The morning of July 3d opened very clear and very hot, and the stillness along the lines of battle was at times almost oppressive, but the occasional shell from Round Top and the Cemetery kept the boys from going crazy with their anxiety to interpret the long intervals of silence, and when one of the Yankee bombs set fire to their farm-house they became perfectly satisfied, certain now, they said, “that the Yankee army was still there.”
About noon, while the men were idly lying along the fields in the full blaze of the July sun, with no motion of the air to mitigate the oppressive heat, they noticed that the artillerymen were posting their cannon in a long curving line along the hills, and to all appearances meant business, although no firing was heard anywhere, but about 1 o’clock one single gun, (a long black Whitworth,) pealed out its sharp, ringing battle-note, and in an instant, from two hundred and ten guns, boomed forth a raging tempest of lightning and thunder that fairly shook the solid ground and made every man leap to his feet in bewildered excitement; but soon came the reply from the lines of Gen. Meade, where the white powder smoke, tinged with the lurid flashings, puffed from the blazing muzzles of two hundred and seventy cannon, and the great battle of Gettysburg was fairly joined.
This firing continued until the veterans of Lee had gone through the valleys and reached the fire-crowned heights where lay the Northern army, when the Southern guns ceased their bellowing; but of the general battle the great historians have written, and we have only to tell of what White’s people did.
About 2 o’clock the Colonel marched his battalion up the turnpike towards York, and no sooner did he get clear of the infantry lines than he became aware that the enemy’s cavalry was on the ground.
Gen. Stuart had not yet appeared, and all that was heard from him was that he was actively operating in Meade’s rear, destroying trains, and had even gone so far as to make a demonstration on the fortifications around Washington City.
White’s people found the Yankee pickets on the pike and drove them to their reserves, which were drawn up in a body of timber running parallel with the road and separated from it by an open line of level grass fields, about three hundred yards in width, and as soon as the Colonel found that a heavy force of cavalry was here he reported it to Gen. Lee, who sent Gen. “Extra Billy” Smith with his infantry brigade to support the battalion in guarding the flank.
There had always been a feeling of dislike between the Infantry and Cavalry, the former regarding the latter as the most favored branch—in not being compelled to walk—but nothing so thrilled them with dread as a cavalry charge, while the cavalry feared even more to attack the infantry of the enemy; and Napoleon, at the Pyramids, proved that cool courage and scientific handling made infantry invincible against the finest cavalry in the world, for such the Mamelukes certainly were; but for all that the Infantry preferred to have their foes on foot.
White’s battalion moved up the turnpike, with Gen. Smith’s brigade in support, but very soon the General found that he was becoming separated from the army, while on the flank and front the enemy’s cavalry was threatening him, and fearing to be cut off if he advanced further he decided to retire, which he did, halting at a cross-road a mile back, and White and his boys had a great deal more than their hands full, but what they could do they did, and in constant dashes, first up the road in front and then out on the right, they drove back the enemy’s parties as often as they advanced.
The situation was full of excitement, to which the roar of the great battle, raging at its hottest in their rear, added force; but by-and-bye long lines of cavalry were discovered marching quietly from the woods on the left, and now it did appear that the enemy was all around, for no one doubted the new force being Yankees.
Making one last charge up the turnpike, in which a regiment of the enemy was driven wildly back, Col. White turned his command and retired slowly toward the position of Gen. Smith, but pretty soon, in a cloud of dust, Gen. Stuart and staff galloped up the road, inquiring eagerly for news; and just then, as the Colonel called his attention to the new forces on the left, the wind unfurled their banners and displayed the battle-flag of Dixie, while Stuart remarked, "that is Gen. Fitz Lee’s Division;" and a perfect storm of cheers and glad shouts of welcome went up from White’s excited battalion. As soon as General Stuart could get his division up he opened the battle by sending a regiment across the fields before spoken of to the woods, but when half way to the timber a regiment of the enemy came out, and in a few minutes was driven back, but being reinforced by another the Confederate regiment retired, when Stuart sent a second regiment to aid his first, and thus the battle spread, growing fiercer as the numbers engaged increased, while the artillery played upon all points where it could be managed without injury to its own troops.