MONUMENT commcnwrating the heroic charge of the First Minnesota, erected at Gettysburg in 1897

I The Battle of

.:it«. GETTYSBURG •J'«i<^;-,5iaE^,;a»Ba»t.-'*-^ as seen by Minnesota Soldiers

ANNE A. HAGE

IN THE CENTURY since ff was fought on From the military historian's point of July 1-3, 1863, the battle of Gettysburg has view, Gettysburg is not of crucial strategic held a strong claim on the imagination of importance. It became the site of combat the American people. It has probably in­ when the Union and Confederate armies ac­ spired more historical prose, verse, and con­ cidentally made contact on July 1; neither troversy than any other engagement on this General George G. Meade nor General continent. When President Abraham Lin­ Robert E. Lee deliberately chose to fight on coln dedicated the battlefield as a national the ridges and hills south of the little Penn­ cemetery on November 19, 1863, he made sylvania market town. Though the Union the conflict a symbol not only of heroic sacri­ forces won a decisive and costly victory, fice, but also of mankind's struggle to pre­ they fafled to take full advantage of it, and serve the democratic form of government. two more years of bitter warfare were neces­ sary before Lee surrendered. MRS. HAGE is a graduate student in American Gettysburg did, however, represent the history in the University of Minnesota and is turning of the tide for Lee and the Army of also a part-time member of the editorial staff Northern Vffginia. The Union Army of the of the Minnesota Historical Society. Potomac, which had been defeated three June 1963 245 times in the previous twelve months, stood ters, and reminiscences which are preserved its ground and forced Lee to retreat into in the collections of the Minnesota Histori­ Southern territory. For both sides, the en­ cal Society. Quite understandably, these gagement was memorable as the largest fragmentary records reveal widely differing ever fought on the North American conti­ views of exactly what happened, but they nent, both in the number of men involved have one thing in common: they suggest and in the casualties incurred. More than with vividness the firsthand experience of 165,000 troops took the field, and the totals the participants. of kflled and wounded exceeded 40,000.^ The battle has long been of special in­ BY EARLY SUMMER of 1863 the troops of terest to Minnesotans because of the great the First Regiment of Minnesota Volunteers bravery and heavy losses of the Fffst Minne­ were veterans of two years of fighting. sota Regiment, which took part in the About nine hundred men had been mus­ fighting on the second and-third days. The tered in at Fort Snelhng during the last days exploits of the First Minnesota, particularly of April, 1861; by 1863 the size of the regi­ its hero,ic charge of July 2, have been re­ ment had, in one way and another, been corded in official history and memorialized reduced more than half. For this remnant, in verse and painting. This account attempts now under the command of Colonel Wil­ to describe the battle as it appeared to a few liam Colvill of Red Wing, the Gettysburg of the enlisted men who took part, men who campaign began in Virginia on June 15.^ set down their impressions in diaries, let- After forcing General Joseph Hooker to retreat at the battle of Chancellorsville, Lee COLONEL William Colvill boldly seized the opportunity to invade the North and marched through the Shenan­ doah Valley into Pennsylvania. The Army of the Potomac followed northward, keep­ ing east of Lee's forces in order to protect Baltimore and Washington. The First Min­ nesota formed part of the Second Division of General Winfield S. Hancock's Second Corps, which was the last unit of the Union army to start north. One of the men who made the march was Sergeant James A. Wright, who had been before he enlisted a student at Ham- hne University, then located in Red Wing. In the history of Company F which he was to set down later, Wright described the be­ ginning of the trek from Vffginia: "It was one of the heart-breaking marches of our

'Kenneth P. Wilfiams, Lincoln Finds a Gener­ al: A Military Study of the Civil War, 2:720 721 (New York, 1949). ''For a general account of the regiment, see Wflfiam Lochren, "Narrative of the First Regi­ ment," in Minnesota in the Civil and Indian Wars, 1:1-48 (St. Paul, 1890). A more recent study is John Q. Imholte, The First 'Volunteers: History of the First Minnesota Volunteer Regiment, 1861- 1S6S (Minneapofis, 1963).

