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Show GETTYSBURG, THIRD DAY. The jubilee anniversar3r of tho groat day of battle at Gettysburg is today. This day fifty years ago saw the crushing crush-ing of the hopes of tho Confederacy, aud when added to this was the great reverse of the surrender of Vicksburg, the jubilee anniversary of which will be tomorrow, there should have been no more fighting in that war. The fighting fight-ing which came after was simply a prolongation pro-longation of the agony. This day fifty 3'cars ago was ushered in with -the rattle c!C musketry and tho boom of cannon in the long fight of the Union troops to regain tho positions which they had lost the evening before on 'Gulp's Hill on the Union right. Largo bodies of troops had been detached de-tached from the right to aid the left in the severe fighting of tho previous da On their return they found their entrenchments occupied by tho Confederates, Con-federates, who had proved too strong for the weakened force left to hold the line. Seven hours of hard fighting was necessary to regain the Union position po-sition which had been lost the evening before. Then came a lull in the battle, an ominous silence, which preceded tho great fight in the afternoon, the charge of Pickett's and Pettigrew's divisions, which were chiefly fresh troops, aided by some detached brigades, which were assembled by General Lee for the great master stroke which was expected to win the battle for him. Other Gencjals on the field, especially Lougstreet, had no Ifaith in tho movement, and protested pro-tested against it, The troops that made the assault were of Longstfeet's corps, so that ho had a more direct interest in the assault than any other corps commander. com-mander. His protest against it was disregarded, dis-regarded, for Lee had made up his mind to undertake the movement. It was the identical movement through which Napoleon won tho'grcat battle of WagTam, by a charge under General Macdonald with a body of 16,000 men, which smashed tho Austrian center and gave Napoleon the signal victory which he won on that day. It was supposed that a charge of that kind was irresistible; irre-sistible; but it happened that tho charge was made against the very strongest position of the Uaiibn line, a position which had been strengthened enormously by fortifications and b' the massing of troops and of cannon, all being placed in position at that point by General Meade, who divined that tho assault from General Leo would come upon that portion of the Union line. The charge was mado gallantly and with a tenacity and determination that would have" been supposed to carry all before it; but it was hurled back in bloody slaughter two-thirds of tho attacking at-tacking force being lulled, wounded and captured. That is where the star of the Confederacy Con-federacy went down, and there does not seem to be any reason to doubt but that General Meade could have followed up his victory and practically annihilated Lee's army; but the opportunity was lost and tho war dragged on, yet more thousands of victims on each side being added to the long roll of the dead, the crippled, and the less severely wounded. The lighting after that was a wonden'fnl example of endurance in the face of predestined defeat, but exhibited a characteristic of our race, that never admits defeat until all power of resistance re-sistance is gone; and so the war dragged along almost two years more, with a slaughter that was terrible and destruction and misery most grievous. The vctorans Avho are assembled on tho battlefield today will doubtless go over tho scene of the great tight of fifty years ago. They will trace the lines of the fight; they will tell their experiences; ex-periences; they will have their own ideas as to something else which could hao been done, or speculhie as to the result provided some other liue of battle bat-tle had been adopted.. It will all be most interesting to hear, but the great and controlling fact remains that what was done was done, aud the Confederacy Con-federacy was fifty years ago made impossible im-possible of establishment. We trust, that tho veterans will be well lodged, well fed, and well treated throughout their stay, so that all of them who remain will havo occasion to Tejoico that they attended this Jubilee Jubi-lee anniversary. The reports from the first day's asscmblago wero not encouraging en-couraging as to the trcntmcnt o'f the veterans in their comfort and convenience, con-venience, but doubtless by this time all i3 in good order, and tho veterans will have on this last day of tho Jubilee aunivorsnry propor, a day of unalloyed enjoyment, with full 'freedom in tracing tho lines of battle and in rehearsing tho old story of the triumph of tho Uniou. |