Martial Deeds of Pennsylvania, Samuel P. Bates, 1876 - Part 1, Chapter 13, 298-
312
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MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA
by
SAMUEL P. BATES.
PHILADELPHIA: T. H. DAVIS & CO., 1876.
MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 298
PART I. GENERAL HISTORY.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE FINAL STRUGGLE AT GETTYSBURG.
SINCE the Union army had come into its present position, on the evening of the
1st of July, the rebel leader had exerted his utmost efforts to put it to rout.
He had, with much skill and daring, attempted, first to break the left flank and
gain that commanding ground. With equal pertinacity, he had striven to break
and hold the left centre. On the right centre he had made a bold, yea, reckless
attack, with some of the most daring troops in his army. Finally, he had sent
the major part of a corps to fall upon the extreme right, where he made an
entrance, and for more than twelve hours held it. But in all these operations
he had been foiled, and for all the extravagant waste of the strength of his
army, he had no substantial advantage to show. Unless he could strike his
antagonist at some vital point, and send home the shaft, the battle to him was
hopelessly lost, and he would no longer be able to remain on Northern soil. To
stand on the defensive, or attempt to manoeuvre in presence of a victorious foe,
would be fatal; for he had no supplies except what he foraged for.
He accordingly determined to hazard all on one desperate throw. He had one
division, that of Pickett of Longstreet's corps, which had not yet been in the
fight, having just come up to the front from Chambersburg. This, with other of
the freshest and best of his troops, he determined to mass on his right centre,
opposite the point where Wright's brigade had, the night before, made so gallant
a charge on Humphreys' division, and, after having disposed all the artillery he
could use to advantage on the two miles of line from which he would concentrate
its fire.
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and had subjected the fatal spot on the Union line to a terrific cannonade, to
hurl this mass of living valor upon that scourged, and as he hoped, shattered
front, with the expectation of breaking through by the weight and power of the
shock. To this end, artillery was brought up from the reserve and from his
extreme left. The infantry was likewise gathered in, Pickett's division having
a place between Anderson's and Heth's of Hill's corps, Hill being charged with
supporting Pickett when the time of action should come, and Longstreet over all.
On the Union side, the space from which artillery could be used was much
shorter than that which the enemy held, and hence a proportionately less number
of pieces was brought into play. On the right, commencing with Cemetery Hill
was Manor Ossborne with the batteries of Ricketts, Weiderick, Dilger, Bancroft,
Eakin, Wheeler, Hill, and Taft. But few of these, however, from their location,
could be used to advantage. Next him, directly in front of Meade's
headquarters, commencing at Zeigler's Grove and extending south along Hancock's
front, was Major Hazzard with the batteries of Woodruff, Arnold, Cushing, Brown,
and Rosty. Still further to the left, reaching down to the low ground where, by
training the guns obliquely to the right, a raking fire could be delivered on
the assaulting lines, were the batteries of Thomas, Thompson, Phillips, Hart,
Sterling, Rock, Cooper, Dow, and Ames, under Major McGilvray. Away to the left,
on the summit of Little Round Top, were those of Gibbs and Rittenhouse. "We had
thus," says General Hunt, Chief of artillery, "on the western crest line,
seventy-five guns, which could be aided by a few of those on Cemetery Hill."
From eighty to ninety guns were hence in position for effective service. Later
when the enemy's infantry charged, Fitzhugh's, Parson's, Weir's, Cowan's, and
Daniel's batteries were brought up to reinforce the line and take the place of
disabled and unservicable guns. Of infantry, there was the division of Robinson
of the First corps at Zeigler's Grove, and to his left were the divisions of
Hays and Gibbon of the Second corps, and that of Doubleday of the First corps.
Still farther to the left, were Caldwell of the Second corps, and parts of the
Third, Fifth and Sixth corps.
