A Death Among Us

Several friends almost died recently. We speak today of Integrity, Honor, and Courage. They have been sorely tortured over the past few months.

Another friend did die recently. We never met, but we consider him our friend nevertheless, for he embodied much of what is good in the world, and had the character to wear Integrity, Honor, and Courage well. We always respected him. He was, truly, a good man.

The Gettysburg area, indeed, Central Pennsylvania in particular, has at its heart, among other things, the fortunes of Pennsylvania State University. One of the major things that has symbolically endeared the University to the citizens of this area is the Penn state football program, led for nearly half a century by one Joseph V. Paterno, affectionately known as JoePa. His death has caused the Penn State Nation to rise in mourning, and the faithful to honor him at this time. He will live on in a history that, had they ever written on football, would have best been told by Jack London or Joseph Conrad.

Far too many media people rushed to judgment on the Sandusky issue and made it JoePa’s crime. That is not only wrong, it is moronic. It was Sandusky’s crime.

The only mistake JoePa made was in trusting Curley and Schultz, the two superiors to whom he reported McQueary’s information.

As JoePa himself said, he should have done more. That’s not even easy to say in retrospect. At the time, he did not have the knowledge that Curley and Schultz would sweep this under the rug. But JoePa trusted them to do the right thing. He never felt the knife in his back.

As for not doing enough – there are five people who not only had the opportunity, but also the legal responsibility to report the crime [which JoePa did not have]: Curley, Schultz, Spanier [the PSU President], and McQueary and his father, to whom he told his story first.

No one castigates them for their actions…or inactions, as the case may be. Their failure to notify the police is a far greater moral lapse than JoePa’s.

The ONLY one of those five who did do the right thing was McQueary, and he is the one who should have gone to the Police in the first place. The others should have reported it to the police as soon as JoePa reported to them what McQueary had told him. Spanier should have known better.

JoePa did not tarnish his reputation. The others did it to him, and the media was happy to become complicit, and continues to do so. The media lacks Integrity, Honor, and Courage. How do we know this? We know because they were unable to live with a JoePA who lived those three qualities every day of his life. If one does not possess those qualities then those who do make them nervous, and envious. They lurk then for the right moment, and lunge at the opportunity to slay a dragon-slayer.

His critics would have you believe he had too much power. If you put into context his report to his superiors of McQueary’s observations of Sandusky in the shower with a young boy, then you can see how little power beyond the football program JoePa really had, and who had the power in the University. [The students know this, and so does the Faculty. Look at their reactions to what happened to Paterno!]

Sandusky assaulted more than those kids, a crime for which he should spend the rest of his life on earth locked away from society, and the rest of eternity burning in the depths of Hell. He assaulted Penn State, and Joe Paterno, as well, and the Penn State Nation. It is funny how no one talks about him or his crimes, which are at the root of all this.

Finally, the gutless mob who call themselves the Penn State Trustees could not bring themselves to let Joe go out as he chose when he announced his retirement, which was the right thing to do [certainly Joe knew he had lung cancer at that point]. And they feared going to his house to tell him, knowing the students out front would probably lynch them. Another example of a failure of character: the Trustees lack of Integrity, Honor, and Courage.

Joe deserved far, far better than the media, the Trustees, and his own superiors treated him, and continue to treat him. The utter disrespect is appalling.

Joe Paterno was an incredibly positive direct influence on thousands of young men who played for him, and tens of thousands of students who took his courses. Indirectly he was a positive influence on hundreds of thousands of others, if not more. He set a standard in major college football that was tough to match, and nearly impossible to exceed. It was based on Integrity, Honor, and Courage.

The man is on his way to his grave, likely hastened there because of all that transpired in the last two months of his life. It’s time to leave the man his true and honest legacy and honor him for it, and not castigate him for unknowingly misplacing his trust in folks who let him down, and let the victims of the real crime down.

Joseph Conrad is known as one of the greatest authors of English Language fiction. He wrote prolifically about humanity, and its strengths and weaknesses, both in individuals and in masses from mobs to states, most notably in books such as Lord Jim.

Conrad should be alive to tell JoePa’s story, and the story of how Integrity, Honor, and Courage almost went to the grave with him.

Instead, JoePa takes his own Integrity, Honor, and Courage with him to the grave. He will be in good company. Rest in eternal peace, JoePa.

GettysBLOG

We support the Roadmap to Reform!

“Be steadfast in your anger, be sure in your convictions, be moved by the right and certainty that abuse of power must be defeated at every turn; uphold Liberty as the just reward of a watchful people, and let not those who have infringed upon that Liberty steal it away from you. Never loosen your grip on Liberty!" -- GettysBLOG

“Legislation without representation is tyranny.” -- GettysBLOG

Remember in May and November! Before you vote, GettysBLOG!

Copyright © 2005-2012: GettysBLOG; All Rights Reserved.

Welcome back, gunner!

The Artillerist on the 4th New York Independent Battery monument [Captain James E. Smith] located on the south end of Houck’s Ridge [behind Devil’s Den] has been restored and is now standing as a silent sentinel over the area once again. For those who drive through Devils Den area, and then up and around to where Benning’s Brigade of Georgians assaulted the left of Ward’s Third Corps Brigade, the cannon and the Artillerist are well remembered figures that greet you when you reach the top of the ridge.

Damaged several years ago in an ugly attack of vandalism early one morning, the statue was pulled off its pedestal and the head was removed and carried off. Two other monuments, both along Emmitsburg Road, were also damaged. The 114th Pennsylvania Infantry monument [Collis’s Zouaves], was also toppled, but was restored fairly quickly. The 16th Massachusetts Infantry monument also had damage when the ball on top was pulled free and smashed on the ground.

All were members of the Third Corps [Dan Sickles], and were involved in the fighting on the second day, when Sickles, without orders to do so, ordered his corps out of a defensive position just north of Little Round Top, and forward to the Emmitsburg Road. He left Ward’s Brigade and Smith’s Battery to cover his left by stationing them on the south end of Houck’s Ridge. Sickles covered some of the gap between Ward and Graham’s Brigade, stationed in the Peach Orchard a half mile, away by aligning some artillery on the Wheatfield Lane facing south. Sickles move remains a bone of contention to this day, and his actions then, and for the rest of his life, seriously damaged the career and reputation of General George Meade.

The fight of Ward’s Brigade and Smith’s Battery against several assaults by brigades and regiments from the Confederate Army division under General John Bell Hood is legendary. Smith, in particular, fought his battery well, splitting off one section of two guns onto the floor of the “Valley of Death” where they stopped advancing Alabama troops by firing into the boulder field of the “Slaughter Pen”. The other four guns remained on top of Houck’s ridge where they supported Ward’s infantry brigade aligned on the right of the battery.

Park restoration specialists had to travel out west to cast the head for the Artillerist from another copy of the statue.

Welcome back, gunner!

GettysBLOG

We support the Roadmap to Reform!

“Be steadfast in your anger, be sure in your convictions, be moved by the right and certainty that abuse of power must be defeated at every turn; uphold Liberty as the just reward of a watchful people, and let not those who have infringed upon that Liberty steal it away from you. Never loosen your grip on Liberty!" -- GettysBLOG

“Legislation without representation is tyranny.” -- GettysBLOG

Remember in May and November! Before you vote, GettysBLOG!

Copyright © 2005-2012: GettysBLOG; All Rights Reserved.

Thanksgiving: Sarah Hale and Abraham Lincoln

Thanksgiving: Sarah Hale and Abraham Lincoln

In 1621 the settlers of the Plymouth Colony in what is now Massachusetts, gathered to celebrate a harvest of food they had no cause to even dream of when they landed. Thanks to the local Native Americans, the Wampanoag Tribe, who taught the colonists how to fish and gave them seeds to plant, the 102 colonists not only had sufficient food for the winter, they had enough to have a celebration of their bounty. [Claims for the first Thanksgiving rest in two other places, one a half-century earlier in 1565 at the Spanish Colony of St. Augustine, Florida, and the other in Virginia at the Jamestown Colony in 1607. The 1619 charter that founded the Charles City County village of Berkley Hundred included in its code an annual day of Thanksgiving.] Nevertheless, it remains Plymouth that we celebrate, in large part because of the symbolic rescue from death by starvation carried out by the generosity of the Wampanoag people.

Sarah Josepha Buell Hale spent 91 years on this earth, from 1788 to 1879. And during those 91 years she produced an incredible record into the history of this nation. And she goes pretty much unrecognized today. Sarah Buell was born, raised and married in Newport, New Hampshire. She married David Hale, a local attorney in 1813 and bore him five children. Sarah became a widow in 1822 and remained in mourning the rest of her life. Nothing out of the ordinary at this point for those times. But Sarah was different. Very intelligent -- much of her education was self attained -- and she wrote poetry. She published a collection of her poetry in 1823, followed soon after by a novel, Northwood: Life North and South. Northwood carried a message that slavery was not only bad for the slave it was bad for the masters, too, dehumanizing both.

In 1828 Sarah accepted a position in Boston as ‘editress’ of Reverend John Blake’s Ladies’ Magazine. In 1830 she published her second collection of poetry, Poems for Children, which included the now famous Mary’s Lamb, which we know as ”Mary Had A Little Lamb”. In 1837 she began editing the widely popular Godey’s Ladies Book, after Philadelphian Louis Godey bought the Ladies Magazine. There Sarah remained working for the next forty years.

Sarah was a thinker, and a powerful one. She went beyond many of the social thinkers of the day and did so with a quiet logic. In her capacity as editress of Godey’s, she was a major influence on women authors of the nineteenth century and on some men as well: Hawthorne, Holmes, Irving to name a few.

The year she retired, Thomas Edison spoke the first words to be recorded, on a device he invented. Those words were the first lines of Mary’s Lamb.]

Sarah is buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia. For a span of forty years during her life, she wrote to Congress asking for a national Thanksgiving Holiday. Her prayers were answered, but not by Congress.

Abraham Lincoln is well known for many of his speeches and historic documents: his two Inaugural Addresses, his Cooper Union Speech, his Gettysburg Address, the Emancipation Proclamation, among others. Here is one he seldom gets much credit for making.

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

And so, Sarah Hale’s forty year effort to have Thanksgiving made into a national Holiday came to an end in 1863 at the hands of President Abraham Lincoln.