246 MINNESOTA Histonj A column of Union soldiers halted for a rest during a long march experience and many men wilted in the obscured everything, at a distance of 200 or scorching heat and dust like mown grass. 300 yards. For a time we were allowed to . . . There were a number of cases of fatal proceed in peace, then a series of desultory, sunstroke, and some dying almost as quickly nagging attacks began on the flanks and as if struck by a bullet in a vital part. All of rear — first at one point, then another. the ambulances were filled with helpless These were made by mounted men who at­ men and those left behind were coming in tacked suddenly; galloping out of the en­ all of the first part of the night." ^ shrouding fog and mist, firing a volley or On June 20 a young corporal, Charles E. two and riding away again into the blend­ Goddard, wrote to his mother in Winona ing clouds of smoke and vapor; or behind a with typical understatement: "Since I last sheltering hill or grove, as soon as they wrote we have been doing some 'tall' march­ met a return fire. . . . Twice our regiment ing. There has been no less than 70 men shifted its formation from a marching col­ fell dead out of this Corps . . . caused by umn to a line of battle and hurried to the hard marching and excessive heat."* support of the skirmishers, but it never got Along the way the Union troops were har­ near enough to [General J.E.B.] Stuart's assed by skirmishers on their flanks. Ser­ nimble horsemen to fire a shot. geant Wright remembered that on the "[Later] they used artillery for the first morning of June 25 firing began at daylight. time that morning. From a hfll on our right, "Arrangements were made to repel attackf: as we marched, they fired in rapid succes­ from the rear or flanks, and the march be­ sion obliquely across the line of march. The gan," he wrote. "It was not exactly raining, column was halted and some regiments de­ but the air was surcharged with a descend­ tached to go after them, and meantime their ing moisture that saturated our clothing and fire continued. Several of their shells were sufficiently depressed to do damage and one of them struck the hind legs of Col. 'Wright, "The Story of Company F, the First Regiment," 538, in the Minnesota Historical Socie­ Colvill's horse, tumbling man and horse into ty. This history, written between 1909 and 1911, the muddy road. Fortunately the colonel was based in part on Wright's diaries and letters to was able to clear his feet from the stirrups his mother. After the war he moved to Massachu­ and quick-witted enough to roll out of the setts. * Goddard's letters are in the Orrin F. Smith and way of the struggling animal. He got to his Family Papers, in the Minnesota Historical Society. feet without suffering any serious injury, Goddard returned to Minnesota after the war and but he was well-plastered with a coatffig of died in 1868, shortly after his election to the office of register of deeds for Winona County. dull red, Virginia mud." When the column

June 1963 247 moved forward again, Colvill "with some — and a bullet had passed through it from of his personal effects across his arm . . . the right temple to a point above the left was in his place at the head of the regiment ear. There was nothing to indicate the and continued the march on foot."^ color of the unfform he had worn." '^ The weather remained hot and sultry, In spite of the hardships of the march, with occasional rain. The men were called the morale of the enlisted men remained out at daybreak and stood in line ready to high. Private Goddard wrote to his march soon after breakfast. Wright de­ widowed mother, thanking her for a pair scribed their appearance on June 27: "Our of kid gloves she had sent: "they was most clothing was wet and spattered and smeared to large, but that dose not make much dif­ with mahogany colored mud. The moisture, ference for I can ware them any how. . . . the sand, and the sharp stones of the road, We have heard here that the Rebs are up which the wheels of the artillery and the in Chambersburg [Pennsylvania] and most [wagon] trains had broken up badly, had all of the boys rejoic at the news, saying been very destructive to shoe leather. Men that it will hunt out some of those skinks who had left the Rappahannock twelve days in Pa." 8 before, with new shoes on their feet, were now practically bare-footed; and there ON JUNE 26 the Second Division reached were quite a number with feet so badly the Potomac River. Shortly after noon the bruised or blistered that they walked like First Minnesota climbed the heights on foundered horses." Wright also described the Virginia side, from which spot Wright their equipment: "Each soldier carried a observed "Troops and trains . . . massed rifle which, with bayonet &c. weighed about down by the river, crossing and chmbing 11 pounds. Also 100 rounds of ammunition, the hills on the other shore." As the after­ knapsack, haversack, canteen, coffee pot noon wore on, the aggregation of troops and whatever cooking utensils he had; his by the river diminished, and finaUy it was blanket, tent cloth, rubber [sheet], all extra the turn of the Second Division. Just before clothing and whatever else he might have — dark the men "took arms [and] passed writing paper, envelopes, keepsakes or a down the hill." book . . . full 40 pounds."^ Wright set down a graphic description The Fffst had a day of rest in northern of the scene: "As it grew dark the pontoon Virginia and, like ordinary tourists. Colonel men lighted torches, simflar to those used Colvffl, his orderly, and Sergeant Wright at the [steam] boat landings on the Missis­ went to look at the nearby battlefield of Bull sippi ... at the ends of the bridges. The Run, where, in July, 1861, the regiment had sun went down behind banks of clouds and seen its first combat. The Union army had it was scarcely dark before a thunderstorm fought a second engagement there in Au­ broke over us and we were drenched with gust, 1862, in which the First did not par­ . . . ice-cold water . . . peals of thunder ticipate. Wright found the battlefield a grim shook the hills. ... [In flashes of hghtning] sight. "Many of the dead had not been bur­ the marching column could be seen, with ied for some days . . . and then covered heads bowed to the wind, moving slowly where they lay; and even this had not been done with overmuch care, and we fre­ 'Wright, "Company F," 548. quently saw partly exposed skeletons, where »Wright, "Company F," 552, 558. the washing of the rain or rooting of the 'Wright, "Company F," 545. hogs had uncovered them. On a recently 'Goddard to his mother, June 20, 1863, Smith Papers. Spelfing, punctuation, and capitaUzation of cut stump some grim jester had set a skull, the original manuscripts have been reproduced as if in mockery of a real sentry. Much of throughout. Occasionally letters and words have the skin was still on it — dried and shrunken been suppfied within brackets, or paragraphs created for the sake of readability.