At about one o'clock P. M., the enemy, having perfected all his
MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 300
plans, made the attack. Silence, for more than two hours, had reigned, when, of
a sudden, 150 guns were run to the front. No sooner were they planted and
sighted, than from their mouths tongues of flame leaped forth throughout the
whole lurid circumference, and the ground rocked as in the throes of an
earthquake. For an instant, the air was filled with a hissing, bursting, fiery
cloud, and a torrent, as if suddenly let loose in mid-sky, hitherto all glorious
and serene, descended, in its death-dealing mission, upon the long lines of the
living crouched below. Nor was it the casual dash of a fitful April day; but in
steady torrents it descended. The Union guns were not unprepared, and from
eighty brazen throats the response was made, in tones
"That mocked the deep-mouthed thunder."
The Union infantry officers had cautioned their men to hug closely the earth
and to take shelter behind every object which could afford them protection, well
knowing that this cannonade was only the prelude to an infantry attack. The
enemy's infantry was out of harm's reach. But notwithstanding every precaution
was taken to shelter the Union troops, the destruction was terrible. Men were
torn limb from limb, and blown to atoms by the villainous shells. Horses were
disembowelled, and thrown prostrate to writhe in death agonies. Caissons,
filled with ammunition, were exploded, cannon rent, and steel-banded gun-
carriages knocked into shapeless masses. Solid shot, Whitworth, chain shot,
shrapnell, shells, and every conceivable missile known to the dread catalogue of
war's art, were ceaselessly hurled upon that devoted ground. Major Harry T. Lee
relates an incident that occurred while lying prostrate near General Doubleday,
whose aid he was, which illustrates the indifference with which one long
schooled in military duty may come to look upon the most appalling dangers. The
General, having been busy manoeuvring his troops, had had no dinner. He had
already had two horses killed, and having thrown himself upon the ground, had
pulled from his pocket a sandwich, which he was about to eat, when a huge
missile from one of the enemy's guns struck the ground within a few feet of his
head, deluging his sandwich with sand. Coolly turning to the Major,
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he remarked, "That sandwich will need no pepper," and immediately proceeded with
his lunch.
Scarcely had the battle opened, ere the powerful missiles began to fall in the
very midst of the little farmhouse, where General Meade had made his
headquarters. As the shots began to strike about him, the General came to the
door and told the staff who were in waiting, that the enemy manifestly had the
range of his quarters, and that they had better go up the slope fifteen or
twenty yards to the stable. "Every size and form of shell," says Mr. Wilkinson,
in his correspondence from the field to the New York Times, "known to British
and American gunnery, shrieked, moaned, and whistled, and wrathfully fluttered
over our ground. As many as six in a second, constantly two in a second,
bursting and screaming over and around the headquarters, made a very hell of
fire that amazed the oldest officers. They burst in the yard--burst next to the
fence, on both sides garnished as usual with the hitched horses of aids and
orderlies. The fastened animals reared and plunged with terror. Then one fell,
then another. Sixteen lay dead and mangled before the fire ceased, still
fastened by their halters, which gave the impression of being wickedly tied up
to die painfully. These brute victims of cruel war touched all hearts. Through
the midst of the storm of screaming and exploding shells, an ambulance, driven
by its frenzied conductor at full speed, presented to all of us the marvellous
spectacle of a horse going rapidly on three legs. A hinder one had been shot
off at the hock. A shell tore up the little step at the headquarters cottage,
and ripped bags of oats as with a knife. Another soon carried off one of its
two pillars. Soon a spherical case burst opposite the open door. Another
ripped through the low garret. The remaining pillar went almost immediately to
the howl of a fixed shot that Whitworth must have made. During this fire, the
horses at twenty and thirty feet distance were receiving their death, and
soldiers in Federal blue were torn to pieces in the road, and died with the
peculiar yells that blend the extorted cry of pain with horror and despair."
For an hour and three-quarters this angry storm continued. During this space,
which seemed an age to the unhappy victims upon whom it beat, the enemy had
delivered a ceaseless fire.
MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 302
General Howe, an accomplished soldier, testifies: "I have never heard a more
furious cannonade, nor one where there was greater expenditure of ammunition on
both sides." The Union guns did not, however, continue to answer the whole time;
but, that the guns might have time to cool, and ammunition be saved for the
emergency which was sure to follow, the order was given to cease firing. "I
ordered them," says General Hunt, Chief of artillery, "commencing at the
Cemetery, to slacken their fire and cease it, in order to see what the enemy
were going to do, and also to be sure that we retained a sufficient supply of
ammunition to meet, what I then expected, an attack. At the same time,
batteries were ordered up to replace those guns which had been damaged, or which
had expended too much ammunition."
