the places of the dead with the living next to die--On!
into the jaws of death goes the forlorn hope! They are at the
rise--they reach the crest; and then _their batteries are suddenly
silent_!

Behind them is the ghastly road, furrowed and ploughed by ceaseless
shot, slippery with blood and dotted thick with their writhing,
bleeding brothers. Behind them is death--defeat! Before them a hundred
belching cannon--a dense, dark mass of blue, relieved only by the
volleying flash that shakes and rolls along their shattered line! Still
up they go! on--ever on! That small Virginia division, shattered,
bleeding--_and alone_ reaches the works--fights for one moment and
then--_has won them_!

But there are no supports--Pettigrew has not come up; and the decimated
Virginians are literally overwhelmed by the fresh masses poured upon
them. Broken, torn, exhausted, they fall back--scattered into terrible
death-dealing knots, that fight their way sullenly and terribly home to
their own lines!

That charge--unequaled in history--has fearfully crippled the enemy. He
can not pursue. But it has failed, and the battle of Gettysburg is
over!

That night General Lee fell back toward Hagerstown, turning in his
retreat to show front to the enemy that dared not attack. Nine days he
stayed on the Maryland shore, waiting the advance that never came; then
he recrossed the river, on the night of the 13th, and again fell back
to the Rappahannock lines.

The second Maryland campaign had failed!

Into the midst of the general elation in Richmond crashed the wild
rumors from the fight. We had driven the enemy through the town; we
held the height; we had captured Meade and 40,000 prisoners. Washington
was at our mercy; and Lee would dictate terms of peace from
Philadelphia!

These were the first wild rumors; eagerly sought and readily credited
by the people. They were determined to believe and would see no change
of plan in General Lee's forced battle at Gettysburg, instead of on the
plains at Harrisburg.

Then over the general joy, creeping none knew whence nor how, but
rapidly gaining shape and substance, came a shadow of doubt. Crowds
besieged the War Department, anxious, excited, but still hopeful. Then
the truth came; tempered by the Government, but wildly exaggerated by
northern sources.

Down to zero dropped the spirits of the people; down to a depth of
despairing gloom, only the deeper from the height of their previous
exultation.