Times have been rough of late. The twenty-first century has offered little to further the cause of mankind. There is more conflict throughout the world than the world has seen for seventy years. Yet, every day, the sun rises and sets, crops grow and are harvested. We think too much and too often of what we do not have, and we forget what we do have. Thanksgiving is a reminder that we should do this, for “…They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.

Happy Thanksgiving!

GettysBLOG

We support the Roadmap to Reform!

“Be steadfast in your anger, be sure in your convictions, be moved by the right and certainty that abuse of power must be defeated at every turn; uphold Liberty as the just reward of a watchful people, and let not those who have infringed upon that Liberty steal it away from you. Never loosen your grip on Liberty!"
--GettysBLOG

“Legislation without representation is tyranny.”
--GettysBLOG

Remember in May and November! Before you vote, GettysBLOG!

Copyright © 2005-2012: GettysBLOG; All Rights Reserved.

Veterans Day

In 1918, on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, at the eleventh hour, a pre-arranged cease fire ended the hostilities between the Allies [The United Kingdom, France, The Russian Empire, the Japanese Empire, Italy, Belgium, Montenegro, Greece, Serbia, and the United States] and the Central Powers [the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, The Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria]. Thus ended "The Great War"..."The War to end all wars".

A year later, President Woodrow Wilson declared that date to be a holiday set aside for the solemn remembrance of the many dead from World War I. It was to be known as Armistice Day, to note the date that Germany signed the Armistice that ended the war.

Thanks to a small grass-roots movement centered in Emporia, Kansas in 1953, Congress passed a law establishing the date with a new name, Veterans Day, to honor all of America's Veterans from all eras. President Eisenhower signed it into law and it became law on June 1, 1954. With the exception of a few years in the 1970s, Veterans Day has been and always will be observed on November 11th, every year.

This year, as in so many other years, we are saddened by still another war ongoing, keeping our brave warriors far from their homes and hearths, in constant danger so that we may live in Freedom, Liberty, and Peace at home.

We ask that you pray for them, and for all Veterans, living and dead, who did their duty.

One of the more familiar pieces about Veterans was written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian physician serving in France during the War, after witnessing the death of his friend, 22 year old Lieutenant Alexis Helmer. Written in 1915, and published four years later as a small collection of his poems, In Flanders Fields is one of the most poignant remembrances of the price of war, and is applicable to all wars.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.


We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.


Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Remember our Veterans today, Veterans Day 2011. If you see some, thank them for their service.

GettysBLOG

We support the Roadmap to Reform!

“Be steadfast in your anger, be sure in your convictions, be moved by the right and certainty that abuse of power must be defeated at every turn; uphold Liberty as the just reward of a watchful people, and let not those who have infringed upon that Liberty steal it away from you. Never loosen your grip on Liberty!" -- GettysBLOG

“Legislation without representation is tyranny.” -- GettysBLOG

Remember in May and November! Before you vote, GettysBLOG!

Copyright © 2005-2011: GettysBLOG; All Rights Reserved.

Way to Go Adams Voters! Good Work!

Congratulations to the voters of the Gettysburg Area, for electing the second new school board in the past five years. Let’s hope this one is the right one. The last one was a tax and spend abysmal failure. If spending doesn’t get deeply cut, there will be new faces after the next election. But the folks we elected seem to have their eyes on the spending ball.

And the County Commissioners race got two right. We would have preferred Paul Kellett to Marty Qually, but we also think Qually will do a good job balancing the two Republicans.

Huge congratulations to Paul Martin, a really legitimate “good guy”, and to one of our favorites, Randy Phiel, another legitimate “good guy”.

In Cumberland Township, we eliminated Deb Golden. Perhaps the vendetta against the Paddock family will come to an end now. And the new Supervisors should put an end to the ridiculous spending by the previous Board of Supervisors. The Board of Supervisors has complained about all the tax free land in the township and the untaxable income from retirees. Nevertheless, they failed to learn to live within their means. We hope the new board retires that million dollar loan, and makes other cuts. Less work on the Township property and more on the roads puts tax money where it belongs.

All in all, a successful election. Our hopes are high that local government will make drastic cuts in spending and ease the burdens of the taxpayers.

GettysBLOG

We support the Roadmap to Reform!

“Be steadfast in your anger, be sure in your convictions, be moved by the right and certainty that abuse of power must be defeated at every turn; uphold Liberty as the just reward of a watchful people, and let not those who have infringed upon that Liberty steal it away from you. Never loosen your grip on Liberty!" -- GettysBLOG

“Legislation without representation is tyranny.” -- GettysBLOG

Remember in May and November! Before you vote, GettysBLOG!

Copyright © 2005-2011: GettysBLOG; All Rights Reserved.

GettysBLOG endorsements for Tuesday's election!

Well, it’s time again for Remember in November!

We’re back with out endorsements for some of the more important races in Adams County.

We’ll start with the County Commissioners. Some good folks here. We recommend the following:

Randy Phiel. Randy is a long time resident of the area, a retired Federal Law Enforcement Officer, and a man active in his community for many years. Randy is solid, and did a fine job as a Supervisor in Cumberland Township where they could use five of him to staff the board.

Paul Kellet is a man for the people. His lawsuit against the current County Commissioners was for the people, to rein in the “wretched excesses” visited on the public of Adams County by the outgoing [thankfully] board of commissioners.

Jim Martin is simply too good a man to pass up. You have to vote for a guy who devotes his life to service, both public and private.

For commissioner, then, we endorse, Randy Phiel, Paul Kellett, and Jim Martin.

For the school board. This is easy. Do not vote for the one incumbent who is running. That is Sally Michael. The incoming school board should be completely new faces. Therefore, we endorse William Hewitt, Denise Weldon-Siviy, Katherine Hewitt, Kristin Woodward, and Jim Henderson.

In Cumberland Township, vote for anyone except Deb Golden. IT is time for new blood here. The same old excuses for higher taxes, the same old excuses for not having enough money. They need to look at how much money they have spent on their own property, which has become a small kingdom for the Supervisors, and a large sandbox for the men who run the heavy equipment. Most days, and especially in the winter, they violate their own noise ordinance. In the winter, they start their equipment at 6:30-6:54 in the morning so the equipment will be nice and warm by the time they finish their coffee and donuts inside the building. Now there’s a place to start to cut costs and save some taxpayer money.

And in the Borough…in the First Ward, we recommend against the ex reporter who is running for office there. He got too much enjoyment out of running a local official out of town, and got in too deep with Levan and his motorcycle heavies. Not the kind of person you want sitting in borough council meetings on your behalf.

We used to think that the voters get what they deserve. That was naïve. We have seen too many “good people” change their spots once they get elected. This is why we have the recommendations against in some cases. At least in those case we have a negative record to go by.

Our hopes are high. The Commissioners will all be new regardless of who gets elected. The school board will be new if the voters are careful not to vote for Sally Michael. Five new people are required to undo all that the past two school boards have done.

Good luck at the polls. Don’t stay home and let others vote when you have the right, and the duty to vote. As much as these elected officials in Adams County have come under fire the past several years, you have the obligation to vote to make sure no bozos get elected.

Vote on Tuesday, November 8!!

GettysBLOG
 
We support the Roadmap to Reform! “Be steadfast in your anger, be sure in your convictions, be moved by the right and certainty that abuse of power must be defeated at every turn; uphold Liberty as the just reward of a watchful people, and let not those who have infringed upon that Liberty steal it away from you. Never loosen your grip on Liberty!" -- GettysBLOG  

“Legislation without representation is tyranny.” -- GettysBLOG

Remember in May and November! Before you vote, GettysBLOG! Copyright © 2005-2011: GettysBLOG; All Rights Reserved.

We're Back! Latest on Battlefield, Casino, and an Apology

We must apologize to our very valued readers around the world for our lengthy absence. Ill health and other personal issues have diverted us from keeping you up to date. We appreciate those so loyal that they patiently stayed with us during the hiatus. We thank you all.

First, the Battlefield has never looked better, from an historian's eye. The restoration to 1863 conditions continues, with work currently going on at newly-acquired Powers Hill. The elevation, one of the higher ones in the area located just west of Baltimore Street and north of Blacksmith Shop Road. It was used as an artillery platform during the Battle, with coverage of the lower slope of Culp's Hill, and the Spangler's Spring area.

The recently planted orchards are starting to take hold and show signs of growth. Some of the first planted have actually blossomed.

The Friends continue to build worm fences throughout the Battlefield. We are anxious to see the placement of field dividers in the Pickett's Charge area.

The final work on the Middle Street project [for this year -- more due next year but less disruptive] has pretty much ended and with the paving of the crossing of Seminary/West Confederate Avenue the job has finished nicely.

The only stinkers in the area are the continuing work on the Marsh Creek Bridge on Emmitsburg Road south of the Battlefield, and the "traffic islands" installed along Steinwehr Avenue, especially at Baltimore Street. What were they thinking?

Be aware also that the National Park Service is working to solve a problem of foot-traffic erosion in some of the more popular locations on the Battlefield. Nowhere is it more evident than on Little Round Top. NPS has attempted to control where visitors go on the hill with paths, chained off areas, and signs, all to no avail.

The casino issue was beaten back again earlier this year when the last remaining license was awarded to the Nemacolin Resort out in southwestern Pennsylvania. The majority partner in the Mason Dixon project decided to file a court appeal to that decision. The local backer, David LeVan, stated he wanted no part of the appeal and has filed to sever himself and his financial backers from the Mason Dixon project so they can work toward getting a casino here.

So, how can this be?

Well, the State Treasurer recently presented a report prepared by a casino industry marketing firm to the State Gambling Commission [sorry, we refuse to call it 'Gaming'. That is a purely contrived euphemism to make gambling more palatable to Pennsylvania taxpayers.]

In that report, he indicated that revenues from the current casinos, which have been increasing by double-digit percentage points every month, will soon decline to single-digit increases and eventually would plateau. There are options. One is to increase the number of slots and tables at each casino, but the saturation point of warm bodies walking in the casinos' doors has almost been reached, so increasing the number of machines and tables would not significantly raise revenues. Adding casinos would.

In that report, he also detailed six target locations, including Chambersburg and southern York County as potentially rich target areas for a new casino, and four other locations around the state. This, then is the other option: Chambersburg and York, and there are four options to this solution of adding more casinos.

