THE STRUGGLE FOR “ROUND TOP.”

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erate side. This part of the line was held by Hood’s division of Longstreet’scorps, and was really the key to the whole position of Gettysburg . Here someof the most stubborn fighting of that desperate battle was done, and here adetermined effort of the Federal cavalry to reach the right rear of the Con-federate army on the 3d of July was frustrated — an attempt which, if success-ful, must have resulted disastrously to that army.

The meagerness of the details of the operations referred to may be accountedfor by the fact that General Longstreet personally superintended the left ofhis line, consisting of McLaws ’s division of his own corps, supported by E.H. Anderson’s division of Hill’s corps, and hence knew comparatively littlefrom personal observation of the movements of Hood’s division; and, also,that General Hood was wounded early in the engagement on the 2d of July,and, relinquishing the command of the division, could not report its subse-quent operations. As senior brigadier, I succeeded to the command of Hood’sdivision, and directed its movements during the engagements of the 2d and3d of Jidy. But owing to the active and constant movements of our armyfor some weeks after the battle, I was only able to obtain the reports of bri-gade commanders a very short time previous to being ordered to the armyof General Bragg at Chickamauga. This prevented me from making a reportat the time, and it was afterward neglected.

The facts stated in this paper are therefore many of them published for thefirst time. It remains for the impartial reader to decide whether they do notconstitute an important part of the history of the most memorable battle of the"War; for Gettysburg was the turning-point in the great struggle. Together"with the fall of Vicksburg , which occurred simultaneously with the retreat ofLee’s army toward the Potomac, it inspired the armies and people of the Northwith fresh courage and stimulated anew the hopes of ultimate success whichWere visibly flagging under an almost uninterrupted series of reverses to theFederal arms in Virginia, extending over a period of nearly two years. Onthe other hand, it was at Gettysburg that the right arm of the South wasbroken, and it must always stand out in Confederate annals as in the liis-tory of a brave and kindred people stands

“ Flodden’s fatal field,

Where shivered was fair Scotland ’s spear,

And broken was her shield.”

When the fight began at Gettysburg on the 1st of July, three brigades ofHood’s division were at Greenwood on the Chambersburg road and on theWest side of South Mountain. My own brigade, with Bachman’s battery, wasa, t New Guilford, some miles south of Greenwood, watching our right flank,frt 3 o’clock on the morning of the 2d, under orders from General Long-street, I moved as rapidly as possible toward Gettysburg , and arrived thereshortly before noon, having marched the intervening distance of twenty-fourttiiles in that time. On my arrival I found the other brigades of Hood’s di-vision resting about a mile from the town, on the Chambersburg road. In ashort time after my brigade came up, the division was moved to our right(south), traversing the angle between the Chambersburg and Emmitsburg