After the repulse of Davis and Archer, Heth’s division was formed in line mostly south of the Cashtown pike, with Pender’s in second line, Pegram’s and McIntosh’s artillery (nine batteries) occupying all the commanding positions west of Willoughby Run. Doubleday reëstablished his former lines, Meredith holding McPherson’s wood. Soon after, Rowley’s and Robinson’s divisions (two brigades each) and the four remaining batteries of the corps arrived. Rowley’s division was thrown forward, Stone’s brigade to the interval between Meredith and Cutler, and Biddle’s with Cooper’s battery to occupy the ridge between the wood and the Fairfield road. Reynolds’s battery replaced Hall’s, and Calef’s rejoined Gamble’s cavalry, now in reserve. Robinson’s division was halted near the base of Seminary Ridge. By this time, near noon, General Howard arrived, assumed command, and directed General Schurz, commanding the Eleventh Corps, to prolong Doubleday’s line toward Oak Hill with Schimmelfennig’s and Barlow’s divisions and three batteries, and to post Steinwehr’s division and two batteries on Cemetery Hill, as a rallying-point. By 1 o’clock, when this corps was arriving, Buford had reported Ewell’s approach by the Heidlersburg road, and Howard called on Sickles at Emmitsburg and Slocum at Two Taverns for aid, to which both these officers promptly responded. It was now no longer a question of prolonging Doubleday’s line, but of protecting it against Ewell whilst engaged in front with Hill. Schurz’s two divisions, hardly 6000 effectives, accordingly formed line on the open plain half a mile north of the town. They were too weak to cover the ground, and a wide interval was left between the two corps, covered only by the fire of Dilger’s and Wheeler’s batteries (ten guns) posted behind it.
That morning, whilst on the march to Cashtown, Ewell received Hill’s notice that his corps was advancing to Gettysburg, upon which he turned the heads of his own columns to that point. Reporting the change by a staff-officer to General Lee, Ewell was instructed that if the Federals were in force at Gettysburg a general battle was not to be brought on until the rest of the army was up. Approaching Gettysburg, Rodes, guided by the sounds of battle, followed the prolongation of Seminary Ridge; Iverson’s, Daniel’s, and Ramseur’s brigades on the western, O’Neal’s and Doles’s on the eastern slope. Ewell, recognizing the importance of Oak Hill, ordered it to be occupied by Carter’s artillery battalion, which immediately opened on both the Federal corps, enfilading Doubleday’s line. This caused Wadsworth again to withdraw Cutler to Seminary Ridge, and Reynolds’s battery was posted near McPherson’s house, under partial cover. Stone therefore placed two of his three regiments on the Cashtown pike, so as to face Oak Hill. This left an interval between Stone and Cutler, through which Cooper and Reynolds could fire with effect, and gave to these lines a cross-fire on troops entering the angle between them. Robinson now sent his two brigades to strengthen Cutler’s right. They took post behind the stone walls of a field, Paul’s brigade facing west, Baxter’s north. Rodes, regarding this advance as a menace, gave orders at 2:30 P.M. to attack. Iverson, sweeping round to his left, engaged Paul, who prolonged Cutler’s line, and O’Neal attacked Baxter. The repulse of O’Neal soon enabled Baxter to turn upon Iverson. Cutler also attacked him in flank, and after losing 500 men killed and wounded, 3 of Iverson’s regiments surrendered. General Robinson reports the capture of 1000 prisoners and 3 colors; General Paul was severely wounded, losing both eyes. Meanwhile Daniel’s brigade advanced directly on Stone, who maintained his lines against this attack and also Brockenbrough’s, of Hill’s corps, but was soon severely wounded. Colonel Wister, who succeeded him, met the same fate, and Colonel Dana took command of the brigade. Ramseur, who followed Daniel, by a conversion to the left, now faced Robinson and Cutler with his own brigade, the remnant of Iverson’s, and one regiment of O’Neal’s, his right connecting with Daniel’s left, and the fighting became hot. East of the ridge, Doles’s brigade had been held in observation, but about 3:30 P.M., on the advance of Early, he sent his skirmishers forward and drove those of Devin—who had gallantly held the enemy’s advance in check with his dismounted troopers—from their line and its hillock on Rock Creek. Barlow, considering this an eligible position for his own right, advanced his division, supported by Wilkeson’s battery, and seized it. This made it necessary for Schurz to advance a brigade of Schimmelfennig’s division to connect with Barlow, thus lengthening his already too extended line.
ASSAULT OF BROCKENBROUGH’S CONFEDERATE BRIGADE (HETH’S DIVISION) UPON THE STONE BARN OF THE MCPHERSON FARM.