1. Build a casino in each -- one in Southern York County, and one in Chambersburg.

2. Build a casino in either Southern York County or Chambersburg.

3. Build no casinos in either place.

4. Build a casino geographically in between Chambersburg and Southern York County. Obviously, this would target Gettysburg.

That final option is the reason for David LeVan's recent maneuverings. There is some talk of resurrecting the idea of building a harness racing track near Littlestown and pursuing a license for a casino at that new racetrack. This would likely involve the legendary harness racing stables of Hanover Shoe Farms, located in that area. This is a smoke screen. No doubt LeVan has some other location, as yet unpublicized, in mind, perhaps even the original planned site just east of the York Street/US 15 interchange, but we suspect a spot along US 30 west of town, perhaps near the local airport.

As Susan Starr Paddock, the head of the twice victorious No Casino Gettysburg, so appropriately warned in the local newspapers, the ugly head of a casino near the Battlefield is still with us. There is a bill in the General Assembly that would prevent a casino license being awarded to a location within 10 miles of the Gettysburg National Military Park. We would ask Pennsylvania residents who read this to please contact their General Assembly representative and ask him to support this bill.

We urge our readers, regardless of their location, to visit the No Casino Gettysburg Network site and do all you can to help this issue out.

http://nocasinogettysburg.ning.com/

Gettysburg deserves better than this. There are some things in our society, in our history that rise above money. The Gettysburg Battlefield and the physical context in which that jewel of National Parks sits, is one of those things. Almost 200,000 soldiers fought here on those three days in 1863. Fully one quarter of that number were casualties - dead, wounded, missing, or captured. The significance of the Battle fought here is too important to who the American People are, and what America means, to allow a gambling establishment to tarnish that importance because of money, and the stubborn greed of one man.

GettysBLOG

We support the Roadmap to Reform!

“Be steadfast in your anger, be sure in your convictions, be moved by the right and certainty that abuse of power must be defeated at every turn; uphold Liberty as the just reward of a watchful people, and let not those who have infringed upon that Liberty steal it away from you. Never loosen your grip on Liberty!" -- GettysBLOG

“Legislation without representation is tyranny.” -- GettysBLOG

Remember in May and November! Before you vote, GettysBLOG!!!!

Copyright © 2005-2011: GettysBLOG; All Rights Reserved.

GETTYSBLOG WILL RETURN SOON THIS BLOG IS NOT FOR SALE.

This blog is not for sale. We are on medical hiatus and will return shortly.

GettysBLOG We support the Roadmap to Reform! “Be steadfast in your anger, be sure in your convictions, be moved by the right and certainty that abuse of power must be defeated at every turn; uphold Liberty as the just reward of a watchful people, and let not those who have infringed upon that Liberty steal it away from you. Never loosen your grip on Liberty!" -- GettysBLOG “Legislation without representation is tyranny.” -- GettysBLOG Remember in May and November! Before you vote, GettysBLOG! Copyright © 2005-2011: GettysBLOG; All Rights Reserved.

About the Battle Anniversary Series

Presented here for the next several day will be a description of the people and events that made up the Battle of Gettysburg, and a final piece that deals with the Battlefield itself.

The essays are now posted in chronological order for ease of access and reading. Read them from the top, from 1-9.  At the bottom of the page, click "Older Posts" to continue the series. 

We hope they help you to grasp what happened here on those hot early summer days of 1863. We welcome questions. Please feel free to email us using the link that says "Email Me", just above the local weather near the top of the left sidebar.

GettysBLOG

We support the Roadmap to Reform!

“Be steadfast in your anger, be sure in your convictions, be moved by the right and certainty that abuse of power must be defeated at every turn; uphold Liberty as the just reward of a watchful people, and let not those who have infringed upon that Liberty steal it away from you. Never loosen your grip on Liberty!" -- GettysBLOG

“Legislation without representation is tyranny.” -- GettysBLOG

Remember in May and November! Before you vote, GettysBLOG!

Copyright © 2005-2010: GettysBLOG.  All Rights Reserved.

Battle Anniversary 1: "Fight like the Devil" - June 30, 1863

June 30, 1863, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Pettigrew
The sight that greeted Sarah Broadhead as she looked out her window on the west side of Gettysburg on the morning of June 30th, 1863 caused her to draw a sharp breath. There had been rumors, but the view of the Seminary and the ridge on which it stands was complicated by a large group of men, and the Confederate flags they were carrying. She would later write, “We had a good view of them from our house, and every moment we expected to hear the booming of cannon, and thought they might shell the town. As it turned out they were only reconnoitering.” She was looking at three North Carolina Infantry Regiments, some 1,800 men constituting most of a brigade under the command of Brigadier General James Johnston Pettigrew. Pettigrew, the highly educated and well lettered graduate of the University of North Carolina was the pride of his state.

Ordered forward on a supply gathering expedition, Pettigrew and his staff were anxiously searching the town and its environs for signs of Union troops. Numerous civilians questioned as to the presence of Union troops in the area gave a variety of answers, most of them based on rumors, but one thing became evident: there were many Union troops close by. It did not take long for their field glasses and telescopes to find the body of blue moving towards town from the south on the Emmitsburg Road. Mistaking a column of cavalry for infantry, Pettigrew turned his column around, 3 regiments of infantry, an artillery battery, and 27 empty wagons that were to have hauled the shoes, hats, and food back to their divisional camp near Cashtown on South Mountain. Instead, they returned almost empty-handed.

On his return to Cashtown, Pettigrew reported to his superior, Henry J. Heth, that there were large bodies of troops in and around Gettysburg and more were arriving all the time. Heth took Pettigrew to see their Corps Commander, General Ambrose Powell Hill. Neither Hill, nor Heth believed the report. Both graduates of the United States Military Academy, they had a disdain for the civilian soldier’s abilities, and Pettigrew was just that. Even though he was a battle-tested, wounded veteran of many engagements who had fought his regiments well, he was, and always would be, a civilian soldier, and not “one of them”, an Academy graduate. Hill and Heth graduated from West Point in the same class, 1847. Hill was 15th in his class of 38, and Heth was dead last. It did not matter. Heth was the nephew of General Robert E. Lee.

[Heth’s Division was not the advanced element of the Army of Northern Virginia, as that honor belonged to Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell’s Second Corps, which passed through Gettysburg a week earlier on its way to York, and then north to Harrisburg. But Hill’s Third Corps was the lead of the main body of Lee’s army, which included Lieutenant General James Longstreet’s First Corps, still situated in the Cumberland Valley west of Hill’s advanced position at Cashtown.]

In a similar predicament to Pettigrew’s were his fellow brigade commanders in Heth’s Division. Brigadier General James J. Archer was a Mexican War veteran who joined the US Army before the war, and now commanded a brigade of Tennessee and Alabama troops. As such, he was a notch above Pettigrew professionally, as was Colonel John M. Brockenbrough, who was a graduate of Virginia Military Institute. Not so the fourth brigade commander under Heth, Brigadier General Joseph R. Davis, the nephew of Confederate General Jefferson Davis, and a pre-war politician in Mississippi.

[It was the same in the Union Army. Political and civilian officers were awarded commissions early in the war usually for raising a regiment, or at least a company. Major political figures such as Benjamin Butler, a Massachusetts Democrat, and his political and law student, Daniel Sickles, commander of the Third Corps, Army of the Potomac, and a key figure in the Battle of Gettysburg were exceptions to the rule. For the most part, the war was taken over by 1863 by the West Point graduates, and the civilian and political generals were relegated to side areas, or out of the army altogether. The West Point officers on both sides generally were much better all around officers, and had made the learning transition on maneuver and logistics concerning large armies, as the prewar US Army in which they served had, at most, 20,000 men…the size of a large sized Civil War corps.]

Pettigrew’s report was disbelieved. When forwarded to Lee, the report was also disbelieved based on the intelligence information Lee had at the time. Even so, the cautious Lee ordered Hill to advance on Gettysburg the next day and “feel” for the enemy. He was ordered not to bring on a general engagement. Hill ordered Heth to undertake the task and passed on Lee’s admonition to avoid spurring a large fight.

Buford
John Buford, Brigadier General, West Point ’48, commanding officer of the First Division, Cavalry Corps, Army of the Potomac, led his men up the Emmitsburg Road from Maryland into Pennsylvania and a few miles later, Gettysburg in the late morning of June 30. It was Buford’s command that Pettigrew had spotted from a long distance and mistaken them for infantry. At the time, the long column of blue-uniformed troopers may have been dismounted and marching by leading their horses, something cavalry did on the march to give both riders and horses a break while continuing to move.

Buford rode at the head of two of his three brigades. First Brigade, under Colonel William Gamble, comprised of the 8th and 12th Illinois Cavalry, and the 3rd Indiana, and 8th New York, was with him, as was the Second Brigade, under the feisty Colonel Thomas Devin. Devin commanded the 6th and 9th New York Cavalry, the 3rd West Virginia, and the 17th Pennsylvania. Buford’s Reserve Brigade, under newly promoted Brigadier General Wesley Merritt was left south of the area guarding the southwestern approaches to Gettysburg.

[Merritt, along with Elon J. Farnsworth, was promoted from Captain to Brigadier General (skipping Major, Lieutenant Colonel, and Colonel!) two days earlier in a last minute reorganization of the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac by Major General Alfred Pleasonton, Corps Commander. Along with Merritt and Farnsworth, a young First Lieutenant was also springboarded to Brigadier General, and given command of the Michigan Brigade in Judson Kilpatrick’s Third Division of the Cavalry Corps. His name was George Armstrong Custer, last in his West Point class of 1861 in everything but equitation.]
Riding through Gettysburg just before noon Buford’s troopers were serenaded by the people of the town, particularly the young ladies and children. Showered with patriotic songs, some stopped to have flowers pinned on their dusty coats.

