Meade's  plan  had  been  to  maintain  a  straight  line
from  the  Cemetery  to  Little  Round  Top.  Instead  he
finds  a  broken  line,  with  an  angle  at  the  Peach  Or-
chard, three-quarters  of  a  mile  in  advance  of  his  pro-
posed position.  In  addition,  he  discovers,  at  the  very
moment  when  the  Confederate  cannon  begin  to  open
upon  Sickles's  advanced  line,  that  Little  Round  Top
has  no  troops  stationed  upon  it  and  that  his  entire
left  flank  is  thereby  in  immiilent  danger.
The  controversy  as  to  this  phase  of  the  battle  has
furnished  a  voluminous  amount  of  matter.  Without
assuming  any  dogmatic  spirit  in  the  case  we  may
give  a  few  luminous  citations  which  may  throw  side-
lights on  the  vexed  questions  involved.  For  ex-
ample, we  find  in  the  Memoirs  of  General  Lee,  writ-
ten by  his  military  secretary,  Gen.  A.  L.  Long,  this
comment :

Cemetery  Ridge  at  this  portion  of  its  extent  is  ill  defined,  and
the  movement  of  Sickles  to  occupy  the  advanced  position  was  not
without  tactical  warrant.  Yet  it  was  faulty  from  the  fact  that
his  line,  to  gain  a  defensive  position  for  its  left  flank,  had  to  be
bent  at  a  considerable  angle  at  the  advanced  point  known  as  the
Peach  Orchard.  .  .  .  The  weak  point  in  this  line  was  the  salient
at  the  Peach  Qirchard,  which  formed  the  key  of  gjckles's  position,

224


LONGSTREET'S    MOVEMENT

and  on  this,  when  the  columns  of  Longstreet  moved  to  the  attack
at  4.30  P.M.,  the  greatest  vigor  of  the  assault  fell.
