t one and then the other of these two gallant officers
fell mortally wounded, although no Yankee was in sight. It was the work
of sharpshooters concealed in a large wooden building on our left. I
took the liberty of causing a company to fire a volley into the house
and that put a stop to the murderous villainy.

It was nearly midnight when the brigade fell back a short distance to
seek some rest after the severe toils of the day; but notwithstanding
the lateness of the hour and our tired condition I proposed to Colonel
Brockenbrough that we should look up these two men who were especially
dear to us, for Austin was his cousin and Addison was mine. We knew that
they had been carried on stretchers from the place where they had been
wounded. Our only guides as we slowly rode along in the dark were the
fires that indicated the location of the improvised hospitals of the
numerous brigades. Inquiring our way, we at last came to the hospital of
our brigade where Mr. Meredith, chaplain of the 47th, conducted us to
our friends who were lying upon pallets of straw. They knew that their
wounds were mortal, but they faced "the last enemy" with the same
intrepidity they had manifested on many a sanguinary field. If I had
yielded to my emotions, I would have wept over Addison even as a woman
weeps. He was named for my mother's only brother; he was pure in heart;
and while he was gentle and sweet in manners and disposition, he was as
brave as any man who followed Lee across the Potomac.

By some critics General Lee has been censured because he did not
continue the battle and attempt to capture Cemetery Ridge on the evening
of the first day. I think that the criticism is unjust; for, in the
first place, the attempt would have been of doubtful issue, and then if
he had tried and succeeded, what advantage would have been gained? It
was clearly Meade's role to act on the defensive and select the arena
upon which the decisive contest must be waged. If Cemetery Ridge had
been taken, instead of hurrying his other corps to that position to
form a junction with the First and Eleventh, he would have retired
behind Pipe Creek, or chosen some other ground as easily tenable as
Cemetery Ridge. The state of things was such that Lee could not retreat
without a general engagement, and he could not enter upon it except upon
disadvantageous conditions. The tables were turned: as the Yankees had
fought at Fredericksburg, so the Rebels had to fight in Pen