Our campaign around Gettysburg: Being a memorial of what was endured, suffered and accomplished by the Twenty-third regiment (N. Y. S. N. G.) and other regiments associated with them, in their Pennsylvania and Maryland campaign, during the second rebel invasion of the loyal states in June-July, 1863Lockwood, John
History
Our campaign around Gettysburg: Being a memorial of what was endured, suffered and accomplished by the Twenty-third regiment (N. Y. S. N. G.) and other regiments associated with them, in their Pennsylvania and Maryland campaign, during the second rebel invasion of the loyal states in June-July, 1863
Lockwood, John
Gettysburg Campaign, 1863; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Regimental histories; United States. Army. New York Infantry Regiment, 23rd (1861-1863)
During that never-to-be-forgotten Sabbath day, so strangely "kept,"
there was no flurry among the garrison, judging by the men of the
Twenty-Third, nor any fear shown at any time among those upon whose
courage the fate of Harrisburg seemed likely to rest. While in that
threatened city the chief authorities were staggering under the
herculean work of organizing an unwilling or at least an indifferent
people into a disciplined force capable of resistance, and of infusing
into them somewhat of the patriotic zeal which shone so brightly in the
conduct of their fellow-citizens of Pittsburg; while in that city there
was feverish alarm on every hand, and families were ignominiously
flying with their household goods, crowding the railway trains and the
common highways in their eagerness to escape; while the State officers
were sending off to Philadelphia the archives of the capital, and were
themselves hastening or preparing to remove to the metropolis, which
was to be the provisional capital on the fall of Harrisburg; while
there existed on the opposite side of the Susquehanna these symptoms of
alarm, there prevailed among our untried but trusted men, coupled with
animated speculations concerning the enemy, the calmness of a summer
evening. And this when it was evident to most that there was an enemy
just outside our ramparts whose strength was supposed to be many times
our own, and whose valor was renowned, waiting for the signal to be
launched against us.
There may have been among the general officers of the militia a feeling
of anxiety. Indeed it would be strange were it otherwise. But this
anxiety was doubtless due to the novelty of their position, together
with their sense of the solemn responsibility which a commander bears
in the hour of battle--a sense undulled in them by familiarity with
scenes of carnage. But among the men there was the repose of confidence
and courage. Whether hastily called to the breastworks and formed into
line, expecting, it may be, to see the enemy drawn up on the distant
hills; or dismissed with orders not to leave our company parade, and to
lose not an instant in "falling in" at the first tap of the "Assembly,"
as the signal for regimental muster is called, or at the more ominous
and alarming sound of the "Long-Roll;" whether retiring to our tents
for the night, ordered to sleep on our arms; or awakened suddenly by
the sharp "Halt! Who goes there?" of the passing sentinel; there seemed
to cover the camp of the Twenty-Third--and the same was probably true
of every other camp in that menaced stronghold--a mantle of repose such
as they feel who fear no evil. Nevertheless had an assault been made
with one-half the force, say, which carried the works of Winchester a
few weeks previously, and with the same impetuous valor, there can
hardly be two opinions as to the result. We should have resisted
bravely and hurled back the enemy, green though we were; but a resolute
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