July 3, 1863, The New York Herald
The village of Gettysburg, Pa., was the scene of a desperate conflict on Wednesday and yesterday, the result of which is not yet fully ascertained; but there seems no reason to doubt that it is favorable to the Union arms. The forces engaged on Wednesday were the First and Eleventh army corps, under Generals Reynolds (who was killed in the action) and Howard, and the rebel forces under Generals Ewell, Longstreet and A.P. Hill. Our correspondents in the field give a fine description of the battle. The fight was resumed yesterday, and was reported to be a sanguinary one; but up to last night the government had received no official report. General Meade had arrived on the field and participated in yesterday’s battle. Six thousand rebel prisoners had been taken, many of them comprised of General Archer’s brigade, numbering one thousand five hundred, which were taken by the Fourteenth Brooklyn, Ninety-fifth New York and Sixth Wisconsin regiments. General Archer and his whole staff were captured. Two thousand four hundred of the prisoners arrived in Baltimore last night. Our forces in Wednesday’s fight were reported to have been only twenty-five thousand against fifty thousand of the enemy. Our loss was undoubtedly very heavy, many regiments having been badly cut up, and several having all their officers shot down.
Considerable excitement prevailed in Washington last night, and in the absence of detailed news from Gettysburg some apprehensions of the result are entertained.
A brilliant fight took place at Carlisle on Wednesday evening between the cavalry and artillery forces of the rebel General Fitzhugh Lee, 3,000 strong, and the Union troops under General W.F. Smith. General Lee made a detour with his troops around South Mountain to join General Ewell at Carlisle, as he supposed, not knowing that the place had been evacuated. Here he came into collision with Smith’s force, and demanded the surrender of the town under flags of truce three times; but General Smith refused all terms, and after a heavy bombardment, in which a portion of the buildings and the fine old barracks were destroyed, the rebels, falling short of ammunition, withdrew the next morning towards Shippensburg. Carlisle is the capital of Cumberland county, Pa., is situated in the Cumberland valley, between the Kittatinny and […..] mountains. The barracks which were destroyed have a historic memory attached to them […..]
The particulars of the brigade expedition of Generals Stanley and Mitchell to Shelbyville — the success of which we before reported — are furnished by our correspondents today. The enemy were driven into the town from Guy Gap. Mitchell’s whole division charged them, when they took up a position in the public square, with their artillery in front. The Seventh and Ninth Pennsylvania cavalry charged up to the mouths of their guns and captured them. The Fourth regulars and Third Indiana cavalry took them in the flank, near the upper bridge over Duck river, and drove them into the stream, where upwards of one hundred of them were drowned. Their commander, General Wheeler, escaped on foot, but seventy officers and seven hundred men were captured. These facts are officially reported by Generals Stanley and Mitchell, who had returned to Manchester, Tenn. Colonel Wilder has also returned from his expedition to the rear of Bragg’s army at Tullahoma, and reports the results of his attempt as most successful. He did immense damage to the railroad, destroyed quantities of stores, and took a number of prisoners and mules. He travelled one hundred and twenty-six miles in two days and a half.
Our correspondence from near Vicksburg gives a lively account of the state of affairs there. The discontent of the rebel garrison is fully confirmed and described. The fall of Vicksburg is considered inevitable. Despatches from St. Louis yesterday described the assault on the works by our troops, on the 25th ult., as terrific and most gallantly conducted. Nothing later than that date, however, has reached us, beyond vague rumors of the capture of Vicksburg repeated over and over again. The Richmond papers have news from Jackson to the 29th ult., which describes the fierce bombardment of the city by our troops. In twenty-eight days no less than one thousand shells were lodged in the streets.
A despatch from Jackson, Miss., of the 29th ultimo. contains the important intelligence that the enemy have taken possession of Berwick’s Bay and cut off the supplies of General Banks. The rebel pickets were reported to be in front of Algiers, opposite New Orleans.