Part 28

GETTYSBURG, a borough and the county-seat of Adams county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., about 35 m. S.W. of Harrisburg. Pop. (1900) 3495; (1910) 4030. It is served by the Western Maryland and the Gettysburg & Harrisburg railways. The site of the borough is a valley about 1-1/2 m. wide; the neighbouring country abounds in attractive scenery. Katalysine Spring in the vicinity was once a well-known summer resort; its waters contain lithia in solution. Gettysburg has several small manufacturing establishments and is the seat of Pennsylvania College (opened in 1832, and the oldest Lutheran college in America), which had 312 students (68 in the preparatory department) in 1907-1908, and of a Lutheran theological seminary, opened in 1826 on Seminary Ridge; but the borough is best known as the scene of one of the most important battles of the Civil War. Very soon after the battle a soldiers' national cemetery was laid out here, in which the bodies of about 3600 Union soldiers have been buried; and at the dedication of this cemetery, in November 1863, President Lincoln delivered his celebrated "Gettysburg Address." In 1864 the Gettysburg Battle-Field Memorial Association was incorporated, and the work of this association resulted in the conversion of the battle-field into a National Park, an act for the purpose being passed by Congress in 1895. Within the park the lines of battle have been carefully marked, and about 600 monuments, 1000 markers, and 500 iron tablets have been erected by states and regimental associations. Hundreds of cannon have been mounted, and five observation towers have been built. From 1816 to 1840 Gettysburg was the home of Thaddeus Stevens. Gettysburg was settled about 1740, was laid out in 1787, was made the county-seat in 1800, and was incorporated as a borough in 1806.

_Battle of Gettysburg._--The battle of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of July 1863 is often regarded as the turning-point of the American Civil War (q.v.) although it arose from a chance encounter. Lee, the commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, had merely ordered his scattered forces to concentrate there, while Meade, the Federal commander, held the town with a cavalry division, supported by two weak army corps, to screen the concentration of his Army of the Potomac in a selected position on Pipe Creek to the south-eastward. On the 1st of July the leading troops of General A. P. Hill's Confederate corps approached Gettysburg from the west to meet Ewell's corps, which was to the N. of the town, whilst Longstreet's corps followed Hill. Lee's intention was to close up Hill, Longstreet and Ewell before fighting a battle. But Hill's leading brigades met a strenuous resistance from the Federal cavalry division of General John Buford, which was promptly supported by the infantry of the I. corps under General J. F. Reynolds. The Federals so far held their own that Hill had to deploy two-thirds of his corps for action, and the western approaches of Gettysburg were still held when Ewell appeared to the northward. Reynolds had already fallen, and the command of the Federals, after being held for a time by Gen. Abner Doubleday, was taken over by Gen. O. O. Howard, the commander of the XI. corps, which took post to bar the way to Ewell on the north side. But Ewell's attack, led by the fiery Jubal Early, swiftly drove back the XI. corps to Gettysburg; the I. corps, with its flank thus laid open, fell back also, and the remnants of both Federal corps retreated through Gettysburg to the Cemetery Hill position. They had lost severely in the struggle against superior numbers, and there had been some disorder in the retreat. Still a formidable line of defence was taken up on Cemetery Hill and both Ewell and Lee refrained from further attacks, for the Confederates had also lost heavily during the day and their concentration was not complete. In the meanwhile Meade had sent forward General W. S. Hancock, the commander of the Federal II. corps, to examine the state of affairs, and on Hancock's report he decided to fight on the Cemetery Hill position. Two corps of his army were still distant, but the XII. arrived before night, the III. was near, and Hancock moved the II. corps on his own initiative. Headquarters and the artillery reserve started for Gettysburg on the night of the 1st. On the other side, the last divisions of Hill's and Ewell's corps formed up opposite the new Federal position, and Longstreet's corps prepared to attack its left.

[Illustration: Gettysburg.]

