to Fortress Monroe under a flag of truce
and asked for a safe conduct for his Commissioner to Washington.

In alarm the Governors of Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, and
West Virginia called out their militia. Lee was not deterred by their
panic. He knew that those raw troops would cut no figure in the swift
and terrible drama which was being staged among the ragged crags around
Gettysburg. The veteran armies of the North and South would decide the
issue. If he won, he would brush aside the militia as so many school
boys and march into Washington.

Meade was rushing his army after his antagonist with feverish haste. His
advance guard struck Lee before the town of Gettysburg on July first,
1863. A desperate struggle ensued. Neither Meade nor Lee had yet reached
the field.

Within a mile of the town the Confederates made a sudden and united
charge and smashed the Federal line into atoms. General Reynolds, their
Commander, was killed and his army driven headlong into the streets of
Gettysburg. Ewell, charging through the town, swept all before him and
took five thousand prisoners.

The crowded masses of fugitives, fleeing for their lives, passed out of
the town and rushed up the slopes of the hills beyond.

At five o'clock Lee halted his men until the rest of his army should
reach the field.

During the night General Meade rallied his disorganized men, poured his
fresh troops among them and entrenched his army on the heights where his
defeated advance guard had taken refuge.

Had Lee withdrawn the next morning when he scanned those hills which
looked down on him through bristling brows of brass and iron the history
of the Confederacy might have been longer. It could not have been more
illustrious.

His reasons for assault were sound. To his council of war he was
explicit.

"I had not intended, gentlemen," he said, "to fight a general battle at
such distance from our base, unless attacked by the enemy. We find
ourselves confronted by the Federal army. It is difficult to withdraw
through the mountains with our large trains. The country is unfavorable
for collecting supplies while in the presence of the main body of the
enemy as he can restrain our foraging parties by occupying the mountain
passes. The battle is in a measure unavoidable. We have won a great
victory to-day. We can defeat Meade's army in spite of these hills."

When Lee surveyed the heights of Gettysburg again on the morning of the
second o