248 MINNESOTA History A Union soldier hangs out his washing while on the march

over the heaving pontoons across the storm- Sergeant Matthew Mar\in, a twentv-two- swept river." ^ year-old leather store clerk from ^^^inona, The troops were pleased to be ui Mary­ was also glad to be in MaI•^ land. He wi-ote land. ^^'rigllt remembered: "As we got far­ in his diary: "Their is some fun in Soldier­ ther awa\' from the banks of the Potomac ing in a countiy like this wdiare the citizens . . . tliere was a different expression of are at least half humane The country is feeling towai'ds us. . . . Flags, handker­ thickly settled is well wattered & plenty of chiefs, aprons and sun-bonnets were wa\ed timber [.]"" from windows, door-steps, and front-yard On June 30 the Second Division was fences. ... a little later, when we made again given a day of rest, a welcome relief a short halt, women and children came after the two weeks of marching, during with baskets of buttered bread and real which it had covered more than 150 miles. dougnuts, pails of water and jugs of but- Sergeant Marvin noted on that date: "^^'e termflk." i" was Mustered to day for Ma\- & June for Pay . . . Finished the Pav Rolls &: niad[e] " Wricrht, "Comptmy F," 552. Monthly report. For a wiiteing desk we '"Wright, "Company F," 561. " Mar\ in Diar\-, June 30, 1863, in Marvin Papers, used Knapsacks & for cliau"s we sit on the Minnesota Historical Societ\'. All quotations are ground 6c leaned back against the fence from his unbound 'Memorandiun and di;iry notes." & Laved two rails on the fence to keep oft" After die Wiir Mar\in returned to ^\"inona, where he died in 1903. the Rain."

June 1963 249 The First, dirty, ragged, and footsore, vania. Marvin's entry for July 1 continued: was on the northward march again about "At dark we formed our line of battle about eight o'clock on the morning of July 1. The 4 miles south of Gettysburg. Three times regiment passed through Taneytown, near we got permission to have fires & twice the Maryland-Pennsylvania border, and they wer put out four times we made late in the afternoon the men became aware coffee & thi-ee times we threw it away that the long-awaited battle was in prog­ packed up & fell in at last the order ress ahead. They could see smoke and hear came to build brestworks that we should the boom of artillery. Marvin recorded: stay all nite we wer not allowed to burn "About 4 o clock we began to see teams & a rail & their was No wood so we pulled teamstirs Soldiers & Straglers mostly of the splinters & Bark off the rails." elevanth Corps they set all sorts of ru­ mors afloat in the collume of Batteries ALTHOUGH the men of the Fffst Minne­ taken & lost[,] of whole Brigades lost & sota do not seem to have credited the re­ captured & that they had seen over sixty ports, Union forces had suffered a sharp dead Cavalryman aU their rumors of defeat on July 1, when Confederate troops, bard fought battles went into one ear & moving down from the northeast and north- out at the other the 2d Corps has Soldiered to[o] long to believe all they herd from ^''The half moon or crescent was the insignia of the half moon." ^^ General Oliver O. Howard's Eleventh Corps, which was held in low esteem because of its conduct at Sometime late in the day the regiment ChancellorsviUe. See Lochren, in Civil and Indian crossed the border into southern Pennsyl­ Wars, 1:31, 34. THE army making a crossing hy means of pontoon bridges

