Colonel  O'Rorke,  a  man  of  singular  gifts  and  at-
tractiveness, a  favorite  in  the  army,  and  destined  for
large  things  in  the  estimate  of  his  comrades  and
superiors,  fell  early  in  the  struggle  here.  The  com-
mander of  the  battery,  Lieut.  Charles  E.  Hazlett,  and
O'Rorke  had  graduated  together  from  the  Academy
in  1 86 1,  and  both  were  now  veterans,  not  in  years —
the  former  was  twenty-seven  and  the  latter  twenty-
five —  but  in  service,  for  each  had  been  in  the  war
and  in  all  its  battles  in  the  East  since  Bull  Rtm ;  they
had  been  intimate  at  the  Point  for  fovir  years;  these
two  veterans  and  Weed,  their  commander,  at  the  age
of  thirty,  their  close  friend,  and  but  a  few  years  their

1  Fifth  Corps,  Second  Division,  Third  Brigade;  Weed:  140th  and
146th  New  York,  Ninety-first  and  155th  Pennsylvania;  Battery  D,
Fifth  United  States  Artillery  (Hazlett).
241


GETTYSBURG

senior  in  years  and  service,  and  one  of  the  leading
soldiers  on  the  field,  were  all  to  yield  their  lives  that
day  on  that  rocky  height,  and  thus  consecrate  it  with
their  blood.
The  fight  was  by  no  means  at  an  end  when  O'Rorke
and  his  men  administered  the  terrible  check  to  the
Texans.  Again  and  again  the  Confederates  crowded
forward  and  made  the  attempt  to  climb  the  hill.
Their  artillery  played  against  the  summit  and  the
slope,  and  scores  of  sharp-shooters  lodged  in  the  rocks
of  the  Devil's  Den  and  in  the  trees  near  by  used  their
rifles  with  fatal  skill.  Weed  located  his  troops  so
as  to  shelter  them  as  far  as  possible,  but  he  and
O'Rorke  and  Hazlett,  who  had  used  his  cannon  to
advantage,  were  of  necessity  exposed  to  the  keen-
sighted  riflemen  in  their  front,  and  all  of  them  fell.