The line of the stone barn was held by Stone’s brigade, Pennsylvania Bucktails (Doubleday’s division), its right resting on the Chambersburg pike (the left of the picture) and its left on the McPherson woods, where a part of Archer’s Confederate brigade of Heth’s division was captured by Meredith’s brigade.—EDITORS.
CONFEDERATE DEAD GATHERED FOR BURIAL NEAR THE MCPHERSON WOODS. FROM PHOTOGRAPHS.
LIEUTENANT BAYARD WILKESON HOLDING HIS BATTERY (G, 4TH UNITED STATES ARTILLERY) TO ITS WORK IN AN EXPOSED POSITION.
The death of Lieutenant Bayard Wilkeson, who commanded Battery G, Fourth U.S. Artillery, was one of the most heroic episodes of the fight. He was but nineteen years old and was the son of Samuel Wilkeson, who, as correspondent of the “New-York Times,” was at Meade’s headquarters during the fight. Young Wilkeson, by his fearless demeanor, held his battery in an exposed position on the Union right. General John B. Gordon, finding it impossible to advance his Confederate division in the face of Wilkeson’s fire, and realizing that if the officer on the horse could be disposed of the battery would not remain, directed two batteries of his command to train every gun upon him. Wilkeson was brought to the ground, desperately wounded, and his horse was killed. He was carried by the Confederates to the Alms House (or dragged himself there—the accounts differ), where he died that night. Just before he expired, it is said, he asked for water; a canteen was brought to him; as he took it a wounded soldier lying next to him begged, “For God’s sake give me some!” He passed the canteen untouched to the man, who drank every drop it contained. Wilkeson smiled on the man, turned slightly, and expired.—EDITORS.
The arrival of Early’s division had by this time brought an overwhelming force on the flank and rear of the Eleventh Corps. On the east of Rock Creek, Jones’s artillery battalion, within easy range, enfiladed its whole line and took it in reverse, while the brigades of Gordon, Hays, and Avery in line, with Smith’s in reserve, advanced about 4 P.M. upon Barlow’s position, Doles, of Rodes’s division, connecting with Gordon. An obstinate and bloody contest ensued, in which Barlow was desperately wounded, Wilkeson killed, and the whole corps forced back to its original line, on which, with the aid of Coster’s brigade and Heckman’s battery, drawn from Cemetery Hill, Schurz endeavored to rally it and cover the town. The fighting here was well sustained, but the Confederate force was overpowering in numbers, and the troops retreated to Cemetery Hill, Ewell entering the town about 4:30 P.M. These retrograde movements had uncovered the flank of the First Corps and made its right untenable.
Meanwhile, that corps had been heavily engaged along its whole line; for, on the approach of Rodes, Hill attacked with both his divisions. There were thus opposed to the single disconnected Federal line south of the Cashtown pike two solid Confederate ones which outflanked their left a quarter of a mile or more. Biddle’s small command, less than a thousand men, after a severe contest, was gradually forced back. In McPherson’s wood and beyond, Meredith’s and Dana’s brigades repeatedly repulsed their assailants, but as Biddle’s retirement uncovered their left, they too fell back to successive positions from which they inflicted heavy losses, until finally all three reached the foot of Seminary Ridge, where Colonel Wainwright, commanding the corps artillery, had planted twelve guns south of the Cashtown pike, with Stewart’s battery, manned in part by men of the Iron Brigade, north of it. Buford had already thrown half of Gamble’s dismounted men south of the Fairfield road. Heth’s division had suffered so severely that Pender’s had passed to its
front, thus bringing fresh troops to bear on the exhausted Federal line.
It was about 4 P.M. when the whole Confederate line advanced to the final attack. On their right Gamble held Lane’s brigade for some time in check, Perrin’s and Scales’s suffered severely, and Scales’s was broken up, for Stewart, swinging half his guns, under Lieutenant Davison, upon the Cashtown pike, raked it. The whole corps being now heavily pressed and its right uncovered, Doubleday gave the order to fall back to Cemetery Hill, which was effected in comparatively good order, the rear, covered by the 7th Wisconsin, turning when necessary to check pursuit. Colonel Wainwright, mistaking the order, had clung with his artillery to Seminary Hill, until, seeing the infantry retreating to the town, he moved his batteries down the Cashtown pike until lapped on both sides by the enemy’s skirmishers, at close range, when they were compelled to abandon one gun on the road, all its horses being killed. The Eleventh Corps also left a disabled gun on the field. Of the troops who passed through the town, many, principally men of the Eleventh Corps, got entangled in the streets, lost their way, and were captured.
THE LINE OF DEFENSE AT THE CEMETERY GATE-HOUSE. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.
