ps, asked for the garrison of Harper's Ferry, which seemed
useless where it was. Halleck refused it, and, June 27, Hooker requested
to be relieved of the command. His request was instantly granted, and
Major-General George G. Meade was appointed in his place. Swinton says
that command was given to Meade "without any lets or hindrances, the
President expressly waiving all the powers of the executive and the
Constitution, so as to enable General Meade to make, untrammeled, the
best dispositions for the emergency." One would like to know the
authority upon which so extraordinary a statement is based; probably it
is a great exaggeration, and the simple fact would prove to be that,
since the situation was such that new developments were likely to occur
with much suddenness, the President wisely and even necessarily placed
the general in full control, free from requirements of communication and
consultation. But to represent that Mr. Lincoln abdicated his
constitutional functions is absurd! Be this as it may, the fact is that
the appointment brought no change of plan. For three days the armies
manoeuvred and drew slowly together. Finally it was betwixt chance and
choice that the place and hour of concussion were determined. The place
was the village of Gettysburg, and the time was the morning of July 1.

Then ensued a famous and most bloody fight! During three long, hot days
of midsummer those two great armies struggled in a desperate grapple,
and with not unequal valor, the Confederates fiercely assailing, the
Federals stubbornly holding, those historic ridges, and both alike,
whether attacking or defending, whether gaining or losing ground, always
falling in an awful carnage of dead and wounded. It was the most
determined fighting that had yet taken place at the East, and the names
of Cemetery Ridge, Little Round Top, and Culp's Hill are written deep
in blood in American memories. When the last magnificent charge of the
Southerners was hurled back in the afternoon of July 3, the victory was
decided. The next day Lee began to send away his trains, his wounded and
prisoners. It is indeed true that during the day he held his army in
position on Seminary Ridge, hoping that Meade would attack, and that,
with an exchange of their relative parts of assailants and defenders, a
change of result also might come about. But Meade made no advance, and
with the first hours of darkness on the evening of July 4 the Southern
host began its r