Then, as it began to grow light, he’d ridden the length of the Union line with his generals and senior engineer, getting a feel for the land. At the very south. Beyond the Union left flank were a pair of hills, Little and Big Round Top. Both were currently unoccupied by either Union or Rebel troops. They would be the eye of the large fishhook. Then Cemetery Ridge extended for two miles north, the shank, Cemetery Hill was the curve in the hook and Culp’s Hill on the Union right was the barb. The actual town of Gettysburg lay just to the north and west and was currently occupied by the Confederates.
Meade felt a thrill of excitement from the morning ride. It was a good place to defend. He had the high ground with good fields of fire toward the Rebels. He also had short lines of communication given that his flanks curved back. That meant he could resupply his army with relative ease and also move reinforcements quickly.
Meade took the pencil from his engineer as soon as the man was done. The commanding general quickly delineated corps responsibilities on the paper along with specific orders. “Copies to each corps commander,” he told his adjutant.
Throughout the morning, Meade had never even considered attacking. Lincoln’s admonition still stayed with him. And he thought the commander-in-chief’s advice to be quite sound. Meade would let lee come to him.
Lee was also looking at the terrain and issuing orders from his position on Seminary Ridge. He also saw what Meade in his excitement had not paid enough attention to — that the Union line extended south only to the end of Cemetery Ridge, but did not encompass the two Round Tops.
“General Longstreet,” lee called out.
His senior corps commander was drinking some coffee from a battered tin cup. He carne over, large hands cradled around the warm metal. “Sir.”
“Wait a moment,” lee said as a junior officer he’d sent off at first light to conduct a reconnaissance appeared.
The officer rode up and saluted. “General.”
“Your report, captain?”
“The two hills are unoccupied, sir. The nearest Union · forces are about a half mile away and digging in, showing no indication of moving.”
“Very good.” As the captain left, Lee turned to Longstreet. “Take your divisions south and then attack northeast and seize those hills. Once you have them, I will coordinate for Hill’s corps to attack on the Union center while you force his flank. Ewell will hold our left; and then once the enemy begins to break, I will send him against Culp’s Hill.”
“Yes, sir.”
Lee put a hand on Longstreet’s arm. “You must make your preparations and movement undetected. I do not want the Union to know your objective.”
Longstreet frowned as he looked to the south. “It’s pretty open land there. I’d have to swing wide, behind this ridge. That will take some time.”
“Take the time,” Lee said. “The Federals have interior lines. If they know your objective, they can get there first.”
“Sir.”
Lee looked tired in the early morning light, his face tight and drawn. “Yes?”
“Let me go straight for the hills,’ Longstreet suggested. “By the time the Federals react, I’U have them. With two divisions, I could hold them against three Union corps.”
“Please do as I’ve ordered, general,” Lee said.
Longstreet realized the discussion was over. He saluted and headed for his horse.
The corps that Meade had given the left flank to was General Sickles’s. He, unlike the other generals, was not impressed with Cemetery Ridge, especially as the southern end was the lowest. He felt the slight incline was vulnerable and looking to his front saw an elevation on which there was a peach orchard, which he felt would provide his corps with a better defensive position.
Seizing the initiative, Sickles ordered his corps forward to occupy the peach orchard before the Confederates could take what he now considered very important terrain. So the Union left flank began to march to a position a half mile in front of the rest of their forces.
The next corps commander up the line was shocked to see his own flank becoming exposed as Sickles’s men moved forward. He sent a messenger to Meade to inform him of this potentially disastrous turn of events. By the time Meade rode down to straighten things out, literally, it was too late. Sickles’s corps was already occupying the peach orchard and was in contact with the Confederates.
Meade demanded of Sickles why he had moved forward, beyond the positions, which Meade had personally drawn on the map that morning.
Sickles’s response was Straightforward. “Sir, this is favorable high ground.”
Meade had slept less than an hour in the past several days and had little patience. “General, this is indeed higher than the ground you were on. But” — Meade pointed to the west — “there is higher ground yet in front of you and if you keep advancing you will find constantly higher ground all the way to the mountains!”
Meade could feel the excitement he’d experienced earlier in the morning as he’d reviewed his positions start to slip away as the sound of firing began to rise from the peach orchard. Sickles’s foolish move had apparently cast away the advantage.
In reality, Sickles’s foolish move turned out, in the freakish way of combat, to save the day for the Union forces as Longstreet’s corps ran right into a Union force in the peach orchard where they had expected nothing but a clear road on their circuitous route to assault the Round · Tops.
Like Meade, Longstreet cursed as he heard the firing at the front of his columns. To follow Lee’s orders, he’d been forced to turn his corps around and march back up the Chambersburg Pike to the northwest to get out of sight of the Federals. Then he’d turned his troops south. This had taken him the better part of the day and it was now afternoon as his men ran into the unexpected Union presence.
His lead division commander, General Hood, realized the situation immediately. He saw the undefended gap between the Union forces in the peach orchard and the main line and the two Round Tops still unoccupied. He sent a runner back to Longstreet, requesting that he be allowed to change directions and attack through the gap, straight for the hills, even as his forces become more and more embroiled with Sickles’s corps.
The answer was no.
Hood sent a second runner.
The answer was no. Longstreet was determined to follow Lee’s orders to the letter.
Hood sent a third runner with a note, officially protesting the order, something he had never done in two years of heavy combat.
The answer again was no.
Hood decided to ignore his orders and do what his military common sense told him, but he had already lost valuable hours requesting permission.
Amelia Earhart came out of the eight-foot-high black circle, floating less than six inches above the ground. She was in a forest Alone. She unsealed the Valkyrie suit and carefully stepped out onto the ground. Behind her, the gate that had opened slowly shrunk to a small dot and disappeared. She had to hope that the Ones Before would open it back up again when she needed to leave.
She cocked her head. there was thunder in the distance.
She looked about as she removed the plastic case from the Valkyrie’s pack. She needed a place to hide the suit. She decided the easiest thing to do would be to put it where people didn’t ordinarily look — up. First she hid the plastic case with the skulls between some boulders, piling leaves on top of it.
Then, climbing a tree, she pulled the suit up on a short tether and secured it Ii~ in a lee, pretty much out of sight from the ground. She paused high in the branches, remembering how as a child she used to climb trees all the time in her first attempts at getting up in the sky. She’d always enjoyed being above the ground. She was close to the summit of the hill and through the adjoining trees she could see some of the land around her, She was just below the crest of the bill, on the southern side. To the south was another hill, slightly higher. Earhart cocked her head. The thunder was persistent and she finally realized it wasn’t thunder. It was cannon fire.