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Gettysburg Magazine, Number 52, January 2015, pp. 2-24 (Article)

3XEOLVKHGE\8QLYHUVLW\RI1HEUDVND3UHVV DOI: 10.1353/get.2015.0008

For additional information about this article http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/get/summary/v052/52.priest.html

Accessed 14 Oct 2015 15:31 GMT A Most Desperate Hour: 6:45 p.m.– 7:45 p.m. July 2, 1863 Th e Federal Counterattack along the Emmitsburg Road

John Michael Priest

Anyone who goes to Gettysburg knows the story Wright’s Georgians fi nished the formation farther of the First Minnesota and its fatal charge against to the north. Barksdale’s brigade late in the day on July 2, 1863. A tenuous Federal line, stretching from the Celebrated in a terrifi c painting by the renowned George Weikert orchard to the Copse of Trees, Don Troiani and perpetually commemorated by a prepared for the onslaught. Maj. Freeman McGil- magnifi cent monument along southern Hancock very formed an artillery line on the ridge imme- Avenue, the story recalls the raw courage and selfl ess diately north of George Weikert’s orchard, its left devotion to duty of a small western regiment as it fl ank anchored on the woods west of the house. Th e charged to its demise against a much larger Confed- badly mauled Battery B, First New Jersey, had the erate force. Th e First Minnesota rightfully deserves left , with the Sixth Maine and the battered Battery its accolades and as such has become part of the my- E, Fift h Massachusetts, continuing it to the right. thology of the most studied battle in history. Th e 262- man First Minnesota was lying down to Th e regiment, however, did not act alone on that the right of the Fift h Massachusetts with Battery C, fateful day. It participated in a much larger coun- Fourth U.S., on its right. A large gap of about three terattack, which stretched from the Trostle farm hundred yards separated the battery’s right from north to the Codori farm and the infamous Copse the Nineteenth Maine. Another 350 yards separated of Trees. Again the First Minnesota deserves its the New Englanders from the left of Col. Norman J. place in history, but so do the other regiments in Hall’s brigade near the Copse of Trees. Th e Sixty- the Army of the Potomac that fought that day. Th is Ninth Pennsylvania (Brig. Gen. Alexander Webb’s is their story. brigade) fi nished the infantry’s front. Batteries A from the Fourth U.S. and the First Rhode Island Situation between 6:30 p.m.– 7:00 p.m. secured the right of the Second Corps line. Battery By 6:30 p.m. Maj. Gen. Daniel E. Sickles had B, First Rhode Island Artillery, was deployed in the been taken from the fi eld seriously wounded. fi eld about one hundred yards to the front of the Th e Wheatfi eld, the Peach Orchard, and the Em- Sixty- Ninth Pennsylvania when Wright’s brigade mitsburg Road fell to the Confederates. Th e Th ird overran the Codori buildings. Corps, in disarray, had fallen back toward Cem- Th e narrative begins from here. etery Ridge and the Trostle farmhouse. While the Twenty- First Mississippi closed in on the Ninth On the Slope East of the Brien Orchard Massachusetts Artillery at Trostle’s, the rest of Brig. Hancock, now commanding the Th ird Corps by Gen. ’s and Cadmus Wilcox’s Maj. Gen. George G. Meade’s authority, clattered mixed brigades attempted to regroup on the east onto northern Seminary Ridge, desperately looking side of the Emmitsburg Road to the Rodgers’ house. for regiments to shore up the disintegrating Th ird Col. ’s Brigade continued the at- Corps position to the south. He locked his eyes on tack farther to the north and Brig. Gen. Ambrose Brig. Gen. and Col. George L. Wil-

2 Gettysburg Magazine, no. 52 The Klingle farm to the Codori farm. The Confederates overrun the Emmitsburg Road, 6:30 p.m.– 7:00 p.m., July 2, 1863. Reproduced from Stand to It and Give Them Hell: Gettysburg as the Soldiers Experienced it from to , July 2, 1863 (Savas Beatie, 2014) by permission of the publisher. A Most Desperate Hour 3 lard, both mounted behind Willard’s regiments, and without any hesitation dispatched his adjutant general, Lt. Col. Orson H. Hart, with specifi c orders to commit them to action. Colonel Hart breathless- ly interrupted the two offi cers. Speaking directly to Hays, he blurted, “General Hancock sends you his compliments and,” pointing south, “wishes you to send one of your best brigades over there.” Abrupt- ly turning toward Willard, Hays snapped, “Take your brigade over there and knock the Hell out of the Rebs.”1 Willard spurred over to his regiments and yelled them to their feet. “Fix Bayonets!” Steel clinked coldly on steel. “Shoulder arms! Left face; forward march.” Swinging into columns of division, the regiments marched steadily south on two company

Col. Norman Hall commanding the Third Brigade, Second 1 David L. Ladd and Audrey J. Ladd, eds., Th e Bachelder Papers: Gettysburg in Th eir Own Words (Dayton oh: Morningside, 1995), 3:1984; George W. Sweet to Division, Second Corps. Courtesy of the U.S. Army Heritage Charles A. Richardson, September 4, 1894, quoted in Eric Campbell, “Remem- and Education Center. ber Harper’s Ferry,” Gettysburg Magazine, no. 7 (June 1, 1992): 64n69.

Lt. Col. Orson H. Hart, adjutant general, Willard’s brigade. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

4 Gettysburg Magazine, no. 52 fronts at the common Heath immediately time. Th e 125th New snapped the command York took the right as Hancock swung into with the Th irty-Ninth the saddle and be- to its left . Th e 126th gan to ride away. Th e New York covered the thundering and clang- 125th, and the 111th fell ing of Weir’s approach in behind the Garibaldi from behind attracted Guards (the Th irty- Heath’s attention. Real- Ninth New York).2 izing that the battery Galloping south, was going to collide Hancock ran into Lt. with his right compa- Gulian Weir’s Bat- ny, he promptly yelled tery C, Fift h U.S. Artil- for the fi les on the end lery, and blustered at to break to the rear him to wheel his guns to allow the guns to into the low ground pass. Hancock, mis- southeast of the Codori understanding what buildings. Weir, suff er- was going on, stormed ing from a chronically to Lt. Weir and his of- ulcerated throat, reluc- Col. George L. Willard commanding a brigade in the Third fi cers, swearing up a tantly rasped at his men Division, Third Corps. Courtesy of the U.S. Army Heritage blue streak. “If I com- to wheel right over the and Education Center. manded this regiment, crest of Cemetery Ridge. I’d be God Damned if I Before he could eff ectively execute the command, the would not charge bayonets on you.” While Hancock volatile Hancock had ridden to the top of the ridge, headed south, the shamed artillerymen reluctantly about 375 yards due east of the Codori barn, where rolled down the slope into the hollow and went into he found the Nineteenth Maine from Brig. Gen. Wil- battery with their left fl ank on the northern termi- liam Harrow’s brigade prone in the tall grass. nus of the ravine running from Trostle’s. Th e Nine- Hancock leaped from his horse and charged down teenth Maine advanced over the wooded crest into on the front rank of Company F on the left of the the low ground behind the demolished rail fence line. Grabbing Pvt. George Durgin from the end at its base. Heath ordered the line prone to protect fi le, he yanked the short, stocky man to his feet and them from the incoming rounds, which material- pushed him to the wooded knoll about one hundred ized from the smoke obscuring Emmitsburg Road.4 yards to the front left of the regiment. Posting the Heath anxiously paced the front of his prone reg- enlisted man exactly where he wanted him, Hancock iment. Its right fl ank started on the ridge just north bellowed, “Will you stay here?” Staring into Han- of the wooded knoll southeast of the Codori house, cock’s face, Durgin shot back, “I’ll stay here, General, and its left fl ank rested at the head of the overgrown until hell freezes over.”3 With a grin, Hancock trotted ravine, which ran almost parallel with the creek back to the startled Col. Francis E. Heath and em- bottom. Peering through the smoke, he spied Brig. phatically told him to dress the rest of the regiment Gen. Andrew A. Humphreys and his staff emerge on Durgin. from the sulfuric mantle some 150 yards ahead of 2 J. W. Hardee, Rifl e and Light Infantry Tactics, vol. 1 (Philadelphia: J. B. Lip- the remnants of the general’s shattered division. pincott, 1861), 29; Arabella M. Willson, Disaster, Struggle, Triumph: Th e Adventures of 1000 “Boys in Blue,” from August, 1862, to June 1865 (Albany: Passing through Weir’s silent battery, the gaggle of Argus, 1870), 168. Th e regimental history of the 126th said the brigade formed offi cers trotted up to Heath, and the general de- in four columns but did not specify the front. In light of subsequent testimony, I believe the men advanced in a column four companies wide and ten compa- manded that the colonel call the regiment to its feet nies deep. 3 John Day Smith, History of the Nineteenth Regiment of Maine Volunteer Infan- 4 Ladd and Ladd, Bachelder Papers, 3:1651; Smith, History of the Nineteenth Regi- try 1862– 1865 (Gaithersburg, 1988), 70– 71. ment of Maine, 70– 71.