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I'-./r- west, had forced them out of the town of village of St. Charles in Winona County, Gettysburg. During the night, however, wrote to his family: "we had a full view of division after division of Northern troops the field. . . . From our front the ground came marching up toward Gettysburg from sloped some sixty rods to a ravffie wooded the south, and by the next afternoon Gen­ with small trees and brush; beyond was a eral Meade was strongly entrenched on plain three fourths of a mile in width and Cemetery Ridge. Early on July 2 the First about two miles long." ^* Minnesota, along with the rest of the Sec­ From this vantage point the men had an ond Corps, moved onto the ridge in the excellent view of the fruitless attempts of center of the Union hne facing west toward General Daniel E. Sickles' exposed Third Lee's divisions deployed on Seminary Corps to halt the advancing Confederate Ridge, a little more than three-quarters of line. a mile away. The First was placed in re­ Private Muller recalled: "In our front serve just behind the line. about a mfle from us we could see som "We stacked arms with Orders to remain troops fithing [fighting] and very soon we near the stacks . . . their was a smart see that our troops give avay and were re- skffmish in the morning the pickets kept triting in our Direction but not in a disor­ up a brisk fireing untile about noon," noted derly condition but wiel [while] they Marvin, adding laconically, "their was a we [re] retriting they kupt up a staty great deal of artillery fireing which a good [steady] fire and not a man cum faster shair hug[g]ed us rather close." than a walk." ^^ Private Charles Muller, an Alsatian im­ Later, however, a fresh division of enemy migrant from St. Paul, remembered later: troops attacked, and the Third Corps re­ "we could hear some canone firing in our treated in disorder, running to the rear with front and some Chells went over our heads, their wounded men and flags past and but wery soon some of tham Rested through the lines of the Minnesota regiment. [busted] in our front and som of our man Rehind the retreating troops, wrote Car­ were badly wounded, it is quit a pecurial penter, "The Rebs came in two splendid filhng [feeling] for a man to stand there on lines, firing as they advanced, capturing Levell Ground for 3 or 4 hours and be shod one of our batteries, which they turned at all that time and not being able to de­ against us, and gained the cover of the ra­ fend yourseff." ^^ vine. The plain was strewed with dead and In the afternoon the Fffst Minnesota was dying men. The Rebs had advanced theff called up to the line to support an artillery batteries and were hurling death and de­ battery. The men now found themselves struction into the ranks of our retreating on shghtly higher ground. Sergeant Alfred men. They were nearing the hill, which if P. Carpenter, who had enhsted at the lfftle gained, the day was lost to us."

" Muller, "History written by Charles Muller of AT THIS POINT recollections of the battle Company A First Minnesota Regiment," 7, in the become vague, contradictory, and confus­ Minnesota Historical Society. Mufier's reminis­ ing. The traditional account of the First's cences of the battle were jotted down some time after 1897. Following the war he worked as a role is given by William Lochren, a lieu­ stonecutter in St. Paul, where he died in 1925. tenant in the regiment.^" He says that the "Carpenter, Letter about the Battle of Gettys­ 262 men of the First Minnesota constituted burg, July 30, 1863 (typewritten copy) in the Min­ the only organized force near enough to nesota Historical Society. The original was (1936) in the family of A. B. Carpenter, Dover, Minnesota. stop the Confederate advance. Additional Carpenter was later assigned to Florida and died reserves were coming on the run, but Gen­ there of yellow fever in September, 1864. eral Hancock believed it imperative that "= Muller, "History," 8. "Lochren, in Civil and Indian Wars, 1:35. the enemy be held for five minutes or so

June 1963 251 L>: ^„«.-....r:;

