ng
enough and bold enough to go so far from home and attack our enemy upon
his own soil. The joy of our soldiers knew no bounds. We were as
light-hearted and as gay as children on a picnic, and we had no fear as
to result of the move.

Marching along the pike one day, the cavalry halted, and just on our
left there was a modest home of a farmer. The garden was fenced, and
came out and bordered on the road. His raspberries were ripe, and our
soldiers sat on their horses, and leaning over were picking the berries
from the vines. One soldier was bold enough to dismount and get over
into the garden. We saw the family watching us from the window. The
impudence on the part of this soldier was a little too much for the
farmer. He came out with an old-fashioned shotgun and berated us in a
manner most vehement, but did not shoot. This stirred the risibles of
our soldiers to such an extent that the whole command broke out with
loud laughter and hurrah for the brave farmer, who single-handed, and
with a single-barrel shotgun, was defying the whole rebel horde. If the
entire command had leveled its guns at him I think he would have stood
his ground, but he could not stand our ridicule, so he went back into
his house, and all was quiet again. Presently the command moved off,
leaving what berries they did not have time to pick. From Chambersburg,
Lee turned his columns southward and moved toward Gettysburg to meet the
Union army that was advancing in the opposite direction. The armies met,
and the whole world knows the result.

The battle lasted three days. The first two days were decidedly in favor
of the Confederates. My command took an active part in the battle, and
the adjutant of my regiment was killed, also several in my company, and
some were badly wounded and had to be left. I was struck with a ball on
the shoulder, marking my coat, and had a bullet hole through the rim of
my hat; but as the latter was caused by my own careless handling of my
pistol, I can't count it as a trophy.

As the years go by the students of history are more and more amazed at
the boldness of Gen. Lee in placing his army of 75,000, some say 65,000,
at Gettysburg,[4] when he knew that between him and the capital of the
Confederacy (which his army was intended to protect) was the capital of
the United States protected by an army of not less than 200,000
soldiers, and I might add by the best-equipped army in the world, for
the United States Government h