omfort and liberty, and which, by their industry, they had made
"fair as the garden of the Lord." As Carleton rode with the second
corps from Frederick to Union Town, and thence to Westminster, he
penned prose poems in description of the glorious sight, so different
from his native and stony New Hampshire.

"The march yesterday was almost like passing through paradise. Such
broad acres of grain rustling in the breeze; the hills and valleys,
bathed in alternate sunlight and shade; the trees so green; the air so
scented with clover-blossoms and new-made hay; the cherry-trees ruby
with ripened fruit, lining the roadway; the hospitality of the people,
made it pleasant marching."

Thus like the great forces of the universe, which make the ocean's
breast heave to and fro, and send the tides in ebb and flood, were the
great energies which were now to bring two hundred thousand men in
arms, on the field of Gettysburg, in Adams County, Pennsylvania. Forty
years before, as it is said, a British officer surveying the great
plain with the ranges of hills confronting each other from opposite
sides, with many highroads converging at this point, declared with
admiration that this would be a superb site for a great battle. Now
the vision of possibility was to become reality, and Carleton was to
be witness of it all. Since mid-June he had been on the rail or in the
saddle. He was now to spend sleepless nights and laborious days that
were to tax his physical resources to their utmost.

With his engineer's eye, and from the heights overlooking the main
field, he took in the whole situation. From various points he saw the
awful battles of July 2d and 3d, which he described in two letters,
written each time after merciful night came down upon the field of
slaughter. He saw the charges and defeats, the counter-charges and the
continued carnage, and the final cavalry onset made by the rebels. He
was often under fire. An impression that lasted all his life, and to
which he often referred, was the result of that great movement of
Pickett's division across the field, after the long bombardment of the
Federal forces by the Confederate artillery. Retiring before the heavy
cannonade, Carleton had remained in the rear, until, hearing the
cheers of the Union soldiers, he reached the slope in time to see the
gray and brown masses in the distance.

As the great wave of human life receded, that for a moment had pierced
the centre of the Union forces