A brigade (the Third) and a battery (Smith's) were left, in accordance with orders, in position on the Waynesborough pike. I overtook the head of the division (the First and Second Brigades, with one battery of artillery, Seeley's) 1 mile from the halting ground, and found Lieutenant-Colonel Hayden, assistant inspector-general, Third Corps, with some guides there, for the purpose of pointing out the route the division was to follow. This was on a road nearly parallel to the main road from Emmitsburg to Gettysburg, and about 2 miles west of it. When half-way to Gettysburg, a dispatch from General Howard to General Sickles, commanding the Third Corps, was delivered to me by Captain McBlair, of the staff, in which the latter general was warned to look out for his left in coming up to Gettysburg, and about the same time I learned from a citizen, who had guided part of General Reynolds' command, that our troops occupied no ground near Gettysburg west of the road from that town to Emmitsburg. AS we approached the crossing of Marsh Run, I was directed by General Sickles, through a staff officer, to take position on the left of Gettysburg as soon as I came up. For reasons that will be apparent, from this statement I concluded that my division should from this point follow the road leading into the main road to Gettysburg, reaching the latter road in about a mile and a half, and at a distance from Gettysburg of about 2 miles; but Lieutenant-Colonel Hayden was positive that General Sickled had instructed him to guide the division by way of the Black Horse Tavern, on the road from Fairfield to Gettysburg. Accordingly, I moved the division in that direction, but, upon approaching the Black Horse Tavern, I found myself in the immediate vicinity of the enemy, who occupied that road in strong force. He was not aware of my presence, and I might have attacked him at daylight with the certainty of at least temporary success; but I was 3 miles distant from the remainder of the army, and I believed such a course would have been inconsistent with the general plan of operations of the commanding general. I accordingly retraced my steps, and marched by the route I have heretofore indicated, bivouacking at 1 a. m. on July 2 about 1 mile from Gettysburg and eastward of the Emmitsburg road. At an early hour of the morning, my division was massed in the vicinity of its bivouac, facing the Emmitsburg road, near the crest of the ridge running from the cemetery of Gettysburg, in a southerly direction, to a rugged, conical-shaped hill, which I find goes by the name of Round Top, about 2 miles from Gettysburg. At 9 a. m. the Third Brigade, with Smith's battery, joined the division, having been ordered up by Major-General Meade, commanding the army. It marched by the main road from Emmitsburg to Gettysburg. shortly after midday, I was ordered to form my division in line of battle, my left joining the right of the First Division of the Third Corps, Major-General Birney commanding, and my right resting opposite the left of General Caldwell's division, of the Second Corps, which was massed on the crest near my place of bivouac. The line I was directed to occupy was near the foot of the westerly slope of the ridge I have already mentioned, from which foot-slope the ground rose to the Emmitsburg road, which runs on the crest of a ridge nearly parallel to the Round Top ridge. This second ridge declines again immediately west of the road, at the distance of 200 or 300 yards from which the edge of a wood runs parallel to it. This