[These men were no longer the laughingstock of the Army. In the first two years of the war, the Union Cavalry had been ill used, poorly commanded, and severely abused when they came in contact with Major General James Ewell Brown (JEB) Stuart’s Cavalry Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia. In fact, an early war sentiment among the infantry was that “nobody ever saw a dead cavalryman.” But recently, with better commanders of the Army of the Potomac, and with a Corps Commander who excelled at the administrative side of running a cavalry unit, the Army of the Potomac’s Cavalry Corps distinguished themselves in battles along the gaps and passes leading into the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, and at such places as Aldie, Middleburg and Upperville. Finally, a surprise attack launched by Army Commander Joseph Hooker on June 9th caught Stuart at a very vulnerable moment. Attacking across the Rappahannock River while Stuart was conducting a grand review for General Lee and assorted visiting dignitaries, Pleasonton’s forces, backed up by a corps of infantry interrupted the review and fought a series of pitched battles around a place called Brandy Station. Eventually Pleasonton grew timid and withdrew his forces back across the river, but not before serving notice that his cavalry had matured into an outstanding fighting unit capable of standing toe-to-toe with the vaunted Stuart. It was a lesson that was ignored by Stuart and Lee, and thus to be repeated throughout the Gettysburg Campaign.]

Buford moved his men through town ordering Devin to bivouac his brigade north of the college in the open fields above town, and Gamble to set up his brigade camp west of the Seminary on the Chambersburg Pike.

Buford’s long years of experience as an Indian fighter out west before the war had taught him to be an excellent judge of terrain. Indeed, he was the man who initially decided the opening strategy of the Battle of Gettysburg, and how it would eventually play out. He reasoned that if he could hold the Confederates off west of town long enough for the Infantry to arrive and occupy the high ground southeast of town, he would have accomplished his goal and given the Infantry a large advantage in high ground, well suited for defensive positions, from Culp’s Hill, north around the upper reach of Cemetery Hill, and then south along the west side of Cemetery Hill and down Cemetery Ridge. He would need help, however, and later that evening he sat down near the Lutheran Seminary and wrote a letter to Union First Corps Commander Major General John Fulton Reynolds, telling him just that.

Stuart
James Ewell Brown “JEB” Stuart, 13th of 46 in his West Point class of 1854, where he was first exposed to Robert E. Lee. Lee was superintendent of the Military Academy, and Stuart was one of his prize cadets. Later, in 1859, after a few years fighting Indians out west, and dealing with the unrest in ‘Bleeding Kansas’ Stuart acted as Colonel Robert E. Lee’s aide during the suppression of John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry.

At the start of the Civil War, Stuart, a young Virginian with piercing dark eyes and a large beard, was commissioned a Captain of Virginia Cavalry. In little more than a year he was promoted to Major General commanding the Confederate Cavalry Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia.

Stuart’s early war exploits after taking command are legendary. He led his entire command unhindered on rides around the Army of the Potomac – twice! He was a skilled commander, and a trusted officer serving under his old mentor, Lee. At the Battle of Chancellorsville, he temporarily took command of Stonewall Jackson’s Second Corps after Jackson was wounded by friendly fire. He fought Jackson’s men with skill the next day. By the time of the Gettysburg Campaign his reputation as a dashing and daring commander was encased in the lore of the South. It was about to come undone.

Ordered by Lee to screen the movement of the Army of Northern Virginia north into Pennsylvania, Stuart proceeded to go on an extensive raid through Maryland, capturing several large wagon trains full of food and supplies belonging to the Army of the Potomac. These wagon trains seriously slowed his movements north and he lost touch with the Infantry he was supposed to be screening.

Late in June, he found his route north into Pennsylvania at Littlestown blocked by Union Cavalry (Kilpatrick), which forced him to move east to Hanover, in southern York County, just above the Mason Dixon Line.

Hanover
As Stuart was heading toward Hanover, intent on occupying the town, some of his units were skirmishing with Union Cavalry – elements of the 18th Pennsylvania Cavalry, stationed on a line southwest of Hanover and northward, screening the town from any advance on it by Stuart. The 18th was struck by two regiments of Stuart’s cavalry in two separate places, sending them reeling back through Hanover. Stuart then entered the town along with his advanced units (Chambliss’ Brigade) and some of his Horse Artillery, which he quickly got into play by targeting the retreating 18th Pennsylvania.

As this was occurring, more Union Cavalry under newly promoted Brigadier General Elon J. Farnsworth appeared suddenly on a large farm at the south edge of Hanover, and Stuart moved to attack. Nearly surrounded, Stuart made his escape by riding his horse like a steeplechase, leaping the hedgerows that divided up the fields, and at one point leaping a 15 foot ditch. Regrouping in town, he awaited developments. Farnsworth moved his forces into town and forced Stuart to withdraw to the west and south.

Judson Kilpatrick heard the sounds of the fight and raced south to Hanover. Custer took up a position northwest of town, and in the late afternoon, began an advance on the Brigade of Fitzhugh Lee. Ordering 600 men from the 6th Michigan to dismount, Custer led them through the brush, part way on hands and knees, to get within three hundred yards of the Confederate line and its artillery that was shelling the town. Custer’s men opened up and drove off the cavalry support defending the guns. A second, similar attack followed on and convinced the Confederates that they must disengage and move out to York after darkness fell.

GettysburgBuford had laid out his plan well. He had Gamble’s Brigade astride the Chambersburg Pike just east of the steep defile through which Willoughby Run flowed. Gamble’s men were in position on the next high ground east of the stream, now called McPherson’s Ridge, so named for the farm that sat on the ridge along the south side of the road. The road itself was lined on both sides with stout five-rail fence, and almost parallel to the road on the north side, a sunken railroad bed, still under construction and without rails ran about one to two hundred yards from the road. Devin’s men were formed on Gamble’s right, and extended north to the Mummasburg Road.

When he visited Devin that evening, Devin was in a high mood, and began predicting how easily they would dispense with the Rebels the next day. Buford rounded on him and angrily exclaimed, “No you won’t! They will attack in the morning and they will come booming—skirmishers three deep. You will have to fight like the Devil to hold your own until supports arrive. The enemy must know the importance of this position and will strain every nerve to secure it, and if we are able to hold it we will do well.”

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Battle Anniversary 2: "Them Damned Black Hats Again!" - July 1, 1863, Morning

July 1, 1863. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Morning.

Heth
Major General Henry “Harry” Heth was anxious to get his men going in the pre-dawn hours of July 1. Camped along the Chambersburg Road near Cashtown, his force for the morning’s march to Gettysburg would use only two of his brigades, Archer’s and that of Joseph Davis, totaling about 3,000 men. Behind them would come an additional 3,500 men in Brockenborough’s and Pettigrew’s Brigades. At the head of Heth’s column was young Major Willie Pegram’s Artillery battalion, five batteries – twenty guns in all, and 400 men. This unusual line of march was through admitted carelessness on the part of Heth. The infantry should have been in the lead.

[In the Confederate Army, the standard artillery battery was four guns, in two sections of two guns. In the Union Army, the standard arrangement was six guns, in three sections of two guns. There were exceptions, and in many Confederate batteries, gun types were often mixed, Napoleons, Howitzers, etc. This was also true in the Union Artillery, though not nearly to the extent of the Confederates. Each gun would generally have a team of horses to pull the gun and a limber chest, and another team to pull linked caissons full of ammunition and powder.]

As the artillery followed by Archer’s and Davis’s infantry filed down the road toward Gettysburg, they passed the bivouac of Brigadier General J, Johnston Pettigrew about two miles west of Marsh Creek, where it had stopped the day before after turning back from Gettysburg. As the last of Davis’s Mississippians filed past, Pettigrew ordered his men to join the march. Back in Cashtown, Brockenbrough Brigade finally got on the road.

Reynolds
Just days ago Major General John Fulton Reynolds of nearby Lancaster, Pennsylvania, had been offered command of the Army of the Potomac by President Lincoln. The popular and capable officer was the senior officer left after Hooker was relieved of the command. But Reynolds prevailed upon the President to allow him to remain in Field Command, to be with the troops. Lincoln then asked who Reynolds would recommend, and he replied that George Meade, of Philadelphia would be his choice. Steady, and a tough fighter, Meade, commanding the 5th Corps, had broken through Stonewall Jackson’s lines at the Battle of Fredericksburg the previous December. Lacking support on his flanks, and lacking a second wave of troops from reserves behind him, Meade was forced to fight his way back out of his salient.

And so it was that on this morning Reynolds was awakened early at his overnight Headquarters in Moritz Tavern by a messenger from the new Commander of the Army of the Potomac, Major General George G. Meade. The message contained marching orders for the entire army, all to proceed via various routes to eventually concentrate on Gettysburg.

Reynolds, commanding the 1st Corps, and in charge of the left wing of the army (his own 1st Corps and the 3rd and 11th Corps), would lead the way, marching straight up the Emmitsburg Pike.

Buford
Brigadier General John Buford had placed his vedettes (small units of cavalry posted in advance of their own lines) forward across Willoughby Run about a mile west of Herr’s Ridge. His two brigades of cavalry were dismounted and waiting behind a fence on McPherson’s Ridge, waiting for the Confederates to come marching down the Chambersburg Pike into their waiting lines. The stiff and sturdy five rail fences on either side of the road would force the Confederates to advance up the road in a tight column. Once under fire, it would take them a while to knock down the fences and spread out in any sort of line of battle to confront Buford’s men. During that whole time, the 2,000 men of Buford’s two brigades that were on the line would be pouring in a rapid fire using their breech-loading rifles.

[Cavalry generally carried carbines and the Sharps or other varieties were much easier to load and fire than the muzzle loading rifles of the infantry. They could put out as much as 3-5 times the rate of fire as a muzzle loaded weapon. The troopers, fighting in Dragoon style (ride to battle, fight dismounted) were reduced numbers because every fourth man, nearly 500 in Buford’s division, would be in the rear holding his own horse and those of three other men.]

It was not long before the vedettes began firing on the advancing Confederate skirmishers. The fight was soon on in earnest. Starting about 8:00 AM, the Confederate artillery under Major Pegram spread out along Herr’s Ridge just above Willoughby Run, and began firing on Buford’s men, and the four guns of Calef’s Battery located on either side of the Chambersburg Pike at the crest of McPherson’s Ridge, and the other two guns of his battery located at the corner of the McPherson barn.

Buford was at the front line, encouraging his men, and directing the defense. Heth sent Archer to his right, and Davis to his left, and ordered them to break through. The cavalry held them off. For the next hour and a half it was a slugfest of almost toe-to-toe combat, sometimes a mere fifteen yards separated the ranks of blue and gray. Several times, during a lull in the action, Buford went to the Seminary and climbed the stairs and ladders into the cupola on the roof, where he would first search the southwest for signs of Reynolds and his First Corps infantry.

