CHAPTER VI.

THE EASTERN ARMIES.

GETTYSBURG.

July 1863.

THE great battle began on the first day of July, Ewell and Hill's Corps of the Confederate Army forcing back our 1st and 11th Corps. The greater part of the second day was consumed by each side waiting for its absent divisions. The evening's fighting was to the advantage of the enemy, though it welded our line together for the struggle of the next day. The story of Round Top, the Peach Orchard, and Cemetery and Culp's Hills is too well known to need repetition. The sun of July 3d went down upon a decisive Union victory. Gen. Lee began his retreat on the following day. Gen. French captured and destroyed the bridge over the Potomac at Williamsport. It was some time before the enemy could rebuild it, but on the 13th this was accomplished, and in the night the swollen river was safely crossed.

Before the battle closed, the Delegates of the Commission were on the ground. At once began the most successful and extensive work which had yet been attempted, a work rich in incidents of sacrifice, devotion and Christian ministration. A supply station was established in the village. Thither stores were pushed

forward from the Commission offices and from the whole surrounding country. Over three hundred Delegates, of all ranks and occupations, were sent as the almoners of the gathered bounty. Before they had concluded their work, stores to the value of $80,000 had been distributed. Too much cannot be said of the kindness of the people of Gettysburg to the Delegates, whose accommodations at first were very limited. Nor was it confined to them; until the hospitals were withdrawn from the neighborhood, the residents were untiring in their efforts to alleviate the wants of the wounded and dying.

Mr. Enoch K. Miller, a private of Co. F, 108th N. Y. Vols., who afterwards became a Chaplain in the army,1 relates, in a letter addressed to Rev. R. J. Parvin,2 how his life was saved at this battle. We make extracts from the letter, and this single relation must stand for the many others left untold:

"It was dark when they laid me under a tree, surrounded by hundreds of my comrades who were wounded and dying, and as my Chaplain, Rev. Thomas Grassie, bent over me and asked where my A Saved Life. trust was placed, the Psalmist's words came involuntarily to my lips: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me, Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.' A minie ball had pierced my breast, passing through my left lung and coming out a little under my shoulder blade. The Surgeon of our regiment made an examination of my wound, but as I supposed that at that time the ball was in me, he only looked at my breast. He gave me a sleeping powder, and throwing his rubber blanket over me, left me as he supposed, to die. During the next three or four days, without a pillow or sufficient covering, my clothes saturated with my own p. 44.

1 Of 25th U. S. C. T.

2 See

blood, with no proper food, attended by a faithful comrade, Sergeant John O'Connell, I lay scarcely daring to hope for life.

"About noon one day I saw in the distance the silver badge of the Christian Commission, and sending my comrade, I soon had its Delegate by my side. In that Delegate I recognized Brother Stillson.' He was an old friend, and we had been co-laborers in the Sundayschool work before the war commenced. He knew me in an instant, and without waiting to waste words, supplied me with a feather pillow, the first I had had in a year, a quilt, a draught of wine, some nice soft crackers and a cup of warm tea. After offering up an earnest prayer by my side, he hastened away to secure some clean clothes. He then removed my filthy garments, and in doing that it was found that the ball had passed through me.

"After all this had been done, I felt as though I was at home; for, my dear sir, the Delegate of the Commission acts the part of a tender, loving mother, a willing father, an affectionate sister, a sympathizing brother and a beloved pastor.

"I lay on the field until July 15th, and received everything that could enhance my comfort in such a situation. The greatest share came from the Christian Commission. For a few days I was cared for by a Surgeon connected with your society. Without these comforts and necessaries I must have died, but as your agents were on the ground to care personally for just such cases as mine, and as a great Providence ordered it, I survived."

The soldier's words of gratitude to the Commission, and to Rev. Mr. Parvin, who had written the orders for the stores which relieved him, need not be added.

Mr. Demond2 relates two stories of relief work performed by Mr. John C. Chamberlain,3 illustrative of the spirit animating the Delegates, and of the good which even a very slight service could effect:

He heard just at nightfall of a hospital, some miles away, that

1J. B. Stillson, Esq., of Rochester, N. Y.

* In his address at the last Anniversary of the Commission.

3 Student of Bangor (Me.) Theological Seminary, and brother of the gallant Gen. Chamberlain.

A Hospital Relieved.

had not been visited. Though wearied with the labors of the day, he went to it at once on foot. He found the Surgeon in charge sick, the assistant overwhelmed with the care of some two hundred wounded, and no stores or comforts. He told the Doctor that there was a station of the Sanitary Commission within a mile, and asked why he had not got stores. The Doctor said he did not know how to get them. Mr. Chamberlain wrote an order on the Sanitary Commission, the Doctor signed it, and the Delegate went to the station and found that the Sanitary Commission had gone away. What was to be done? It was late; he was very weary; it was nearly five miles to Gettysburg, where the station of the Christian Commission was, the road was hard, and the streams all high and swollen. But the men were suffering, and there was no one but him to help. He took the long and lonely walk, and very early the next morning the wagon of the Christian Commission was at that hospital, laden with stores and comforts for the heroic sufferers.

The same Delegate came one day upon an out-of-doors hospital, where the men were lying in the July sun, with no shelter. After looking a moment, he took a stone and stick, and arranged the blanket of a soldier so as to shield his face. Others caught Sun-shades. the idea, and soon every one in the hospital was sheltered from the burning and torturing blaze of the sun.

Rev. Geo. Bringhurst' tells a little incident of one of these slight services:

One very dark night I met a soldier whose arms had both been shot away. He was getting to his tent, and I asked what I could do for him.

"Oh, nothing, Chaplain," said he, cheerfully; "un

you

my

Tying a Sol

less would tie shoes for me. They have been bothering me a good deal."

dier's Shoes.

I thought, as I stooped down, of the latchet which the Forerunner was not worthy to loose, and the little deed became a joy.

1 See p. 24.

Rev. E. F. Williams1 tells a story of faith and its result:

Our store-keeper, an Englishman, earnest, hard-working, patriotic, and a Christian, was asked one day, when our supply of provisions was getting very low, to cut the slices of bread which he gave the boys a little thinner.

66

'Oh, no," said he, "I can't,-the poor fellows are

so hungry."

"But our bread will soon be gone."

Faith.

"Well, I have faith that the Lord will send us more before we are quite out."

He was allowed to take his own course, though advised to be as sparing as possible. The day wore away, and still the crowd of hungry soldiers pressed around our doors. The last loaf was taken from the shelf. A hundred Delegates were yet to have their supper. But there were no crackers, no meat, no bread for them, or for the still unfed soldiers, who, weary with wounds and a long, limping march from the field hospital, lingered at our rooms for a morsel of food, a cup of coffee and a word of direction about the trains for Baltimore and Philadelphia.

Just at the last moment, when our faith was almost exhausted, an immense load of provisions stopped before our quarters, and the drivers asked for the agents of the Commission:

"We have brought bread, lint, bandages, jellies and wines; we don't know just who are most needy, but we have confidence Will you distribute these things for us?"

in you. The stores had come a hundred and three miles. Two ministers, German Reformed and Lutheran, were with them. Our thanks can better be imagined than told. Never again did we chide the storekeeper's faith, who knew that the Lord would send just what we wanted. Nor did our stock of provisions ever again give out while we remained at Gettysburg.

An incident of noble Christian fortitude and heroism

1 See p. 142.