Owing, however, to misunderstandings between Lee and Longstreet (q.v.), the Confederates did not attack early on the morning of the 2nd, so that Meade's army had plenty of time to make its dispositions. The Federal line at this time occupied the horse-shoe ridge, the right of which was formed by Culp's Hill, and the centre by the Cemetery hill, whence the left wing stretched southward, the III. corps on the left, however, being thrown forward considerably. The XII. held Culp's, the remnant of the I. and XI. the Cemetery hills. On the left was the II., and in its advanced position--the famous "Salient"--the III., soon to be supported by the V.; the VI., with the reserve artillery, formed the general reserve. It was late in the day when the Confederate attack was made, and valuable time had been lost, but Longstreet's troops advanced with great spirit. The III. corps Salient was the scene of desperate fighting; and the "Peach Orchard" and the "Devil's Den" became as famous as the "Bloody Angle" of Spottsylvania or the "Hornets' Nest" of Shiloh. While the Confederate attack was developing, the important positions of Round Top and Little Round Top were unoccupied by the defenders--an omission which was repaired only in the nick of time by the commanding engineer of the army, General G. K. Warren, who hastily called up troops of the V. corps. The attack of a Confederate division was, after a hard struggle, repulsed, and the Federals retained possession of the Round Tops. The III. corps in the meantime, furiously attacked by troops of Hill's and Longstreet's corps, was steadily pressed back, and the Confederates actually penetrated the main line of the defenders, though for want of support the brigades which achieved this were quickly driven out. Ewell, on the Confederate left, waited for the sound of Longstreet's guns, and thus no attack was made by him until late in the day. Here Culp's Hill was carried with ease by one of Ewell's divisions, most of the Federal XII. corps having been withdrawn to aid in the fight on the other wing; but Early's division was repulsed in its efforts to storm Cemetery Hill, and the two divisions of the centre (one of Hill's, one of Ewell's corps) remained inactive.

That no decisive success had been obtained by Lee was clear to all, but Ewell's men on Culp's Hill, and Longstreet's corps below Round Top, threatened to turn both flanks of the Federal position, which was no longer a compact horseshoe but had been considerably prolonged to the left; and many of the units in the Federal army had been severely handled in the two days' fighting. Meade, however, after discussing the eventuality of a retreat with his corps commanders, made up his mind to hold his ground. Lee now decided to alter his tactics. The broken ground near Round Top offered so many obstacles that he decided not to press Longstreet's attack further. Ewell was to resume his attack on Meade's extreme right, while the decisive blow was to be given in the centre (between Cemetery Hill and Trostle's) by an assault delivered in the Napoleonic manner by the fresh troops of Pickett's division (Longstreet's corps). Meade, however, was not disposed to resign Culp's Hill, and with it the command of the Federal line of retreat, to Ewell, and at early dawn on the 3rd a division of the XII. corps, well supported by artillery, opened the Federal counter-attack; the Confederates made a strenuous resistance, but after four hours' hard fighting the other division of the XII. corps, and a brigade of the VI., intervened with decisive effect, and the Confederates were driven off the hill. The defeat of Ewell did not, however, cause Lee to alter his plans. Pickett's division was to lead in the great assault, supported by part of Hill's corps (the latter, however, had already been engaged). Colonel E. P. Alexander, Longstreet's chief of artillery, formed up one long line of seventy-five guns, and sixty-five guns of Hill's corps came into action on his left. To the converging fire of these 140 guns the Federals, cramped for space, could only oppose seventy-seven. The attacking troops formed up before 9 A.M., yet it was long before Longstreet could bring himself to order the advance, upon which so much depended, and it was not till about 1 P.M. that the guns at last opened fire to prepare the grand attack. The Federal artillery promptly replied, but after thirty minutes' cannonade its commander, Gen. H. J. Hunt, ordered his batteries to cease fire in order to reserve their ammunition to meet the infantry attack. Ten minutes later Pickett asked and received permission to advance, and the infantry moved forward to cross the 1800 yds. which separated them from the Federal line. Their own artillery was short of ammunition, the projectiles of that day were not sufficiently effective to cover the advance at long ranges, and thus the Confederates, as they came closer to the enemy, met a tremendous fire of unshaken infantry and artillery.

The charge of Pickett's division is one of the most famous episodes of military history. In the teeth of an appalling fire from the rifles of the defending infantry, who were well sheltered, and from the guns which Hunt had reserved for the crisis, the Virginian regiments pressed on, and with a final effort broke Meade's first line. But the strain was too great for the supporting brigades, and Pickett was left without assistance. Hancock made a fierce counterstroke, and the remnant of the Confederates retreated. Of Pickett's own division over three-quarters, 3393 officers and men out of 4500, were left on the field, two of his three brigadiers were killed and the third wounded, and of fifteen regimental commanders ten were killed and five wounded. One regiment lost 90% of its numbers. The failure of this assault practically ended the battle; but Lee's line was so formidable that Meade did not in his turn send forward the Army of the Potomac. By the morning of the 5th of July Lee's army was in full retreat for Virginia. He had lost about 30,000 men in killed, wounded and missing out of a total force of perhaps 75,000. Meade's losses were over 23,000 out of about 82,000 on the field. The main body of the cavalry on both sides was absent from the field, but a determined cavalry action was fought on the 3rd of July between the Confederate cavalry under J. E. B. Stuart and that of the Federals under D. McM. Gregg some miles E. of the battlefield, and other Federal cavalry made a dashing charge in the broken ground south-west of Round Top on the third day, inflicting thereby, though at great loss to themselves, a temporary check on the right wing of Longstreet's infantry.