On ascending Cemetery Hill, the retreating troops found Steinwehr’s division in position covered by stone fences on the slopes, and occupying by their skirmishers the houses in front of their line. As they arrived they were formed, the Eleventh Corps on the right, the First Corps on the left of Steinwehr. As the batteries came up, they were well posted by Colonels Wainwright and Osborn, and soon a formidable array of artillery was ready to cover with its fire all the approaches. Buford assembled his command on the plain west of Cemetery Hill, covering the left flank and presenting a firm front to any attempt at pursuit. The First Corps found a small reënforcement awaiting it, in the 7th Indiana, part of the train escort, which brought up nearly five hundred fresh men. Wadsworth met them and led them to Culp’s Hill, where, under direction of Captain Pattison of that regiment, a defensive line was marked out. Their brigade (Cutler’s) soon joined them; wood and stone were plentiful, and soon the right of the line was solidly established.
Nor was there wanting other assurance to the men who had fought so long that their sacrifices had not been in vain. As they reached the hill they were received by General Hancock, who arrived just as they were coming up from the town, under orders from General Meade to assume the command. His person was well known; his presence inspired confidence, and it implied also the near approach of his army-corps. He ordered Wadsworth at once to Culp’s Hill to secure that important position, and aided by Howard, by Warren who had also just arrived from headquarters, and by others, a strong line, well flanked, was soon formed.
General Lee, who from Seminary Hill had witnessed the final attack, sent Colonel Long, of his staff, a competent officer of sound judgment, to examine the position, and directed Ewell to carry it if practicable, renewing, however, his previous warning to avoid bringing on a general engagement until the army was all up. Both Ewell, who was making some preparations with a view to attack, and Long found the position a formidable one, strongly occupied and not accessible to artillery fire. Ewell’s men were indeed in no condition for an immediate assault. Of Rodes’s eight thousand, nearly three thousand were hors de combat. Early had lost over five hundred, and had but two brigades disposable, the other two having been sent on the report of the advance of Federal troops, probably the Twelfth Corps, then near by, to watch the York road. Hill’s two divisions had been very roughly handled, and had lost heavily, and he withdrew them to Seminary Hill as Ewell entered the town, leaving the latter with not more than eight thousand men to secure the town and the prisoners. Ewell’s absent division (Edward Johnson’s) was expected soon, but it did not arrive until near sunset, when the Twelfth Corps and Stannard’s Vermont brigade were also up, and the Third Corps was arriving. In fact an assault by the Confederates was not practicable before 5:30 P.M., and after that the position was perfectly secure. For the first time that day the Federals had the advantage of position, and sufficient troops and artillery to occupy it, and Ewell would not have been justified in attacking without the positive orders of Lee, who was present, and wisely abstained from giving them.
* * *
1 This term was applied to the practice of enlisting and securing bounty money, and then, either deserting outright, or shirking the serious work of the field.—EDITORS.
2 The forces referred to consisted (January 1st, 1863) of three brigades and some unassigned commands at Suffolk, under General John J. Peck, and two brigades, and three cavalry commands—also unassigned, stationed at Yorktown, Gloucester Point, and Williamsburg, under General E. D. Keyes. The troops under Peck belonged to the Seventh Corps. Keyes’s command was known as the Fourth Corps. Both were included in the Department of Virginia, commanded by General John A. Dix, with headquarters at Fort Monroe.
While Lee was invading the North an expedition was sent by General Dix from White House to the South Anna River and Bottom’s Bridge to destroy Lee’s communications and threaten Richmond. —EDITORS.
3 General Smith commanded the First Division, Department of the Susquehanna, and was charged with the protection of Harrisburg.—EDITORS.
4 I have seen it stated in an account of Burns, that he was an old regular soldier who had served in the Florida war.—H.J.H.
Sergeant George Eustice, of Company F, 7th Wisconsin Volunteers, in a letter from Gilroy, Santa Clara County, California, gives this account of John Burns’s action in the ranks of that regiment:
“It must have been about noon when I saw a little old man coming up in the rear of Company F. In regard to the peculiarities of his dress, I remember he wore a swallow-tailed coat with smooth brass buttons. He had a rifle on his shoulder. We boys began to poke fun at him as soon as he came amongst us, as we thought no civilian in his senses would show himself in such a place. Finding that he had really come to fight I wanted to put a cartridge-box on him to make him look like a soldier, telling him he could not fight without one. Slapping his pantaloons-pocket, he replied, ‘I can get my hands in here quicker than in a box. I’m not used to them new-fangled things.’ In answer to the question what possessed him to come out there at such a time, he replied that the rebels had either driven away or milked his cows, and that he was going to be even with them. About this time the enemy began to advance. Bullets were flying thicker and faster, and we hugged the ground about as close as we could. Burns got behind a tree and surprised us all by not taking a double-quick to the rear. He was as calm and collected as any veteran on the ground. We soon had orders to get up and move about a hundred yards to the right, when we were engaged in one of the most stubborn contests I ever experienced. Foot by foot we were driven back to a point near the seminary, where we made a stand, but were finally driven through the town to Cemetery Ridge. I never saw John Burns after our movement to the right, when we left him behind his tree, and only know that he was true blue and grit to the backbone, and fought until he was three times wounded.”
