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THE CHARGE OF PICKETT, PETTIGREIV, AND TRIMBLE.

movements then proceeding. I replied, “ McMahon’s army will be prisonersof war in ten days.” They were very indignant and stated that I was aRepublican and in sympathy with the Prussians . My reply was that I hadonly given them my solution of a military problem. The Prussians were onthe shorter route to Paris or to Metz, so that if McMahon should attempt tomove in either direction the Prussians , availing themselves of the shorterlines, would interpose and force McMahon to attack ; but as he had alreadybeen so beaten and demoralized, that he could not be expected to make asuccessful attack and would therefore be obliged to surrender. If he hadgone direct to Paris before giving up his shorter route, it is possible thathe could have organized a succoring army for the relief of Metz.

Had we interposed between Meade and Washington our army in almost assuccessful prestige as was that of the Prussians , Meade would have beenobliged to attack us wherever we might be pleased to have him. He wouldhave been badly beaten like the French , and the result would have beensimilar. I do not mean to say that two governments would have been per-manently established; for I thought before the war, and during its con-tinuance, that the people would eventually get together again in strongerbonds of friendship than those of their first love.

THE CHARGE OF PICKETT, PETTIGREW, AND TRIMBLE .)

BY J. B. SMITH.

I n an address delivered by Colonel Andrew Cowanto his comrades at Gettysburg on the 3d of July,1886, he, like nearly every other speaker and writer,ascribes all the praise of the Confederate chargeof the third day to Pickett ’s division. He says:“Beyond the wall nothing but the gray-clad Vir-ginians .” He speaks of no other troops exceptPickett ’s. Some writers have gone so far as to sayPickett made the immortal charge with five thou-sand Virginians, etc. Pickett ’s division was fresh,not having engaged the enemy on the first orsecond day, while the other troops of the assault-ing body fought on the previous days with un-surpassed bravery, and some of the brigades werealmost annihilated.

The grand assaulting column was formed inthree divisions, and the divisions were commandedand led to the slaughter by Pickett, Pettigrew ,and Trimble.

General George E. Pickett ’s division, composedof three brigades commanded by Generals RichardB. Garnett, Lewis A. Armistead, and James L.Kemper , was 4900 strong. Garnett fell duringthe progress of the charge while at the head of hiscolumn urging his men on. Armistead led his menthrough the terrific storm of battle to the base ofthe Federal works, and there he placed his cap onhis sword and scaled the wall, appealing to histroops to follow him. A few of his disorganizedmen imitated his heroic example, and died at hisfeet. General Kemper was wounded in the charge.

General J. Johnston Pettigrew ’s command em-braced tlie following brigades: Archer’s Tennes-see brigade, commanded by Colonel Fry, of the13th Alabama; Pettigrew’s North Carolina bri-gade, Jo Davis’s Mississippi brigade, and Broek-enbrough’s brigade of Virginians , aggregating fivethousand troops. All were of Hetli’s division ofA. P. Hill’s corps. General Pettigrew was woundedin the charge, but lie did not quit the field, and re-mained in command until he fell at Falling Waters.

I will now notice the conduct of Archer’s Ten-nessee brigade. It opened tho battle on the firstday and lost its brave and gallant commander.While leading his men he was captured by a flankmovement made by the enemy. The brigade suf-fered heavy losses in other ways on that day-When the grand assault was made on the 3d, the1st and 7t,h Tennessee regiments made the firs*'breach in the Federal works on Cemetery Hill*and they were the only organized regiments thatentered into and beyond the enemy’s walls.

The 14tli Tennessee , after losing heavily on thefirst day, went into the grand charge with 37.’men, and planted its colors on the stone wall andleft them there. Tho heroic conduct of the 1 3 thAlabama in that awful and trying scene has beencarefully written up, and the record is in the ar-chives of the Southern Historical Society , in itsnative State, and will be loved and admired as longas heroism is admired. Tt was Archer’s worn, tat-tered, and bleeding brigade that fought the last

l From tho “ Bivouac ” of March, 1887, and editorially revised.—IC ditoks.