The enemy, perhaps interpreting this silence in part to the accuracy and
telling effect of his fire, soon after ordered his own to cease. And now was
discovered the indications of the part which his infantry was to play. Just in
front of the rebel fortified line, which was concealed from view by a curtain of
wood, a mass of infantry suddenly appeared, and were quickly marshalled in
battle array. Pickett's fresh division was formed in two lines, Kemper and
Garnett leading, supported by Armistead, with Wilcox and Perry of Hill's corps
upon his right, so disposed as to protect his flank, and Pettigrew commanding
Heth's division, and Trimble with two brigades of Pender, also of Hill's corps,
for a like purpose upon his left. Thus compactly formed, presenting as it were
three fronts, this powerful body, estimated at 18,000 men, moved forward to the
assault.
"Firm paced and slow a horrid front they form,
Still as the breeze but dreadful as the storm."
No obstacle intervened to prevent the sight of the enemy's formation and
advance by nearly the entire Union line, so that the dullest private, alike with
the General, saw plainly from the start the cloud that was gathering over him.
Each as he grasped his weapon, felt that the impact of that well-wrought and
high-tempered mass would be terrible. Was there strength enough in that thin
line against which it was hurrying, to withstand the dreadful shock, and send it
back in fatal rebound?
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The position of that portion of Hays' troops, commencing near Bryan's well,
just south of Zeigler's Grove, was favorable for resistance. For a shelving
rock crops out along the ridge, three or four feet in height, looking towards
the Emmittsburg pike upon the crest of which, extending a quarter of a mile, is
a low stone fence composed of loose boulders, and behind this, affording very
good shelter, they were lying. To the left of Hays the fence makes a sharp
angle jutting out towards the pike, for a few rods, when the same low stone
fence, surmounted by a single rail, continues on towards the left along the
ridge which gradually falls away, and at the plain it is met by a post-and-rail
fence, in front of which a slight rifle-pit had been thrown up. Commencing at
the angle and extending south was General Owen's brigade, now temporarily
commanded by General Webb, comprising the Sixty-ninth Pennsylvania, Owen's own,
- composed mostly of Irishmen, whose fighting qualities had been proved in many
desperate conflicts, and who had received the commendations of Kearney, and
Sumner, and Hooker, upon the Peninsula for their gallantry, - the Seventy-first,
originally recruited and led by the gallant Edward D. Baker, untimely cut off at
Ball's Bluff, since commanded by Wistar the friend and associate of Baker, and
now by Colonel R. Penn Smith; and the Seventy-second, Colonel Baxter. The two
former were upon the front; the latter held in reserve, in a second line just
under the hill to the rear. To the left of this brigade were Hall and Harrow,
and General Doubleday, who that day, in addition to Stone's (now Dana's), and
Rowley's, had Stannard's brigade of Vermont troops, of which the Thirteenth,
Fourteenth, and Sixteenth were present for duty. Doubleday had put the One
Hundred and Fifty-first Pennsylvania and the Twentieth New York State militia
upon the front, with the remainder in two lines in rear, except Stannard's men,
whom he had thrown out to a little grove several rods in advance of the whole
line, where they were disposed to resist a front attack.
As the rebel infantry began to move forward, its direction was such that
Pickett's centre would strike Stannard; but when half the distance had been
passed over, the column suddenly changed direction, and, moving by the left
flank till it had come opposite
MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 304
Owen's brigade, again changed front and moved forward. Whether this manoeuvre
was premeditated, or whether the discovery of Stannard's position, and strong
front, or the fire of the batteries away to the Union left, caused this veering
of the rebel line, is uncertain. Unfortunately fox the enemy, when he made this
turn, Wilcox, who commanded the right flanking column or wing, instead of moving
to the left with Pickett, kept straight on leaving Pickett's right uncovered,
and open to a flank attack. Fortunately for the Union side, Stannard was thrown
out a considerable distance in front, so that when Pickett came forward,
Stannard was precisely in the right place to deliver a telling fire full upon
Pickett's exposed flank. Unfortunately again for the enemy, Pettigrew's men,
who formed Pickett's left flanking column, were raw troops who were ill fitted
to stand before the storm which was to descend upon them, and had been
frightfully broken and dispirited in the first day's fight. But Pickett's own
men were of the best, and they moved with the mien of combatants worthy of the
steel they confronted, obedient to their leader's signal, and ready to go as far
as who goes farthest.
