nd moved forward
until we came under fire of the enemy's guns. We laid down behind a rail
fence and fired between the rails. A bullet struck a rail just in front
of my head and knocked the dust and splinters in my face, almost
blinding me for a little while. We did not remain there very long, but
were soon ordered back, and as we moved across the open fields in full
view of the enemy, they kept up an incessant fire, many of the shots
taking effect.

We could see the Union officers on the little hills in every direction,
with their field glasses to their eyes, trying to discover what was in
front of them.

The cavalry retired from the field, leaving the infantry to do the rest.
How well it was done the historian has tragically told the story. It was
on this field that "Hancock, the superb," made eight distinct attacks on
Lee's center, and finally breaking his line of battle, rushed his troops
by thousands into the breach, and for the moment it looked as if the
Confederacy was doomed.

Gen. Lee, seeing the peril in which his army was placed, ordered forward
Gordon's division (which he was holding in reserve), placed himself at
the head of it, and was about to lead them into battle in order to
restore his broken lines. Shells were falling about Gen. Lee and his
life was in peril. One of the officers rode up to him and said, "Gen.
Lee, this is no place for you; you must go to the rear." His troops
refused to go forward until Gen. Lee had retired from the front. One of
the soldiers came forward, and taking the reins of Lee's horse, led him
back. Then Gen. Gordon led his division forward, the enemy was driven
back, the line was restored, and Gen. Lee's army was saved from
destruction and another year added to the life of the Confederacy.

I heard Gen. Gordon in a lecture delivered at "Music Hall," Baltimore,
some years ago, describing this event, say (as he stretched out his
hands horizontally), "My dead were piled that high, and three days after
the battle I saw wounded men trying to pull themselves from under the
mass of the dead above them. And at one point the slopes were so
slippery with blood that my soldiers could not stand until the ground
had been carpeted with the bodies of their fallen comrades."

A tree about six inches in diameter standing in a field was literally
cut down by bullets, not a shot from a cannon having been fired on that
part of the field.

The Standard Encyclopedia puts the strength of Grant