About 10:30 Buford spotted the line of blue snaking its way cross country toward the Seminary, and the relief of his men.

Shortly thereafter, Reynolds rode up with his staff. He shouted up to Buford in the cupola, “What’s the matter John?”

Buford responded, “There’s the Devil to pay!”

“Let’s go take a look,” replied Reynolds. Buford began his climb to the ground, and the men then rode the quarter mile to where Gamble’s Brigade was having a tough time holding his ground. Returning to the Seminary after Reynolds was well satisfied at what Buford had mapped out and was carrying out, the two men greeted the First Brigade, First Division, First Corps of the Army of the Potomac, the fabled Iron Brigade. Hastening forward at the double quick, Reynolds directed them into Herbst’s woodlot south of the Chambersburg Pike, and south of the McPherson Farm, where Gamble’s boys were about to be outflanked by Archer’s Brigade.

Archer
Brigadier General James Archer lined his men up in a meadow on the west bank of Willoughby Run, and ordered them forward across the small stream and up into the woodlot belonging to the Herbst Farm. After climbing the steep east bank, the men from Tennessee and Alabama advanced through the woods. Suddenly, there was shouting all along the line, “Yanks!”, and after a minute, the word was passed down the line, “It’s them damned ‘Black Hats’ again!”. They were referring to the distinctive tall black hats worn by the Midwesterners of the Iron Brigade. Firing rippled up and down the line. Somewhere in the woods, a marksman took aim on a prominent target…

Reynolds
John Fulton Reynolds was urging his men on into the woods, moving with them as they began to engage Archer’s men. Suddenly, the shooting flared up as the two units became engaged. Riding along with the ranks of Black Hats, Reynolds shouted out, “Forward! For God’s Sake Forward!" Suddenly he lurched from the saddle, dead as he hit the ground, from a shot that struck him behind his ear. The men of the Iron Brigade pressed forward, driving the Tennessee regiments back through the woods and down the hill to the stream. Still they pressed forward, until the men of Archer’s Brigade fell exhausted in the field where they had formed up. The Iron Brigade members encircled them and took them prisoner, including James Archer.

Dawes
Lieutenant Colonel Rufus Dawes was in temporary command of the Sixth Wisconsin Infantry Regiment. At the moment, the Sixth was being held as the reserve of the Iron Brigade, and was idle along the south side of the Chambersburg pike. Suddenly, the regiment came under fire from somewhere on the north side of the road. A quick check revealed that the enemy had gotten into the sunken roadbed of an under construction railroad about 200 yards north of their position. Ahead of Dawes and the 6th Wisconsin were two regimens from the brigade of Brigadier General Lysander Cutler, the 14th Brooklyn (84th New York Regiment), and the 95th New York.

In concert with each other even though they were from two separate brigades, the three regiments turned to form a line of battle facing north on the south side of the road. They began to advance, climbing the five-rail fence on the south side. As they hovered at the top of the fence, swinging their legs to the other side, men began to fall, hit by fire from the enemy regiments in the railroad cut. They pressed on. Across the road, they climbed the fence, again hovering at the top, this time taking more hits, as the enemy kept up its fire. Once over the fence on the north side of the road, they men took a moment to dress their ranks, and then raced forward to the edge of the cut. In a wild melee, they poured fire down on the men in the railroad cut, most of whom were getting out on the other side and running for the trees three hundred yards to the northwest.

Suddenly it was over. Dawes received the colors of the 2nd Mississippi Infantry Regiment and the swords of six of their officers. When the survivors of the 2nd returned to Herr’s Ridge, they numbered about 18 men. [They were given a fresh set of colors the next day and continued to fight as the 2nd Mississippi.]

For the next two hours, there was little fighting. In the early afternoon that would change. But while the two sides regrouped and caught their breath, the Union still held the ground west and north of town [where the 11th Corps was formed in a line that stretched across the valley north of the town and the college.

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Battle Anniversary 3: "The Most Terrible Struggle of the War", July 1, 1863 - Early Afternoon

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. July 1, 1863 - Afternoon

Howard
Major General Oliver Otis Howard, 4th in his class of 46 cadets who graduated from West Point in 1854, commanded the 11th Corps in the Army of the Potomac. Howard was wounded severely in 1861 while leading a brigade in the Union 2nd Corps at the Battle of Fair Oaks. He lost his right arm there. Howard remained with the army after recuperation, and eventually was placed in command of the 11th Corps, succeeding Major General Franz Sigel. The 11th Corps had a reputation of being poor soldiers, especially in combat. Howard’s appointment was not popular with the men who favored Major General Carl Schurz. Sigel and Schurz were both German immigrants.

[The 11th Corps was comprised of about 50% German immigrants, which immediately made it a target of some scorn as there was a good bit of anti-immigrant sentiment in American Society at the time. Their record was not a particularly bad one, but because of their immigrant-heavy make-up, they were unfairly blamed for many of the negatives that occurred in the Army of the Potomac. Their last battle, at Chancellorsville, did not help. Stonewall Jackson’s incredible night march around the Army of the Potomac’s encampment led them to burst from the woods and right into the 11th Corps Camp while the men were cooking their meals. The whole Corps was routed, and the commanding General, Major General Joseph Hooker grew very timid and ordered a retreat, even after the Army had rallied and driven back Jackson. The resulting blame was attached quite unfairly to the Germans of the 11th Corps. At Gettysburg, they would fare even worse.]

On the arrival of the men of the 11th Corps, Howard posted two of his divisions, one under Brigadier General Francis Channing Barlow, and the other under Major General Carl Schurz, just north of town, and kept the third division, a small one under Brigadier General Adolph von Steinwehr on the north and western side of Cemetery Hill, located on the southeastern corner of town.

Doubleday
Major General Abner Doubleday, 24th in the class of 1842 at West Point, took over command of the 1st Corps on his arrival at the front lines shortly after the death of Major General John Fulton Reynolds. Doubleday proceeded to organize the resistance to the Confederate push as the early afternoon wore on.

Eventually, the remainder of the 1st Corps arrived on the field to join Wadsworth’s 1st Division: the Second Division under Brigadier General John C. Robinson filed to the right of Wadsworth, and the Third Division under Brigadier General Thomas A. Rowley would join on Wadsworth’s left.

Shortly after making these dispositions west of town, Doubleday was shocked to see Confederates coming out of the woods a mile away on his right flank. Suddenly, two brigades of Confederate Infantry begin to advance. The first one, under Colonel Edward A. O'Neal, was quickly repulsed by the Union Brigade under Brigadier General Henry Baxter, on the side of Oak Ridge [Oak Ridge is an extension of Seminary Ridge to the north, leading to Oak Hill, site of the Eternal Peace Light Memorial] leading down to the valley north of town. Within minutes, Baxter's brigade is forced to change fronts and turned toward the second Confederate brigade, Commanded by Brigadier General Alfred Iverson, opening fire on them in the middle of a field, whereupon most of them surrendered, and were soon gathered up as prisoners. It was the last Union victory of the day.

Two more brigades issued forth from the woods on the Union 1st Corps right, and the line begins to collapse. Additional pressure from Heth’s Division pushes the center and left of the Union 1st Corps back among the buildings of the Lutheran Seminary on Seminary Ridge, where a short, but sharp fight ensues.

Barlow
Brigadier General Francis Channing Barlow stood on the small knoll just north of the Alms House complex, and turned to the west where Doles’ four regiments of Georgians held the focus of nearly everyone in the 11th Corps. Barlow’s brigade was the extreme right flank of the 11th Corps, and was very exposed in its advanced position. It was while watching Doles do his cat-and-mouse moves that Barlow heard a sound that he was waiting for, but it was coming from the wrong direction. He had been watching Doles since the brigade came down off Oak Hill, to the right of the end of the Union 1st Corps line. He had watched while a second brigade had advanced across the slope of the ridge from right to left in an assault on the right end of the 1st Corps line. Now he suddenly turned to his right and saw the cannon rounds landing around his position. At the edge of the woods 200 yards north of his position, Barlow could make out several thousand Confederate soldiers, bayonets fixed, and starting to move right at him.

Within minutes, the right flank of the 11th Corps, was quickly overrun.

Gettysburg
Thousands of Union troops from the retreating 11th Corps went tearing south through the streets of Gettysburg, and thousands more were streaking east from Seminary Ridge as the 1st Corps line collapsed. The Confederates were in hot pursuit, but they were flagged from the long march and hard fighting. Hundreds of Union troops were gathered up as prisoners, and others went into hiding in the basements and attics of Gettysburg. One union general from the 11th Corps, Alexander Schimmelfennig, hid out in the back yard of a house between the pig sty and the swill barrels, for three days.

Cemetery Hill
Those who made it to Cemetery Hill were greeted by officers who directed them to their new positions, “1st Corps to the left, 11th Corps go to hell!” The 11th Corps line had held for a very short time before being overrun.Lutheran Theological SeminaryGeneral Robert E. Lee stood at the Lutheran Seminary and gazed across the low ground where the town of Gettysburg was situated at the high ground on the other side of the town. Occasionally, a Union artillery shell would come whizzing overhead. It angered the men of A. P. Hill’s Third Corps, because they were the very same artillery batteries that they had just chased off the ridge where they were now standing.

Except for some light skirmishing and some artillery shelling, the fight was over for the day. Lee and his men were exuberant, having taken on two Union corps, and dispatched them, though without a tough, day-long fight.

But the Union troops had achieved their tactical objective: to slow the advance of the Army of Northern Virginia in order to allow the rest of the Army of the Potomac to arrive in the area and occupy Culps Hill, Cemetery Hill, and Cemetery Ridge, all high ground southeast of town.

Northern newspapers would later announce this to be "The Most Terrible Struggle of the War.”

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Battle Anniversary 4: "He seemed So Full of Hope", July 2, 1863 - Afternoon

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. July 2, 1863. Morning and Afternoon.

Hood
Major General John Bell Hood, West Point class of 1853, 44th in his class of 52, was one of the true hard fighters of the war. Admired by all, he was an excellent leader, and one of the best division commanders in the Army of Northern Virginia.