GEULINCX, ARNOLD (1624-1669), Belgian philosopher, was born at Antwerp on the 31st of January 1624. He studied philosophy and medicine at the university of Louvain, where he remained as a lecturer for several years. Having given offence by his unorthodox views, he left Louvain, and took refuge in Leiden, where he appears to have been in the utmost distress. He entered the Protestant Church, and in 1663, through the influence of his friend Abraham Heidanus, who had assisted him in his greatest need, he obtained a poorly paid lectureship at the university. He died at Leiden in November 1669. His most important works were published posthumously. The _Metaphysica vera_ (1691), and the [Greek: Gnothi seauton], _sive Ethica_ (under the pseudonym "Philaretus," 1675), are the works by which he is chiefly known. Mention may also be made of _Physica vera_ (1688), _Logica restituta_ (1662) and _Annotata in Principia philosophiae R. Cartesii_ (1691).

Geulincx principally deals with the question, left in an obscure and unsatisfactory state by Descartes, of the relation between soul and body. Whereas Descartes made the union between them a violent collocation, Geulincx practically called it a miracle. Extension and thought, the essences of corporeal and spiritual natures, are absolutely distinct, and cannot act upon one another. External facts are not the causes of mental states, nor are mental states the causes of physical facts. So far as the physical universe is concerned, we are merely spectators; the only action that remains for us is contemplation. The influence we seem to exercise over bodies by will is only apparent; volition and action only accompany one another. Since true activity consists in knowing what one does and how one does it, I cannot be the author of any state of which I am unconscious; I am not conscious of the mechanism by which bodily motion is produced, hence I am not the author of bodily motion ("Quod nescis quomodo fiat, id non facis"). Body and mind are like two clocks which act together, because both have been set together by God. A physical occurrence is but the occasion (opportunity, occasional cause) on which God excites in me a corresponding mental state; the exercise of my will is the occasion on which God moves my body. Every operation in which mind and matter are both concerned is an effect of neither, but the direct act of God. Geulincx was thus the first definitely to systematize the theory called Occasionalism, which had already been propounded by Gerauld de Cordemoy (d. 1684), a Parisian lawyer, and Louis de la Forge, a physician of Saumur. But the principles on which the theory was founded compelled a further advance. God, who is the cause of the concomitance of bodily and mental facts, is in truth the sole cause in the universe. No fact contains in itself the ground of any other; the existence of the facts is due to God, their sequence and coexistence are also due to him. He is the ground of all that is. My desires, volitions and thoughts are thus the desires, volitions and thoughts of God. Apart from God, the finite being has no reality, and we only have the idea of it from God. Descartes had left untouched, or nearly so, the difficult problem of the relation between the universal element or thought and the particular desires or inclinations. All these are regarded by Geulincx as modes of the divine thought and action, and accordingly the end of human endeavour is the end of the divine will or the realization of reason. The love of right reason is the supreme virtue, whence flow the cardinal virtues, diligence, obedience, justice and humility. Since it is impossible for us to make any alteration in the world of matter, all we can do is to submit. Chief of the cardinal virtues is humility, a confession of our own helplessness and submission to God. Geulincx's idea of life is "a resigned optimism."

Geulincx carried out to their extreme consequences the irreconcilable elements in the Cartesian metaphysics, and his works have the peculiar value attaching to the vigorous development of a one-sided principle. The abrupt contradictions to which such development leads of necessity compels revision of the principle itself. He was thus important as the precursor of Malebranche and Spinoza.

