"
But I was right.
Those guns were the signal of the "First day's fight at Gettysburg."
XIX
CARLISLE BY FIRELIGHT.
It can not be said that we accomplished very enormous results at
Carlisle. The enemy defended it bravely.
Stuart sent in a flag, demanding a surrender: this proposition was
politely declined; and for fear that there might possibly remain some
doubts on the subject, the Federal commander of the post, opened with
artillery upon the gray cavalry.
That was the signal for a brisk fight, and a magnificent spectacle
also.
As soon as the enemy's response to the flag of truce had been received,
Stuart advanced his sharp-shooters, replied with his artillery to their
own, and dispatched a party to destroy the extensive United States
barracks, formerly used as cantonments for recruits to the army.
In ten minutes the buildings were wrapped in flames; and the city of
Carlisle was illumined magnificently. The crimson light of the
conflagration revealed every house, the long lines of trees, and made
the delicate church spires, rising calmly aloft, resemble shafts of
rose-tinted marble.
I recall but one scene which was equally picturesque--the "doomed city"
of Fredericksburg, on the night of December 11, 1862, when the church
spires were illumined by the burning houses, as those of Carlisle were
in June, 1863.
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