Numbers 253. Reports of Major General Carl Schurz, U. S. Army, commanding Third Division.

HEADQUARTERS THIRD DIVISION, ELEVENTH CORPS, August 20, 1863.

GENERAL: On the part taken by my command in the battle of Gettysburg, I have the honor to report as follows: On July 1, at 7 a. m., the Third Division left its camp, near Saint Joseph's College, at Emmitsburg, with orders to march to Gettysburg by way of Horner's Mills. About 10. 30 o'clock, when my division had just passed the latter place, I received, through one of your aides, the order to hurry forward my command as fast as possible, as the First Corps was engaed with the enemy in the neighborhood of Gettysburg. Leaving the command of the division in General Schimmelfennig's hand, I hastened to the front, where I arrived about 11. 30 o'clock, finding you upon an eminence east of the cemetery of Gettysburg, from which we overlooked the field of battle. You informed me that General Reynolds had just been killed; that you were in command of the whole, and that you had to turn over the Eleventh Corps to me. I saw the First Corps engaged in a lively fight on the ridge northwest of Gettysburg. A dispatch from General Wadsworth informed us that he was advancing; that the forces before him were apparently not very strong, and that he thought, although he had no clear evidence of it, that the enemy was making a movement toward his right. The right of the First Corps seemed to extend across the Cashtown road and the railroad northeast of it. It was at the time difficult to see how far the ground was in our possession. Of the enemy we saw but little, and had no means of forming a just estimate of his strength. Either the enemy was before us in small force, and then we had to push him with all possible vigor, or he had the principal part of his army there, and then we had to establish ourselves in a position which would enable us to maintain ourselves until the arrival of re-enforcements. Either of these cases being possible, provision was to be made for both. Accordingly your ordered me to take the Third and First Division and the artillery, excepting the batteries attached to the First and Third Divisions, on Cemetery Hill and the eminece east of it as a reserve. The Third Division arrived at - o'clock, at double-quick; the weather was sultry, and the troops, who had marched several hours without halting a single time, much out of breath. I ordered General Schimmelfennig, to whom I turned over the command of the Third Division, to advance briskly through the town, and to deploy on the right of the First Corps in two lines. This order was executed with promptness and spirit. Shortly afterward the First Division, under General Barlow, arrived by the Emmitsburg road proper, advanced through the town, and was ordered by me to form on the right of the Third Division, its First Brigade to connect with the Third Division west of the road leading to Mummasburg, while I ordered the Second Brigade to be held en echelon behind the right of the First Brigade east of the