The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 6 | Page 7

very muzzles of the guns; they were blown
away from the cannon's mouth but yet they did not waver. Pickett had
taken the key to the position and the glad shout of victory was heard, as,
the very impersonation of a soldier, he still forced his troops to the crest
of Cemetery Ridge. Kemper and Armistead broke through Hancock's
line, scaled the hill and planted their flags on its crest. Just before
Armistead was shot, he placed his flag upon a captured cannon and
cried "Give them the cold steel, boys!"; but valor could do no more, the
handful of braves had won immortality but could not conquer an army.
Pettigrew's weak division was broken fleeing and almost annihilated.
Wilcox, owing to his great mistake in separating his column was easily
routed, and Stannard's Vermonters thrown into the gap were creating
havoc on Pickett's flank. Pickett, seeing his supports gone, his generals,
Kemper, Armistead and Garnett killed or wounded, every field officer
of three brigades gone, three-fourths of his men killed or captured,
himself untouched but broken-hearted, gave the order for retreat, but
band of heroes as they were they fled not; but amidst that still
continuous, terrible fire they slowly, sullenly, recrossed the plain,--all
that was left of them, but few of five thousand.
[Illustration: Position of troops at time of attack on left centre on 3rd
day of battle of Gettysburg.]
Thus ended the greatest charge known to modern warfare. Made in a
most unequal manner against a great army and amidst the most terrific
cannonade known in wars, and yet so perfect was the discipline, so
audacious the valor that had this handful of Virginians been properly
supported they would perhaps have rendered the Federal position
untenable, and possibly have established the Southern Confederacy.
While other battle-fields are upturned by the plough and covered with
waving grain, Cemetery Ridge will forever proudly uphold its
monuments telling of glory both to the Blue and the Gray, and our
children's children while standing upon its crest will rehearse again of
Pickett's wonderful charge.

* * * * *

THE PATRIOT, SAMUEL ADAMS.
BY EDWARD P. GUILD.
[Illustration: SAMUEL ADAMS. FROM COPLEY'S PAINTING.[1]]
Three years ago the old State House in Boston was restored to its
original architectural appearance. After having fallen a prey to the
ruthless hand of commerce, been surmounted with a "Mansard roof,"
disfigured by a legion of business signs, made a hitching place for
scores of telegraph wires, and lastly been threatened with entire
demolition by the ever arrogant spirit of "business enterprise"; the
sentiment of patriotic veneration asserted itself and came to the rescue.
With an appropriation of $35,000 from the city, work was begun in the
fall of 1881, and by the following July the ancient building had been
restored to almost exactly its appearance in the last century. As the Old
State House now stands, it is identical with the Town House which
Boston first used for its town meeting May 13, 1713. This was nine
years before the birth of the man destined to become the foremost
character in the Boston town meeting of the eighteenth
century--Samuel Adams. Probably no other man who ever lived has
been so identified with the history of the Old State House as was he.
The town meetings were held in Faneuil Hall after 1742, but through
the stormy years when the Assembly met in the old building, Samuel
Adams was in constant attendance as clerk. His desk, on which he
wrote the first sentences ever ventured for American independence, and
by which he arose, and, with hands often tremulous with nervous
energy, directed the exciting debates, is to-day in the old Assembly
chamber in the western end of the building. In 1774 he went to
Congress, but for a long period afterward the Old State House was
again his field of labor, as senator, as lieutenant governor and then as
governor.
The life of Samuel Adams ought to be more familiar than it is to the

patriotic young men of to-day, but some excuse is found in the fact that
a popular, concise biography has, until lately, not been written. The
excellent three volume work of Mr. Wells, Adams' great grandson,
although admirable as an exhaustive biography, is too voluminous for
the common reader; but since the appearance of Prof. Hosmer's recent
book[2] there can be no reason why any schoolboy should not have a
clear idea of the life of the man who organized the Revolution.
It is only as a patriot that Samuel Adams claims our attention. Although
college bred he was a man of letters only so far as his pen could write
patriotic resolutions and scathing letters against the government of
King George. These letters were printed for the most part in the