This infantry column had no sooner come within cannon range, than the
batteries to the right and left opened with solid shot, but, as it came nearer,
shells, shrapnell, and canister were poured upon it in unstinted measure. Never
was a grander sight beheld upon a battle-field than that of this devoted body of
men, unflinching in their onward march, though torn by the terrible fire of
artillery, and executing with the utmost precision the evolutions of the field.
As they came within musket range the Union infantry, who had reserved their
fire, poured it in with deadly effect. So decimated was the front line, that
for an instant it staggered, but, recovering itself, and being closely supported
by the second, moved on. When it came near, the fire was returned; but to what
effect? The Union men were crouching behind the stone wall on the shelving
rock, and few bullets could reach them. Nothing daunted, the enemy kept boldly
on, crossed the Emmittsburg pike, and rushed madly upon that part of the line
where the Sixty-ninth and Seventy-first regiments were. Two or three rods to
the rear of this was a little clump of small forest trees on the very summit of
the ridge. Towards this they
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rushed as though it had been the mark set for them to reach. Cushin's guns,
which stood just in rear of the Sixty-ninth, had been for the most part
disabled, the gunners having all been killed or wounded; but two of these were
still serviceable, and the men of the Sixty-ninth and Seventy-first had wheeled
them down to the stone wall within the front line, and here they were worked
with terrible effect. Unchecked by the fire, the enemy pushed resolutely
forward. Just before this, Colonel Smith, with the right wing of the Seventy-
first, had retired a few rods and taken position behind the wall coming in from
the right, where his men would be less exposed to the fierce fire of canister of
the Union artillery in its immediate rear, and where it could act with greater
effect. The left wing, under Lieutenant-Colonel Kochersperger, in conjunction
with the Sixty-ninth, hugged closely the stone wall, and continued to pour in
death-dealing rounds with frightful rapidity. But the enemy, discovering that a
portion of the wall was vacant, rushed over. This caused the flank to be
exposed, and Kochersperger, with two companies of the Sixty-ninth, swung back,
in order to protect it. The struggle was now desperate and hand to hand. A
stalwart and determined rebel soldier, having reached the wall behind which the
left of the Sixty-ninth still clung, called out to James Donnelly of company D
to surrender, levelling his musket in readiness to fire. "I surrender," cried
Donnelly, and suiting the action to the word, felled him to the earth with the
barrel of his gun. Donnelly was at the time but a youth of eighteen. Corporal
Bradley, of the same company, while attempting to beat back an infuriated rebel,
had his skull crushed in by a single blow. Rebel flags waved upon the wall
within the Union line. General Armistead, who led one of Pickett's front
brigades, reached the farthest point of the enemy's advance, and with his hand
upon a Union gun near the little grove, while under the shadow of the flags of
his brigade, fell mortally wounded. But still only a small breach had been
made, and that had been left in part by design. The vigor and power of the blow
had been robbed of its blighting effect, long before it had reached the vital
point of the Union line. As the column moved past the grove where Stannard's
brigade had been thrust out in front by Doubleday,
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Stannard suddenly formed the Thirteenth and Sixteenth regiments at right-angles
to the main Union line, facing northward, and poured in a withering enfilading
fire. This, Pickett's troops were able to withstand but a few minutes, and over
2000 of them laid down their arms and were conducted to the rear. On Pickett's
left, a like disaster befell. For Pettigrew, with his green and already
decimated levies, quailed before the terrific fire of Hays' men, and a number
fully as large was swept in from that wing. The front centre of Pickett's own
men continued the struggle through mere desperation. But no equal body of
troops could have effected a lodgment there, or done more than had these. For
the Union line, though slightly broken upon its front, was in a situation,
unaided, to have beaten back the assailants, the Seventy-second regiment being
but a few paces in rear of the little cluster of trees which marked the farthest
rebel advance, and was in condition to have made a stubborn resistance. But
beyond the original lines, the moment it was seen that the enemy was about to
strike at this point, supports were hurried forward. The brigades of Hall, and
Harrow, the Nineteenth Massachusetts, the One Hundred and Fifty-first
Pennsylvania, the Twentieth New York State militia, and the Forty-second of the
line, being in close proximity, had reached the threatened ground, and stood
four lines deep, ready to receive the foe, had he pushed his advantage.