A Most Desperate Hour 5 Cemetery Ridge. Willard’s brigade supports McGilvery’s artillery, 7:00 p.m.– 7:30 p.m., July 2, 1863. Reproduced from Stand to It and Give Them Hell: Gettysburg as the Soldiers Experienced it from Cemetery Ridge to Little Round Top, July 2, 1863 (Savas Beatie, 2014) by permission of the publisher.

6 Gettysburg Magazine, no. 52 with fi xed bayonets and stop the rout of his men. Th e colonel defi antly refused to comply, retorting that Humphreys’s mob would carry away his line. Noticing that Humphreys’s “boys” had about caught up with the general, Heath yelled, “I was placed here by an offi cer of higher rank for a pur- pose and I do not intend to go to the rear. Let your troops form in the rear and we will take care of the enemy in front.”5 Humphreys fi red an angry salvo of oaths at Heath, which the hot- tempered colonel returned in kind. Unable to curse Heath into compliance, Hum- phreys and his staff fl anked the Nineteenth Maine and tried getting the New Englanders to their feet. Heath stayed right at his heels, defi antly counter- manding the general. All the while, Humphreys’s shattered regiments trampled over the prone New Englanders. Skulkers and walking wounded preced- ed the disorganized horde. Sgt. Silas Adams (Com- pany F), on the left of the regiment, later wrote,

5 Executive Committee, Maine at Gettysburg (Portland me: Lakeside Press, Maj. Freeman McGilvery, First Volunteer Brigade, Artillery 1898), 292. Reserve. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel for his bravery on July 2, 1863. Courtesy of the Gettysburg National Military Park.

“Th ey were all of them in a hurry. Th ese men were not particular where they stepped in walking over us, they only seemed intent upon getting to the rear and out of the reach of their relentless pursuers.”6 From Company A, 1st Lt. David E. Parsons counted thirteen fl ags passing over the regiment.7

The George Weikert Orchard Maj. Freeman McGilvery desperately organized a reserve line on the level ground running north from the George Weikert house. Capt. Adoniram J. Clark’s Battery B, First New Jersey Light, rolled into position and planted his left section on the western side of Weikert’s orchard. McGilvery’s poor horse recoiled under the impact of four simultane- ous hits— three in his withers and front shoulder and a fourth through his forelegs— while the ma- jor posted Lt. Edwin P. Dow’s Sixth Maine Battery to Clark‘s right. Moments later, a spent solid shot bounced McGilvery, temporarily disabling him.

Col. Francis E. Heath, Nineteenth Maine. Courtesy of the 6 Smith, History of the Nineteenth Regiment of Maine, 71. Gettysburg National Military Park. 7 Ladd and Ladd, Bachelder Papers, 3:1651– 52.

A Most Desperate Hour 7 Th e badly cut- up Seventh New Jersey briefl y ap- peared on Dow’s right then continued its retreat to the safety of the woods behind the batteries. Capt. Charles A. Phillips (Battery E, Fift h Massachusetts Artillery) immediately ordered his four guns into battery on Dow’s right. From there, they continued to shell the Confederates.8

Ridge Northwest of George Weikert’s House Colonel Willard, under Hancock’s personal supervi- sion, led his brigade, with the Th ird Division’s adju- tant general, Capt. George P. Corts, by his side, into position on the eastern slope of Cemetery Ridge along the front of the woods behind the rallied bat- teries on the top of the ridge. Th e regiments fronted amid a horde of Th ird Corps refugees, wounded and unhurt, who swarmed around their fl anks and pushed through their formations. Hancock, despite his prolifi c swearing, could not get them to stand Col. Eliakim Sherrill, 126th New York. Courtesy of the fi rm. At one point, a stretcher party passed through U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center. Lieutenant Th ompson’s Company F, carrying an of- fi cer with a mangled leg, whom Th ompson mistak- enly recalled was Sickles. fi re at the muzzle flashes from the swale to their Willard, a professional from the Regular Army, front. Just as quickly, someone screamed, “Firing on sent markers forward as the brigade approached its your own men!”11 position to align his regiments in parade-ground “Cease fi ring!” Willard yelled above the din. Th e formation. Th e Th irty- Ninth New York deployed company offi cers responded immediately. Running facing southwest to cover the fl ank overlooking the along the front of their commands, they shouted Trostle farmhouse. Two hundred fi ft y yards to the the rattled soldiers into silence. Th e Confederates right front of the Th irty- Ninth New York, the 125th quickly loosed a volley at the confused Yankees. A New York, with the 126th to its right, wheeled into soldier on the left of the 125th New York pitched line facing west. Th e 111th New York, which went forward, dead. Color Sgt. Smith collapsed, also prone some two hundred yards farther east, sup- killed in his place. Cpl. Clark snatched up the fl ag ported the 126th.9 before it touched the ground. Another bullet mor- Cpl. Harrison Clark (Company E, 125th New tally wounded Sgt. John E. Lawrence (Company H, York), to the left of Color Sgt. Lewis Smith (Compa- 111th New York), who lay near Pvt. Norman Eldred. ny C), recalled, “We were halted amid a heavy cloud Instantly, one of the shells brutally struck Willard of smoke in front of a swale and a new growth of in the face before he could issue any commands. A trees.”10 Th e regiments stood their ground in the second round killed Corts’s horse.12 face of raining rifl e and artillery fi re. Without or- Col. Eliakim Sherrill (126th New York) assumed ders, the men in the two lead regiments returned command of the brigade and urged the line forward.

8 Regimental Committee, History of the 5th Massachusetts Battery (Boston: L. E. Th e 125th New York, with the 126th New York to its Cowles, 1909), 625, 627– 28, 636, 638; Ladd and Ladd, Bachelder Papers, 1:168; Edwin B. Dow to the Adjutant General, U.S.A., August 3, 1895, supplemental 11 Simons, One Hundred and Twenty- Fift h New York, 111–12. report, Reports and Papers, pp. 424, 496, National Archives, Washington dc. 12 Th ompson, “Th is Hell of Destruction”; Ladd and Ladd, Bachelder Papers, 9 Benjamin F. Th ompson, “Th is Hell of Destruction,” Civil War Times Illustrated 2:1134, 3:1357; N. Eldred, “Only a Boy: A First- hand Account of the Civil War,” 12:18; R. L. Murray, Redemption of the “Harper’s Ferry Cowards” (Wolcott ny: 26, drawer 6, fi le ny111b, Vertical Files, Gettysburg National Military Park, Benedum Books, 1994), 74. Th e ambulance had already removed Sickles; Gettysburg pa; Simons, One Hundred and Twenty- Fift h New York, 111–12; New therefore, Th ompson could not have seen him on the stretcher. York Monuments Commission for the Battlefi elds of Gettysburg and Chat- 10 Ezra D. Simons, Th e One Hundred and Twenty- Fift h New York State Volunteers tanooga, New York at Gettysburg (Albany, 1900), 2:886– 87; Walter F. Beyer and (New York: E. D. Simons, 1888), 111– 12. Oscar F. Keydel, eds., Deeds of Valor (Detroit: Perrien- Keydel, 1901), 1:225.

