t Johnson's division would have been
able to maintain its position on the right, so that the Union centre
could be assailed in front and rear at the same time, but Johnson
having been driven out, it was necessary to trust to Pickett alone,
or abandon the whole enterprise and return to Virginia.

Everything was quiet up to 1 P.M., as the enemy were massing their
batteries and concentrating their forces preparatory to the grand
charge--the supreme effort--which was to determine the fate of the
campaign, and to settle the point whether freedom or slavery was
to rule the Northern States.

It seems to me there was some lack of judgment in the preparations.
Heth's division, now under Pettigrew, which had been so severely
handled on the first day, and which was composed in a great measure
of new troops, was designated to support Pickett's left and join
in the attack at close quarters. Wilcox, too, who one would think
had been pretty well fought out the day before, in his desperate
enterprise of attempting to crown the crest, was directed to support
the right flank of the attack. Wright's brigade was formed in
rear, and Pender's division on the left of Pettigrew, but there
was a long distance between Wilcox and Longstreet's forces on the
right.

At 1 P.M., a signal gun was fired and one hundred and fifteen guns
opened against Hancock's command, consisting of the First Corps
under Newton, the Second Corps under Gibbon, the Third Corps under
Birney, and against the Eleventh Corps under Howard. The object
of this heavy artillery fire was to break up our lines and prepare
the way for Pickett's charge. The exigencies of the battle had
caused the First Corps to be divided, Wadsworth's division being
on the right at Culp's Hill, Robinson on Gibbon's right, and my
own division intervening between Caldwell on the left and Gibbon
on the right. The convex shape of our line did not give us as much
space as that of the enemy, but General Hunt, Chief of Artillery,
promptly posted eighty guns along the crest--as many as it would
hold--to answer the fire, and the batteries on both sides suffered
severely in the two hours' cannonade. Not less than eleven caissons
were blown up and destroyed; one quite near me. When the smoke
went up from these explosions rebel yells of exultation could be
heard along a line of several miles. At 3 P.M. General Hunt ordered
our artillery fire to cease, in order to cool the guns, and to
preserve some