five o'clock
General Reynolds , their Commander , was killed and his army driven headlong into the streets of Gettysburg . Ewell , charging through the town , swept all before him and took five thousand prisoners . The crowded masses of fugitives , fleeing for their lives , passed out of the town and rushed up the slopes of the hills beyond . At five o'clock Lee halted his men until the rest of his army should reach the field . During the night General Meade rallied his disorganized men , poured his fresh troops among them and entrenched his army on the heights where his defeated advance guard had taken refuge . Had Lee withdrawn the next morning when he scanned those hills which looked down on him through bristling brows of brass and iron the history of the Confederacy might have been longer . It could not have been more illustrious .