[Footnote: Lee, encouraged by these successes, resolved to continue the fight. The Confederate victories, however, were only apparent. Sickles had been forced into a better position than at first, and the one which Meade had intended he should occupy; while Ewell was driven out of the Union works early the next morning.]
Third Day.—At one o'clock P. M., Lee suddenly opened on Cemetery Ridge with one hundred and fifty guns. For two hours the air was alive with shells.
[Footnote: It is customary in battle to demoralize the enemy before a grand infantry charge, by concentrating upon the desired point a tremendous artillery fire.]
Then the cannonade lulled, and out of the woods swept the Confederate double battle-line, over a mile long, and preceded by a cloud of skirmishers. A thrill of admiration ran along the Union ranks, as, silently and with disciplined steadiness, that magnificent column of eighteen thousand men moved up the slope of Cemetery Ridge. A hundred guns tore great gaps in their front. Infantry volleys smote their ranks. The line was broken, yet they pushed forward. They planted their battle-flags on the breastworks. They bayoneted the cannoneers at their guns. They fought, hand to hand, so close that the exploding powder scorched their clothes. Upon this struggling mass the Federals converged from every side. No human endurance could stand the storm. Out of that terrible fire whole companies rushed as prisoners into the Union lines, while the rest fled panic-stricken from the field.
[Footnote: At the very moment when the last charge was being repulsed, Pemberton was negotiating for the surrender of Vicksburg to Grant. This was the turning point of the war. From that time the Confederacy began to wane.]
The Federal loss in the three-days fight was twenty-three thousand; the Confederate was not officially reported, but probably much exceeded that number. Meade slowly followed Lee, who re-crossed the Potomac, and took position back of the Rapidan.
The Effect of this battle was to put an end to the idea of a Northern invasion. Lee's veterans who went down in the awful charges of Gettysburg could never be replaced.
THE WAR ON THE SEA AND THE COAST.
ATTACK ON CHARLESTON (April 7).—Such was the confidence felt in the ability of the iron-clads to resist cannonballs, that Admiral Dupont determined to run the fortifications at the entrance to Charleston, and force his way up to the city. The attempt was a disastrous failure.
[Footnote: The Keokuk was sunk and nearly all the vessels were seriously injured. The officers declared that the strokes of the shots against the iron sides of their ships were as rapid as the ticks of a watch.]