General Meade: A Novel of the Civil War by Robert Kofman

Author:Robert Kofman [Kofman, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lion Valley Publishing
Published: 2019-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 54

After leaving the Leister house, Meade moved farther down Cemetery Ridge. That was still a highly dangerous area, and Butterfield was hit in the neck by a shell fragment. Meade next moved to Slocum’s headquarters, a mile south on Powers Hill. There, he couldn’t communicate with the rest of the army because the soldiers relaying messages via flag signals had been driven off Cemetery Ridge by the bombardment. He then moved his headquarters to Cemetery Hill.

During these movements, Meade, anticipating an infantry attack on Cemetery Ridge, had Humphreys’s and Ward’s Third Corps divisions and Robinson’s First Corps division begin moving to reinforce the center of Cemetery Ridge. Concerned that his batteries would run out of ammunition to repulse a Confederate charge, he ordered the batteries to cease firing. Meade’s cease-fire order was issued mere minutes after Hunt’s, to the same effect.

When the Confederate cannonade ended, Meade returned to his Leister house headquarters. He received word that a large cavalry fight was occurring in his rear. Lee had sent Jeb Stuart’s cavalry around his right flank to attack his rear from the east as the Confederate infantry assault struck Cemetery Ridge from the west. A dispatch brought good news. Stuart had been repulsed.

After ensuring he had eighteen thousand reinforcements heading toward the center of his line to repulse any Confederate breakthrough, Meade rode up and crested Cemetery Ridge behind Hays’s division. The Rebels appeared to be retreating.

He asked a battery commander, “Has the enemy been turned?”

“General Hays has a Rebel battle flag.”

“I don’t care about their damn flag. Have the Rebels turned?”

“Yes, they’re turning.”

Meade could hear the battle raging south of him, where Gibbon’s division was positioned.

As he rode south, he saw Union and Confederate troops engaged in vicious combat in the angle and along a stone wall. Suddenly the Confederates broke and retreated toward Seminary Ridge.

Meade looked for Hancock and Gibbon but didn’t see them. He found Haskell. “Colonel, has the enemy been repulsed?”

“Yes, General Meade, the Rebels are retreating!”

“Thank God!”

Meade looked around. The immediate ground was covered with dead and wounded Confederate and Union soldiers. The Union batteries had suffered severely, many men and horses had been killed or wounded. Dead and dying Confederates were everywhere—in the angle, around the stone wall, on Emmitsburg Road, and in the farm fields. He saw Rebels running, walking, and limping back to Seminary Ridge.

Meade rode farther south and saw one of Hancock’s aides. “Where is General Hancock?”

“He has been wounded.”

Meade felt for his friend. “Is the wound life-threatening?”

“I don’t think so. He was hit in the groin.”

“Tell General Hancock that I regret exceedingly that he is wounded. I thank him on behalf of the country and myself for his services rendered today. Where is General Gibbon?”

“He has also been wounded.”

My God, Reynolds dead and now Hancock and Gibbon wounded! He was losing his best commanders.

The men began to chant, “Fredericksburg, Fredericksburg!”

Meade surveyed the battlefield. The men were equating this failed Confederate charge to Burnside’s disastrous frontal attacks against Marye’s Heights. The troops were right.

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