GDG- Sue Elizabeth Stoever

[Ginny Gage]

A Peaceful Valley. 

            This was truly a peaceful valley, in which was set this sleepy
town, very near to the Mason and Dixon Line, and almost on the rise dividing
the Susquehanna and Potomac valleys.  Roads from Baltimore, Harrisburg,
York, Carlisle and other towns here met; hence it was that the two armies,
moving unexpectedly, and each foiling the other in attempt to trace its
movements, were precipitated upon each other at an unexpected point marked
out for this crisis in the civil war.

            It was after 4 p.m., when Dr. Godfrey came out of the front door
of the substantial house at the corner of Baltimore street and the Diamond.
The past hour had been one of distressing excitement.  That morning, July
1st, the opening engagement had taken place on Seminary Ridge, to the west
of the town. At 9:30 skirmishing began between the cavalry commanded by
General Buford and the advancing rebels. At 10 the artillery opened and a
little later the first corps under General Reynolds dashed through the town,
advancing to meet the Confederate forces under Heth.  Heth¹s 10,000 men,
doubled by the arrival of Pender, were faced by a solid wall of our brave
men numbering 6,000.  For hours the smaller force held its position.
Intrepid Reynolds, cool and brave, rode in front of his men, placing them
and urging them to action, only to be himself cut down in the beginning of
the conflict.

            Bravely as the Union forces held their own against trying odds,
at last it was found necessary to retreat to Cemetery Hill, the choice
position to the south, which had been selected early in the day by General
O. O. Howard, next in seniority to General Reynolds.  Three days previous
General Meade had been appointed to the command of the Army of the Potomac,
but he did not arrive at Gettysburg until just before midnight, Thursday,
July 2d, although General Hancock, designated to succeed General Reynolds,
arrived in the midst of the rout and applied himself to the task of
restoring order among the troops. Pell-mell our men had retreated through
the town, the wounded seeking shelter and succor.

Ginny Gage