GENERAL Hancock ordering the fatuous charge of the First Minnesota, as pictured by a veteran of the regiment until the fresh troops arrived. "Hancock able time, and until our reserves appeared spurred to where we stood, calling out, as on the ridge we had left." he reached us, 'What regiment is this?' Lochren suggests that the ferocity of the 'First Minnesota,' replied ColviU. 'Charge charge had paralyzed the enemy; otherwise those hnes!' commanded Hancock." their greater numbers would easily have Lochren maintains that every man in the been overwhelming. "Although they poured regiment knew the charge would be sui­ upon us a terrible and continuous fire from cidal, but they understood the necessity for the front and enveloping flanks, they kept the sacrifice and responded to Colvill's or­ at respectful distance from our bayonets ders immediately. Down the slope they until, before the added fire of our fresh swept toward the center of the enemy's reserves, they began to retire, and we were line. "No hesitation, no stopping to fire, ordered back. . . . The regiment had though the men fell fast at every stride stopped the enemy, and held back its before the concentrated fire of the whole mighty force and saved the position." ^^ Confederate force. . . . Silently, without Matthew Marvin, who was wounded orders, and, almost from the start, double- early in the charge, described the action quick had changed to utmost speed; for in with his usual conciseness: "at 6 o clock utmost speed lay the only hope that any the battle had went hard with boath sides of us would pass through that storm of lead & I think that if either had the worse of it and strike the enemy. 'Charge!' shouted was ours. Our divis[io]n was called in un­ Colvill, as we neared their first line; and der a sharp artillery fire after deploying with leveled bayonets, at full speed, we we layed down whare the rebs shelled us rushed upon it; fortunately, as it was slight­ rite smart. Their coUums wer advancing ly disordered in crossing a dry brook at the splendedly they [kept] a good line witb foot of a slope. The men were never made who will stand against leveled bayonets " Lochren says that 262 men made the charge. Other accounts give different figures. Mr. Imholte coming with such momentum and evident estimates that 335 men were involved. {The First desperation. The first line broke in our Volunteers, 116.) The traditional figure for the front as we reached it, and rushed back number of casualties is 215 kfiled and wounded, through the second line, stopping the whole or eighty-two per cent, which some historians have claimed as a record for the Union army in the entire advance. We then poured in our first fire, war. See for example Bruce Catton, The Army of and availing ourselves of such shelter as the Potomac: Glory Road, 300 (New York, 1952). the low banks of the dry brook afforded, Mr. Imholte (p. 121) befieves that casualties ranged between 160 and 173, with from 38 to 51 held the entire force at bay for a consider­ kiUed and 122 wounded.

252 MINNESOTA History not any perceptiable confusion at last down then I begin to see for my friends the time came & we went in on the charge but the most of them have gone or wer shot the two armies wer not over 500 Yds down then I started to run out of it to[o] apart we had not fired a musket & the but wen I got out on the fi[e]ld the enemis rebs were fireing rappedly I drop[p]ed flanks had so mush advanzed that the[y] to the ground with a wound some whar wer only about 50 yards apart and I had I picked my self up as quick as possible to go troubt [through] ther[e] and just as when I saw blood on my shoe the heel of [I] went trought [through] that point a which was tore out I thought it a slight man from my left dit rais[e] his gun and one & run to ketch up thinking that no point at me and fired and hit me in my rebel line could stand a charg[e] of my right t[h]igli but as it hap[p]en did not Regt & if the Bayonet must be used I Brok my boon [bone] so I Kupt on run- wanted a chance in as it was free to all nig up to the open fi[e]ld in a zflcsak I had just ketched up when I fell a second way." When Muller regained his own line, time to[o] Faint to get up." After resting the captain detailed a man to take him to a while, Marvin managed to crawl to the the hospital area, which "was about a mil rear and was helped to the hospital area. in the rear of our Line in a nice aple Gar­ Private Muller was also wounded in the ten and was a nice spring." ^^ charge, but not so early in the action. In Sergeant Carpenter was wounded twice later life he recalled that his company had at Gettysburg, although he did not mention advanced only about thirty yards when the the fact in the letter he wrote to his Winona enemy opened fire. Colvill, according to County family on July 30. This is his ac­ Muller, ordered a double-quick march and count of the charge: "Then came the order the men went forward on the run. A bri­ for the 2nd Division of the 2nd Corps to gade on their left broke and fled to the advance. The hill must be held at all haz­ rear, but the Minnesotans ran forward as ards. We advanced down the slope till we fast as they could in order to reach the neared the ravine, and 'Charge' rung along Confederates before they had time to re­ the line, and with a rush and a yell we load their rifles. Muller's account continues: went. Bullets whistled past us; shells "We run up on to them to within 4 yards screached over us; canister and grape fell w[h]en we begin to fire our first shod and about US; comrade after comrade dropped then we went at them with our Bayonets from the ranks; but on the line went. . . . and thos[e] in our front began to Run, but We were nearing the Rebel line, and in a as thire [their] Line was mush longer than moment more we would have been at it ours theyr wings dit advance and cam to hand to hand. Two regiments on our right our rear." Then, he added, someone com­ faltered and subjected us to a flank fire, manded the men of the First to retreat. and we were ordered back, leaving our "I remember that after I fired the first dead within a few rods of the Rebel line. shot," Muller went on, "I stood bihind a Then forward we went again and the Rebs Brush and reloded my Gun and as I were routed, and the bloody field was in was redy to fire I just stapt [stepped] to our possession; but at what a cost! The the right of the Brush when a [Confeder­ ground was strewed with dead and dying, ate] coller [color] sargent cam up on the whose groans and prayers and cries for other sid of the Brush and calld for the oth- help and water rent the air. The sun had er[s] to folow him and just as [he] dit so gone down and in the darkness we hur­ and move his flag I held my gun up to him ried, stumbled over the field in search of and fired wen the pure [poor] man fell our fallen companions, and when the living were cared for, laid ourselves down on the ground to gain a little rest." >'Muller, "History," 11-13.

