Gettysburg

by Stephen W. Sears

  47. McGilvery report, OR 27.1:882–83; Benjamin G. Humphreys to Bachelder, May 1, 1876, Ladd and Ladd, eds., Bachelder Papers, 1:480–81.

  48. A. Wilson Greene, “‘A Step All-Important and Essential to Victory’: Henry W. Slocum and the Twelfth Corps on July 1–2, 1863,” Gallagher, ed., Three Days at Gettysburg, 182–84, 188–90; Williams to Bachelder, Apr. 21, 1864, Nov. 10, 1865, Ladd and Ladd, eds., Bachelder Papers, 1:163, 215; Slocum to T. H. Davis, Sept. 8, 1875, Bates Collection, Pennsylvania State Archives.

  49. Lang to E. A. Perry, July 19, SHSP, 27 (1899), 195; Gibbon, Personal Recollections, 137; Abbott to John C. Ropes, Aug. 1, MOLLUS Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University; F. E. Heath to Bachelder, Oct. 12, 1889, Ladd and Ladd, eds., Bachelder Papers, 3:1651; John D. Smith, The History of the Nineteenth Regiment of Maine Volunteer Infantry, 1862–1865 (Minneapolis, 1909), 70.

  50. Bradley M. Gottfried, “Wright’s Charge on July 2, 1863: Piercing the Union Line or Inflated Glory?” Gettysburg Magazine 17 (1997), 71–75; Weir report, OR 27.1:880; Andrew E. Ford, The Story of the Fifteenth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War (Clinton, Mass., 1898), 267; Gregory A. Coco, ed., From Ball’s Bluff to Gettysburg … and Beyond: The Civil War Letters of Private Roland E. Bowen, 15th Massachusetts Infantry, 1861–1864 (Gettysburg: Thomas Publications, 1994), 202; John H. Rhodes, “The Gettysburg Gun,” Rhode Island MOLLUS, Personal Narratives of the Rebellion (7:1892), 38:385.

  51. A. R. Wright to his wife, July 7, cited in Freeman, Lee’s Lieutenants, 3:126; H. W. Pfanz, Gettysburg— The Second Day, 382–84; Wilcox report addendum, cited in Freeman, R. E. Lee, 3:555.

  52. Eric Campbell, “‘Remember Harper’s Ferry’: The Degradation, Humiliation, and Redemption of Col. George L. Willard’s Brigade,” Part 1, Gettysburg Magazine, 7 (1992), 51, 64–73; William Love, “Mississippi at Gettysburg,” Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, 9 (1906), 32;“Biographical Sketch of William Barksdale,” J.F.H. Claiborne Papers, Southern Historical Collection; Hays report, OR 27.1:453.

  53. Williams to his daughters, July 6, Williams, From the Cannon’s Mouth, 228; Williams to Bachelder, Nov. 10, 1865, Ladd and Ladd, eds., Bachelder Papers, 1:215. Williams marched with Ruger’s division to settle an awkward command problem. The newly arrived but inexperienced Lockwood outranked the veteran Ruger, and so Williams treated Lockwood’s brigade as “unassigned” to the corps and directed affairs himself.

  54. Richard Moe, The Last Full Measure: The Life and Death of the First Minnesota Volunteers (New York: Holt, 1993), 268–74; Colville to Bachelder, June 9, 1866, Ladd and Ladd, eds., Bachelder Papers, 1:257; William Lochren, “The First Minnesota at Gettysburg,” Minnesota MOLLUS, Glimpses of the Nation’s Struggle (3: 1892), 28:49–50; Wilcox in SHSP, 6 (1878), 103; Robert W. Meinhard, “The First Minnesota at Gettysburg,” Gettysburg Magazine, 5 (1991), 83; Hancock report, OR 27.1:371. The 1st Minnesota’s 68 percent loss ratio is taken from the researches of Robert Meinhard, correcting previous estimates of 82 percent for July 2.

  55. H. W. Pfanz, Gettysburg— The Second Day, 396–400; Richard T. Auchmuty to his mother, July 6, Auchmuty, Letters of Richard Tylden Auchmuty, Fifth Corps, Army of the Potomac (New York, 1895), 98; Crawford to Peter F. Rothermel, Mar. 8, 1870, Rothermel Papers, Pennsylvania State Archives; Lafayette McLaws to Braxton Bragg, June 18, 1892, Palmer Collection, Western Reserve Historical Society; Longstreet, “Lee in Pennsylvania,” Annals of the War, 425.

