followed on the left by
Archer's and Pettigrew's Brigade, and soon all was engulfed in the
smoke of battle and lost to sight. Such a struggle could not last
long for the tension was too great. The Confederates had driven in the
first line, but Meade's whole army was near, and fresh battalions
were being momentarily ordered to the front. The enemy now moved out
against Pickett's right, but Semmes and Wofford of McLaws' Division
were there to repulse them.

For some cause, no one could or ever will explain, Pickett's Brigades
wavered at a critical moment, halted, hesitated, then the battle
was lost. Now began a scene that is as unpleasant to record as it
is sickening to contemplate. When Pickett saw his ruin, he ordered a
retreat and then for a mile or more these brave men, who had dared
to march up to the cannon's mouth with twenty thousand infantry lying
alongside, had to race across this long distance with Meade's united
artillery playing upon them, while the twenty thousand rifles were
firing upon their rear as they ran.

Pettigrew's Division, which was clinging close to the battle, saw the
disaster that had befallen the gallant Virginians, then in turn
they, too, fled the field and doubling up on Lane and Scales, North
Carolinians, made "confusion worse confounded." This flying mass
of humanity only added another target for the enemy's guns and an
additional number to the death roll.

Alexander's batteries, both of position, and the line now turned loose
with redoubled energy on those of the enemy's to relieve, as far as
possible, our defeated, flying, and demoralized troops. For a few
moments (which seemed like days to the defeated) it looked as if all
nature's power and strength were turned into one mighty upheaval;
Vessuvius, Etna, and Popocatepetl were emptying their mighty torrents
upon the heads of the unfortunate Confederates. Men fell by the
hundreds, officers ceased to rally them until the cover of the ridge
was reached. The hills in front were ablaze from the flashes of near
two hundred guns, while the smoke from almost as many on our lines
slowly lifted from the ridge behind us, showing one continued sheet of
flames, the cannoneers working their guns as never before. The earth
seemed to vibrate and tremble under the recoil of these hundreds of
guns, while the air overhead was filled with flying shells. Not
a twinkling of the eye intervened between the passing of shots or
shells. The men who were not a