one o'clock
At the first grey streak of dawn on the 3rd the Federal guns roared their challenge to the Confederate forces which had captured their entrenchments on Culp 's Hill . Seven terrible hours of bombardment , charge and counter charge followed until every foot of space had claimed its toll of dead , before the Confederates yielded the Hill . At noon there was an ominous lull in the battle . At one o'clock a puff of smoke from Seminary Ridge was followed by a dull roar . The signal gun had pealed its call of death to thousands . For two miles along the crest of this Ridge the Confederates had planted one hundred and fifty guns . Two miles of smoke-wreathed flame suddenly leaped from those hills in a single fiery breath .