  56. Alexander S. Webb to his wife, July 6, Ladd and Ladd, eds., Bachelder Papers, 1:18; Anthony W. McDermott, A Brief History of the 69th Regiment Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers (Philadelphia, 1889), 28; Wright report, OR 27.2: 623–24.

  57. George H. Scott, “Vermont at Gettysburg,” Proceedings of the Vermont Historical Society, 1 (1930), 65.

  58. Meade, Life and Letters, 2:89; Paul A. Oliver to George Meade, May 16, 1882, Meade Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

  59. Williams to his daughters, July 6, Williams, From the Cannon’s Mouth, 228; Meade, Life and Letters, 2:89.

  11. Determined to Do or Die

  1. George K. Collins, Memories of the 149th Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry (Syracuse, 1891), 137; Jesse H. Jones in Battles and Leaders, 3:316; Randolph H. McKim in SHSP, 5 (1878), 193.

  2. Lee report, Jan. 1864, OR 27.2:318–19; D. C. Pfanz, Richard S. Ewell, 316–17; Greene, Schurz reports, OR 27.1:856, 731.

  3. Jones, Buckner, Richardson, Williams reports, OR 27.2:532, 538, 537, 513; Redington report, OR 27.1:862; Jesse H. Jones in Battles and Leaders, 3:316. Casualties in the 78th and 102nd New York for July 2nd and 3rd were 30 and 29 respectively.

  4. Thomas L. Elmore, “Courage Against the Trenches: The Attack and Repulse of Steuart’s Brigade on Culp’s Hill,” Gettysburg Magazine, 7 (1992), 85–90; Warren report, OR Supplement 5:396; Ireland report, OR 27.1:866; Fox, New York at Gettysburg, 3:943; Randolph H. McKim, A Soldier’s Recollections, 195; William W. Goldsborough, The Maryland Line in the Confederate States Army (Baltimore, 1869), 104.

  5. Dawes, Service with the Sixth Wisconsin, 182; Hancock to Joseph Hooker, July 27, 1876, Bates Collection, Pennsylvania State Archives; Horton to Bachelder, Jan. 23, 1867, Ladd and Ladd, eds., Bachelder Papers, 1:294–95; Smith report, OR 27.1:432.

  6. July 6, Williams to his daughters, Williams, From the Cannon’s Mouth, 229; Charles F. Morse, Letters Written During the Civil War (Boston: T. R. Marvin, 1898), 145.

  7. Samuel S. Carroll to Hancock, July 23, 1876, Bates Collection, Pennsylvania State Archives; H. W. Pfanz, Gettysburg— Culp’s Hill and Cemetery Hill, 242; John T. Butts, ed., A Gallant Captain of the Civil War:…Friederich Otto Baron von Fritsch (New York, 1902), 80; Seymour, Civil War Memoirs, 75; Early, Autobiographical Sketch, 273.

  8. Maine Gettysburg Commission, Maine at Gettysburg (Portland: Lakeside Press, 1898), 94; Edward N. Whittier, “The Left Attack (Ewell’s), Gettysburg,” PMHSM, 3:330; Whittier report, OR 27.1:361; Fox, New York at Gettysburg, 3:1247; Van R. Willard, With the 3rd Wisconsin Badgers: The Journals of Van R. Willard, ed. Steven S. Raab (Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 1999), 194.

  9. Harris to Bachelder, Mar. 14, 1881, Peter F. Young to Bachelder, Aug. 12, 1867, Ladd and Ladd, eds., Bachelder Papers, 2:745, 1:311; Jacob Smith, Camps and Campaigns of the 107th Ohio Volunteer Infantry (1910), 226; Joseph W. Jackson, July 20, Boyd Civil War Papers, Louisiana State University; July 2, Wainwright, Diary of Battle, 245–46; Harry Gilmor, Four Years in the Saddle (Harper & Brothers, 1866), 98–99; Schurz, Reminiscences, 3:25; John M. Lutz, Hays reports, OR 27.1:720, 27.2:480–81.

  10. H. W. Pfanz, Gettysburg— Culp’s Hill and Cemetery Hill, 258–59; Adin B. Underwood, The Three Years’ Service of the Thirty-third Massachusetts Infantry Regiment (Boston, 1881), 129; Underwood report, OR Supplement 5:218; William R. Kiefer, History of the One Hundred and Fifty-third Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry(Easton, Pa., 1909), 87.

  11. Ricketts to Bachelder, Mar. 2, 1866, Dec. 3, 1883, Ladd and Ladd, eds., Bachelder Papers, 1:236–37, 2:980; Brockway to David McConaughy, Mar. 5, 1864, Rothermel Papers, Pennsylvania State Archives.

