[544] Taneytown road, which crosses the main section of the second group above Cemetery Hill, and follows halfway the eastern slope of this section, leaving the summits of the Round Tops on its right; finally, at the south-south-west, the Emmettsburg road, which follows precisely the line of elevation of the third ridge across vast cultivated fields only divided by fences, and interspersed with farms as far as the Orchard, where it pursues its original direction by crossing a ravine which connects with Plum Creek below Devil's Den.
This enumeration would not suffice to make the reader understand the importance which so many converging roads must have given to Gettysburg if we were not to add that in times of war in the United States the turnpikes play a role similar to that of the highways which traversed France and the Flemish provinces during the wars of the seventeenth century; in fact, the other roads, being miserably constructed and poorly kept, are not available for heavy transportation, and the macadamized highways necessarily attract armies, which in order to move with rapidity are obliged to follow them; therefore, as we have seen, three of these highways—those of Chambersburg, Baltimore, and York—centred at Gettysburg.
Such is the ground upon which unforeseen circumstances were about to bring the two armies in hostile contact. Neither Meade nor Lee had any personal knowledge of it; and if, by examining the maps, they had some idea of the importance which the combination of ten roads and one railway imparted to Gettysburg, they had no information concerning the strong positions that Nature had created at will, as it were, all around this town. Ewell and Early, who had passed through it a few days before, do not appear to have made any report to their chief on the subject. Buford, who, when he arrived on the evening of the 30th, had perceived at one glance the advantage to be derived from these positions, did not have time to give a description of them to Meade and receive his instructions.
The unfailing indications to an officer of so much experience, however, revealed to Buford the approach of the enemy. Knowing that Reynolds was within supporting-distance of him, he boldly resolved to risk everything in order to allow the latter
