Frank Haskell, a Vermont-born Madison lawyer serving as aide-de-camp to General John Gibbon, wrote this long letter home within days of the battle. He describes the marches, the heat on Cemetery Ridge, the officers he served beside, and the great Confederate assault on the third day as he saw it from the Union centre.
Haskell was killed at Cold Harbor the following year; his account remains one of the most vivid first-hand records of Gettysburg. Download the free EPUB.