  12. Hancock to Joseph Hooker, July 27, 1876, Carroll to Hancock, July 23, 1876, Bates Collection, Pennsylvania State Archives; J. L. Dickelman, “Gen. Carroll’s Gibraltar Brigade at Gettysburg,” in Sauers, ed., Gettysburg in the National Tribune, 333; July 2, Wainwright, Diary of Battle, 247.

  13. Hays, Rodes, Ewell reports, OR 27.2:481, 556, 447; Early, Autobiographical Sketch, 274; Early in SHSP, 4 (1877), 281.

  14. Rodes, Ramseur, Ewell reports, OR 27.2:556, 588, 447; Brown to Henry J. Hunt, May 7, 1885, Hunt Papers, Library of Congress.

  15. Meade to Halleck, July 2, OR 27.1:72; Fishel, Secret War for the Union, 526–28; Sharpe to Butterfield, July 2, B.M.I., RG 393, National Archives; Sharpe in Kingston (N.Y.) Daily Freeman, Jan. 18, 1899, and Babcock in Mount Vernon (N.Y.) Daily Argus, Nov. 21, 1908, cited in Fishel, Secret War for the Union, 527–30.

  16. Gi
bbon, Personal Recollections, 140–45; Williams to Bachelder, Nov. 10, 1865, Ladd and Ladd, eds., Bachelder Papers, 1:217; Newton to Gibbon, Jan. 5, 1876, in Gibbon, Personal Recollections, 197; Williams to his daughters, July 6, Williams, From the Cannon’s Mouth, 229–30; Gibbon to Seth Williams, Mar. 14, 1864, Meade to his wife, July 3, 1863, Meade Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Butterfield’s notes on the July 2 council are in the Meade Papers.

  17. Walter H. Taylor, Four Years with General Lee, 99; Henry Kyd Douglas, I Rode with Stonewall (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1940), 249; Lee report, Jan. 1864, OR 27.2:320.

  18. Owen, In Camp and Battle with the Washington Artillery, 157; Longstreet, “Lee in Pennsylvania,” Annals of the War, 426, 424; Ross, Visit to the Cities and Camps of the Confederate States, 55; Longstreet to McLaws, July 25, 1873, McLaws Papers, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina.

  19. Alexander, Fighting for the Confederacy, 244; Longstreet, “Lee in Pennsylvania,” Annals of the War, 429; Longstreet to McLaws, July 25, 1873, McLaws Papers, Southern Historical Collection.

  20. Lee, Ewell, Hays, Pendleton reports, OR 27.2:320, 447, 480, 351; William Garrett Piston, “Cross Purposes: Longstreet, Lee, and Confederate Attack Plans for July 3 at Gettysburg,” Gary W. Gallagher, ed., The Third Day at Gettysburg & Beyond, 35–45.

  21. Walter Harrison, Pickett’s Men: A Fragment of War History (New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1870), 88; Wert, General Longstreet, 280–82.

  22. P. A. Work, Lee reports, OR 27.2:409, 308. Casualty rates are from Busey and Martin, Regimental Strengths and Losses at Gettysburg.

  23. Bennett, Days of “Uncertainty and Dread,” 42–57; Gates D. Fahnestock, 1934 speech, Adams County Historical Society; Sarah D. Broadhead, Diary of a Lady of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (Hershey, Pa.: Hawbaker, 1990);Elizabeth McClean, “The Rebels Are Coming,” Gettysburg Compiler, July 8, 1908; “Battle Days in 1863,” Gettysburg Compiler, July 4, 1906; John C. Wills, “Reminiscences,” John Rupp to his sister, July 19, Fannie Buehler, “Recollections,” Adams County Historical Society; Liberty Hollinger Glutz, Some Personal Recollections of the Battle of Gettysburg (1925), 5–6.

  24. Billings report, OR Supplement 5:53; James A. Bates report, OR 27.1:597; C. N. Bryan, Nov. 17, Florida State Archives; Wilfred McDonald diary, University of Texas.

  25. H. W. Pfanz, Gettysburg— Culp’s Hill and Cemetery Hill, 379–80; Alexander, Fighting for the Confederacy, 244.

  26. Fishel, Secret War for the Union, 530–32; Davis, Papers, 9:247–50. Dahlgren’s intelligence, comforting as it may have been, had no bearing on Meade’s decision to stand and fight at Gettysburg.