8 Gettysburg Magazine, no. 52 right, began crossing the small level plain into the rock- strewn valley north of Trostle’s. As they moved out, the colonel spurred to the 111th New York and got it to its feet. Firing erupted from the two center regiments, the men loading and shooting while they advanced, much like a well- drilled skirmish line. Just as they reached the fi rst gentle decline toward the creek bottom, Sherrill ordered the 125th and the 126th New York to charge. Someone within the ranks cried aloud, “Remember Harper’s Ferry!” Th e shout carried along the front like a lightning bolt as man aft er man picked up the cry.13

North of the Trostle House Th e Yankees caught Barksdale’s three left regiments in the open and helpless. Th eir rounds knocked down Mississippians by the handfuls. Th e general’s prolifi c swearing attracted the attention of the two New York regiments. Being the apex of an imagi- nary triangle centered between the New Yorkers, he naturally drew fi re. Without warning, a minié ball ploughed through the general’s back. Exiting through his left breast, the impact jerked him from the saddle. He thudded unconscious to the ground, his faithful bay standing by his body. Pvt. Jack Boyd Gen. William Barksdale commanding a brigade in McLaws (Company I, Th irteenth Mississippi) and two enlist- Division, First Corps (Longstreet). Courtesy of the National ed men sprang to his aid. Th e general regained con- Archives and Records Administration. sciousness when the three men tried to lift his 240 pounds of dead weight from the ground. Weakened and in a great deal of pain, he pleaded with them to leave him lie. Th ey did. the three left regiments, went to the right to transfer Barksdale, with extraordinary eff ort, managed the brigade command to Col. Benjamin G. Hum- to gain his feet. Pvt. David G. Maggard (Company phreys (Twenty- First Mississippi). On the way, K, Th irteenth Mississippi) saw him weakly leaning Holder spied what appeared to be a Yankee battery against the side of his horse, his weight on his right (Battery I, Fift h U.S. Artillery) rolling into posi- foot, literally bleeding to death. “Boys, I am a dead tion several hundred yards to the east, onto a small man,” the general rasped, “but charge ’em, darn ’em, shelf of land north of the farm lane before it entered charge ’em, and don’t fall back.”14 Col. Th omas M. Weikert’s woods. Finding Humphreys, who had Griffi n (Eighteenth Mississippi) immediately took also seen the threat, he shouted, “If you will give me over the brigade. Shortly thereaft er, a ball hit him in Company A of the Seventeenth, I will take that bat- the leg, and he ordered his regiment out of the fi ght. tery before it can fi re a gun.”15 Humphreys consented and detailed Company Plum Run North of Trostle’s A, Twenty- First Mississippi, to go in with Hold- Col. William B. Holder (Seventeenth Mississippi), er’s men. Th e two companies, well below strength, being the only uninjured fi eld-grade offi cer among formed ranks, wheeled into line, and charged into a

13 Murray, Redemption of the “Harper’s Ferry Cowards,” 77; Campbell, “Remem- 15 George J. Left wich, Th e Aberdeen (Mississippi) Examiner, August 22, 1913, ber Harper’s Ferry,” 67. 1, Robert L. Brake Collection, U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center, 14 “One of the Veterans of Gettysburg,” newspaper article, n.d., Vertical Files, Get- Carlisle pa. It is evident from the witnesses that both Holder and Humphreys tysburg National Military Park, Gettysburg pa. participated in the assault.

A Most Desperate Hour 9 Cemetery Ridge. Willard stops Barksdale’s and Wilcox’s brigades, 7:00 p.m.– 7:30 p.m., July 2, 1863. Reproduced from Stand to It and Give Them Hell: Gettysburg as the Soldiers Experienced it from Cemetery Ridge to Little Round Top, July 2, 1863 (Savas Beatie, 2014) by permission of the publisher.

10 Gettysburg Magazine, no. 52 maelstrom of small- arms fi re. With Holder leading minutes, Company A lost twenty- two of the forty- the assault, Humphreys rashly ordered the rest of one offi cers and men it took into the fray.18 the Twenty- First Mississippi into the attack. Unable to hold the ground in the face of Wil- Second Lieutenant MacConnell (Battery I, Fift h lard’s attack, the Confederates retreated. Colonel U.S.) immediately yelled for his men to grab the Humphreys and his survivors, rather than getting implements to the four three- inch rifl es and make slaughtered, made tracks back toward the Trostle off for safer ground. One of the section command- farmhouse. A couple of the Mississippians stayed ers, 2nd Lt. Samuel Peeples raced east heading for behind. One of them grabbed the reins of Fassett’s George Weikert’s, when he ran into two general horse as the second one went to shoot the captain offi cers, whom he did not know, and begged them at point- blank range. Fassett struck the forestock to help him to save his guns. With their hands full of the rifl e with his saber, forcing the muzzle sky- trying to preserve what was left of the Th ird Corps, ward as it discharged. Th e ball passed through the they said they could do nothing. captain’s cap visor. Simultaneously, one of the New Capt. John B. Fassett, Birney’s senior aide-de- Yorkers bayoneted the rifl eman in the chest while camp, having just established a rallying point for Fassett killed the fellow holding the reins with a the Th ird Corps on Cemetery Ridge behind Mc- single pistol shot.19 Gilvery’s small- artillery line, found Peeples stand- Th e Yankees spilled down into Plum Run and, ing on top of a boulder anxiously watching the passing over the tangle of casualties there, kept Confederates closing in on his battery. Why was herding the Rebels west. A few minutes later, their the lieutenant not with his battery? Fassett asked. line pulled back to the eastern side of the creek. “Because it has just been captured,” Peeples called One of them stumbled across Pvt. Joseph C. Lloyd back. Pointing toward the farm lane, he continued, (Company C, Th irteenth Mississippi), who had “And if those Confederates are able to serve my crawled into the cover of the brush to keep his shat- guns, those troops you have just been forming on tered left arm from further injury. Th e Yank hastily the ridge, won’t stay there a minute.”16 fashioned a sling for Lloyd and left him there with a Fassett wheeled about and headed back to the genuine, “Wish you well.” fi rst regiment he could fi nd. Coming upon Maj. Lloyd decided to get away while he could. Weakly Hildebrandt and the Th irty- Ninth New York, he standing up, he staggered west. Suddenly, he re- alized he was the only upright Rebel in the fi eld. told him to retake the battery. “By whose orders?” Someone weakly called to him. Turning to the right, Hildebrandt countered. “By order of General he spied Barksdale lying on the ground. Kneeling Birney,” Fassett yelled back. “I am in General Han- down, he gave the general a swig from his canteen, cock’s Corps,” the major insisted. “Th en I order you only to watch the water roll out through a hole in to take those guns, by order of General Hancock.”17 the general’s cheek. Barksdale gasped a fi nal message Hildebrandt commanded his regiment to stand for the brigade, and Lloyd left him there with the as- up, faced it about, and moved them north. Cross- surance he would send a stretcher for him.20 ing George Weikert’s farm lane, he swung his regi- ment into line facing west and ordered it to charge. Swale North of the Trostle House Lieutenant Peeples picked up a discarded rifl e and Willard’s two center regiments, the 125th New York went into the attack with the New Yorkers. Under a and the 126th New York, fi ring as they advanced, tremendous fusillade, the Rebels swarmed all over pushed into the rock- strewn, marshy creek bottom, the battery. Willard’s New Yorkers literally tore the losing their unit cohesion in the process. Color Sgt. guts out of the attack. A bullet ripped through Col- Erasmus E. Bassett (Company B, 126th New York), onel Holder’s abdomen. Clutching his entrails with one hand to keep them from spilling out, he guided 18 Ladd and Ladd, Bachelder Papers, 3:1869; Beyer and Keydel, Deeds of Valor, his horse from the fi eld with the other one. Within 1:240– 41; George J. Left wich, Th e Aberdeen (Mississippi) Examiner, August 22, 1913. 19 Beyer and Keydel, Deeds of Valor, 1:241– 42. 16 Beyer and Keydel, Deeds of Valor, 1:240– 41. 20 J. S. McNeily, Barksdale’s Mississippi Brigade at Gettysburg (Gaithersburg md: 17 Beyer and Keydel, Deeds of Valor, 1:240– 41. Olde Soldier Books, 1987), 239.

