Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 February 1882 — What Ewell Wished to Do at Gettysburg. [ARTICLE]

What Ewell Wished to Do at Gettysburg.

A letter has been published, written by General George G. Meade In 1876, in regard to the battle of Gettysburg, in which he relates the following, wUlcu he claims as a “historical fact:” “Lieutenant General Ewell, in a conversation held with me shortly alter the war, asked what would have been the effect if at 4 p. m. on the Ist he had occupied Culp's Hill aud established batteries on it. I told him that in the theu-cocdition ot the Eleventh and First Corps, with their morale affected by their withdrawal to Cemetery Ridge with the loss of over half their numbers in killed, wounded and missing (of the 6 000 prisoners we lost on the field nearly all came from these corps on the first <’ .>), his occupation of Culp’s Hill, with batteries commanding the whole of Cemetery Ridge, would have produced the evacuation of that ridge and the withdrawal of the troops by the Baltimore pike and Tarrytown and Emmittsburg roads. He then informed me that at 4. p. m. on the Ist, he had his corps, 20,000 strong, in column of attack aud on the point of moving on Culp’s Hill, which he saw was unoccupied aud commanded Cemetery Ridge, when be received an order from General Lee directing him to assume the defensive and not advanoe; that be sent to General Lee urging to be permitted to advance with his ireserves, but the reply was a reiteration of the previous order. To my inquiry why Lee had restrained him he said our troops coming up (Slocum's) were

.□ visible, and Lee was under the impression the greater part of my army was on the ground, and deemed it prudent to await the rest of hie, as you quote from his report.”