oth armies to that famous field.

The full commitment came shortly after, when Meade sent Hancock
forward to command the three corps and Buford's cavalry in their
attempt to stem the Confederate advance. Howard was then the senior
general on the field, having taken over from Doubleday, who had
succeeded Reynolds. But he at once agreed that such a strong position
should be held and that Hancock should proceed to rectify the lines.
This was no easy task; for Ewell's Confederates had meanwhile come
down from the north and driven in the Federal flank on the already
hard-pressed front. The front thereupon gave way and fell back
in confusion. But Hancock's masterly work was quickly done and
the Federal line was reestablished so well that the Confederates
paused in their attack and waited for the morrow.

The Confederates had got as good as they gave, much to their disgust.
Archer, one of their best brigadiers, felt particularly sore when
most of his men were rounded up by Meredith's "Iron Brigade." When
Doubleday saw his old West Point friend a prisoner he shook hands
cordially, saying, "Well, Archer, I _am_ glad to see you!" But
Archer answered, "Well, I'm not so glad to see _you_--not by a
damned sight!" The fact was that the excellent Federal defense had
come as a very unpleasing surprise upon the rather too cocksure
Confederates. Buford's cavalry and Reynolds's infantry had staunchly
withstood superior numbers; while Lieutenant Bayard Wilkeson actually
held back a Confederate division for some time with the guns of
Battery G, Fourth U. S. Artillery. This heroic youth, only nineteen
years of age, kept his men in action, though they were suffering
terrible losses, till two converging batteries brought him down.

He was well matched by a veteran of over seventy, John Burns, an
old soldier, whom the sound of battle drew from his little home like
the trumpet-call to arms. In his swallow-tailed, brass-buttoned,
old-fashioned coatee, Burns seemed a very comic sight to the nearest
boys in blue until they found he really meant to join them and
that he knew a thing or two of war. "Which way are the rebels?"
he asked, "and where are our troops? I know how to fight--I've
fit before." So he did; and he fought to good purpose till wounded
three times.

Late in the evening Meade arrived and inspected the lines by moonlight.
Having ordered every remaining man to hasten forward he faced the
second day with well-founded anxiety lest L