ould be heard
all down the line of Gibbon's magnificent division, which stood
straight in Pickett's path. "Steady, men, steady! Don't fire yet!"

For a very few, tense minutes Pickett's division disappeared in
an undulation of the ground. Then, at less than point-blank range,
it seemed to spring out of the very earth, no longer in three lines
but one solid mass of rushing gray, cresting, like a tidal wave, to
break in fury on the shore. Instantly, as if in answer to a single
word, Hunt's guns and Gibbon's rifles crashed out together, and
shot, shell, canister, and bullet cut gaping wounds deep into the
dense gray ranks. Still, the wave broke; and, from its storm-blown
top, one furious tongue surged over the breastwork and through
the hedge of bayonets. It came from Armistead's brigade of stark
Virginians. He led it on; and, with a few score men, reached the
highwater mark of that last spring tide.

When he fell the tide of battle turned; turned everywhere upon
that stricken field; turned throughout the whole campaign; turned
even in the war itself.

As Pickett's men fell back they were swept by scythe-like fire
from every gun and rifle that could mow them down. Not a single
mounted officer remained; and of all the brave array that Pickett
led three-fourths fell killed or wounded. The other fourth returned
undaunted still, but only as the wreckage of a storm.

[Illustration: CIVIL WAR CAMPAIGNS OF 1863]

Lee's loss exceeded forty per cent of his command. Meade's loss
fell short of thirty. But Meade was quite unable to pursue at once
when Lee retired on the evening of the fourth. The opposing cavalry,
under Pleasonton and Stuart respectively, had fought a flanking
battle of their own, but without decisive result. So Lee could
screen his retreat to the Potomac, where, however, his whole supply
train might have been cut off if its escort under the steadfast
Imboden had not been reinforced by every teamster who could pull
a trigger.

Gettysburg and Vicksburg, coming together, of course raised the
wildest expectations among the general public, expectations which
found an unworthy welcome at Government headquarters, where Halleck
wrote to Meade on the fourteenth: "The escape of Lee's army has
created great dissatisfaction in the mind of the President." Meade
at once replied: "The censure is, in my judgment, so undeserved
that I most respectfully ask to be immediately relieved from the
command of this army." Wiser co