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and was assigned to the Jersey Brigade, to which it was attached as long as it remained with the army of the

Potomac.

THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG.

The brigade arrived at Emmettsburg on the first of July, and encamped for the night, having heard firing all the afternoon in the direction of Gettysburg. At two o'clock on the morning of the 3d, the brigade set off and reached the scene of action early in the forenoon, and joined its corps. The brigade was commanded by Col. Berlin. It moved up the slope into the open field, when a rebel battery opened upon it with shell, one piece hitting the color-staff of the Second Regiment, wounding several of the color-guard. The brigade was withdrawn to a grove, while a battery went into position and rapidly replied to the rebel guns, and which the brigade was ordered to support. On the crest of the ridge, in a peach orchard, was a battery of six Napoleon guns, which kept up a spirited response to the rebels who were pouring shell and spherical case into our lines with murderous effect. The Second was ordered to report to Gen. Graham, commanding a brigade in Gen. Birney's division, and by him ordered to the rear of this battery as a support. After the position was taken the roll of the Second was called, and only eight men were found absent from their places. The regiment was exposed to a more terrific artillery fire than it ever experienced before or since. The air was filled with the missiles of death and the leaves and branches of the peach trees were shorn as if by a tornado. The brave gunners did not flinch, though every discharge of the enemy's guns dealt death to their ranks or mowed down the ranks of the supporting regiment. Some shells came along the ground so closely as to wound half a dozen men at a time. Others

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exploded as they struck the cartridge-boxes, and the cartridges, set on fire, blew up like so many Chinese crackers. The conflict was going on vigorously from Round Top, on the left, to Cemetery Hill, on the right, increasing in strength and fury toward the point where the rebels were striving with every human effort to turn our left. Thus the battle proceeded until half-past four in the afternoon, when this battery was relieved by a regular battery of rifled guns, which was served with much less spirit than its predecessor. The enemy's fire at once increased, their infantry began to show themselves from behind the woods, and at their advance our skirmishers came pouring in. So threatening was the attack that the Lieutenant of the battery spiked his guns in expectation of their capture. At this point Col. Bailey asked permission to charge with the Second and check this advance, which was granted, and the men sprang to their feet with a loud shout, passed the battery, and drove the advancing enemy back to their lines, taking up a position on the Emmettsburg road. Here it was exposed to the enemy's artillery at short range, and to the fire of the line it had just driven, which had taken shelter in a ravine. Two rebel regiments commenced to advance by the flank across the field in front, but these were speedily forced to flee in confusion. A brigade then advanced in line opposite the Sixty-third Pennsylvania, which was formed on the right of the Second, and no fire seemed able to check them. Some of Company B's men, who were wounded, took a position behind an old farm house and poured a lively fire into the advancing ranks, aiming especially at their colors. Still it came on and the Sixty-third gave way. The regiment on the left also faced about and retreated, upon which the Second was in its turn compelled to retire. The ground was thickly strewn with dead and wounded of both sides. Gen. Graham was wounded

and taken prisoner, and Gen. Sickles, who rode up amid the terrific storm, had his leg shattered by a shell, and was carried from the field.

The rebels gained a temporary advantage at this point in the line. The Third corps had been overborne by vastly superior numbers, when the gallant old Sixth Corps, out of breath and weary with a long march, but fresh in courage and spirit, made its appearance and pressed forward to take the place of the shattered and bleeding Third. The rebel force was hurled back, the lost ground recovered, and the sun went down on the second day of that gallant fight, with the rebel army beaten at every point, and the tide of secession throughout the country at its ebb.

When the Second Regiment rejoined its brigade it was but a sad remnant of what it had been a few hours earlier, when its roll was called, just before entering into the fight. Then twenty-four officers and three hundred and thirty men answered to their names. Of this number nineteen were known to have been killed; one hundred and thirty-six were wounded, and thirty-eight were missing, lying dead or wounded on the field, or prisoners in the hands of the enemy, making a total of one hundred and ninety-three, out of three hundred and fifty-four, or about three-fifths of the number engaged. All of the field officers were wounded; Major Sayles severely, with a bullet through his thigh, and left in the hands of the enemy, though so disabled that they did not carry him away; Capt. Metcalf and Lieut. Roberts were killed; Lieuts. Ballard and Dascomb died of their wounds within a few days; Capt. Hubbard was shot in the forehead and wandered into the rebel lines, where he died and was buried by some brother Masons; Lieut. Vickery was badly wounded, remained in the hands of the rebels till they retreated, and died on the 8th of July; Lieut. Patch was wounded in the abdomen, and

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