Band 
Volume III.
Seite
268
JPEG-Download
 

268

THE FIRST DAY AT GETTYSBURG .

corps was on the march, Rodes’s and Johnson’s divisions via Chambersburg to Carlisle, which they reached on the 27th, and Early via Greenwood andGettysburg to York, with orders from Ewell to break up the Northern Cen-tral Railroad, destroy the bridge across the Susquehanna at Wrightsville, andthen rejoin the main body at Carlisle. Early entered York on the 28th, andsent Gordon’s brigade, not to destroy but to secure possession of the bridge,which would enable him to operate upon Harrisburg from the rear; but asmall militia force under Colonel Frick, retreating from Wrightsville acrossthe bridge, after an unsuccessful attempt to destroy one of its spans, set fh' eto and entirely destroyed that fine structure, Gordon’s troops giving their aidto the citizens to save the town from the flames. On the 29tli Ewell receivedorders from General Lee to rejoin the army at Cashtown; the next evening,

30th, his reserve artil-

-m

,:: jm ’

lery and trains, withJohnson’s division asan escort, were nearChambersburg , andEwell with Early’s andRodes’s, near Heidlers-burg. Thus suddenlyended Ewell’s Harris-

1 ' A __

THE LUTHERAN SEMINARY. THE UPPER PICTURE PROM A WAR-TIME PHOTOGRAPH.

Both pictures allow the face of the seminary toward the town, and In the ri^Jit-liand view is soon the Chamber 0-burg Pike. On the iirst day, Buford and Reynolds used the cupola for observations; thereafter itwas the chief signal-station and observatory for the Confederates — Kditokh.

hurg expedition. One object was to collect supplies, and contributions were ac-cordingly levied. Much damage was done to roads and bridges, but the promptadvance of the Army of the Potomac made this useless to the Confederates.

Before committing his army to an invasiofi of the North, General Lee recommended the proper steps to cover and support it. In a letter of June23d, addressed to President Uavis, he states that the season was so fa 1 ’advanced as to stop further Federal operations on the Southern coast, andthat Confederate troops in that country and elsewhere were now disposable’He proposed, therefore, that an army should as soon as possible he organizedat Culpeper, as “ the well-known anxiety of the Northern Government for thesafety of its capital would induce it to retain a large force for its defense, andthus relieve the opposition to our advance”; and suggested that GeneralBeauregard be placed in command, “ as his presence would give magnitude