THE SECOND DAY NT GETTYSBURG.

307

latter be turned and attacked [see p. 322 ]. The reply was that General Lee ’sorders were to attack along the Enxmitsburg road. Again Hood sent his mes-sage and received the same reply, notwithstanding which he directed Law’sbrigade upon Round Top, in which movement a portion of Robertson’s brigadejoined; the rest of the division was thrown upon Devil’s Den and the ridgebetween it and the Peach Orchard. The first assaults were repulsed, but afterbar’d fighting, McLaws ’s division being also advanced, toward 6 o’clock theangle was broken in, after a resolute defense and with great loss on both sides.In the meantime three of Anderson’s brigades were advancing 011 Humphreys,and the latter received orders from Birney, now in command of the corps(Sickles having been severely wounded soon after 6 o’clock near the Trostlehouse), to throw back his left, form an oblique line in his rear, and connect withthe right of Birney’s division, then retiring. The junction was not effected, andHumphreys, greatly outnumbered, slowly and skillfully fell back to CemeteryHidge, Gibbon sending two regiments and Brown’s Rhode Island battery tohis support. But the enemy was strong and covered the whole Second CorpsHont, now greatly weakened by detach-ments. Wilcox’s, Perry’s, and Wright’sConfederate brigades pressed up to theI'idge, outflanking Humphreys’s rightmid left, and Wright broke through°ur line and seized the guns in hisfr'ont, but was soon driven out, andn °t being supported they all fell back,bbout dusk, under a heavy artilleryfire.

As soon as Longstreet’s attack com-menced, General Warren was sent byHeneral Meade to see to the condition of the extreme left. The duty couldHot have been intrusted to better hands. Passing along the lines he foundfrittle Round Top, the key of the position, unoccupied except by a signalstation. The enemy at the time lay concealed, awaiting the signal for assault,^hen a shot fired in their direction caused a sudden movement on their partW hieh, by the gleam of reflected sunlight from their bayonets, revealed theirlong lines outflanking the position. Fully comprehending the imminentdanger, Warren sent to General Meade for a division.[ The enemy was already

MONUMENT OF BIGELOW’S NINTH MASSACHUSETTSBATTERY. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN 1886.

i Before the Committee on the Conduct of the Wargeneral Warren testified that he went to LittleBound Top ‘ 6 by General Meade’s direction.” In a let-ter dated July 13th, 1872, General Warren says :‘Just before the action began in earnest, on July 2d,^Vae with General Meade, near General Sickles, whosefropa seemed very badly dispOvSed on that part of theth At my suggestion, General Meade sent me toe left to examine the condition of affairs, and I con-Uo l + e( l °n till I reached Little Round Top. There wereea ^ 10 °1 >S on and it was used as a signal station. Ij., ^ that this was the key of the whole position, andat our troops in the woods in front of it could not seee ground in front of them, so that the enemy wouldhie upon them before they would bo aware of it. The

long line of woods on the west side of the Emmitsburgroad (which road was along a ridge) furnished an excel-lent place for the enemy to form out of sight, so T re-quested the captain of a rifle battery just in front ofLittle Round Top to fire a shot into these woods. Hedid so, and as the shot went whistling through the airthe sound of it reached the enemy’s troops and causedevery one to look in the direction of it. This motionrevealed to me the glistening of gun-barrels and bayo-nets of the enemy’s line of battle, already formed and faroutflanking the position of any of our troops; so thatthe line of his advance from his right to Little RoundTop was unopposed. I have been particular in tellingthis, as the discovery was intensely thrilling to my feel-ings, and almost appalling. I immediately sent a hastilywritten dispatch to General Meade to send a division at