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Show Ksition, when the fighting finally died down about 10:30 a. in., lay 500 bodies. Among thorn was Wesley ('ill)), a private in the 2nd Virginia. He had gone south to sell (Jetlysburg earritiges, fell in love a.nd settled then. His fathers house was only a few hundred yards away., and his brother was fighting on the other side of those enl renehments lie had died trying to reilch. lor the next two and a half hours, a ghastly quiet settled over the bat t It field. Exhausted men on both sides dozyd in the throat -- clogging heal. Behind .the Confederate lines, ubout 130 cannon rumbled into osition a mile west of Cemetery Hill. It was obvious Ijes next move would bo an i assault oir the center of the Cnion line. blue-uniform- A ed p.m., with one staggering crash, the Southern guns oened fire. A hurri- - cape of si pit and shell fell on Cemetery ltidge,. where Cnion gunners frantically replied with some SO guns of their own. The little cottage housing the Union Commanding general, George Meade, was utterly demolished, sending Meade and his staff fleeing inlothc yard. . soldier from the 1st Minnesota recalled: "It seemed that nothing four feet from the ground could live." But more than one Union officer was determined to show his men w;hal courage could do. A gruff colonel stood boldly in the oen. while his junior officers begged him to lie 'down. A shell fragment tore his cheek and knocked out two teeth. Someone asked if he were wounded. "No sir, he barked. "Just had a tooth pulled." At the very height of the cannonade, General t 1 A Cemetery Hill now. Above them Hags fluttered, but then was not a sign of a soldier. Suddenly, on order, the put ire Federal line rose above their stone wall barricade, and fired as oue man. The front rank of the Confederate column toppled. Brigadier (ieueral Richard Harnett was riddled by a dozen Bullets. But behind him came another division, led by Lewis Armistead, Hancock's beftt friend at West P.oint. They reached before them. Lethe wall, driving the same moment, Alonzo Cushing, the young West Pointer in command of the nearest artillery battery, filled his last remaining gun with canister it into the .and, igttoripglhree mortal wounds;-fireell line dead. of and center the Confederate The Virginians clustered at the waft.show ling their triumphant battle cry. Some followed Armistead over it to seize Cushings lone cannon. Winfield Scott Hancock led his staff along the entire crest of Cemetery Ridge. For three quarters of a mile, he rode without flinching through that blizzard of metal. One of his brigade com- manders rushed up to him General, the corps commander ought, not to risk hist life that way. "There are times, replied1 Hancock, when a1 corps commanders life does not count." Finally, after one hour and 40 minutes of IHjunding, the guns fell silent and from the lines there stepjied forth the most magCon--federa- te -- charge ever made- by soldiers. Fifteen thousand men, led by the Virginia division of Major (leneral (leorge Picket t, a young iire-e- a ter sent to West Point by an Illinois Congressman named Abraham. Lincoln, rolled forward, seeming, in ihe words of one Union observer, an ocean of armed men sweeping upon us . . . on they move, as with one soul, in erfect order . oveV ridge and Wopc, through orchard and meadow and cornfield, magnificent, grim, irresistible. But only for a moment. From left, right and center, Union artillery opened up. One Southerner saw a shell explode in his left. Men fell like tenpins, he said. But the survivors Rid not even break step. Around them fifers shrilled Dixie. But the music was soup lost in the whicker whicker of more Federal shells. The Confederate artillery, low on ammunition, could give the men almost no suport. Terrible gaps appeared in the oncoming line. On the Hanks. Union regiments rushed out and poured .in withering rifle fire. Picketts men were halfway up the slope of nificent - -- . . truth. Would the Union soldier panic and run, as he had done too often oir other fields, in ow was the moment of the fact1 of these whooping demons? Winfield Scott Hancock was down with it wound; there was not a general officer in sight. But through the murk of battle smoke came a chaotic, roaring blue charge. Without, order, almost without leadership, fromj'ight and left they came, moron fire with a fierce will to victory. Ignoring desperate Southern fire, they swept the comparative handful of down that tragic hill, and decided the battle of Gettysburg for all Line. The men of the North had proved they were brothers in courage wit h the men of the South. , The Coast Guard: Rescue at Barrow o "TIic SO nurcuiy he Coast Ci uurd sometimes complains, with considerable justification, that it is the least appreciated, branch of our arqicd services. Few Americans know anything aliout its exciting history, which goes back to 1790. - - Known in those days as the U.S. Revenue Marine, it was organized primarily to eliminate smugglers and regulate American seals), ne commerce. The service swiftly outgrew this limited purpose and was soon defending the American Hag in bloody slugging matches with French and British privateers in the undeclared sea war that raged off Americas coasts during the Republic's first two decades. Thereafter, the Revenue Marines swift cutters and their skilled seamen were in the thick of every U.S. conflict. The first shot fired. at sea during the' Civil 'War came from a Revenue Marine cutter. During the Spanish American war the cutter Hudson won a Presidential citation for rescuing the naval torpedo boat Winslow from under the guns of a Spanish fort-ithe Bay n sub-zer- Cuba. Perhaps the climax of the Coast (Liard's many military .exploits was the work of 'Rescue Flotilla Number One. Organized at the suggest ion of President Roosevelt these 50 small wooden vessels churned through the bombs and bullets off Normandys beaches, hauling more than" a thousand men from iey waters and off burning, sinking ships. of Cardenas, D-D- ay , alike other services, the Coast Guard is also eHcted the same cool in Life Saving time of eace. Its courage Service, oerating from slat ions along the U.S. coasts, in one 11 year eriod plucked an. unbelievable 4,000 victims of shipwrecks from the foaming siwf. Thousands more were saved by. Coast Guard cutters, braving reefs and shoals and mountainous seas to reach ships in distress. But the Coast .Guards most altiazing rescue 'involved a group of ships which were totally by the traditional wind and waves. In fact, they were not moving at all. They were -- (1871-188- frozen solid in the. powerful grip of the Arctic ice. It was autumn in 1897. From Alaska came . word that the American whaling fleet eight or 10 ships and nearly 3(X) men had been trapXKl by a premature freeze above Point Barrow and there was no hojx of escape until the following August. The men wore already low on food, and could not hope to survive for such a lengthy o cold. eriod in The Coast Guard cutler Bear was ordered to the rescue. Fortunately, the Coast Guard had been exploring Alaskas coasts ever since its purchase in 1807, and the Bear s men were old Arctic hands. The ship left Port Townsend, Washington, but ice made it inqiossible for about Dec. her 4.0 go above Cape Nome. Turning "back, she landed three officers, commanded by First Lieutenant D. H. Jarvis, on Nelson Island near CaH Vancouver, with orders to proceed overland. Now began one of tne greatest treks in the history of the frozen north. Beginning from beiow the timber line, Jarvis and his men traveled 1,500 miles- through the worst of winter, surviving blizzards and cold, and tumbling down icy crevasses. Along the way they wangled reindeer from government stations, until they had a herd of 448, which they drove ahead of them as food for the starving whalers. Jarvis Leit a diary which gives graphic glimpses of what these men endured. The blizzard was still on when we started this morning and .grew worse as we went along. . It was now blowing so hard that we could scarcely stand. In an hour the others came along. They had been com- -' polled to pick their way on foot, one of the natives going ahead on his hands and knees. . . Once in helping the sled over a (topageio) - 2) 1 . , THIS WEEK Mogoztne ' NovVntfcp 7t 1945 |