A Most Desperate Hour 11 ing into the creek, Col. Clinton MacDougall ma- neuvered the regiment from line into column of fours so the men could cross the narrow corduroy bridge, which spanned the ditch across their front. Th e New Yorkers skipped across the bridge under a murderous fi re of canister and case shot. Th ey lost many men in the process. Color Sgt. Judson Hicks (Company A) died instantly with two bullets through his body and one through his skull. Cpl. Payson Derby (Company G) instantly raised the fl ag again and continued forward. Colonel Mac- Dougall lost his second horse and suff ered a minor wound. Lt. Augustus Proseus (Company E) shout- ed at his men, “Stand fi rm. Don’t yield an inch!” A minié ball killed him as the last word left his mouth. Passing to the other side, the men deployed into line again only to catch fl ank fi re from Barksdale’s and Wilcox’s line on their unprotected right. Mac- Dougall ordered the regiment into the ditch behind them, where they hunkered down to return fi re.22

Gen. Cadmus Wilcox commanding a brigade in Anderson’s Southeast of the Codori Farmhouse division, Third Corps (Hill). Courtesy of the Library of Screaming demonically as they pushed through the Congress. sulfuric veil, which engulfed their advance, Lang’s

22 Eldred, “Only a Boy,” 26; Murray, Redemption of the “Harper’s Ferry Cowards,” with a revolver in one hand and the regimental col- 79– 80. ors in the other, advanced sixteen feet ahead of the center of the line, waving his fl ag and urging the men forward. As he stepped into the creek bottom, a bullet struck him in the leg. His older brother, Lt. Richard A. Bassett (Company B), in the front rank on the far right of the company, noticed the fl ag dip and then move forward through the thick veil of smoke in the hollow. A few feet farther on, the colors went down. Sgt. Byron W. Scott (Company E) immediately brought his weapon to his shoul- der and snapped a round off at the Reb whom he thought had killed Bassett. Sgt. Ambrose Bedell (Company E), despite a bullet wound through his hand, pulled the staff from Sergeant Bassett’s death grasp and raised the fl ag again, leaving the former school teacher where he lay with a bullet through his heart.21 Farther to the right, the 111th New York ran into a snag. Rather than losing their formation by plow-

21 Wayne Mahood, Written in Blood: A History of the 126th New York Infantry in the Civil War (Highstown nj: Longstreet House, 1997), 131; Murray, Redemp- Col. Clinton D. MacDougall, 111th New York. Courtesy of tion of the “Harper’s Ferry Cowards,” 78. the Gettysburg National Military Park.

12 Gettysburg Magazine, no. 52 Floridians bore down on Heath, defi ant to the Lieutenant Weir’s Regu- end, called his veter- lar battery. Th e frightened an Nineteenth Maine twenty-fi ve- year- old had to its feet. With the barely unlimbered when Rebels less than fi ft y Humphreys’ disorganized yards from the line, Federal troops stampeded the color bearer of through and around his the Eighth Florida fe- guns. Shouting the com- verishly semaphored mand to limber up and his fl ag from left to leave the fi eld, Weir pro- right and caught ceeded to lead the re- Heath’s attention by treat, when a bullet cut bolting several yards down his horse and sent ahead of his own reg- him sprawling onto the iment. Th e colonel, ground. As he tried to gain standing in front of his feet, a spent ball dazed the Mainers and next him. Simultaneously, a to the colors, called round whipped through over his shoulder to the left section, cutting the nearest private in down Lt. Homer H. Bald- Company C, “Drop win’s mount. “Everything him.” Th e fellow in- seemed to be very much Col. David Lang commanding the Florida Brigade. Courtesy stantly brought his confused,”23 Weir truthfully of the State Archives of Florida. weapon to bear and wrote in his largely fi cti- squeezed off a round. tious aft er- action report. Th e color bearer col- With Baldwin down, 1st Sgt. Paul Roemer mounted lapsed. Heath commanded the regiment to fi re by a horse and managed to get one of Baldwin’s guns battalions. Th e volleys brought the Florida regi- with its limber and fi ve of the battery’s caissons to ments to a halt, and they immediately returned fi re. the safety of Cemetery Ridge. By then, all six of Lt. Evan Th omas’s twelve- Two of the guns had just about left the fi eld when pounders (Battery C, Fourth U.S.) had gone into the crew panicked, cut the traces off the horses, and battery on the level ground to the left of Company abandoned the guns to the Rebs. Looking back over F. Th e artillery thundered and roared, shaking the his shoulder as he made tracks to safety, Weir knew ground violently. Th e gunners, in the intense heat, for sure that three of his pieces were probably go- stripped off their shell jackets and rolled up their ing south. Th e sight of the Second Florida swarm- sleeves as they charged their pieces with canister.25 ing around them sickened him. Th ey abandoned the other two. Luckily, all his men escaped capture. Cemetery Ridge, Colonel Heath (Nineteenth Maine), having wit- Southeast of the Codori Buildings nessed the less than stellar aff air, later recalled, “Th e Th e stalled Floridians slugged it out, round for battery on my right at this time was deserted, the round. Men in both lines dropped by the hand- guns not fi ring a shot.”24 fuls. A minute or two into the volleying, Capt. Isaac On the ridge to the battery’s left rear, Colonel Starbird (Company F) dashed to Colonel Heath with news that the Rebs had gotten terribly close 23 U.S. War Department, Th e War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Offi cial Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington dc: U.S. Govern- to his company. Heath followed the captain back ment Printing Offi ce, 1880–1901), ser. 1, vol. 27, part 1, 881, hereaft er cited as or and followed by the part and page number. 25 Smith, History of the Nineteenth Regiment of Maine, 72; Ladd and Ladd, 24 or 1:881; Ladd and Ladd, Bachelder Papers, 2:1152, 3:1652; Edmund J. Raus, A Bachelder Papers, 3:1652; Copy of Colonel Heath’s account as to the Nineteenth Generation on the March: Th e at Gettysburg (Lynchburg va: H. E. Maine at Gettysburg, 2, Vertical Files, Gettysburg National Military Park, Get- Howard, 1987), 167. tysburg pa.

A Most Desperate Hour 13 to his line. Peering through the smoke, he spotted on logs rather than fording as ordered, Colvill ex- at about twenty- fi ve yards what appeared to be a plained that he had been released from arrest and Confederate regiment in double column preparing was assuming command.28 to maneuver into battle line. Realizing that if they “Boys, will you go along with them?” the colonel deployed, the Rebels would overlap the Nineteenth shouted. A resounding “Yes” from the ranks an- Maine’s left wing, he ordered Starbird to refuse his swered him. Th e colonel, the lieutenant colonel, and company at right angles to the rest of the regiment the major positioned their mounts behind the line: to enfi lade them. Colonel Colvill thirty paces behind the colors, Lieu- With the colonel returning to his post behind the tenant Colonel Adams twelve paces behind the cen- colors at the center of the regiment, Starbird yelled ter of the right wing, and Maj. Mark Downie twelve at his men to cease fi re. Th e veterans instinctively paces behind the center of the left wing. “Forward, shouldered arms. Th e company about- faced at the double- quick!” the colonel bellowed.29 captain’s command, marched thirty- fi ve yards to the Th e veterans automatically stepped off , smartly rear, about- faced again, and commenced fi ring. Th e bringing their weapons to “right shoulder shift ” in maneuver temporarily uncovered the right fl ank of “one time and two motions corresponding to the Th omas’s Battery C, Fourth U.S. Artillery. Th e lieu- steps of the advance,”30 Colvill later recollected. tenant quickly silenced his pieces, rolled them back Th e glint of the musket barrels moving in unison to conform to Company F’s new line, and opened awed the colonel. Th irty yards across the fi eld, they fi re again.26 walked into a sheet of lead from the Confederate skirmishers hidden in the dried-up creek about 170 On Cemetery Ridge, 350 Yards yards west of the regiment. Men dropped, but the Southeast of the Nineteenth Maine companies surged onward toward the shallow “ra- Hancock, riding north with his staff from the vine” about one hundred yards south of the Nine- George Weikert Farm, noticed the same regiment teenth Maine. that had attracted Starbird’s attention. At fi rst, he Colonel Heath had no sooner returned to the col- wanted to dismiss them as a Federal unit. An unex- ors from Company F on the left fl ank when Lt. Col. pected burst of small- arms fi re from that direction, Henry W. Cunningham, who, like Colonel Randall however, abruptly changed his mind. Capt. William (Th irteenth Vermont), also had seen the Confeder- D. W. Miller on his staff jerked under the impact of ates fl anking to the left , informed him that the Rebs two hits. had gotten around the regiment’s right fl ank. Un- Twisting about in the saddle, Hancock saw the able to see anything in the smoke, Heath decided to First Minnesota drawn up in column of fours. march in retreat. He gave the command: “Face to Latching his eyes on an offi cer mounted on a splen- the rear! Battalion about- FACE! Battalion, forward did black horse, he galloped to Lt. Col. Charles MARCH!” Th e New Englanders ceased fi re, shoul- P. Adams. “Colonel,” he blurted, “do you see that dered their arms, right about- faced, and walked 31 fl ag?” Adams followed the general’s pointing fi nger away from the fi ring line at the common time. toward the overgrown low ground in the distance. Th e First Minnesota scattered the Rebel skir- “I want you to take it.” “Yes, sir,” Adams replied.27 mishers from Wilcox’s and Barksdale’s mixed bri- Adams called the regiment into formation and 28 G. Sydney Smith to C. Powell Adams, November 25, 1887, Charles Powell Adams Papers, mhs; Richard Moe, Th e Last Full Measure (St. Paul mn: Henry was about to lead it forward, when Col. William Holt, 1993), 262. Colvill Jr. unexpectedly rode up to him. Having 29 William Colvill, “Th e Old First Minnesota at Gettysburg,” 7, Goodhue County Historical Society, Red Wing mn. been under arrest since June 29, for crossing a river 30 William Colvill, “Th e Old First Minnesota at Gettysburg,” 7, Goodhue County Historical Society, Red Wing mn; W. K. Adams to the editor of the Journal, 26 Silas Adams, “Th e Nineteenth Maine at Gettysburg,” War Papers, Read before n.d., Charles Powell Adams Papers, mhs; Charles Muller, History, n.d., n.p., the Commandery of the State of Maine, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of Robert L. Brake Collection, U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center, Car- the , 4 vols., (Portland me: Th urston Press, 1915), 4:254; Ladd and lisle pa. Colvill’s postwar account is a little suspect. He describes the fi ghting Ladd, Bachelder Papers, 3:1652; Executive Committee, Maine at Gettysburg, 293. in detail, but he never would have seen it because he received a wound two 27 Ladd and Ladd, Bachelder Papers, 3:1358; W. K. Adams to the editor of the minutes before the regiment returned fi re. Journal, n.d., Charles Powell Adams Papers, Minnesota Historical Society, St. 31 W. K. Adams to the editor of the Journal, n.d., Charles Powell Adams Papers, Paul mn. Hereinaft er cited as mhs. mhs.

