"I saw General Sickles and staff coming up the road. I went out and saluted him and inquired if he could tell me where the Second Vermont Brigade was. He said, "Yes, they are about three miles below here and will soon be along. . . . We marched on and the sound of battle grew louder as we advanced. When we arrived at Gettysburg it was nearly dark and the first day of the great battle was ended. General Reynolds killed and our forces driven; back. After a hurried scant supper of hardtack and coffee, we laid down our arms for the night"" ~ Lt. Frank Kenfield, 13 Vt , Co. E, caught up with reunited with his Regiment on July 1 on the Emmitsburg Road. He said:
In time of battle, as there is a dread about it that few, if any, can overcome. There is a great difference in mankind as to bravery, but the bravest are not over anxious to take a hand in a battle like Gettysburg."The first news that the great battle we were expecting had begun reached us about noon of Wednesday , July 1 , when a courier , spurring a tired horse , met General Stannard riding at the head of his brigade , eight or nine miles south of Gettysburg , with word from General Doubleday that a big fight was in progress at Gettysburg ; that General Reynolds had been killed and he had succeeded to the command of the First corps ; that the corps and cavalry were fighting a large part of the rebel army and having hard work to hold their ground , and that Stannard must hasten forward as fast as possible . He did so , but the heat was oppressive , the men were tired , and they moved all too wearily till crossing a crest four or five miles from the field , the heavy roar of cannon in front reached all ears . The sound put life into the men , and there was no lagging after that . As we neared Gettysburg we began to see groups of excited inhabitants , most of them women , gathered wherever there was an outlook toward the field . Their anxious faces were bent upon us with varied expressions , some seeming by their sad gaze to say , " Alas , that these too should be food for powder , " while the eyes of others , as they glanced down the long column of the brigade which had more men in it than some divisions , lighted with hope , and they waved us on as to certain victory . ،، The smoke of the battle was now mounting high over the field , and the sultry thunder " of artillery , rolling continuously and heavily , filled the air . About sundown , as the brigade reached the outskirts of the field , I was again sent forward to report its arrival to the division commander and was thus the first man of the brigade to reach the actual battle ground .
"The artillery firing had ceased , but carbines were cracking on the plain as I rode across it . Passing inside of a skirmish line of dismounted cavalry I took my way to a low hill , which seemed to be the centre of operations . Batteries were in position on the brow of the hill and troops forming along its top . They were what was left of the Eleventh corps , after its retreat through the village , rallying on a new line to meet an antic- ipated attack from the enemy , then apparently forming for an assault , at the foot of the hill . I rode up to a colonel who was directing the disposition of a line of battle . A white handker- chief was wound around his neck , through the folds of which blood was oozing from a wound in his throat . He directed me where he thought I could find a portion of the First corps , and I found Gen. Rowley , commanding the Third division of the corps , stretched on the ground by a little whit`e house . He was asleep , overcome by fatigue , or something , and his aids would not wake him . They told me to guide the brigade to that point ; and after a while , the tired men stretched them- selves upon their arms in a wheat field , and sank into the deep and reckless sleep of the weary soldier . There was rest for the men ; but not for our general . Gen. Stannard was appointed gen- eral field officer of the day , or of the night rather , in that part of the field , and had to see to the posting of the pickets of another corps besides our own . The duty called for a night in the sad- dle , upon the army lines ". ~ George C Benedict, letter of July 5, 1863 in Army Live in Virginia
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