On the
tenth he rode out, as was his custom, to spend the night at the
Soldiers' Home, but Secretary Stanton, learning that Early was
advancing, sent after him, to compel his return. Twice afterward,
intent upon watching the fighting which took place near Fort
Stevens, north of the city, he exposed his tall form to the gaze
and bullets of the enemy, utterly heedless of his own peril; and
it was not until an officer had fallen mortally wounded within a
few feet of him, that he could be persuaded to seek a place of
greater safety.
XI. THE TURNING POINT OF THE WAR
In the summer of 1863 the Confederate armies reached their
greatest strength. It was then that, flushed with military ardor,
and made bold by what seemed to the southern leaders an unbroken
series of victories on the Virginia battlefields, General Lee
again crossed the Potomac River, and led his army into the North.
He went as far as Gettysburg in Pennsylvania; but there, on the
third of July, 1863, suffered a disastrous defeat, which
shattered forever the Confederate dream of taking Philadelphia
and dictating peace from Independence Hall. This battle of
Gettysburg should have ended the war, for General Lee, on
retreating southward, found the Potomac River so swollen by heavy
rains that he was obliged to wait several days for the floods to
go down. In that time it would have been quite possible for
General Meade, the Union commander, to follow him and utterly
destroy his army.
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