  27. Guiney to Joshua Chamberlain, Oct. 26, 1865, Chamberlain Papers, Library of Congress; Halsted to Emily Sedgwick, July 17, Sedgwick, Correspondence, 2:134; Coddington, Gettysburg Campaign, 476–78; Hunt to Bachelder, July 27, 1880, Ladd and Ladd, eds., Bachelder Papers, 1:675; Hunt testimony, Report of Joint Committee, 1 (1865), 448.

  28. Coddington, Gettysburg Campaign, 480–82; Hancock testimony, Report of Joint Committee, 1 (1865), 408.

  29. Longstreet, “Lee in Pennsylvania,” Annals of the War, 429; Longstreet report, OR 27.2:359; Long, Memoirs of Robert E. Lee, 288; Taylor, Four Years with General Lee, 102–3; Fremantle, Three Months in the Southern States, 262.

  30. Jeffry D. Wert, Gettysburg: Day Three, 102–6; Charles Venable in Taylor, Four Years with General Lee, 103n; Richard Rollins, “The Second Wave of Pickett’s Charge,” Gettysburg Magazine 18 (1998), 102–13; Alexander, Fighting for the Confederacy, 252; Longstreet, “Lee in Pennsylvania,” Annals of the War, 430.

  31. Ewell report, OR 27.2:447; Williamsto Bachelder, Nov. 10, 1865, Ladd and Ladd, eds., Bachelder Papers, 1:219.

  32. Williams report, OR 27.1:775; Van R. Willard, With the 3rd Wisconsin Badgers: The Journals of Van R. Willard, ed. Steven S. Raab (Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 1999), 197; William W. Goldsborough, “With Lee at Gettysburg,” Philadelphia Record, July 8, 1900; H. W. Pfanz, Gettysburg— Culp’s Hill and Cemetery Hill, 291, 223.

  33. Powell to Bachelder, Mar. 23, 1886, Ladd and Ladd, eds., Bachelder Papers, 2:1248; William Sayre to family, July 5, Sayre Papers, U.S. Army Military History Institute; Hammerstein, Greene reports, OR 27.1:863, 857; Mo-bile Evening News, July 24, cited in Wert, Gettysburg: Day Three, 61.

  34. H. W. Pfanz, Gettysburg— Culp’s Hill and Cemetery Hill, 305–6; R. S. Andrews report, OR 27.2:544; Thomas G. Clemens, ed., “The ‘Diary’ of John H. Stone…,” Maryland Historical Magazine, 85 (1990), 133; Lockwood report, OR 27.1:804; Wert, Gettysburg: Day Three, 66; Geary report, OR 27.1:833.

  35. Ruger to Bachelder, Aug. 12, 1869, Ladd and Ladd, eds., Bachelder Papers, 1:364–65; Ruger, Colgrove reports, OR 27.1:781, 814; Alonzo H. Quint, The Record of the Second Massachusetts Infantry, 1861–1865 (Boston: James Walker, 1867), 180, 183; Morse to his mother, July 17, Morse Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society; Brown, Twenty-seventh Indiana, 380–82. In his 1869 letter to Bachelder, Ruger, relying “on my own memory,” timed this action at about 10:00 A.M. More specific accounts, especially those of Morse and Colgrove, place it earlier.

  36. O’Neal report, OR Supplement 5:403; Randolph H. McKim in SHSP, 5 (1878), 296–97; Ewell report, OR 27.2:447; William W. Goldsborough, The Maryland Line in the Confederate States Army (Baltimore, 1869), 106.

  37. George K. Collins, Memories of the 149th Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry (Syracuse, 1891), 141; McKim, A Soldier’s Recollections, 188; Nicholson, ed., Pennsylvania at Gettysburg, 1:220; Louis Leon, Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier (Charlotte: Stone Publishing, 1913), 36, courtesy Greg Mast; Sanford Truesdell to his sister, July 11, University of Chicago Library; Wallace to Bachelder, July 4, 1878, Ladd and Ladd, eds., Bachelder Papers, 1:636.

  38. Walker report, OR 27.2:519; William W. Goldsborough, The Maryland Line in the Confederate States Army (Baltimore, 1869), 109; H. W. Pfanz, Gettysburg— Culp’s Hill and Cemetery Hill, 325; Williams to Bachelder, Nov. 10, 1865, Ladd and Ladd, eds., Bachelder Papers, 1:221.

  1(. A Magnificent Display of Guns

  1. Meade, Life and Letters, 2:101–5; Pleasonton to Gregg, July 3, OR 27.3:502; Meade to Sedgwick, July 3, OR 51.1:1068; Haskell, Haskell of Gettysburg, 142–43; July 4, Whitelaw Reid, A Radical View: The “Agate” Dispatches of Whitelaw Reid, 1861–1865, ed. James G. Smart (Memphis: Memphis State University Press, 1976), 2:52; Meade to Couch, July 3, Meade to French, July 3, Meade circular, July 3, OR 27.3:499, 501–2, 503.

