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
Then Buford saw the columns coming forward at the double quick, Reynolds
in his eagerness galloping at their head, and leaving them behind.
He looked in the other direction and he saw the men of Hill advancing
with equal speed. He saw on one road the Stars and Stripes and on
the other the Stars and Bars. He rushed back down the steps and met
Reynolds.
"The devil is to pay!" he cried to Reynolds.
"How do we stand?"
"We can hold on until the arrival of the First Corps."
Buford sprang on his horse, and the two generals, reckless of death,
galloped among the men, encouraging the faint-hearted, reforming the
lines, and crying to them to hold fast, that the whole Army of the
Potomac was coming.
Harry felt the hardening of resistance. The smoke was so dense that he
could not see for a while the fresh troops coming to the help of Buford,
but he knew nevertheless that they were there. Then he heard a great
shouting behind him, as Hill's men, coming upon the field, rushed into
action. But Jackson, the great Jackson whom he had followed through all
his victories, the man who saw and understood everything, was not there!
The genius of battle was for the moment on the other side. Reynolds,
so ably pushing the work that Buford had done, was seizing the best
positions for his men. He was acting with rapidity and precision,
and the troops under him felt that a great commander was showing them
the way. His vigor secured the slopes and crest of Cemetery Hill,
but the Southern masses nevertheless were pouring forward in full tide.
The combat had now lasted about two hours, and, a stray gust of wind
lifting the smoke a little, Harry caught a glimpse of a vast blazing
amphitheater of battle. He had regarded it at first as an affair of
vanguards, but now he realized suddenly that this was the great battle
they had been expecting. Within this valley and on these ridges and
hills it would be fought, and even as the thought came to him the
conflict seemed to redouble in fury and violence, as fresh brigades
rushed into the thick of it.
Harry's horse was killed by a shell as he rode toward a wood on the
Cashtown road, which both sides were making a desperate effort to
secure. Fortunately he was able to leap clear and escape unhurt.
In a few moments Dalton was dismounted in almost the same manner,
but the two on foot kept at the head of the column and rushed with
the skirmishers into the bushes. There they knelt, and began to fire
rapidly on the Union men who were advancing to drive them out.
Harry saw an officer in a general's uniform leading the charge. The
bullets of the skirmishers rained upon the advance. One struck this
general in the head, when he was within twenty yards of the riflemen,
and he fell stone dead. It was the gallant and humane Reynolds, falling
in the hour of his greatest service. But his troops, wild with ardor
and excitement, not noticing his death, still rushed upon the wood.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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