The Star of Gettysburg: A Story of Southern High TideAltsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
History
The Star of Gettysburg: A Story of Southern High Tide
Altsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Juvenile fiction
Harry and Dalton felt great exhilaration. Movement was good not only
for the body, but for the spirit as well. It made the blood flow more
freely and the brain grow more active. Moreover, the beauty of the
early summer that had come incited one to greater hope.
The great adventure had now begun, but it was not unknown to Hooker and
his watchful generals on the other shore. The ground was dry and they
had seen a column of dust rise and move toward the northwest. Their
experienced eyes told them that such a cloud must be made by marching
troops, and the men in the balloons with their glasses were able to
catch the gleam of steel from the bayonets of Longstreet's men as they
took the long road to Gettysburg.
Hooker had good men with him. He, too, as he stood on the left bank of
the Rappahannock, was surrounded by able and famous generals, and others
were to come. There was Meade, a little older than the others, but not
old, tall, thin, stooped a bit, wearing glasses, and looking like a
scholar, with his pale face and ragged beard, a cold, quiet man, able
and thorough, but without genius. Then came Reynolds, modest and quiet,
who many in the army claimed would have shown the genius that Meade
lacked had it not been for his early death, for he too, like Pender,
would soon be riding to a soldier's grave. And then were Doubleday and
Newton and Hancock, a great soldier, a man of magnificent presence,
whose air and manner always inspired enthusiasm, soon to be known as
Hancock the Superb; Sedgwick, a soldier of great insight and tenacity;
Howard, a religious man, who was to come out of the war with only one
arm; Hunt and Gibbon, and Webb and Sykes, and Slocum and Pleasanton,
who commanded the cavalry, and many others.
These men foresaw the march of Lee into the North, and the people behind
them realized that they were no longer carrying the battle to the enemy.
He was bringing it to them. Apprehension spread through the North,
but it was prepared for the supreme effort. The Army of the Potomac,
despite Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, had no fear of its opponent,
and the veterans in blue merely asked for another chance.
On the following morning and the morning after, Ewell's corps followed
Longstreet in two divisions toward the general rendezvous at Culpeper
Court House, but Lee himself, although most of his troops were now gone,
did not yet move. Hill's corps had been held to cover any movement
of the Army of the Potomac at Fredericksburg, and Lee and his staff
remained there for three days after Longstreet's departure.
The Invincibles had gone, but Harry and Dalton were just behind Lee,
who sat on his white horse, Traveler, gazing through his glasses toward
a division of the Army of the Potomac which on the day before had
crossed the Rappahannock, under a heavy fire from Hill's men.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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