July 3, 1863, The New York Herald
From the details of the battle of Gettysburg, which we submit to our readers this morning, they will perceive that the Union forces engaged did their duty handsomely; that the general results are satisfactory and highly encouraging; that, in a word, the day closed with General Meade as the master of the situation.
When the First army corps, in the advance, discovered that it was in the presence of the enemy’s forces in greatly superior strength, it was not disturbed by any sense of danger, because the Eleventh, the Second and Third corps were in easy supporting distance — a fact which of itself shows that General Meade, though moving his heavy columns by forced marches, and covering a broad belt of country, knows how to keep a large army well in hand. The spirit displayed by our troops in this engagement was all that could be desired. The Army of the Potomac has the fullest confidence in itself and in its new leader, and General Meade evidently comprehends sufficiently the movements and the designs of Lee to know how to meet and to baffle them. A good beginning, especially in a campaign like this, is significant of a good ending, and we consider the achievements of our cavalry, from Westminster to Hanover, of Monday and Tuesday last, and this preliminary battle at Gettysburg on Wednesday, as a very good beginning towards the expulsion of the enemy from Pennsylvania and Maryland.
From information received last evening by way of Baltimore, it appears that at noon yesterday General Meade had gained a position which commanded the flank of the rebels, and that the whole army of the Potomac was around him. We infer from this that the forenoon of yesterday was devoted to manÅ“uvring by both armies, and, from the absence of any reports of a resumption of hostilities, that the day closed, at least on the Union side, in preparations for a general engagement this morning. As we understand the situation at the hour of our latest advices, General Meade’s army was so disposed as to compel Lee to fight to recover his direct roads to the Potomac river. It is probable, therefore, that a tremendous collision between the two armies will come off to-day. It is possible, however, that Lee may have found it expedient to fall back under cover of the night to a safer position; for it would appear, from the lingering of a considerable portion of Ewell’s troops around Carlisle, that his corps, constituting a fourth of the rebel army, was on Wednesday evening so far to the north of Gettysburg that one or two days industrious marching would be required to bring it to a junction with Longstreet and Hill.
It is evidently Ewell’s business to hold in check the Union militia forces on the Susquehanna; but it is their business now to advance upon him, and to bring their full strength into the real work of the campaign — the work of expelling the rebel army. There should be now, and probably are, some forty thousand of our auxiliary militia forces on the Susquehanna; and of these forces we dare say that the fifteen or twenty of our New York militia regiments are, in discipline, coolness and bravery, equal to the same number of the best regiments of the rebel army. General Couch is a good soldier. We rely upon him to give active and efficient support to General Meade; and, with this powerful auxiliary militia army under his command, it is only necessary for General Couch to advance to an active co-operation with the Army of the Potomac in order to put to complete rout the army of Lee, and scatter it to the winds.