks to the ubiquity and audacity of his cavalry.

Supposing, then, that Hooker had not yet passed into Maryland, Lee was preparing to march on Harrisburg, when his scouts, on the night of June 29th, brought him the news that the Federal army was on this side the Potomac, and that its advanced-guard threatened to cut off the Confederates from their base of operations. Lee was obliged immediately to change his arrangements. A glance at the map sufficiently indicates the urgency of this course. Without a moment's loss the Southern army was concentrated at the east of the mountains, so as at the same time to menace the Federal flank and Baltimore, should the enemy march to the west of these same mountains. On the 29th, Hill and Longstreet were to advance from Chambersburg to Gettysburg, whilst Ewell was recalled from Carlisle and directed to the same

village. The Confederate columns advanced but slowly, owing to the uncertainty which hovered over the Federal movements. Lee could not, because of Stuart's absence, be sure the enemy was so near him. Had Stuart remained with the bulk of the army, the Southern chief would have known of the Federal march, and hastened to occupy Gettysburg before Meade could outstrip him. However this may be, the latter marched northwards to cover Baltimore, and hinder Lee from crossing the Susquehannah.

Meanwhile the Federal general intercepted a despatch from President Davis to Lee. The latter had suggested that Beauregard could make a demonstration in the direction of Culpepper, thus threatening Washington, and so singularly embarrass the movements of the Northern army. Davis answered that he had not enough troops to execute this plan. The seizure of this despatch, furnishing Meade with a proof that he had nothing to fear for Washington, permitted him to act more vigorously. Strange fatality! a second time the Confederate cause lost so much through an intercepted despatch!

The Northern army, on the authority of its commander, consisted of from 95,000 to 100,000 men, and it had 300 guns. Lee, after deducting detachments left to protect his communications, had only 60,000 men.

Learning, on the 29th, that Lee was east of South Mountain, Meade sent his right wing to Manchester, on a plateau which separates the basin of the Monocacy from that of the Chesapeake, his head quarters being at Taneytown, his centre at Two Taverns and Hanover, and his left at Emmetsburg. The same day the Federal cavalry, under General Buford, acting as scouts, occupied Gettysburg. Two Confederate divisions, under Hill, bivouacked, on the night of the 30th of June, six or seven miles from Gettysburg, on the road from Baltimore to Chambersburg, and Ewell passed the night at Heildersburg, on the road from Carlisle, eight or nine miles from Gettysburg. By hastening somewhat, the Southern army would have been able to seize the heights of

Gettysburg, and events would have taken another turn. Had the Confederate cavalry been there to enlighten Lee's march, and indicate the vicinity of the enemy, Hill or Ewell could have easily been at Gettysburg twenty-four hours sooner, to occupy those fatal heights, before which their most valiant efforts were used in vain two days later.

Thus each of the two armies, without suspecting that its adversary was marching to the same place, bore down on Gettysburg Lee to occupy it as a strategic point of the highest importance, which covered his line of retreat; and Meade to maintain himself there with his left, till he should be able to dispose the remainder of his army on Pipe Creek, where he was preparing to receive Lee's blow. A great battle was about to take place, in spite of the two men who had to play the principal characters in it. Lee had no intention to risk the hazard of a pitched battle. Far from his base, having less soldiers and cannon than his adversary, knowing that in case of misfortune it would be impossible for him to fill up the gaps, it was his aim only to occupy temporarily the Federal territory, in order to economize the resources of exhausted Virginia, and, by the activity of his strategy, to keep on the alert the various Unionist corps, whether by compelling them to cover their principal towns, or by taking unawares their isolated detachments, or, finally, by surprising the badly guarded points of their long line of defence. He was ignorant that the enemy was so near him. According to the last news the Federals were at Frederick, intending to march on Hagerstown. It was to arrest this movement that he was concentrating his army at Gettysburg. His orders had been so admirably obeyed that Ewell, coming from Carlisle on the north, Early from York on the east, and Hill from Chambersburg on the west, all reached Gettysburg at intervals on the same day, July 1st.

Meade, abandoning the project of his predecessor of marching by Boonsboro' Pass on the western slope of the mountains,

on the contrary, was pushing his columns to the north, in order to keep Lee from the Susquehannah, and with the intention of fighting, should the Confederate general offer battle. An order of the day which he published on July 1st, at Taneytown, before he knew that his advanced-guard was already seriously engaged at Gettysburg, is a proof of this.

CHAPTER XIII.

BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG, JULY, IST-3RD, 1863.-LEE'S RETREAT.—

RESULTS OF THE CAMPAIGN.

BUT the great struggle had already commenced. The fortuitous meeting of the two advanced-guards had brought about a collision which soon assumed the dimensions of a great battle. Lee was driven to an unwonted course by a combination of unforeseen circumstances. He had no more wish to fight than General Meade; unless, at least, on a ground of his own choosing, and yet now, these two commanders, in spite of themselves, for neither had a design of selecting Gettysburg as the place of their rencontre, were about to measure their strength with each other, and commit to the hazard of an unforeseen battle, the destinies of their respective causes.

Gettysburg is a small town in Pennsylvania, situated in a valley where several roads cross. A short distance off, south of the town, rises a height, running north and south, but inclining suddenly to the east on approaching Gettysburg. On its summit is a cemetery; whence it bears the name of Cemetery Hill. Opposite and to the west of the town, another flight of hills extends, parallel to the former, but lower, named Seminary Ridge. Further still to the west, in a country somewhat uneven, flows a little water-course, Willoughby Run. In the same direction, nearly ten miles distant, the blue peaks of South Mountain branch off. On the morning of July 1st, General Lee had just emerged from these mountains by the village of Cashtown, marching direct on