ecome twice the
volume that it was before, and its range extends over more than twice
the space. The Third Corps has been pressed back considerably, and the
wounded are streaming to the rear by hundreds, but still the battle
there goes on, with no considerable abatement on our part. The field of
actual conflict extends now from a point to the front of the left of
the Second Corps, away down to the front of Round Top, and the fight
rages with the greatest fury. The fire of artillery and infantry and the
yells of the Rebels fill the air with a mixture of hideous sounds. When
the First Division of the Second Corps first engaged the enemy, for a
time it was pressed back somewhat, but under the able and judicious
management of Gen. Caldwell, and the support of the Fifth Corps, it
speedily ceased to retrograde, and stood its ground; and then there
followed a time, after the Fifth Corps became well engaged, when from
appearances we hoped the troops already engaged would be able to check
entirely, or repulse the further assault of the enemy. But fresh bodies
of the Rebels continued to advance out of the woods to the front of the
position of the Third Corps, and to swell the numbers of the assailants
of this already hard pressed command. The men there begin to show signs
of exhaustion--their ammunition must be nearly expended--they have now
been fighting more than an hour, and against greatly superior numbers.
From the sound of the firing at the extreme left, and the place where
the smoke rises above the tree tops there, we know that the Fifth Corps
is still steady, and holding its own there; and as we see the Sixth
Corps now marching and near at hand to that point, we have no fears for
the left--we have more apparent reason to fear for ourselves.

The Third Corps is being overpowered--here and there its lines begin to
break--the men begin to pour back to the rear in confusion--the enemy
are close upon them and among them--organization is lost to a great
degree--guns and caissons are abandoned and in the hands of the
enemy--the Third Corps, after a heroic but unfortunate fight, is being
literally swept from the field. That Corps gone, what is there between
the Second Corps, and these yelling masses of the enemy? Do you not
think that by this time we began to feel a personal interest in this
fight? We did indeed. We had been mere observers--the time was at hand
when we must be actors in this drama.

Up to this hour Gen. Gibbon h