ummoned the
commanders of brigades and regiments, and communicated to them also the
plan of the battle, and assigned to each his part.

The night was bitter cold, and the men of our corps were without fires.
It was vain to attempt to sleep, and the men spent the night in leaping
and running in efforts to keep warm.

No one doubted that the morning was to bring on one of the most terrific
struggles in the history of warfare. No man knew what was to be his own
fate, but each seemed braced for the conflict. It was a glorious
moonlight, and the stars looked down in beauty from the cold skies upon
the strange scene. Thus all waited for the day.

The morning dawned; and soon after daylight the signal gun for the grand
attack was heard near the center of the line, and an active cannonade
commenced there.

In a short time the order came for the commencement of the movement on
the right. The men were ordered to fall in; they were faced to the
right, to move a little farther in that direction before making the
direct assault; they stood, with their muskets on their shoulders, their
hearts beating violently in anticipation of the onset to be made in
another moment, when an aide rode hastily to General Howe with
directions to suspend the movement!

Warren, on advancing his line of skirmishers, and viewing the strong
works thrown up by the enemy during the night, had sent word that he
could not carry the position before him. And General Meade had ordered
the whole movement to be discontinued for the time.

Never before, in the history of our army, had such elaborate
preparations been made for an attack. Every commander and every man knew
exactly the part he was expected to take in the great encounter, and
each had prepared himself for it. At the hospitals everything was in a
state of perfect readiness. Hospital tents were all up, beds for the
wounded prepared, operating tables were in readiness, basins and pails
stood filled with water, lint and dressings were laid out upon the
tables, and surgical instruments spread out ready for the grasp of the
surgeon.

All day the men remained suffering with cold, their hunger but partially
satisfied with hard bread without coffee. It was a day of discomfort and
suffering long to be remembered. It chanced that the hard bread issued
to our division was old and very wormy. It was, in some cases, difficult
for a man to know whether his diet was to be considered principally
animal or veget