Edition of his philosophical works by J. P. N. Land (1891-1893, for which a recently discovered MS. was consulted); see also the same editor's _Arnold Geulincx und seine Philosophie_ (1895), and article (translated) in _Mind_, xvi. 223 seq.; V. van der Haeghen, _Geulincx. Etude sur sa vie, sa philosophie, et ses ouvrages_ (Ghent, 1886); E. Grimm, _A. Geulincx' Erkenntnisstheorie und Occasionalismus_ (1875); E. Pfleiderer, _A. G. als Hauptvertreter der okkasionalistischen Metaphysik und Ethik_ (1882); G. Samtleben, _Geulincx, ein Vorganger Spinozas_ (1885); also Falckenberg, _Hist. of Mod. Philos._ (Eng. trans., 1895), ch. iii.; G. Monchamp, _Hist. du Cartesianisme en Belgique_ (Brussels, 1886); H. Hoffding, _Hist. of Mod. Philos._ (Eng. trans., 1900), i. 245.

GEUM, in botany, a genus of hardy perennial herbs (natural order Rosaceae) containing about thirty species, widely distributed in temperate and arctic regions. The erect flowering shoots spring from a cluster of radical leaves, which are deeply cut or lobed, the largest division being at the top of the leaf. The flowers are borne singly on long stalks at the end of the stem or its branches. They are white, yellow or red in colour, and shallowly cup-shaped. The fruit consists of a number of dry achenes, each of which bears a hook formed from the persistent lower portion of the style, and admirably adapted for ensuring distribution. Two species occur in Britain under the popular name "avens." _G. urbanum_ is a very common hedge-bank plant with small yellow flowers; _G. rivale_ (water avens) is a rarer plant found by streams, and has larger yellow flowers an inch or more across. The species are easy to cultivate and well adapted for borders or the rock-garden. They are propagated by seeds or by division. The most popular garden species are _G. chiloense_ and its varieties, _G. coccineum_ and _G. montanum_.

GEVELSBERG, a town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine Province, 6 m. S.W. from Hagen, on the railway to Dusseldorf. It has two churches, schools and a hospital, and considerable manufactures of cutlery. Pop. (1905) 15,838.

GEX, a town of eastern France, chief town of an arrondissement in the department of Ain, 10 m. N.W. of Geneva and 3 m. from the Swiss frontier. Pop. (1906) town, 1385; commune, 2727. The town is beautifully situated 2000 ft. above sea-level at the base of the most easterly and highest chain of the Jura. It is the seat of a subprefect and has a tribunal of first instance, and carries on considerable trade in wine, cheese and other provisions, chiefly with Geneva. It gives its name to the old Pays de Gex, situated between the Alps and the Jura, which was at various times under the protection of the Swiss, the Genevese and the counts of Savoy, until in 1601 it came into the possession of France, retaining, however, until the Revolution its old independent jurisdiction, with Gex as its chief town. The Pays de Gex is isolated by the Jura from the rest of French territory, and comes within the circumscription of the Swiss customs, certain restrictions being imposed on its products by the French customs.

GEYSER, GEISER, or GEISIR, a natural spring or fountain which discharges into the air, at more or less regular intervals of time, a column of heated water and steam; it may consequently be regarded as an intermittent hot spring. The word is the Icelandic _geysir_, gusher or rager, from the verb _geysa_, a derivative of _gjosa_, to gush. In native usage it is the proper name of the Great Geyser, and not an appellative--the general term _hver_, a hot spring, making the nearest approach to the European sense of the word (see Cleasby and Vigfusson, _Icelandic English Dictionary_, s.v.).

Any hot spring capable of depositing siliceous material by the evaporation of its water may in course of time transform itself into a geyser, a tube being gradually built up as the level of the basin is raised, much in the same manner as a volcanic cone is produced. Every geyser continuing to deposit siliceous material is preparing its own destruction; for as soon as the tube becomes deep enough to contain a column of water sufficiently heavy to prevent the lower strata attaining their boiling points, the whole mechanism is deranged. The deposition of the sinter is due in part to the cooling and evaporation of the siliceous waters, and in part to the presence of living algae. In geyser districts it is easy to find thermal springs busy with the construction of the tube; warm pools, or _laugs_, as the Icelanders call them, on the top of siliceous mounds, with the mouth of the shaft still open in the middle; and dry basins from which the water has receded with their shafts now choked with rubbish.

Geysers exist at the present time in many volcanic regions, as in the Malay Archipelago, Japan and South America; but the three localities where they attain their highest development are Iceland, New Zealand and the Yellowstone Park, U.S.A. The very name by which we call them indicates the historical priority of the Iceland group.