ulted, lay hugging the ground and gripping their muskets,
excited, but confident and resolute. They saw the smoke clouds rise
slowly from the opposite crest, where the Confederate army lay, and the
sunlight glinted again on the long line of brass and iron guns which had
been hidden from view during the cannonade. In another moment, out of
the lifting smoke there appeared, beautiful and terrible, the picked
thousands of the Southern army coming on to the assault. They advanced
in three lines, each over a mile long, and in perfect order. Pickett's
Virginians held the center, with on their left the North Carolinians
of Pender and Pettigrew, and on their right the Alabama regiments of
Wilcox; and there were also Georgian and Tennessee regiments in the
attacking force. Pickett's division, however, was the only one able to
press its charge home. After leaving the woods where they started, the
Confederates had nearly a mile and a half to go in their charge. As the
Virginians moved, they bent slightly to the left, so as to leave a gap
between them and the Alabamians on the right.

The Confederate lines came on magnificently. As they crossed the
Emmetsburg Pike the eighty guns on the Union crest, now cool and in good
shape, opened upon them, first with shot and then with shell. Great gaps
were made every second in the ranks, but the gray-clad soldiers closed
up to the center, and the color-bearers leaped to the front, shaking
and waving the flags. The Union infantry reserved their fire until the
Confederates were within easy range, when the musketry crashed out with
a roar, and the big guns began to fire grape and canister. On came the
Confederates, the men falling by hundreds, the colors fluttering in
front like a little forest; for as fast as a color-bearer was shot
some one else seized the flag from his hand before it fell. The North
Carolinians were more exposed to the fire than any other portion of
the attacking force, and they were broken before they reached the line.
There was a gap between the Virginians and the Alabama troops, and this
was taken advantage of by Stannard's Vermont brigade and a demi-brigade
under Gates, of the 20th New York, who were thrust forward into it.
Stannard changed front with his regiments and fell on Pickett's forces
in flank, and Gates continued the attack. When thus struck in the flank,
the Virginians could not defend themselves, and they crowded off toward
the center to avoid the pressure. Ma