n, under the editorship of Captain Charles Hunt.

In deciding to inaugurate its own series of Reprints with Colonel
Haskell's brilliant paper, the Wisconsin History Commission has, in
accordance with its fixed policy, reverted to the original edition,
which is here presented entire, exactly as first printed. Whatever might
have been the author's later judgment, in the event of his surviving the
war, the Commission does not feel warranted in disturbing this original
text in the slightest degree--the present being an unexpurgated reprint
of a rare and valuable narrative written by a soldier in whose memory
Wisconsin feels especial pride. Opinions or errors of fact on the part
of the respective authors represented both in Original Narratives and in
Reprints issued by the Commission, have not nor will they be modified by
the latter. For all statements, of whatever character, the author alone
is responsible.

The Commissioners are grateful to Mrs. W. G. Clough, public librarian of
Portage, for the loan of that institution's rare copy of the original,
for the purpose of this reprint.

R. G. T.

WISCONSIN HISTORICAL LIBRARY

December, 1908

THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG[6]

The Great battle of Gettysburg is now an event of the past. The
composition and strength of the armies, their leaders, the strategy, the
tactics, the result, of that field are to-day by the side of those of
Waterloo--matters of history. A few days ago these things were
otherwise. This great event did not so "cast its shadow before," as to
moderate the hot sunshine that streamed upon our preceding march, or to
relieve our minds of all apprehension of the result of the second great
Rebel invasion of the soil North of the Potomac.

No, not many days since, at times we were filled with fears and
forebodings. The people of the country, I suppose, shared the anxieties
of the army, somewhat in common with us, but they could not have felt
them as keenly as we did. We were upon the immediate theatre of events,
as they occurred from day to day, and were of them. We were the army
whose province it should be to meet this invasion and repel it; on us
was the immediate responsibility for results, most momentous for good or
ill, as yet in the future. And so in addition to the solicitude of all
good patriots, we felt that our own honor as men and as an army, as well
as the safety of the Capitol and the country, were at stake.

And what if that invasion shou