In his official report, General Doubleday says:
“My thanks are specially due to a citizen of Gettysburg named John Burns, who, although over seventy years of age, shouldered his musket and offered his services to Colonel Wister, 150th Pennsylvania Volunteers. Colonel Wister advised him to fight in the woods, as there was more shelter there; but he preferred to join our line of skirmishers in the open fields. When the troops retired, he fought with the Iron Brigade [Meredith’s]. He was wounded in three places.”—EDITORS.
5 The opening of the battle on the Chambersburg road, on July 1st, is thus described by Captain Newel Cheney, of the 9th N.Y. Cavalry, in a paper prepared for the Gettysburg Monument Commission of New York:
“Colonel William Sackett, commanding the 9th N.Y. Cavalry, was brigade officer of the day and in charge of the brigade picket-line made up of details from each regiment of Devin’s brigade (9th N.Y., 6th N.Y., 4th N.Y., and 17th Pa.) the night of June 30th, and extending from the so
uth side of the Chambersburg road, on the east side of Willoughby Run, northerly and eastwardly across the Mummasburg, Carlisle, and Harrisburg roads. He had his headquarters on the Chambersburg road, near the Lutheran Seminary. The advanced picket put on the Chambersburg road near Willoughby Run consisted of a corporal and three men, relieved every two hours, with orders not to fire on any one approaching from the front, but to notify the pickets in each direction and the reserve. No one approached from the front until daylight next morning, July 1st, when Corporal Alphouse Hodges, of Company F., 9th N.Y. Cavalry, was on this post with three men. At daylight he saw men approaching along the road, nearly a mile away, across Willoughby Run. Acting on his orders, he immediately sent his men to notify the line and the reserve, while he advanced across the Run till near enough to see that those approaching were the enemy, when he turned back, and as he did so the enemy fired at him. He retired to the Run, and from behind the abutments of the bridge fired several shots back at the enemy. These are supposed to be the first shots fired from our side on the morning of July 1st at Gettysburg, and occurred about 5:30 A.M., as near as Hodges can remember. When he fell back from the bridge to the higher ground, he found Colonel Sackett had formed a skirmish-line of the whole of his picket force, which, as I have said, consisted of detachments from the different regiments of the (Devin’s) brigade. Here the advance of the enemy was first seriously disputed by this skirmish-line, which they held till after Hall’s battery (2d Maine) came up and took position on the right of the Chambersburg road in rear of this skirmish-line and fired.… The First Brigade of Buford’s division (Colonel Gamble’s) coming up on the left of the road, the line of the Second Brigade, still under command of Colonel Sackett, moved farther to the right and occupied the line from the Chambersburg road to the Mummasburg road. That portion of the 9th Cavalry which had remained in camp received orders to water their horses by squadrons in Rock Creek about 7 A.M. As soon as they had watered, they saddled up and proceeded out on the Mummasburg road to the skirmish-line on Oak Ridge. The first squadron, under Captain Hanley (afterward Lieutenant-Colonel), was the first to reach the line, and he immediately ordered Lieutenant A.C. Robertson (afterward Captain) with twenty men to advance down the road into the woods, where he found the enemy’s line near the residence of N. Hoffman. Finding the enemy had a strong line, he retired to a position a little back of the residence of J. Forney, from behind which some of the enemy were firing at him. He dismounted his men and drove the enemy from behind Forney’s buildings, then fell back to the stone wall on the ridge, where the balance of the regiment were formed dismounted. Here the regiment held their ground for some time while the enemy approached on their hands and knees through the wheat-field in front. Daniel Cornish, of Company F, getting sight of a rebel not far away in the field, fired and killed him. The regiment cheered, and the enemy, evidently thinking our men would charge on them, hastily withdrew out of the wheat-field. As they fell back one man stopped behind a tree in the field near the road, and Perry Nichols, of Company F, advanced and captured him. This is said to be the first prisoner captured. He was immediately taken to Buford’s headquarters, and gave the first information we received from the enemy’s side. It was during this skirmish that Cyrus W. James, Company G, 9th N.Y. Cavalry, was killed by a rebel bullet, and he is said to have been the first man killed that morning on our side.”—EDITORS.
Hearts Touched by Fire Page 73