e entreaties of officers,
and the pride of the chivalry, fled like chaff before the whirlwind,
back down the slope, over the valley, across the Emmetsburg road,
shattered, without organization in utter confusion, fugitive into the
woods, and victory was with the arms of the Republic. The great Rebel
assault, the greatest ever made upon this continent, has been made and
signally repulsed, and upon this part of the field the fight of to-day
is now soon over. Pursuit was made as rapidly and as far as practicable,
but owing to the proximity of night, and the long distance which would
have to be gone over before any of the enemy, where they would be likely
to halt, could be overtaken, further success was not attainable to-day.
Where the Rebel rout first commenced, a large number of prisoners, some
thousands at least, were captured; almost all their dead, and such of
their wounded as could not themselves get to the rear, were within our
lines; several of their flags were gathered up, and a good many thousand
muskets, some nine or ten guns and some caissons lost by the Third
Corps, and the three of Brown's battery--these last were in Rebel hands
but a few minutes--were all safe now with us, the enemy having had no
time to take them off.

Not less, I estimate, than twenty thousand men were killed or wounded in
this fight. Our own losses must have been nearly half this
number,--about four thousand in the Third Corps, fully two thousand in
the Second, and I think two thousand in the Fifth, and I think the
losses of the First, Twelfth, and a little more than a brigade of the
Sixth--all of that Corps which was actually engaged--would reach nearly
two thousand more. Of course it will never be possible to know the
numbers upon either side who fell in this particular part of the general
battle, but from the position of the enemy and his numbers, and the
appearance of the field, his loss must have been as heavy, or as I think
much heavier than our own, and my estimates are probably short of the
actual loss.

[Illustration: Battle of Gettysburg--Final attack, July 2

(Compiled by C. E. Estabrook)]

The fight done, the sudden revulsions of sense and feeling follow, which
more or less characterize all similar occasions. How strange the
stillness seems! The whole air roared with the conflict but a moment
since--now all is silent; not a gunshot sound is heard, and the silence
comes distinctly, almost painfully to the senses. And the