The struggle was soon over, the greater portion of the living either
surrendering or staggering back over the prostrate forms of the dead and the
dying which strewed thickly all that plain. In the few moments during which the
contest lasted, by far the greater part of that gallant division, that marched
forth "in all the pride and circumstance of glorious war," had disappeared.
Four thousand five hundred of them were prisoners, many more were wounded and
weltering in their blood, and a vast number were stiff and stark in death.
The brigades of Wilcox and Perry, as already noticed, thrown off to the right,
failing to move with Pickett's division, having sheltered themselves for the
moment, no sooner saw that Pickett had gone forward and penetrated the Union
line than they moved up to assault farther to the south. The Union guns
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opened upon them; yet they kept on until they had reached a point within a few
hundred yards of the front. But now Stannard was again in position to do great
damage upon the flank of the passing column. Ordering the Sixteenth and a part
of the Fourteenth into line again at right angles to the main line, but now
facing south, he attacked upon the exposed flank. The enemy made but feeble
resistance, a large number being taken prisoners, and the rest saving themselves
by flight.
Thus ended the grand charge, perhaps as determined, deliberate; and impetuous
as was ever made on this continent. It was undertaken in the confident
anticipation of success and hope of victory. It resulted in the almost utter
annihilation of this fine body of men, with no advantage whatever to the
assailants. As an example of the futility, and at the same time the accuracy of
their fire, it may be stated as an observation of the writer, made soon after
the battle, that the splashes of the leaden bullets upon the shelving rock and
the low stone wall along its very edge, and behind which were Hancock's men, for
a distance of half a mile, were so thick, that one could scarcely lay his hand
upon any part of either the wall or the rock without touching them. All this
ammunition was of course thrown away, not one bullet in a thousand reaching its
intended victim.
The field where this charge was made was of such a character, and so situated,
that the greater part of both armies, as well as the population of the town,
could behold it. When the terrible preliminary cannonade was in progress, the
gravest apprehensions must have been excited in every Union breast; for, while
the rebel infantry were all out of harm's way, the Union infantry were in the
very mouth of it. But if apprehensions were aroused by the cannonade, what must
have been the dismay inspired by the sight of the terribly compacted force which
followed it? How with bated breath did each await the issue? The view from
many parts of the town was perfect, and the progress of the charge was followed
with eager gaze. Dr. Humphrey, surgeon of the Bucktail (Stone's) brigade,
remained with the wounded on the field of the first day's conflict, and was a
prisoner during the second and third days of the battle. He was assigned to
duty in a hospital established at the Catholic church, situated on the very
summit
MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 308
of the hill on which the town of Gettysburg is built. A rebel Major, who was in
charge of the hospital, had been jubilant over what he believed were triumphs of
his army in the first and second days of the battle. Everything was represented
to be moving on most gloriously for his side. Sickles' corps, and all that had
been sent to his help, had been completely demolished and driven out of sight,
according to his representations. The Doctor had no means of knowing anything
to the contrary, other than that the fire of the Union guns indicated them to be
now substantially where they were at the first. It is probable that the rebel
file actually believed that they were gaining ground, and that they would
ultimately carry the day. They admitted, however, that the Yankees had a good
position, and were making a fair fight.