About 5 AM on the morning of July 2 he stood near the Seminary observing General Robert E. Lee, who was anxiously awaiting the return of his Chief Topographical Engineer from the morning scouting mission Lee had ordered earlier. Hood remembered later, “He seemed full of hope, yet at times, buried in deep thought.”

Lee
During the 9 o’clock morning officer’s call, General Robert E. Lee’s Chief Topographical Engineer, Captain Samuel R. Johnston, had reported being on the hill just south of Cemetery Ridge, called Little Round Top, and had seen no sign of the enemy as of approximately 5:30 AM. He also reported being held up coming back by Union cavalry patrols on the Emmitsburg Road.

Lee quickly decided to go with the plan he had conceived the night before, an attack upon the right flank of the Army of the Potomac. He called Lieutenant Generals Longstreet and Hill to him, and ordered them to prepare for such an assault, with Longstreet sending two of his divisions as the main attack force. Lee’s plan was to have Longstreet move south to a position opposite the two elevations to the south of Cemetery Ridge, now known as Big and Little Round Top.

[The terrain at Gettysburg is such that two ridges proceed south from the south edge of town, one on the west side, Seminary Ridge, now in the hands of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, and one on the east side, Cemetery Ridge, now manned by the Union Army of the Potomac. Seminary Ridge actually stretched to the north just west of town, as far as the Lutheran Theological Seminary, scene of most of the previous day’s fighting. There it joined Oak Ridge, continuing north to Oak Hill, on which the decisive Confederate forces had emerged from the woods the previous day. Southward, Seminary Ridge ended and Warfield Ridge, named for the local Black family that had a blacksmith shop and home on the ridge, angled eastward as it stretched to the south. Seminary Ridge was about a mile from Cemetery Ridge at its farthest point. Cemetery Ridge was a higher elevation, meaning a walk from Seminary Ridge to Cemetery Ridge would generally be uphill all the way. At the southern end of Cemetery Ridge, was a hill with a boulder strewn crest, called little Round Top. On its south side was a connection with an even higher hill, Big Round Top, the connection being a saddle of ground perhaps fifty yards across at the crest. At the north end of Cemetery Ridge the ridge climbed directly to Cemetery Hill, located at the southeast corner of the town, so named because of the Evergreen Cemetery on its eastern flank. On the southern end of East Cemetery Hill was a knoll (Stevens’ Knoll as it is now known), connecting it to Culp’s Hill. The Union line extended from its right, on the south slope of Culp’s Hill, around the knoll and north along the east side of Cemetery Hill, which was heavy with artillery, and around to the western slope of Cemetery Hill where it joined with Cemetery Ridge. At that location was a large grove of trees known as Ziegler’s Grove. Finally, between the two ridges south of town running roughly halfway in between was the Emmitsburg Road, which angled closer to Cemetery Ridge as it entered the town. Between the road and Cemetery Ridge was a small stream that ran down from a gulch below the surrounding ground, where it bubbled up from the ground. It was called Plum Run, and it flowed south in the flat ground all the way past the Round Tops. As it flowed past the Round Tops, it entered a large field of boulders before making its way farther south, past a farm owned by the Slyder Family. As it entered this boulder field, it ran in a narrow defile between the foot of Big Round Top (the southernmost of the elevations, and the southern end of a 400 yard long low ridge called Houck’s Ridge. The jumble of boulders at that southern end of Houck’s Ridge would become known as Devil’s Den.]

Lee believed the Union left flank was located about 600 yards south of Ziegler’s Grove along Cemetery Ridge, making it about 1,000 yards north of Little Round Top. He ordered Longstreet to move his two divisions south behind Seminary Ridge and bringing them up to the crest of Warfield Ridge, then forward to form an oblique across the Emmitsburg Road. He wished to have the division of Major General Lafayette McLaws form with his right angled across the road about a third of the way, and the Division of Major General John Bell Hood to follow by about 500 yards, with his force angled across the road about two thirds of the way. They would march straight ahead on the oblique angle using the road as their guide, the right flanks of their divisions moving ever closer to Cemetery Ridge. They would strike the Union left flank where Lee Believed it to be, in a staggered formation, with the left of McLaws’ lead division engaging at Ziegler’s Grove, and with Hood poised to have his right come in below the end of the Union line to envelope that flank and “roll it up” from south to north. Lee then ordered Lieutenant General Ambrose Powell Hill to have his division commanded by Major General Richard H. Anderson, advance by brigades under Brigadier Generals Cadmus Wilcox (Alabama), Ambrose R. Wright (Georgia), Carnot Posey (Mississippi), William “Fighting Billy” Mahone (Virginia), and Col. David Lang, commanding Perry’s Florida Brigade. They were to march forward and align on the same oblique angle as McLaws and Hood were on, and fill in “en echelon” just after Hood passed them. They would envelope the north end of the Cemetery Hill. The objective was to seize Cemetery Hill.

With that order given, Lee rode off to meet with Lieutenant General Richard Ewell, Commander of the Second Corps, Army of Northern Virginia, whose headquarters were located on the other side of town.

Longstreet
Lieutenant General James Longstreet, 54th out of 56 in his West Point class of 1842, was very upset. He was upset with his superior, General Robert E. Lee. Longstreet was considered to be Lee’s most capable commander, and part of the early-war team of two with Lieutenant General Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson. Jackson, the hammer to Longstreet’s anvil on the battlefield, had been killed by friendly fire in May at the Battle of Chancellorsville, necessitating a reorganization of the Army. Lee re-arranged the brigades and divisions from two corps into three, giving command of the Second Corps to Richard Ewell, and the Third Corps to Ambrose Powell Hill. At Gettysburg, both men were untested in their roles as corps commanders. Lee was forced to rely upon them and based on what he had seen so far, Longstreet was not happy. Yesterday’s debacle west of the Seminary was a costly one, and one that was full of blunders. Heth should not have brought on the general engagement, that cost him the capture of General Archer and most of his brigade, and the near capture of General Davis and part of his brigade, both in morning engagements in which they were handily repulsed by the Union Infantry of the 1st Corps under Reynolds. A. P. Hill had done little more than point the way to Gettysburg for the advancing men of his Third Corps. He had done no ‘generalling” yesterday. Further, Major General Richard Ewell had exercised little control over his divisional commanders, allowing Major General Robert Rodes, usually a steady officer, to launch attacks piecemeal against the right flank of the Union First Corps, attacks that cost him part of Iverson’s Brigade, and part of O’Neal’s Brigade, when both those officers failed to lead their men. Further, Rodes had done no scouting. Later, Ewell had passed up an opportunity to take Culp’s Hill, which would have forced a Union withdrawal from Gettysburg.

The previous evening Longstreet and Lee had argued loudly about the conduct of operations. Longstreet’s scouts had reported that there was little Union presence behind the two Round Tops, and he argued that Lee should simply go around Meade’s army and proceed toward Baltimore and Washington, and pick a spot to invite an attack. Or, he argued, pull back to South Mountain and dig in, inviting Meade to attack him…in other words, fight a defensive battle, which is more advantageous that offering your troops up in costly attacks on an entrenched enemy. Maybe Lee was fooled into thinking he had won a great victory the previous day, but Longstreet was not. Maybe Lee thought all he had to do was administer the coup de grace to what was left of the Army of the Potomac after yesterday’s battles, but whatever the explanation, nothing Longstreet said was enough to convince Lee that his plan to attack Meade’s army on the heights across the way was a bad move.

Now, Longstreet was getting pressure from his two division commanders that were up with the Army, Hood and McLaws, that the way around the Union left was still open and relatively unopposed. (Major General George Pickett’s Division was still on the other side of South Mountain, 20 miles away. Longstreet had sent for him, but they were a day away.)

It was to no avail. He had to make the attack, even while knowing how much it would cost him, the army, and the Confederacy. Longstreet was a good soldier, and he reluctantly did his duty as ordered.

The march south was a minor catastrophe. The two divisions marched two miles west along the Hagerstown (Fairfield) Pike to Blackhorse Tavern, and then south along Blackhorse Tavern Road. At one point it was realized they could be seen from the Union Signal Station on Little Round Top. So the column was counter marched by turning the head and marching it back past the rest of the column, and on returning to Black Horse Tavern, turning east toward town. [Indeed, the Union observers there saw the movement and reported that the retreat of Lee’s army had begun.]

A mile back the Hagerstown Pike was Willoughby Run Road, and Hood’s Division turned onto it and headed south. Just east of that by 200 yards was the run itself, and McLaws men turned south along the stream. By 4:30 both Divisions were in position. But there was a problem.
Sickles
Major General Daniel Sickles, one of President Abraham Lincoln’s political appointments (Sickles was a Democratic Congressman from New York) who had fared well as a leader of men. This day, however, his leadership would not fall into question, but his judgement would. Sickles was supposed to form his corps anchored on a large knoll just north of Little Round Top, and join his right with the left of the Union 2nd Corps (under Major General Winfield Scott Hancock) north along Cemetery Ridge.

Instead, he moved his two divisions almost a mile forward to the Emmitsburg Road. First Division, under command of Major General David Birney left a brigade under Brigadier General J. H. Hobart Ward on top of the rocks of Devil’s Den and then posting Brigadier General Charles K. Graham’s Brigade with its left in the Peach Orchard at the intersection of Emmitsburg Road and the Wheatfield Lane, and stretching up the Emmitsburg Road north toward town. In between those two brigades was a half-mile stretch of open ground. Sickles tried to cover the gap with the few artillery pieces he had left. He kept his Third Brigade in reserve north of Wheatfield Road across from the Wheatfield which gave the road its name. It was not nearly enough.

He then placed his other division, under command of Brigadier General Andrew A. Humphreys on the right of Graham’s Brigade, and further north towards town. They reached up as far as the farm of Nicholas Codori.

McLaws
Leading his Division up the west slope of Warfield Ridge along Millerstown Road (which became the Wheatfield Lane on the east side of Emmitsburg Road), Major General Lafayette McLaws was concerned. Rumors of Union troops in advanced positions had him worried he would not be able to form his line as General Lee had insisted. As he rode forward he became alarmed, uttering an oath in dismay over the sight that greeted him: the Peach Orchard at the intersection was bristling with cannons and infantry. The line of blue stretched up along the Emmitsburg Road for nearly a quarter mile. He would be unable to form his men across the road at an oblique angle as General Lee had ordered. So, he began issuing orders to form a line across the Millerstown Road, with Brigadier General William Barksdale’s Mississippi Brigade on the left, and then Brigadier General William Wofford’s Georgia Brigade. On the south side of the Millerstown Road he positioned Brigadier General Joseph Kershaw’s South Carolina Brigade, and on the right, the Georgia Brigade of Brigadier General Paul Semmes, brother of Confederate Naval Captain Raphael Semmes, Captain of the CSS Alabama. McLaws also ordered the artillery battalion under Colonel H. C. Cabell forward into the fields in front of the Brigade line, and ordered them to open fire on the enemy as soon as possible.