14 Gettysburg Magazine, no. 52 Cemetery Ridge. The First Minnesota is sacrifi ced, 7:00 p.m.– 7:30 p.m., July 2, 1863. Reproduced from Stand to It and Give Them Hell: Gettysburg as the Soldiers Experienced it from Cemetery Ridge to Little Round Top, July 2, 1863 (Savas Beatie, 2014) by permission of the publisher.

A Most Desperate Hour 15 Cpl. Patrick Taylor and Pvt. Isaac Taylor, Company E, First Minnesota. Isaac was killed on July 2, 1863. Courtesy of the Gettysburg National Military Park.

16 Gettysburg Magazine, no. 52 els retreated about fi ft y yards and melted into the main line of their brigade. Before the First Minnesota had time to reload, Wilcox’s and Barksdale’s veterans returned the vol- ley. Minnesotans went down by squads. Th e men held their ground and closed ranks. “Why don’t they let us charge?” someone cried out. “Why do they stop us here to be murdered?”33 A couple of stalwarts broke out of the ditch and dashed toward the Rebs, futilely waving at their comrades to follow them. None of them returned. Th e Rebels stood their ground, exchanging vol- leys with telling eff ect. Lieutenant Colonel Adams absorbed fi ve hits in rapid succession but did not fall until the sixth one hammered into his chest. Moments later, bullets through his right arm and his foot brought Major Downie to the ground. Th e halt cost the regiment dearly. In the encroach- ing darkness, some Confederates managed to get

33 Sgt. John W. Plummer to his brother, n.d., Robert L. Brake Collection, U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center, Carlisle pa.

Pvt. Alonzo C. Haden, Company D, First Minnesota, killed July 2, 1863. Courtesy of the Gettysburg National Military Park. gades, driving them out of the dried creek bed to its front. A few feet from the ravine, Colvill recoiled in the saddle under the impact of something, which he assumed was a shell fragment, striking him between the shoulder blades. For a moment, he saw stars. “Colonel, you are badly hurt.” Still dazed, he numbly reacted to Capt. Henry C. Coates (Compa- ny A): “I don’t know; take care of the men.” Rein- ing his horse in, Colvill tried to dismount, when a bullet tore through his right foot. Collapsing, he felt himself rolling downhill into the creek bottom, where he lay, helpless, listening to the miniés fl y over his head.32 Th e First Minnesota had already spilled into the depression. Lieutenant Colonel Adams halted the regiment there and commanded the men to open fi re. Th eir volley caught the fl eeing Confederates in their backs at a distance under fi ft een feet. Th e Reb- Pvt. Francis W. Rhoades, Company I, Nineteenth Maine,

32 Colvill, “Th e Old First Minnesota at Gettysburg,” 7; W. K. Adams to the editor killed July 2, 1863. Courtesy of the Gettysburg National of the Journal, n.d., Charles Powell Adams Papers, mhs. Military Park.

A Most Desperate Hour 17 around the right fl ank and poured a devastating en- Sgt. Albert A. Straight, commanding gun num- fi lade into the westerners. ber four, whose piece had already been loaded, At that, word came to the First Minnesota to pull held his crew back. With the Confederates on top back. In the confusion, the right wing had retired of him, he gave the command to fi re, followed im- halfway back through the open fi eld east of the mediately by “Limber to the rear.” Th e words had ditch before the left wing found out about the with- hardly left his mouth when the Georgians shot draw. Sgt. John W. Plummer (Company D) did not down his team’s two lead horses in their harnesses. expect to make it back uninjured, much less alive. Screaming, “Every man for himself,” his artillery- “It was then I had the fi rst feeling of fear during the men tried to escape. Before they could clear the fi ght,” he informed his brother a short time later.34 ground, his remaining four horses went down along Stumbling across their own dead and wounded, he with the dying Pvt. David B. King. Meanwhile, two fi nally found the colors. Only twenty- fi ve men re- of the guns had managed to escape to the Federal mained to rally around them. Th e rest were dead, side of the ridge. In the hurry to get away, two oth- dying, wounded, or temporarily detached to bring ers jammed together trying to get through the gap in those whom they could save. in the wall, which left gun six stranded in the open Th irty-fi ve feet behind its former position, the ground between the two battle lines. Th e Georgians Nineteenth Maine emerged from the small- arms killed one of the horses and wounded another on smoke only to discover that the Rebs had not the limber. Th e three drivers abandoned the piece fl anked it. Colonel Heath immediately ordered the and skedaddled for safer ground. In the melee, a regiment to about- face and fi re. Th e men shot at musket ball plowed into First Lieutenant Brown’s will into the shadows below. In short order, Com- neck. Bleeding severely, he turned the battery over pany F rejoined the regiment on the left . Aft er the to 2nd Lt. William S. Perrin.37 line loosed several rounds, Heath commanded, “Fix Th e Sixty- Ninth Pennsylvania, with the Fift y- bayonets,” followed instantly by “Charge bayonets.” Ninth New York and the Seventh Michigan to its left , He ran to the front of the colors. “Come on, boys!” waited behind the stone wall a little over one hun- he yelled and led them in a wild race down into the dred yards to the east for the guns to clear its line low ground.35 of fi re. As the Georgians swarmed over the number four gun, the three regiments brought the charge to West of the Copse of Trees a halt with rifl e fi re. Nevertheless, one of the Rebel Farther north Wright’s Georgians overran the offi cers foolishly dashed to the gun and straddled Eighty- Second New York and the Fift eenth Massa- the muzzle. Cpt. Michael Duff y (Company I, Sixty- chusetts heading directly for Battery B, First Rhode Ninth Pennsylvania) hollered at his men: “Knock Island Artillery. Lt. T. Frederic Brown’s gunners that damned offi cer off the gun.”38 A second volley loosed case shot with one- second fuses then rapidly swept him away. Th e Pennsylvanians bolted over the loaded with canister. Th e fi rst artillery blast from wall, intent on fi nishing the Rebels off ; but Harrow the rear cut down Yankees and Confederates by the and Webb shouted them back to their cover. squads.36 Th e Rebels directed their rifl ery on Brown’s exposed Rhode Islanders. Brown screamed the or- Two Hundred Yards to the Right Rear der, “Limber to the rear.” Th e crews of guns one of the Nineteenth Maine through six, except gun number four, quickly got Col. Francis V. Randall (Th irteenth Vermont) spied their guns pintled and started for the low spot in the Hancock and rode to him. “Colonel,” Hancock spat, northwestern corner of the stone wall at the Angle. “Where is your regiment?”39