June 1963 253 THE FATE of the regiment was a matter he had heard twice from the regiment dur­ of severe concern to the men of Company ing the night and the loss was very great." F, detached for special service just before As soon as it became fairly light, the the Confederates rushed Cemetery Ridge. company was called up and marched along The company had been ordered to skirmish the rear of the line, past weary, sleepy sol­ for a body of sharpshooters which had diers. Then "we found Capt. [Nathan] S. taken cover in the bushes and fences across Messick, of Company G with the colors the hollow. As the Confederate attack in­ and what was left of the regiment." Colonel creased, the position of Company F became Colvill had been severely wounded and untenable and it was ordered to retire to many other field officers were either in­ the top of the ridge, ^^^right, the historian jured or dead. Messick was in command of of the company, recalled: "Capt. [John] the regiment, though only temporarfly, for Ball was very anxious to take the company he himseff was killed later in the day. and go to find the regiment . . . and asked Wright noted that the men had not been permission to leave the line for that pur­ separated long, "but the greetings were as pose. This was denied, with a promise that sincere and earnest as if oceans had divided he could go in the morning. ... all were us and years had elapsed." ^^ weary and hungry — for very little had been eaten since early morning and it was THE SMALL REMNANT of the regiment about 10 o'clock. Men had already made returned to its position in the brigade on httle fires and were making coffee . . . the crest of Cemetery Ridge. Though the [Our supper consisted of] coffee, brown morning of July 3 was comparatively quiet, sugar, crackers and fat, salt pork, with there was intermittent rifle and artillery every man his own cook. . . . Then we fire; some shells landed uncomfortably laid down in line, with our rifles beside close. Sergeant Wright described the posi­ Wounded men were coming in all us. tion. "We were on the slope of the hill fac­ the time and men were going out frequent­ ing the enemy. . . . We gathered rails, ly to search for others. stones, sticks, brush &c. which we piled in "About this time Sergt. Hamline [Plnlip front of us; loosened the dirt with our bay­ Hamlin, who had been sent to find the onets and scooped it onto these with our regiment and ask for orders] returned and tin plates and onto this we placed our knap­ told Capt. Ball that he had found only a sacks and blankets. Altogether it made a few men of the regiment and it was be­ barricade from 18 inches to 2 feet high that lieved the rest were all killed or captured. would protect against rifle bullets. . . . This was indeed depressing news, and at About this time the discovery was made first almost stunned us, though we were ex­ that we had had no breakfast, that can­ pecting bad news. teens were empty, and that we were hun­ "It was a beautiful summer night, the gry. Details were sent with canteens to get moon was shining serenely, obscured occa­ water, and when these returned coffee was sionally by fleecy clouds that drifted across made. . . . After an examination of our the sky. . . . Lying on the ground, with rifles and ammunition, which each man was my head on my knapsack, I got two or told to make and refill his box from the three hours of sleep, when firing . . . extra ones we carried, we laid down behind awoke me. It was just coming daylight. A the little shelters we had made and went little in the rear of where the boys lay on to sleep." ^^ the ground, Capt. Ball was walking back Sergeant John W. Plummer, a young sol­ and forth. I went to him and he said that dier from Hennepin County, wrote to his he had been there for some time; as he had " Wright, "Company F," 599-602. been unable to sleep for thinking. Said that "" Wright, "Company F," 604.