  2. Hunt report, OR 27.1:238; David Shultz, “Double Canister at Ten Yards”: The Federal Artillery and the Repulse of Pickett’s Charge, 9–18; David Shultz and Richard Rollins, “‘A Combined and Concentrated Fire’: Deployment of the Federal Artillery at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863,” North & South, 2:3 (1999), 54–56; Henry J. Hunt, “The Third Day at Gettysburg,” Battles and Leaders, 3:371.

  3. Hunt, “Third Day at Gettysburg,” Battles and Leaders, 3:371–72; Gary M. Kross, “‘I Do Not Believe That Pickett’s Division Would Have Reached Our Line’: Henry J. Hunt and the Union Artillery on July 3, 1863,” Gallagher, ed., Three Days at Gettysburg, 291–92.

  4. Peter S. Carmichael, “‘Every Map of the Field Cries Out about It’: The Failure of Confederate Artillery at Pickett’s Charge,” Gallagher, ed., Three Days at Gettysburg, 271; John H. Chamberlayne to George W. Bagby, Oct. 25, 1862, Chamberlayne, Ham Chamberlayne, Virginian: Letters and Papers of an Artillery Officer, ed. C. D. Chamberlayne (Richmond, 1932), 134; Stephen W. Sears, To the Gates of Richmond: The Peninsula Campaign (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992), 318.

  5. Alexander, Fighting for the Confederacy, 244–51; Alexander, Military Memoirs, 418–19; Pendleton, Nelson reports, OR 27.2:351–52, 605–6; Richard Rollins, “The Failure of Confederate Artillery in Pickett’s Charge,” North & South, 3:4 (2000), 30–39.

  6. Jennings C. Wise, The Long Army of Lee, or The History of the Artillery Arm of the Army of Northern Virginia (Lynchburg, Va.: J. B. Bell, 1915), 2:509�
��10; Alexander, Fighting for the Confederacy, 248–49, 254; William T. Poague, Gunner with Stonewall: Reminiscences of William Thomas Poague, ed. Monroe F. Cockrell (Jackson, Tenn.: McCowat-Mercer, 1957), 74; Henry, Lee (Jan. 1864) reports, OR 27.2:428, 321; McLaws, “Gettysburg,” SHSP, 7 (1879), 82.

  7. Thomas L. Elmore, “A Meteorological and Astronomical Chronology of the Gettysburg Campaign,” Gettysburg Magazine, 13 (1995), 13–15.

  8. Rollins, “Failure of Confederate Artillery,” North & South, 3:4 (2000), 32–33; Thomas W. Hyde, Following the Greek Cross, or Memories of the Sixth Army Corps (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1895), 152–53.

  9. Kathleen Georg Harrison and John W. Busey, Nothing But Glory: Pickett’s Division at Gettysburg, 170; Wert, Gettysburg: Day Three, 113–14; Birkett D. Fry in SHSP, 7 (1879), 92.

  10. Robertson, General A. P. Hill, 221–22; William H. Palmer to T.M.R. Talcott, Apr. 11, 1916, SHSP, 41 (1916), 40; Young, “Pettigrew’s Brigade at Gettysburg,” Clark, North Carolina Regiments, 5:124; Wert, Gettysburg: Day Three, 114–16; R. Lee Hadden, “The Deadly Embrace,” Gettysburg Magazine, 5(1991), 32.

  11. Lane, Lowrance reports, OR 27.2:666, 671; Wert, Gettysburg: Day Three, 114–19; Alexander to Frederick Colston, Jan. 14, 1895, Campbell-Colston Papers, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina.

  12. Anderson, Wilcox reports, OR 27.2: 614, 619; Lang to Bachelder, Oct. 16, 1893, Lang Papers, Florida State Archives.

  13. Richard Rollins, “Pickett’s Charge and the Principles of War,” North & South, 4:5 (2001), 21–22; Fry to Bachelder, Dec. 27, 1877, Ladd and Ladd, eds., Bachelder Papers, 1:518; Rollins, “Failure of Confederate Artillery,” North & South, 3:4 (2000), 35–36. In his Military Memoirs (418), Porter Alexander clarified the intended point of attack: “A clump of trees in the enemy’s line was pointed out to me as the proposed point of attack, which I was incorrectly told was the cemetery of the town….”