Hood
Major General Hood led his division cross country until he arrived at the top of Warfield Ridge approximately a half mile south of McLaws. He formed his brigades two in front, and two behind, staggered en echelon. And he proceeded to wait. While he was waiting he watched as McLaws spread his men in line of battle parallel to the Emmitsburg Road. He looked north along the road and saw the Peach Orchard with the guns arrayed there. He now understood that his men would not be proceeding up the Emmitsburg Road, but instead would turn in from it, and begin an assault that would take his right flank just west of the two Round Tops. He waited.

Johnson
Major General Edward “Allegheny” Johnson, West Point class of 1838, where he was graduated 32nd in his class of 45, was an old campaigner. He was a veteran of the Seminole Wars, and the Mexican War. It is understandable that this very capable officer would advance rather quickly in rank and command a Division.

Earlier in the day, Robert E. Lee and Richard S. Ewell had ridden to Johnson’s headquarters at the Daniel Lady Farm on the east slope of Benner’s Hill, along the Hanover Road. There, Johnson had received orders to advance about a mile at 4:30 PM, and on hearing the firing of Longstreet’s men as they made their assault, Johnson was to order his brigades forward across Rock Creek and assault the Union positions on Culp’s Hill's eastern flank. In essence, he was to “demonstrate” an assault, and if there was any initial success, press the assault. At 4:30 he moved forward. But he was worried. His largest brigade, the fabled Stonewall Brigade once commanded by Stonewall Jackson, and later by A. P. Hill, and now commanded by Brigadier General James A. Walker, had been kept busy all day long by a pesky but serious fight with dismounted Union cavalry. Men of the 2nd Virginia Infantry, under the command of Colonel John Quincy Adams Nadenbousch, skirmished all day with elements of the 10th New York Cavalry and the 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry on the slope of Brinkerhoff’s Ridge. The ridge was the next elevation east of Benner’s Hill over which the Hanover Pike ran. Walker’s Brigade was the left flank of the Army of Northern Virginia. The flank had to be protected at all costs, so nuisance that it was, Walker’s Brigade had to remain behind to protect it.

Custer
Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer could sense the enemy when they drew near. It was an innate ability to know in advance not only where the enemy was, but their avenue of approach. It was uncanny. Riding through Hunterstown, a small village about five miles northwest of Gettysburg, Custer and Farnsworth were searching for Confederate Cavalry. Custer turned his men south on the Hunterstown Road leading back to Gettysburg. He found his way blocked by skirmishers from Major General Wade Hampton’s Cavalry Brigade, specifically, Cobb’s Legion from Georgia. At the Felty Farm, perhaps a half-mile south of Hunterstown, Custer set his trap. He placed marksmen in the barn, and others across the road. His artillery was perhaps 300 yards to the rear in the edge of some woods on a ridge overlooking the farm. Custer then took his men down the road about a half mile until they spotted Cobb’s main body. The daring Custer led a charge right at them, losing his horse shot out from under him, and getting another, and at the last minute, wheeling around to dash back the way he came. His men were right behind him. So was Cobb’s Legion. Back towards Hunterstown Custer and his men raced, followed closely by the Georgia Troopers. As the last of Custer’s men cleared the Felty Farm, the troopers in the barn and across the road opened up a murderous fire on Cobb’s men. So did the artillery. Realizing the trap he had ridden into, Cobb wheeled his column around and fled south, leaving more than a few bodies behind.

It was a portent of what was yet to come on this day.

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Battle Anniversary 5: "My God! Are These All The Troops We Have here?" July 2, 1863 - Early Evening

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, July 2, 1863. Evening.

Meade/Sickles
Major General George Meade had ridden south to check on the disposition of Sickles troops. Major General Daniel Sickles had moved his troops almost a mile out in front of the Union lines, and Meade was there to get him moved back. He was patiently explaining to Sickles the folly of his move when Sickles offered to move his two Divisions back to Cemetery Ridge. Suddenly, artillery opened up from Warfield Ridge, and Meade was forced to accept the situation. He said to Sickles, “I wish to God you could, but the enemy won’t let you.”

Graham
In the late afternoon of July 2nd, 1863, the 114th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment, of Brigadier General Charles K. Graham’s 1st Brigade, 1st Division (under Brigadier General David B. Birney) was in a line of battle in front of the Wentz House, at the intersection of Wheatfield Lane and the Emmitsburg Road. Collis’ Zouaves, as the 114th was known, was enduring a savage shelling by Confederate artillery located only a few hundred yards to the west on Warfield Ridge. For two hours they lay there under the barrage.

To their left, across the Wheatfield Lane, the 68th Pennsylvania stood in line of battle among the trees of the Peach Orchard, their right joined to the Zouaves left, in the road. To the right of the Zouaves, stood the 57th and 105th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiments, all forming a line north along the east side of the Emmitsburg Road. Behind them, down the slope toward the Trostle Farm, was Clark’s Battery B, First New Jersey Light Artillery, supported by the 141st Pennsylvania Infantry. Bucklyn’s Battery E, First Rhode Island Light Artillery (Randolph’s Battery) was placed at the edge of the Emmitsburg Road in front of the infantry, where the battery immediately engaged Confederate artillery on Warfield Ridge.

McLaws
Major General Lafayette McLaws sent his four brigades forward in a staggered formation from right to left. Semmes, Kershaw, Wofford, Barksdale. Kershaw went straight across, reaching the Emmitsburg Road south of the Peach Orchard, and at the end of the lane entering the Rose Farm. Two of Kershaw’s regiments went south of the farm, one, with Kershaw, went through the farm yard, and two went north of the farm, coming under fire from the 68th Pennsylvania and the artillery from the Peach Orchard. Those two regiments then turned to the north and assaulted the artillery located along the Wheatfield Road east of the Peach Orchard. In one of the incidents of the “fog of war”, Kershaw sent a messenger to his two regiments south of the farm to hurry into the woods belonging to the Rose farm. Instead, the messenger went to the two regiments north of the farm and repeated the order from Kershaw. They immediately stopped their assault, just at the point where they had driven the gunners off their guns, and wheeled to the right to continue their advance into the woods west of the Wheatfield. The Union gunners re-manned their guns and took a heavy toll on the South Carolina regiments south of the Rose farm – the ones Kershaw intended to hurry forward into the woods for protection.

Graham
At about 5 PM, the enemy began his advance. Coming at them was the storied Mississippi brigade of Brigadier General William Barksdale, a white-haired man who, once engaged in combat, became a figure of fury, wading into the enemy with everything he had. Such abandon would cost him his life later in the day.

In response, the Zouaves moved forward across the Emmitsburg Road. They entered the farm yard of John and Mary Sherfy. Firing from between the house and the barn, the Zouaves repeatedly fired into the advancing Mississippians, who were also firing, advancing, firing, and advancing. Eventually, the weight of numbers began to tell. The Union line fell back east of the Emmitsburg Road and reformed. Barksdale maneuvered his large regiments to overlap and flank the men of Graham’s Brigade, concentrating on the location where the Zouaves and the 68th met.

There was nothing to do but fall back. In a magnificently executed fighting withdrawal, the 114th, in small groups, fired, and withdrew, first north along the Emmitsburg Road, and then east toward Cemetery Ridge, where General Hancock had ordered forward Willard’s New York brigade to cover the withdrawal. By this method, the surviving Zouaves finally reformed their line, and were able to come off the field with their colors. They were badly mauled. During their withdrawal, many of their wounded were left lying in the fields and the road. Confederates carried many of them to the Sherfy House and barn. Later, however, during the continued artillery shelling, both buildings were burned to the ground. The remains of those who perished in the fires, were surrounded by those who perished in the intense fighting around those buildings. About 100 of the Zouaves had been killed. Many more were taken prisoner by the rapidly advancing Confederates. However, they gave, perhaps, better even than they took. One Mississippi private from the 17th Mississippi, the unit that assaulted the junction of the 67th and 114th Pennsylvania on Wheatfield Lane, reported 223 men of his regiment killed or wounded, 29 in his own company.

5th New Jersey
The 221 men (206 enlisted, 15 officers) of the 5th New Jersey Infantry were stretched out on an angle in front of the rest of Humphreys’ Division stretched north along the Emmitsburg Road from Graham’s Brigade. The New Jersey troops were on perhaps the most hazardous duty of the civil war, skirmishers. Their left was nearly to the Sherfy farm houses, while their right was farther north at the Spangler farm. The regiment was spread pretty thin. Sometime before 5 PM they came under heavy fire from Confederate Artillery. Stationed as they were in the open fields, they had no choice but to hug the ground. There was nothing to hide behind. And after nearly an hour, the artillery eased. As the men stood up they saw a horrific sight: Barksdale’s Mississippi Brigade had begun to move forward. While the right of Barksdale’s Brigade struck Collis’ Zouaves at the Sherfy Farm, Barksdale’s left struck the thin New Jersey line. All of Humphreys’ line began to fall back and as they did so, so did Graham’s Brigade. The withdrawal was not an orderly one. For the most part, the men made for the promise of safety on Cemetery Ridge. At muster that evening, the 5th New Jersey counted 99 of their 221 as killed, wounded or captured.

Hood
Major General John Bell Hood had a dilemma. All day he had been nagging at Longstreet to allow him to swing to the right and go around the south side of Big Round Top to surprise the Union reserves and supply wagon trains parked behind the hill. All day long Longstreet had replied that he had already had that discussion with General Lee and there was nothing to do but to get moving as ordered.

But if he did that, he would march right into the right flank of McLaws’ Division, which had abandoned any attempt to align and proceed as Lee had ordered, moving instead straight ahead and across the Emmitsburg Road.