34 Sgt. John W. Plummer to his brother, n.d., Robert L. Brake Collection, U.S. 37 Raus, Generation on the March, 147; or 1:478; John H. Rhodes, Th e Gettysburg Army Heritage and Education Center, Carlisle pa; Muller, History, n.p.; J. W. Gun, no. 19, in Personal Narratives of Events in the War of Rebellion, Being Sonderman to the editor of the Spirit, February 24, 1901, First Minnesota, 4, Papers Read before the Rhode Island Soldiers and Sailors Historical Society, Vertical Files, Gettysburg National Military Park, Gettysburg pa. 4th ser. (Providence ri: Snow and Farnham, 1892), 12– 14, https://archive.org/ 35 Adams, “Th e Nineteenth Maine at Gettysburg,” 4:255– 56; Smith, History of the stream/gettysburggun00rhod#page/n5/mode/2up. Nineteenth Regiment of Maine, 72; Executive Committee, Maine at Gettysburg, 38 Ladd and Ladd, Bachelder Papers, 3:1407; Gottfried, Stopping Pickett: Th e History 293– 94; account of John Lancaster, n.d., Robert L. Brake Collection, U.S. Army of the Philadelphia Brigade (Shippensburg pa: White Mane Books, 1999), 161. Heritage and Education Center, Carlisle pa. 39 Howard Coffi n, Nine Months to Gettysburg: Stannard’s Vermonters and the 36 or 1:423, 426; Raus, Generation on the March, 35, 72. Repulse of Pickett’s Charge (Woodstock vt: Countryman Press, 1997), 204– 5.

18 Gettysburg Magazine, no. 52 the neck and brought it down on top of him. An- other slammed Pvt. Albert H. Chase (Company B) in the temple. Th e impact hurled him to the ground unconscious and seemingly dead. Sixteen- year- old 2nd Lt. Charles W. Randall (Company A), the younger of the colonel’s two sons in the battalion, got Capt. John Lonergan’s permission to assist his father. Pvt. Henry Sparks and several others from Companies E and G reached him fi rst. “Damn them,” Colonel Randall snarled. “Th ey did not get me that time.”40 In trying to roll the heavy animal off Randall, Sparks felt something pop in his groin. He went down in a ball with a nasty rupture. Th e angry Randall shouted above the noise, “Go on boys, go on. I’ll be at your head as soon as I get out of this damned saddle.” Maj. Joseph J. Boyn- ton ordered the battalion back into formation. Colonel Randall painfully regained his feet. Glancing west through the smoke, he noticed Lang’s brigade extending its line to the left . He took off at a limping run, his sword unsheathed, to the front of the formation. “Come on, boys,” he shouted with a fl ourish. “I’m all right.”41

Col. Francis Randall, Thirteenth Vermont. Courtesy of the At the Angle U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center. With the Forty- Eighth Georgia desperately fi ght- ing to hold on to Brown’s abandoned gun on the knoll to the front of the Sixty- Ninth Pennsylvania, “Close at hand,” Randall replied. Brig. Gen. Alexander Webb decided to reinforce “Good,” Hancock said, “the enemy are pressing his line. He sent Lt. Col. William L. Curry with his me hard. Th ey have captured that battery yonder 106th Pennsylvania to the crest of Seminary Ridge [with the general pointing into the low ground immediately north of the Copse of Trees. He also southeast of Codori’s farmhouse] and are dragging detached the Seventy- First Pennsylvania to the it from the fi eld. Can you retake it?” north– south stone wall, which ran to the hog pen “I can, and damn quick too, if you will let me,” on the south side of Brien’s barn. Together, the two Randall confi dently shot back. He later reported regiments emptied two volleys into the weakening that Hancock also warned him that it “would be a Georgians. As the Confederates fell back from the hazardous job and he would not order it, but, if I gun, Curry yelled his regiment to its feet and com- thought I could do it, I might try.” manded the men to fi x bayonets. With a shout, they Randall returned to his battalion, which had raced down the slope, bolted over the stone wall just arrived on the fi eld. He commanded his fi ve along their front, and chased aft er the Rebels. Th e companies to maneuver from column of divisions Seventy- First Pennsylvania followed in the 106th’s into line. As the companies came to the front, he wake. Sweeping past the guns, Curry’s men headed instructed each of his fi ve company commanders directly for the Codori orchard, leaving their twenty exactly what he intended them to do. Th e second 40 Coffi n, Nine Months to Gettysburg, 205. that Randall called the regiment to move out, a shell 41 Howard Coffi n, Nine Months to Gettysburg: Stannard’s Vermonters and the burst over his head. A fragment gouged his gray in Repulse of Pickett’s Charge (Woodstock vt: Countryman Press, 1997), 204– 5; or 1:351– 52.

A Most Desperate Hour 19 prisoners and the twelve- pounder Napoleon in the (Seventy-Th ird New York) later wrote to his fa- hands of the Seventy- First.42 ther.46 Humphreys, whose orders were to hold the ridge, could not stop the attack. “Halt! Halt! Stop Ridge Northeast of Trostle’s House those men! Stop those men!” he screamed, but to A mounted sergeant from Turnbull’s Th ird U.S. no avail.47 Th e Yankees crashed through the rock- Artillery madly galloped to the remnants of the strewn, brush- clogged creek bottom of Plum Run Excelsior Brigade. Reining his horse to a halt in the into the Confederate ranks before they had time to center of the line, he pleaded, “Boys! You said you’d reorganize from their charge.48 Th e impetus of the stick to us. Is this the way the brigade is going to attack caught up the 126th New York. Climbing out leave the fi eld? Th ere’s the gun!”43 He dramatically of the creek bed, the New Yorkers surged forward pointed toward the two abandoned sections along with the rest of the soldiers, leaving the 111th New the Emmitsburg Road: “If you’re men, come on!” York and the 125th New York where they were.49 Spurring his horse about, he madly galloped toward the swarming Rebels, his saber cutting the air above Codori’s Farm, South and East of the Buildings his head. Th e Nineteenth Maine, with the Th irteenth Ver- Pvt. Felix Brannigan (Company A, Seventy- mont trailing behind it to the right rear, swept the Th ird New York) watched, awestruck, as the artil- Floridians back across the low ground south of leryman crashed into the Rebels with his saber the Codori farm. Th e Nineteenth Maine headed slashing. Instantly, individual soldiers from all the straight for Turnbull’s four abandoned guns one mixed- up command units cried out, “Charge!” hundred yards east of the Rodgers house, while the followed by a shrill banshee, “Hi— hi— hi- i-i- i.”44 Th irteenth Vermont made due east toward Weir’s Sergeant Mears (Company A, Sixth Pennsylvania guns and the Codori farmhouse. Reserves), who was scrounging through an am- On the way, the Mainers picked up part of the munition box at the time, immediately bolted into rallied Twenty- Sixth Pennsylvania, who bolted the fray. Th e Seventy-Th ird New York’s color guard ahead of the Nineteenth Maine, eager to regain raced twelve paces ahead of the line. Colonel Brew- the ground they had lost. Firing point- blank into ster spurred his horse to the front, dragging the rest the backs of the Second Florida, they wounded the of the brigade, some 150 men, with him. regiment’s color bearer. He immediately handed Th e counterattack spread like a brush fi re all the fl ag over to another man in the color guard, but along the ridge, with no one in the confusion be- Sgt. George Roosevelt (Company K, Twenty- Sixth ing exactly certain as to how it started. “Charge ’em! Pennsylvania) got the drop on the Rebel. Capturing Take our old ground!”45 Henry Blake, a fi rst lieuten- him and his fl ag, the sergeant started rearward with ant in Company K, Eleventh Massachusetts, heard them, when a stray shot snapped his leg. He fell to the men around him shout. Capt. William H. Lloyd the ground, unable to move. His prisoner dropped (Company F, Eleventh New Jersey) rallied the few the fl ag and took off for safer ground. men he found and hobbled forward with them into Seconds later the Nineteenth Maine passed over the fray. William H. H. Fernel, a fi rst lieutenant in Company I, Twelft h New Hampshire, went berserk. 46 Brannigan to his father in Ireland, n.d. 47 Brannigan to his father in Ireland, n.d. Shaking his sword at the Rebels, Fernel brandished 48 Felix Brannigan to his father in Ireland, n.d., Vertical Files, Gettysburg National Military Park, Gettysburg pa; or 1:559; Henry N. Blake, “Personal it above his head and screamed, “Come on.” With Reminiscences of Gettysburg,” 22, 20 Vertical Files, Gettysburg National Mili- the handful of men whom he mustered, he dashed tary Park, Gettysburg pa; Th omas D. Marbaker, History of the Eleventh New Jersey Volunteers (Hightstown nj: Longstreet House, 1990), 99; Henri LeFevre into the smoke- blanketed fi eld raving. Brown, History of the Th ird Regiment, Excelsior Brigade, 72nd New York Vol- “We seemed to be borne on wings,” Brannigan unteer Infantry, 1861– 1865 (Jamestown ny: Journal Printing, 1902), 105; A. W. Bartlett, History of the Twelft h Regiment New Hampshire Volunteers in the War of the Rebellion (Concord nh: I. C. Evans Printer, 1897), 126; Samuel P. Bates, 42 or 1:432– 33. comp., History of the Pennsylvania Volunteers (Harrisburg pa: B. Singerly, 43 Felix Brannigan to his father in Ireland, n.d., Vertical Files, Gettysburg Na- 1871), 1:350; “A Man of Pluck. Sergeant Mears, Who Won a Medal of Honor at tional Military Park, Gettysburg pa. Gettysburg,” National Tribune, June 24, 1897; H. L. Potter, “Seeley’s Battery at 44 Brannigan to his father in Ireland, n.d. Gettysburg,” National Tribune, May 24, 1888. Potter mistook Turnbull’s battery 45 Henry N. Blake, “Personal Reminiscences of Gettysburg,” 22, 20, Vertical Files, for Seeley’s. Gettysburg National Military Park, Gettysburg pa. 49 Ladd and Ladd, Bachelder Papers, 1:340.

