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BUFORD'S CAVALRY OPPOSING THECONFEDERATE ADVANCE UPON GETTYSBURG .

THE FIRST DAY AT GETTYSBURG

B Y HENRY J. HUNT, BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL, U. S. A., CHIEF OF ARTILLERY OF THE

ARMY OF THE POTOMAC'.

I'HE battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville raised the confidenceof the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to such a height as toCa Use its subordinate officers and soldiers to believe that, as opposed to theTvuiy of the Potomac, they were equal to any demand that could be made^Pon them. Their belief in the superiority of the Southerner to the Northerneras a fighter was no longer, as at the beginning of the war, a mere provincialCc hceit, for it was now supported by signal successes in the field. On eachthese two occasions the Army of the Potomac had been recently reorganizedglider a new general, presumably abler than his predecessor and possessinghe confidence of the War Department , and the results were crowning victories01 ‘ the Confederates. Yet at Fredericksburg defeat was not owing to anya ek of fighting qualities on the part of the Federal soldiers, but rather toc Aectivo leadership.

At Chancellorsville both qualities were called in question. In none of thePrevious battles between these armies had the disparity of numbers been sofheat. The Federal general had taken the initiative, his plan of operationsWas excellent, and his troops were eager for battle. The Confederates coulda t first oppose but a portion of their inferior force to the attack of greatlys hperior numbers, and the boast of the Federal commander, that “ the Army0 Northern Virginia was the legitimate property of the Army of the Poto-seemed in a fair way to be justified, when at first contact the advan-already gained were thrown away by the assumption of a timid,Aensive attitude. Lee’s bold offensive, which followed immediately on thisAmbition of weakness, the consequent rout of a Federal army-corps, and theSa bsequent retreat of the whole army, a large portion of which had not beeneil gaged, confirmed the exultant Confederates in their conviction—whichri ° Av became an article of faith—that both in combat and in generalship thesuperiority of the Southerner was fully established. The Federal soldiers