Hood had no choice. He had to move, so he angled to the right, placing his right regiment on a track that would take it up and over Big Round Top. The rest of Law’s Brigade of Alabamans would swing across the western slope of the hill. Robertson’s Texans and the Arkansas troops would proceed up the low ground where Plum Run flowed. His left would move through the Slyder and Bushman Farms, and angle in toward the lower part of Houck’s Ridge. He really had nowhere else to go, and he had to support McLaws.HancockFrom mid-afternoon on Major General Winfield Scott Hancock, 15th of 25 in his West Point class of 1844, was working hard, riding up and down his lines, shifting men from his 2nd Corps to the Wheatfield to help plug the gaping hole Sickles left in his line, and now Hancock had to deal with the hasty retreat of Humphreys and Graham’s men. He was forced to shift men from 5th Corps there as well. Now came news that General Sickles was down, losing his leg. Major General David Birney would succeed him as 3rd Corps Commander. Hancock was concerned that there simply would not be enough manpower to stop the two large divisions Longstreet had sent his way. He ordered a brigade of New Yorkers under Colonel George Willard forward to set up a line that would allow the fleeing men of Third Corps to pass through and then slow the advance of the Mississippi and Georgia brigades of Barksdale and Wofford. It worked.

Wilcox
Realizing that Longstreet’s men would not be coming past their position, Brigadier General Cadmus M. Wilcox, 54th out of 59 in the West Point class of 1846, ordered his Alabama Brigade forward from their position on the south end of Seminary Ridge. Along side of him was Perry’s Florida Brigade, under the command of Colonel David Lang. The two brigades marched forward up the rise to Emmitsburg Road in time to watch the collapse of Humphrey’s line as Barksdale sliced through one end and the other saw Wilcox coming. As the two brigades crested the higher ground, they began a slow, gradual descent into the defile where Plum Run begins. It was deep enough to hide both brigades from view.

Colvill
Colonel William Colvill, Jr. commanded what was left of the 1st Minnesota Regiment. There were approximately 330 men left of the regiment, although about 15% were absent on different assignments. But at this hour, they were literally all that was standing between Cadmus Wilcox and the Taneytown Road just east of Cemetery Ridge. Seeing their advance, Major General Hancock rode quickly to the Minnesotans, and seeing their small number, exclaimed, “My God! Are these all the troops we have here?!”

Colonel Colvill replied, “Yes sir!”

Hancock then asked if the Colonel, “Do you see those colors?”, pointing to the advancing brigades of Wilcox and Lang.

Again the Colonel responded, “Yes sir!”

“Well, take them!” Hancock yelled over his shoulder as he spurred his horse away.

Colvill formed his men up and advanced them, 262 in number. They marched forward to the defile in which Wilcox and Perry paused their troops. As they advanced up the eastern slope, they came almost face to face with the 1st Minnesota. Colvill gave the order to fire. Artillery fired from behind the Minnesotans and to their left as Colonel Freeman McGilvery’s artillery Battalion fired into the Alabama and Florida Troops. Soon the fighting was hand-to-hand, and the Minnesotans were surrounded. McGilvery could no longer fire into the Confederates for fear of hitting the Minnesotans. Wilcox soon had enough of this fight and ordered his men, and those of Colonel Lang to withdraw. The surviving Minnesotans slowly walked back to Cemetery Ridge, carrying as many of their wounded as they could. They would fetch the rest, and the dead later. So many officers killed and wounded, including the gallant Colonel Colvill, shot through the shoulder and the foot [he would spend almost six months recuperating at the home of the Pierce family on Baltimore Street in Gettysburg]. Command devolved all the way down to Captain Henry. C. Coates, who wrote in his after action report, “Our loss of so many brave men is heartrending, and will carry mourning into all parts of the state. But they have fallen in a holy cause, and their memory will not soon perish. Our loss is 4 commissioned officers and 47 men killed; 13 officers and 162 men wounded, and 6 men missing, - total 232…”. Thirty men answered the roll call that evening.

Webb
The next brigade north of Lang and Wilcox was the Georgians of Ambrose Wright. They made their way unsupported across the fields from Seminary Ridge to the Emmitsburg Road and across, just above the Codori farm. They kept right on going, routing the skirmish line posted along the road, and rolling right over and capturing an artillery battery. As they approached the crest of Cemetery Ridge, merely three hundred yards from Taneytown Road, they were met by the Pennsylvania Brigade of Brigadier General Alexander Webb, 13th of 34 in his West Point class of 1855. The Pennsylvanians pushed the spent Georgians back over the crest of Cemetery Ridge and down the hill to Emmitsburg Road, retaking the artillery pieces the Georgians had captured on their advance. Webb halted his brigade on the west side of the road so they could take pot shots at the retreating Georgians.

Wright
Brigadier General Ambrose Wright was fit to be tied. His men had just fought their way across a mile of open ground and across Cemetery Ridge only to be driven all the way back by a brigade of Pennsylvanians. If he had had any support on either side, on his right from Wilcox and Lang, and on his left from Posey and Mahone, they’d be rolling up the flank of the Union troops on Cemetery Ridge right now, and maybe even digging in on Cemetery Hill! But Wilcox and Lang had been repulsed by a single regiment, and Posey got turned around in the peach orchard of the Bliss Farm! Even worse, “Fighting Billy” Mahone apparently didn’t have any “Fighting” in him this day – he never moved at all!

Hood
Early in the fight Major General John Bell Hood would be wounded severely, losing most of the use of his left arm. [It was the first of the catastrophic wounds the courageous fighter would receive in his career: he would lose his right leg while fighting at the Battle of Chickamauga just two months after Gettysburg. Late in the war he had to be strapped into his saddle, and the pain-killing drug of laudanum affected his judgement. He ordered a suicidal assault on the scale of Pickett’s Charge at the Battle of Franklin, and wound up without an army to command. It was not the John Bell Hood who fought so courageously at Gettysburg.].

Law
Brigadier General Evander M. Law was an 1856 graduate of the South Carolina Military Academy, and was a teacher in Alabama before the war, helping to establish a Military High School in Tuskegee. He was commanding a brigade of Alabama troops when General Hood went down. Law was unaware that he was now in Command of Hood’s Division. It was just as well, as he had his hands full with his own brigade.

Five regiments of Alabama troops were spread from Plum Run east to the summit of Big Round Top. The regiment on the crest of the high hill was the 15th Alabama commanded by Colonel William C. Oates. Stretching downward to the west, the Alabama line was broken by the presence of the 4th and 5th Texas Infantry Regiments from Brigadier General Jerome Robertson’s Brigade. They were separated from the remainder of that brigade by two of Law’s Alabama Regiments coming up the Plum Run gorge. The rest of Robertson’s men were assaulting Graham’s Brigade on the west side of Houck’s Ridge.

While the two Texas Brigades were successful in getting up into the position recently vacated by the 16th Michigan on Little Round Top, now other units were as successful.

The Alabama men from the 15th Infantry under Oates ran into the stubborn Down Easters in the 20th Maine, led by Lieutenant Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. Shocked by a bayonet charge as they were preparing to withdraw back over Big Round Top, many of the 15th fell into the hands of the 20th Maine.

Colonel A. Van Horne Ellis commanded the 124th New York Infantry Regiment, raised in Orange County, New York, and fondly referred to by Colonel Ellis as “my Orange Blossoms”. They were facing west on the south end of Houck’s Ridge, with the lower west slope of Big Round Top in ther rear across the jumble of rocks called Devil’s Den, and the small brook called Plum Run. Over their right shoulders loomed the rocky west face of Little Round Top, where the 5th United States Light Artillery, Battery D, commanded by Lieutenant Charles Hazlett was booming away at the approaching enemy, and at the Confederate troops in the Wheatfield two hundred yards through the woods on the right. It was a comforting sound. On the left of the 124th were four guns of the Captain James E. Smith’s 4th New York Light Artillery, with the other section of two guns on the floor of the Plum Run Valley firing downstream. Ellis had his men manning the rock wall which was the base of a triangular shaped field, with the base at the top of the field and the point at the bottom where a small rise was located. Suddenly, the 1st Texas Infantry appeared on the rise at the bottom of the field and proceeded to march up the hill toward the “Orange Blossoms”. About half way up the fire of the New Yorkers stopped the Texans who did an about face, and proceeded to march back down toward the bottom.

Major Cromwell, one of the regiment’s officers, rode to Colonel Ellis, exclaiming, “We have them on the run, Colonel, let’s go get ‘em!”. Cromwell then jumped his horse over the wall, and called for his men to join him. Ellis jumped his horse over the wall as well. The regiment quickly formed a line inside the wall and started to advance down the hill after the Texans.

The Texans were just finishing reloading on the march. They did another about face, and because they were cramped on both sides, bunched up in the middle. They presented arms and fired into the New Yorkers. The concentrated fire hit the regiment like a wide steel bar, cutting men in half on a broad front, decimating the regiment. Ellis and Cromwell were among the dead. The regiment was shattered, the life driven from it. They gathered their dead and wounded, and withdrew from the battle.

The first unit across the Wheatfield was the Reserve Brigade of Colonel P. Regis de Trobriand, of Birney’s Division. They went forward to stop Kershaw’s men from entering the field from the western side by way of the Rose Woods. What they were not aware of was the presence of Brigadier General G. T. Anderson’s Brigade, behind a low stone wall hidden in the edge of the woods at the southwest corner of the Wheatfield. De Trobriand’s regiments were marching through the waist-high wheat when Anderson’s men opened on them with a fearful fire.

Over the next two hours, all the brigades sent by Hancock from his 2nd Corps, the entire 1st Division of Brigadier General John C. Caldwell went through that Wheatfield. The brigades of Colonels Edward Cross, Patrick Kelly, John Brooke, and Brigadier General Samuel Zook were spent on those fields.

Some estimates of the fighting in the Wheatfield describe it as being “in the whirlwind”, and the casualties were as high, if not higher than those of the Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble assault of the next day – somewhere over seven thousand men went down there.

Finally, Brigadier General Samuel Wiley Crawford, commanding the two brigades of the Pennsylvania Reserves Division swept down the northwest face of Little Round Top, and pushed across Plum Run, forcing the exhausted Confederates of Kershaw’s and Wofford’s brigades back over the north end of Houck’s Ridge, through the tree line on the east side of the Wheatfield, and across into the trees on the west side of the field. From then on, an uneasy truce existed.

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