254 MINNESOTA History brother: "Most of us got some coffee during even more vivid. "The enemy's line of ar­ the forenoon, by going one or two at a tillery was soon marked by banks of white time back to the rear, where they were vapor, from beneath which tongues of fire allowed fires and cooking, which of course were incessantly darting; and the position greatly refreshed us. A man's appetite gen­ of the Union line . . . was wreathed in erally, during a battle, is not very voracious. flame and smoke, with the latter drifting About half past twelve o'clock, as we had over us in whirling clouds. . . . There was gathered around one of our Lieuts. to hear an incessant, discordant flight of shells, the yesterday's Baltimore Clipper read, seemingly in and from all directions; howl­ bang! comes one of their shells over us, strik­ ing, shrieking, striking, exploding, tearing, ing about twenty yards from us." ^^ smashing and destroying. . . . The ground This was the beginning of the unforget­ was torn up, fences and trees knocked to table artillery duel between the two armies. splinters, rocks and small stones were flying The hundreds of field pieces firing at each in the air, ammunition boxes and caissons other literally shook the ground. Sergeant were exploded . . . guns were dismounted Carpenter described the barrage in the let­ and men and horses were torn in pieces. ter to his family. "All at once the guns . . . We had been badly scared many opened and from morn till middle of after­ times before this but never quite so badly noon it raged with terrific violence. Flat as then." ^^ upon the ground we lay, while the vertical rays of the July sun rendered the heat al­ WHEN the fire of the Union guns finally most intolerable. To rise up was almost slackened. Carpenter wrote that the men certain death, while flat upon the ground were afraid the guns had been silenced by we were tolerable well protected. the Confederate fire. "We sprang to our "The Rebels could not injure us much feet and could then see what was up. On except by bursting shells in the air in front the opposite slope a long line of Rebel in­ of us, and as their object was to silence fantry was advancing, while a short dis­ our batteries they did us little damage, tance behind them was a second line as a though shot and shell flew over us in such support." The great advance of fifteen rapid succession that it was impossible to thousand Confederate troops known as count them, and very near to our bodies at "Pickett's Charge" had begun. times, one shell actually tearing the knap­ Carpenter's account continues: "Almost sack from a man's back as he lay face instantly our whole line bristled with fresh downward. . . . The noise it produced, artillery which opened upon the enemy the whistling of solid shot; the screaching making terrible havoc in their ranks. Wide of shells; the bursting of spherical case; gaps were opened but were immediately the explosion of cassions; the roar of the closed and [the] line came on in splendid pieces is indescribable. . . . Now a order, down the slope, across the plain, wounded man attempts to go back to a over the ravine and are now half way up hospital and perhaps is cut down before the hfll towards us. We had watched them he can gain the rear of the ridge fifteen rods all this while with the utmost impatience, behind us. A case of sunstroke and his com­ scarcely able to restrain our fire, though rades start to carry him off; perhaps one of knowing that at such a distance it would their number is looped off; perhaps all pass be comparatively harmless. They are now uninjured." within musket range and our infantry Wright's recollection of the barrage was open; men stagger from their ranks by scores, hundreds, thousands, but on they "- Plummer's letter was printed in the State Atlas come like an inrolling wave of the sea." (Minneapofis), August 26, 1863. '= Wright, "Company F," 608. James Wright recalled that the Union in-

