The line was broken, but on they went. They planted their Confederate flags on the breast-work; they fought hand to hand and killed men at the cannon with the bayonet; but down from the hill rushed tens of thousands of Federals, and many who were not killed were taken prisoners. Few got back to tell the story. That night the stars looked down upon a field of dead and dying men and also upon a sad general. Lee’s orders had not been obeyed, and, for the first time, he had been foiled.
Lee afterwards said to a friend, “Had I had Stonewall Jackson at Gettysburg, I would have won a great victory.”
He had made a bold plan to attack early in the day; but it was not done, and thus Meade got time to bring up his troops. Meade did not attack Lee, who rested that night upon the same ground as the night before.
Lee now had but little powder and shot. On the next day, the 4th of July, he started his long trains of wounded and prisoners towards Virginia; and, at the same time, buried his dead. That night, in a storm, the army began its homeward march, and reached the Potomac river to find it too high to cross. Calm and brave, Lee sent his wounded over in boats and got ready for Meade. But Meade was in no mood to attack Lee and came up slowly.
While waiting for the river to fall, Lee heard of the capture of his son Gen. W. H. F. Lee.
On the 13th, Lee’s men began to cross the river, and by the next night they were again safe in Virginia.
The men lost at Gettysburg were never replaced, for the South had sent forth all her fighting men and had no more to give.
The rest of the year passed without any great battle. Lee’s chief concern was to get food and clothes for his men and to watch Meade, who would not give battle.
About this time the city of Richmond presented to Lee a house. This he kindly but firmly refused to take, and begged that what means the city had to spare might be given to the families of his poor soldiers.
Late in November, General Meade moved towards Lee, who had built strong forts at Mine Run. But Meade found the forts too strong for attack and withdrew during the night.
The next year a new man was sent against Lee—Ulysses S. Grant. Lee had now only sixty-two thousand men to meet Grant, who had _one hundred and twenty-five thousand_ men, and a wagon train that reached sixty-five miles.