Lincoln, the unknown

LINCOLN THE UNKNOWN• 167Lee's artillery was already thundering before Harrisburg,when he learned that, back in the rear, the Union Army wasthreatening to break his lines of communication. So he whirledaround as an angry ox would to gore a dog snapping at hisheels; and, quite by chance, the ox and the dog met at a sleepylittlePennsylvania village with a theological seminary, a placecalled Gettysburg, and fought there the most famous battle inthe history of our country.During the first two days of the fighting the Union Army losttwenty thousand men; and, on the third day, Lee hoped finallyto smash the enemy by a terrific assault of fresh troops underthe command of General George Pickett.These were new tactics for Lee. Up to this time, he hadfought with his men behind breastworks or concealed in thewoods. Now he planned to make a desperate attack out in theopen.The very contemplation of itassistant,General Longstreet.staggered Lee's most brilliant"Great God!" Longstreet exclaimed. "Look, General Lee, atthe insurmountable difficulties between our line and that of theYankees—the steep hills, the tiers of artillery, the fences. Andthen we shall have to fight our infantry against their battery.Look at the ground we shall have to charge over, nearly a mileof it there in the open, under the line of their canister andshrapnel. It is my opinion that no fifteen thousand men everarrayed for battle could take that position."But Lee was adamant. "There were never such men in anarmy before," he replied. "They will go anywhere and do anythingif properly led."So Lee held to his decision, and made the bloodiest blunderof his career.The Confederates had already massed one hundred and fiftycannon along Seminary Ridge. If you visit Gettysburg, you cansee them there to-day, placed precisely as they were on thatfateful July afternoon when they laid down a barrage such as,up to that time, had never before been heard on earth.Longstreet in this instance had keener judgment than Lee. Hebelieved that the charge could result in nothing but pointlessbutchery; so he bowed his head and wept and declined to issuethe order. Consequently, another officer had to give the commandfor him; and, in obedience to that command, General