When the great cannonade and grand charge came to be delivered on the
afternoon of the third day by Pickett's division, so elated was this rebel
Major, that he invited Dr. Humphrey up into the belfry of the church to witness
it. The prospect here was unsurpassed. Round Top and the Peach Orchard were in
full view, and all the intermediate space, disclosing the Union and rebel lines
throughout nearly their whole extent. When the awful cannonade had ceased, and
the infantry in three lines with skirmishers and wings deployed, stretching away
for a mile and a half, and moving with the precision of a grand parade, came on,
the spectacle was transcendently magnificent. At sight of that noble body of
men the joy and exultation of the rebel Major knew no bounds. "Now you will see
the Yanks run." "What can stand before such an assault?" "I pity your poor
fellows, but they will have to get out of the way now." "We shall be in
Baltimore before to-morrow night," and exclamations of similar import were
constantly uttered as he rubbed his hands in glee, and danced about the narrow
inclosure. With measured tread the lines went forward. They came under fire of
the artillery. They staggered, but quailed not. They met the storm of the
infantry, but still they swept on. As the work became desperate, the Major grew
silent; but manifested the deepest agitation. Great drops of perspiration
gathered on his brow, and when, finally, that grand body of men went down in the
fight, and were next
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to annihilated, with a storm of black rage depicted on his countenance, he left
the belfry without uttering a word. So desperate had he become that the Doctor
says he dared not speak to him, though his inclination to cheer was almost
beyond control.
"As our eye," says Professor Jacobs, who also watched the charge from the
town, "runs over these grounds, we can yet call vividly to mind the appearance
of this fan-shaped mass, as we saw it on the day of battle, moving over towards
our line, with the intention of penetrating it, like a wedge, and reaching our
rear . . . . In a few moments a tremendous roar, proceeding from the
simultaneous discharge of thousands of muskets and rifles, shook the earth;
then, in the portion of the line nearest us, a few, then more, and then still
more rebels, in all to the number of about two hundred, were seen moving
backwards towards the point from which they had so defiantly proceeded; and at
last two or three men carrying a single battle-flag, which they had saved from
capture, and several officers, on horseback, followed the fugitives. The
wounded and dead were seen strewn amongst the grass and grain; men with
stretchers stealthily picking up and carrying the former to the rear; and
officers for a moment contemplating the scene with evident amazement, and riding
rapidly towards the Seminary Ridge . . . . So sudden and complete was the
slaughter and capture of nearly all of Pickett's men, that one of his officers
who fell wounded amongst the first on the Emmittsburg road, and who
characterized the charge as foolish and mad, said that when, in a few moments
afterwards, he was enabled to rise and look about him, the whole division had
disappeared as if blown away by the wind."
The victory here was signal and complete; and it was gained at a much less
cost in killed and wounded than were many of the operations on other parts of
the field. Generals Hancock and Gibbon were wounded, but not seriously. Of
Pickett's three brigade commanders, Armistead was mortally wounded, and left in
the Union lines; Kemper was severely wounded; and Garnett was killed. Fourteen
of his field officers, including Williams, Mayo, Callcott, Patton, Otey, Terry,
Hunton, Allen, Ellis, Hodges, Edmunds, Aylett, and Magruder, were either killed
or wounded, only one of that rank escaping unhurt.
MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 310
General Lee, had confidently counted on success in this final conflict, and so
sure was he that the Union army would be put to rout that he sent out his
cavalry well supported by infantry, upon both flanks, to fall upon its rear and
intensify the confusion. But the Union cavalry were on the alert, and ready to
receive them. General David McM. Gregg upon the right, at the moment the
artillery fire slackened on the front and Pickett began his charge, discovered
the enemy's cavalry, under Hampton, advancing on the Bonaughtown road, with the
evident intent of forcing its way through and gaining the Union flank and rear.
The Third Pennsylvania cavalry was upon the skirmish line, and first felt the
shock. Gregg's main line was well in hand; and when the skirmishers, after a
brave resistance, were driven in, he met Hampton, who charged in close column of
squadrons, with Custar's Michigan brigade - his Wolverines, as Custar termed
them - while the skirmishers rallied and charged upon his flanks. The enemy
started with drawn sabres; but according to their individual habits, many
dropped them and took their pistols, while the Union men used the sabre alone.
After a hard fight, in part hand to hand, the rebels were driven back with
severe loss. A more skilful or triumphant sabre charge is rarely witnessed.
