FEDERAL SOLDIER AND GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE AT GETTYSBURG.
I was in the battle of Gettysburg, and an incident occurred there which largely changed my views of the Southern people. I had been the most bitter anti-Southern man and fought and cursed the Confederacy. I could see nothing good in any of them. The last day of the fight I was badly wounded, a ball shattering my left leg. I lay near Cemetery Ridge, and as General Lee ordered his retreat he and his officers rode near me. I recognized him; and though faint from exposure and loss of blood, I raised up my hands, looked Lee in the face, and shouted, “Hurrah for the Union!"
The General heard me, looked, stopped his horse, dismounted, and came toward me. I confess that I thought he meant to kill me. But as he came up he looked down at me with such a sad expression upon his face that all fear left me, and I wondered what he was about. He extended his hand to me and, grasping it firmly and looking right into my eyes, said: “My son, I hope you will soon be well."
If I live a thousand years, I shall never forget the expression of General Lee’s face. There he was, defeated, retiring from a field that had cost him and his cause almost their last hope, and yet he stopped to say words like those to a wounded soldier of the opposition who had taunted him as he passed by. As soon as the General had left me I cried myself to sleep there upon the bloody ground.—Gamaliel Bradford, Jr., in the Atlantic Monthly.
I was in the battle of Gettysburg, and an incident occurred there which largely changed my views of the Southern people. I had been the most bitter anti-Southern man and fought and cursed the Confederacy. I could see nothing good in any of them. The last day of the fight I was badly wounded, a ball shattering my left leg. I lay near Cemetery Ridge, and as General Lee ordered his retreat he and his officers rode near me. I recognized him; and though faint from exposure and loss of blood, I raised up my hands, looked Lee in the face, and shouted, “Hurrah for the Union!"
The General heard me, looked, stopped his horse, dismounted, and came toward me. I confess that I thought he meant to kill me. But as he came up he looked down at me with such a sad expression upon his face that all fear left me, and I wondered what he was about. He extended his hand to me and, grasping it firmly and looking right into my eyes, said: “My son, I hope you will soon be well."
If I live a thousand years, I shall never forget the expression of General Lee’s face. There he was, defeated, retiring from a field that had cost him and his cause almost their last hope, and yet he stopped to say words like those to a wounded soldier of the opposition who had taunted him as he passed by. As soon as the General had left me I cried myself to sleep there upon the bloody ground.—Gamaliel Bradford, Jr., in the Atlantic Monthly.
