Ewell upon the right had gained a footing
upon the Ridge. The Rebel army was joyful and expectant of victory. The
morning of the 3rd of July opened clear and bright, and one hundred
thousand men faced each other awaiting the signal of conflict; but,
except the pushing of Ewell from his position, the hours passed on
relieved only by the rumbling of artillery carriages as they were massed
by Lee upon Seminary Ridge, and by Meade upon Cemetery Ridge. At twelve
o'clock Lee ascended the cupola of the Pennsylvania College, in quiet
surveyed the Union lines, and decided to strike for Hancock's Centre.
Meanwhile, Pickett with his three Virginia brigades had arrived from
Chambersburg and taken cover in the woods of Seminary Ridge. What Lee's
feelings must have been, as he looked at the hundred death-dealing
cannon massed on Cemetery Hill, and the fifty thousand men waiting
patiently in front and behind them, men whose valor he knew well in many
a bitter struggle--and then looked at his handful of brave Virginians,
three, small, decimated brigades which he was about to hurl into that
vortex of death,--no one will ever know. The blunder that sent the
Light Brigade to death at Balaklava was bad enough, but here were
five thousand men waiting to seek victory where, only the day before
ten thousand had lost their lives or their limbs in the same futile
endeavor. Leaving the college, Lee called a council of his generals at
Longstreet's headquarters, and the plan of attack was formed. It is said
that the level-headed Longstreet opposed the plan, and if so it was but
in keeping with his remarkable generalship. The attack was to be opened
with artillery fire to demoralize and batter the Federal line, and was
to be opened by a signal of two shots from the Washington Artillery. At
half-past one the report of the first gun rang out on the still, summer
air, followed a minute later by the second, and then came the roar and
flash of one hundred and thirty-eight rebel cannon. Almost immediately
one hundred Federal guns responded and the battle had begun. Shot and
shell tore through the air, crashing through batteries, tearing men and
horses to pieces; the very earth seemed to shake and the hills to reel
as the terrible thunders re-echoed amongst them. For nearly an hour
every conceivable form of ordnance known to modern gunnery hissed and
shrieked, whistled and screamed, as it went forth on its death-mission
till exhausted by excitement and hea