20 Gettysburg Magazine, no. 52 the wounded sergeant. Colonel Heath, on the right brigade sheltering behind the Codori house and wing, vividly recalled tramping on top of the colors. barn. An offi cer bearing a white fl ag attracted Ford’s A large number of unwounded Floridians, heading attention in the fading light. Th e captain had an en- east, made their way through the regiment. On the listed man poke an old newspaper on his bayonet. left , the Rebels skedaddled, leaving the Eighth Flor- He faced the company by the fl ank and marched ida’s fl ag draped over one of Turnbull’s fi eld pieces. them up to the house. Th e Confederate with the Th e Nineteenth Maine brushed past the guns, mak- fl ag of truce identifi ed himself as Capt. Claiborne ing for the Emmitsburg Road.50 Snead (Company G, Th ird Georgia). Col. William Gibson (Forty- Eighth Georgia) lay nearby desper- The Codori Farm ately wounded. Snead feared the colonel would die Th e Confederates to the front of the Th irteenth if he did not receive medical attention. Would the Vermont either hurled themselves to the ground or captain consider bringing the colonel within the skedaddled. Hancock, who had followed the un- Union lines to receive treatment? Ford agreed to tried battalion onto the fi eld, urged Randall to push help the colonel, provided that the men, who had his men farther and recapture four of Weir’s guns. gathered around him, also came in and that the of- While the regiment tramped over the top of their fi cers surrender their swords. Snead protested. Th e prostrate “prisoners,” Sgt. George H. Scott (Compa- men should be allowed to return to their own lines. ny G, Th irteenth Vermont) ran forward. eTh Con- No, insisted Ford, the colonel and the men would federates hauling the four twelve-pounders toward have to surrender. Snead reluctantly agreed. Com- the Emmitsburg Road were caught in the middle pany I rounded up the colonel, fi ve captains, fi ft een of the fi eld between the road and Cemetery Ridge. lieutenants, and about one hundred dejected Geor- Th ey tossed the drag ropes aside and ran toward the gians, wounded and uninjured alike, and started Codori orchard, where Maj. George W. Ross (Sec- toward the Copse of Trees.52 ond Georgia Battalion) and Capt. Charles R. Red- While Captain Ford, his arms curled around a ding (Company C) struggled to swing the lead team bundle of swords, headed back toward Cemetery of one of Weir’s limbers toward the road. Ridge, the rest of the regiment merged with the Sergeant Scott reached one of the guns seconds Th irteenth Vermont on the eastern side of the or- before Captain Lonergan and Company A arrived. chard. With the Vermonters’ prisoners under the Placing his hand on the bronze tube closest to him, charge of Company C, the Th irteenth Vermont he yelled at the Rebels to surrender. Simultaneously, about- faced and started to the rear with Company small- arms fi re crashed into the orchard from the A’s boys and a number of the 106th Pennsylvania’s north. Captain Redding died. Major Ross fell, mortal- fellows rolling the guns away. ly wounded. Colonel Randall (Th irteenth Vermont), As soon as the Vermonters turned their backs on with Company G, spotted the fl eeing Rebels at the the Codori buildings, they came under fi re from be- same time. “Halt!” he shouted, but to no avail. “God hind. Within earshot of Cpl. Eli T. Marsh (Compa- damn you, boys,” he screamed, “stop that running.”51 ny C), Colonel Randall barked at Company A’s Cap- To his amazement, about fi ft y of them turned around tain Lonergan, “Th at house is full of sharpshooters; and walked into the Vermonters’ ranks. take your company and capture them.”53 “Boys,” the Th e others ran into the oncoming 106th Penn- captain screamed, “those fellows are fi ring at us. We sylvania. Capt. Robert H. Ford (Company I) and will drive those damned Rebels out of those build- his men stumbled on to a large portion of Wright’s ings or kill them— about face charge.”

50 Frederick Tilberg to Mrs. Joseph C. Moore, August 12, 1954, Gettysburg 52 or 2:433; Robert H. Shirkey, draft , December 5, 1888, about William Gibson, National Military Park, Gettysburg pa; Adams, “Th e Nineteenth Maine at Vertical Files, Gettysburg National Military Park, Gettysburg pa; Joseph R. C. Gettysburg,” 4:257; Smith, History of the Nineteenth Regiment of Maine, 72; Ward, History of the One Hundred and Sixth Pennsylvania Volunteers (Phila- Ladd and Ladd, Bachelder Papers, 3:1653; Benjamin T. Arrington, Th e Medal delphia: F. McManus Jr., 1906), 161– 62; Coffi n, Nine Months to Gettysburg, of Honor at Gettysburg (Gettysburg: Th omas, 1996), 21; Richard Rollins, “Th e 206. Snead did not belong to the Forty- Eighth Georgia. Th e regiment credited Damned Red Flags of the Rebellion,” Th e Confederate Battle Flag at Get- itself with capturing three guns and 250 Confederates, which, when including tysburg (Redondo Beach ca: Rank and File, 1997), 127; Jim Studnicki, “‘Perry’s the men whom the Th irteenth Vermont bagged, would make the aft er- action Brigade’: Th e Forgotten Floridians at Gettysburg,” 2nd Florida Infantry Co. I., report correct. Th e prisoners came from Wright’s entire brigade and not just “Hamilton Blues,” http://www.2ndfl orida.net/perrys.htm. the Forty- Eighth Georgia. 51 Coffi n, Nine Months to Gettysburg, 206. 53 Coffi n, Nine Months to Gettysburg, 206–7.