While this was passing on the right, a no less stubborn, but far more daring
and desperate engagement was in progress on the Union left. Kilpatrick had been
sent early to operate upon that wing of the army, and had been busily engaged
during most of the day, the enemy manifesting considerable activity in that
direction. Finally, towards evening, when the clangor of battle upon the centre
was at its height, Kilpatrick, aroused by the noise of the fray, ordered in the
brigades of Farnsworth and Merritt. Robinson's brigade of Hood's division was
upon the rebel front, well posted behind fences and rugged ground, and supported
by the cavalry of Stuart; but Farnsworth, who led, charged with the saber,
driving the foe from his shelter, and pressed forward up to the very mouths of
the rebel guns. Here Farnsworth was killed, and many of his officers and men
were killed or wounded, and the line was compelled to fall back, sustaining
severe losses. Merrit pressed from the Union left and
THE FINAL STRUGGLE AT GETTYSBURG - 311
made a gallant fight; but the rebel guns were too numerous and too well posted
to be overcome, and Kilpatrick was obliged to call in his shattered ranks and
brace himself for any attempt of the enemy to follow and in turn become the
assailants. The rebel column, however, by this time had little stomach for
further offensive demonstrations.
A little later, and soon after the repulse of Pickett, McCandless' brigade of
the Pennsylvania Reserves was ordered by Meade to advance from the stone wall
behind which it had taken shelter on the evening previous, across the Wheatfield
on its front, and drive out the enemy, who were annoying it. A gun upon the
crest of an elevation a thousand yards distant had proved quite destructive, and
to capture it McCandless manoeuvred his command. With little loss he seized the
gun and two caissons by its side. The flag of the Fifteenth Georgia, and three
hundred prisoners were also taken, and, six thousand muskets were collected.
But the enemy was now becoming thoroughly aroused to the peril of his
situation, and having gathered in his forces, he retired to the line of Seminary
Ridge, and fell to fortifying. He feared a countercharge by a heavy Union force
and made every preparation to meet it.
General Meade, finding in the course of the artillery fire, that the enemy
apparently had the range of his headquarters, moved over to Power's Hill, where
he occupied the headquarters of General Slocum; but, soon after his arrival
there, finding that the signal officer whom he had left at his old headquarters
had abandoned it, and fearing that his staff would fail to find him, he
returned. On the way back he could plainly distinguish by the sound, that the
enemy's infantry charge was in progress. By the time he had reached his
headquarters the battle was virtually decided, and the enemy repulsed. He
accordingly rode up on to the crest of the ridge, and as he went, met the
prisoners going to the rear, who had been captured in the fight.
There was some firing after he reached the summit, by which his own horse and
that of his son were shot. It appears that as soon as the survivors of the
assaulting column began to retire, the rebel artillery opened and delivered a
hot fire, to cover the
MARTIAL DEEDS OF PENNSYLVANIA - 312
retirement of the troops, which was kept up for some moments, and it was from
this that the General and his son lost their horses. Meade rode over to Little
Round Top, where he ordered the advance of Crawford's troops for the purpose of
preparing the way for an immediate assault. But in his testimony he says: "The
great length of the line, and the time required to carry these orders out to the
front, and the movement subsequently made before the report given to me of the
condition of the forces in the front and left, caused it to be so late in the
evening, as to induce me to abandon the assault which I had contemplated."
The enemy along his whole line showed signs of trepidation, and was
undoubtedly apprehensive of an attack. In the town itself the rebel wounded
were gathered up and sent to the rear as rapidly as possible. At midnight his
troops were aroused and drawn up in two lines along the streets, where they
stood under arms as if awaiting a charge. The position here, and indeed
throughout the whole of Ewell's line, was weak and exposed. Lee, accordingly
withdrew it, and by three o'clock on the morning of the 4th Ewell's entire corps
had disappeared from Gettysburg, and had taken position on the Seminary heights.
Here the men were put to work, and during the day heavy breastworks were
erected. Indeed, the best and strongest fortifications constructed by either
army on the Gettysburg field were those built by the enemy on this day between
the Chambersburg and Mummasburg pikes, and those at the other extremity of the
rebel line, where that line strikes the Emmittsburg road. The position along
all this ridge, naturally defensible, was made secure.