General Lee ordered his reconnoitring officer to lead the troops of the First Corps and conduct them by a route concealed from view of the enemy. As I was relieved for the time from the march, I rode near the middle of the line. General Lee rode with me a mile or more. General Anderson marched by a route nearer the enemy’s line, and was discovered by General Sickles, who commanded the Third Corps, the left of the Union line. A little uncomfortable at his retired position, and seeing that the battle was forming against him, General Sickles thought to put the Third Maine Regiment and the Berdan Sharp-shooters on outpost in a bold woodland cover, to develop somewhat of the approaching battle, and presently threw his corps forward as far as the Peach Orchard, half a mile forward of the position assigned to it in the general line. The Tenth Alabama Regiment was sent against the outpost guard, and, reinforced by the Eleventh Regiment, drove it back, and Anderson’s division found its place in proper line.
General Birney’s account of the affair at the outpost puts it at twelve o’clock, and the signal accounts, the only papers dated on the field, reported,—
“The enemy’s skirmishers advancing from the west one mile from here—11.45.”
And presently,—
“The rebels are in force; our skirmishers give way—12.55.”
There is no room for doubt of the accuracy of these reports, which go to show that it was one o’clock in the afternoon when the Third Corps, upon which the First Corps was to form, was in position.
Under the conduct of the reconnoitring officer, our march seemed slow,—there were some halts and countermarches. To save time, I ordered the rear division to double on the front, and we were near the affair of Anderson’s regiments with the outpost guard of Sickles. Anderson’s division deployed,—Wilcox’s, Perry’s, Wright’s, Posey’s, and Mahone’s brigades from right to left.
General Hood was ordered to send his select scouts in advance, to go through the woodlands and act as vedettes, in the absence of cavalry, and give information of the enemy, if there. The double line marched up the slope and deployed,—McLaws on the right of Anderson, Hood’s division on his right, McLaws near the crest of the plateau in front of the Peach Orchard, Hood spreading and enveloping Sickles’s left. The former was readily adjusted to ground from which to advance or defend. Hood’s front was very rugged, with no field for artillery, and very rough for advance of infantry. As soon as he passed the Emmitsburg road, he sent to report of the great advantage of moving on by his right around to the enemy’s rear. His scouting parties had reported that there was nothing between them and the enemy’s trains. He was told that the move to the right had been proposed the day before and rejected; that General Lee’s orders were to guide my left by the Emmitsburg road.
In our immediate front were the divisions of the Third Corps under Generals Humphreys and Birney, from right to left, with orders for supports of the flanks by divisions of the Second and Fifth Corps. The ground on the left of Birney’s division was so broken and obstructed by boulders that his left was dropped off to the rear, forming a broken line. In rear of the enemy, and between his lines and Little Round Top, was a very rough elevation of eighty feet formed by upheavals that left open passage deep down Devil’s Den. Smith’s battery was on Birney’s left, Winslow’s between the right and next brigade. Other batteries in position were Clark’s, Ames’s, Randolph’s, Seeley’s, and Turnbull’s.
As McLaws’s division came up on line, Barksdale’s brigade was in front of a battery about six hundred yards off. He appealed for permission to charge and capture it, but was told to wait. On his right was Kershaw’s brigade, the brigades of Semmes and Wofford on the second line. Hood’s division was in two lines,—Law’s and Robertson’s brigades in front, G. T. Anderson’s and Benning’s in the second line. The batteries were with the divisions,—four to the division. One of G. T. Anderson’s regiments was put on picket down the Emmitsburg road.