A Most Desperate Hour 21 Picking up their weapons, the Yankees counter- them. While the Seventy- First New York hauled charged and surrounded the house to cover all the away one of Turnbull’s twelve- pounders, the Nine- windows and doors to prevent anyone from escap- teenth Maine recovered what remained of the bat- ing. Going to the front door, the captain kicked it tery. With their prisoners dragging off one piece by in. Noticing an offi cer with a rifl e standing close by, ropes, the New Englanders hauled off the last two Lonergan shouted, “Surrender! Fall out here, every guns and the battery’s four abandoned caissons.56 damned one of you!”54 Th e offi cer handed over his Th e Eleventh Massachusetts, having driven the sword on the way out the door, followed by eighty- Rebels across the Emmitsburg Road, abruptly halt- two enlisted men, each of whom tossed his rifl e aside ed as apparently lifeless Federal bodies in the fi eld as he exited the house. Greatly outnumbered, Com- around arose from the dead without injury. “Th is pany A escorted its catch back to the rest of the bat- resurrection was greeted with laughter,” Lieuten- talion. Wright’s brigade had taken a horrifi c beating. ant Blake (Eleventh Massachusetts) recalled.57 Th e Only 577 offi cers and men of the 1450 who had gone Yankees scoured the fi eld, rounding up prison- into the fi ght returned to Seminary Ridge unhurt. ers and sorting the dead from the wounded. Blake Th e killed and captured comprised 83 percent of the found men too frightened to move. One wounded casualties. Both the Second Battalion and the Forty- Floridian, a boy of about sixteen, piteously whined, 55 Eighth Georgia left their colors on the fi eld. “General Lee always puts the Fift h Florida in front.” A little farther on he came across about thirty East of the Emmitsburg Road Confederates crammed in a little gully. Using his Lt. Col. John Leonard with Sgt. Henri LeFevre sword to direct them to the Federal lines, Blake Brown and Pvt. M. Luther Howard (both Com- commanded, “Get up, boys. Get up and go to the pany B, Seventy- Second New York) reached Turn- rear.” A musket shot suddenly cracked by his head. bull’s captured guns ahead of the rest of the Th ird Whirling around, he spied Cpl. William H. Brown Corps. Th ey quickly cut the disabled horses free of (Company B, Eleventh Massachusetts) still holding one limber, wheeled the gun around without any his smoking weapon at the ready. “What on earth assistance, and dragged it away, leaving the three re- are you doing?” the lieutenant demanded. “Th at maining pieces on the fi eld. captain was aiming his revolver at you when I fi red,” Sgt. Th omas Horan (Company E, Seventy- Brown replied with a nod. Second New York) snatched up the colors of the Meanwhile, Major Raff erty (Seventy- First New Eighth Florida. In the meantime, about one hun- dred yards from the Emmitsburg Road, the right York), while supervising the withdrawal of the companies of the Nineteenth Maine bagged thirty Turnbull gun, accidentally rolled it into a drain- Floridians and their severely wounded Major Wal- age ditch. To his surprise, he found two Confeder- ter R. Moore (Second Florida) while they attempted ates— a captain and an enlisted man with a rifl e— to drag off one of Turnbull’s pieces. As they forced cowering in the bottom of it. With his pistol at the the dejected Rebels to wheel the gun about to haul ready, Raff erty barked at the enlisted man to drop it back to the Federal lines, the New Englanders his weapon. He threw it aside. Th e offi cer stepped heard some loud cheering. In the distance, through into the open and asked what he should do. “Do?” the smoky, fading light, they saw the New Yorkers Raff erty incredulously shot back, “do anything to jubilantly waving about the colors from the Eighth make yourself useful.”58 To the Irishman’s amaze- Florida and heading back to Cemetery Ridge with 56 Felix Brannigan to his father, n.d., Vertical Files, Gettysburg National Military Park, Gettysburg pa; Brown, History of the Th ird Regiment, 105; Potter, 54 Beyer and Keydel, Deeds of Valor, 1:226 “Seeley’s Battery at Gettysburg”; account of Charles E. Nash, 74– 76, Robert 55 or 1:352, 2:630; Beyer and Keydel, Deeds of Valor, 1:226; Coffi n, Nine Months L. Brake Collection, U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center, Carlisle pa; to Gettysburg, 206–7; Rollins, “Th e Damned Red Flags of the Rebellion,” 127. Smith, History of the Nineteenth Regiment of Maine, 72. According to Sgt. George H. Scott (Company G), “Our Colonel was not the 57 Blake, “Personal Reminiscences of Gettysburg,” 22, 20, Vertical Files, Get- most modest man in the world,” as is evident in Randall’s aft er- action report. tysburg National Military Park, Gettysburg pa. He would lead one to believe that the regiment got as far as the Emmitsburg 58 Th omas Raff erty, “Gettysburg,” in Personal Recollections of the War of the Road and that a pair of guns to the south fl anked them. Th e accounts of others Rebellion, Addresses Delivered before the Commandery of the State of New York, in the regiment indicate that the battalion got as far as the Codori orchard and Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (Astor Place ny: J. J. no farther. Th e 106th Pennsylvania claimed some of those prisoners also. Little and Sons, 1891), 1:28– 29.

22 Gettysburg Magazine, no. 52 Cemetery Ridge. The Confederate assault is defeated, 7:45 p.m., July 2, 1863. Reproduced from Stand to It and Give Them Hell: Gettysburg as the Soldiers Experienced it from Cemetery Ridge to Little Round Top, July 2, 1863 (Savas Beatie, 2014) by permission of the publisher.

A Most Desperate Hour 23 ment, the two Rebels laid hold of the drag ropes in control of all the ground it had occupied at the and helped pull the gun free. beginning of the day. Th e fi ghting along Cemetery By then the 126th New York had reached the east- Ridge claimed 15,738 casualties between the two ern bank of the Emmitsburg Road. Finding no one armies. Of the 34,127 Union soldiers in the fi ght, with whom to contend, Lt. Col. James Bull sent the 1,358 (4 percent) died; 6,496 (19 percent) were left and right general guides to their respective posts wounded; and 1,090 (3 percent) went missing or and dressed the ranks as if they were on parade. At were captured— a loss of 26 percent of its fi ght- his command, the regiment right about- faced and ing strength. Th e Confederates committed 18,457 started marching in step toward the creek bottom to men to the battle. Th ey lost 1,172 (6 percent) dead; the east. Capt. Orin J. Herendeen (Company A) and 3,878 (21 percent) wounded; and 1,244 (7 percent) a number of his men, then being on the northern missing in action. Th e fi ghting cost them a devas- end of the line, quickly laid hands on Turnbull’s gun, tating 34 percent. Th is was much like Antietam, which the Seventy- First New York had bagged and nine months prior to Gettysburg, where the Army helped roll back to the Federal lines. of Northern Virginia fought a far superior force, Presently, a staff offi cer rode into the remnants infl icted more casualties on its opponent than it of the Eleventh Massachusetts with the directive for lost itself, but suff ered a much higher casualty rate. the regiment to retire to the new line along south- Courage wasted.60 ern Cemetery Ridge. Carr could not fi nd his regi- ments, the aide said, and the regiment was to retire John Michael Priest, a well- known Civil War author, is a certi- at once. Lt. Col. Porter D. Tripp fl ew in to a rage. fi ed guide at Antietam National Battlefi eld. His latest Gettys- His men, having retaken the ground, were entitled burg contribution is “Stand to It and Give Th em Hell”: Get- to spend the night on it. “Tell the General if he will tysburg as the Soldiers Experienced It from Cemetery Ridge to Little Round Top, July 2, 1863 (El Dorado Hills ca: Savas Beatie, come to the front, he will fi nd his commands with 2014). Additionally, four of his previous works were released their colors,” he blustered. “And, if he was not such in e-book versions by Savas Beatie last summer: Antietam: Th e 59 a damned coward, he would be here with them.” Soldiers’ Battle; Into the Fight: Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg; Nevertheless, he complied, and nothing came of his and his two- volume set on the Wilderness, Nowhere to Run and insubordination. Victory without Triumph. Th e day ended with the Army of the Potomac 60 Th ese numbers are from the Order of Battle in Michael John Priest, “Stand to 59 Henry N. Blake, Th ree Years in the Army of the Potomac (Boston: Lee and It and Give Th em Hell”: Gettysburg as the Soldiers Experienced It from Cem- Shepard, 1864), 212, 210– 12; Raff erty, “Gettysburg,” 1:28–29; Ladd and Ladd, etery Ridge to Little Round Top, July 2, 1863 (El Dorado Hills ca: Savas Beatie, Bachelder Papers, 1:340, 342. 2014).

24 Gettysburg Magazine, no. 52