June 1963 255 fantry fire was dffected at the feet of the Later Muller learned about the outcome Confederate soldiers, "which was about all of the day's fighting from some of his com­ we could see of them at the time, as all rades. "That same Evening som of our above their knees was covered with the wounded cam in and tholt [told] us how smoke from then- own guns." The head of the day went, and said Boys today we paid the Rebel charge broke through a stone the Rebles back for wat they have don to us wall. The First Minnesota with the rest of yesterday." ^° the brigade was thrown against the flank Sergeant Hamlin of Company F had of the attacking Southern troops. In been killed in the day's fighting. After the Wright's words: "It was a grand rush to wounded had been taken to the surgeon, get there in the quickest time, without the rest of the company made fires in the much regard to the manner of it — and we gathering darkness and prepared some­ knew very well what we were there for — thing to eat. Wright recalled that "as we and proceeded to business without cere­ drank our coffee we decided to bury Ham­ mony. Closing in on them with a rush and line that night. Search was made for a a cheer; there was shooting stabbing and spade and after some time a shovel was clubbing, for there was no time to reload, found. With this a shallow trench was dug and then the bloody work was over. . . . beside a walnut tree, near which he had we rushed for the low wall where the break been killed, struck by four bullets. His had been made, and very quickly all who blanket and tent-cloth were spread in it, had passed it were killed, captured or had he was then laid upon them and covered fled." 23 with the remaining portions. Then those Carpenter wrote that desperate fighting present knelt in silence about him, with continued for about two hours. "Men fell uncovered bowed heads. . . . Then we about us unheeded, unnoticed. . . . Our covered him over with the dirt and stones muskets became so heated we could no we had thrown out of the trench and longer handle them. We dropped them and placed at his head a board, on which his picked up those of the wounded. Our car­ name, company and regiment, had been tridges gave out. We rifled the boxes of the marked." ^^ dead." The din was so great, said Carpen­ ter, that "many of the men became deaf, THAT NIGHT the men of the First Min­ and did not recover their hearing for a day nesota slept again on the ground, in the or two." line, with their rifles beside them. July 4 Private Muller spent July 3 in a hospital was gray, hot, and oppressive. It was In­ established near a low stone fence which dependence Day, but as Alfred Carpenter ran along the Baltimore Turnpike. Across pointed out, it was celebrated "in a manner the road was a clover field. He recalled different from ever before. We did not that "in the afternoon som 20 or 30 ambu­ cram the good things of life for we were lances cum up . . . wit orders to clear our out of rations. A piece of bread which a hospital out as fast as posible becaus the Rebel prisoner gave me was very accept­ Eneme is consentrating its artilery to fire able." in that direction. I shuld think the ambu­ James Wright recalled that burying the lances dit tak about 35 or 40 man in the dead was the only duty performed by the first load and the[y] just started when regiment that day. About noon a light the[y] becan to troe shell and ball in our drizzle began which increased during the direction and in a bout H an hour that clover fild on the other sid of Baltimor -"'Wright, "Company F," 611. Turnpike dit look as if it had bin ^^ Muller, "History," [15]. ^Muller, "History," [16]. plouhd." 2* "^ Wright, "Company F," 616.

256 MINNESOTA History •; :/.:/.,.' /

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afternoon. Some men in Company F were SO thick that there is barely room to get so tired that they slept for hours unshel­ arround with waiter or grub. All though tered in the falling rain. Toward night the the country is thickly settled their has not men found some muddy water to make cof­ as yet been a citizan here. They are not so fee and ate the bits of hardtack remaining liberal here in southeran Penn as in Md. in their haversacks.2" They charge here $2.00 per Bushell for Private Marvin, in the hospital area corn $1 per Loaf for Bread 20 cts per Qt which had been established about two of Milk." miles in the rear, noted: "this is a gloomy The next day he noted: "We got some 4th for us. Bandages played out & one of of our drum Corps to move us back on the the Dr. went out to the Farmers & asked hill under the Fly of a tent out of the hor- for Old sheets shirts & pillow slips they riable Stanch that arises from the little told him they had plenty to sell but none pudles of blood & from the wounds a to give away whareupon he went to the number of the boys have got their cloths beds & pufled of[f] the sheets & slips full of magots." Another six days passed & told them to shell out or he would take before Marvin was transferred from the the best he could find." battlefield to a hospital in Baltimore. On July 5 Marvin wrote: "To day their On the. afternoon of July 4 Lee had be­ has been all most an endlis train of Ambu­ gun the withdrawal of his army from lances al[l] bringing in the rebell wounded. Northern territory. Next day the Army of Ours are aU off the Field. We are Laying the Potomac started in pursuit. Sergeant Wright recalled that his company had no " Wright, "Company F," 630, 632. rations left that day, and in the morning ='Wright, "Company F," 638. a few men were sent out to forage for food. =» Wright, "Company F," 638. In February, 1864, the First Minnesota was ordered back to its own About noon they returned with some loaves state. After many ovations along the route, it of bread, biscuit, and part of a cheese.^^ reached Fort SneUing, where it was quartered until Orders came to prepare to march. The April. Most of the men were then mustered out, their three-year term of service having expired. supply wagons arrived about two o'clock Many, however, re-enHsted at once in the First Bat­ and the men drew rations of coffee, sugar, talion Minnesota Infantry Volunteers and served hardtack, and salt pork. Carpenter noted through the rest of the war, being present when Lee surrendered at Appomattox. that there was plenty for all, because "we drew for three hundred and had only one THE DRAWINGS on pages 247, 249, 250, and 257 hundred to eat them." It was raining at are from a collection by Edwin Forbes, pubfished under the title Life Studies of the Great Army {New three o'clock when all that was left of the York, 1876). The painting on page 252 is by Josias First Minnesota marched off, over slippery, King. These and the illustrations on pages 245 and muddy roads, to pursue the Confederate 246 are a part of the picture collection of the Min­ nesota Historical Society. army for two more bitter years.-^

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