PENNSYLVANIA AT GETTYSBURG
THE RESERVES AT GETTYSBURG.
ABOUT three o'clock on the afternoon
of July 1, 1863, the Pennsylvania Reserves crossed the line, and entering the State laid
down in a wood. The division was commanded by Brigadier-General S. Wylie Crawford, U. S.
Volunteers, Major U. S. Army. His staff consisted of,—
Major James
P. Speer, Acting Assistant Inspector-General.
Captain R.
T. Auchmuty, Assistant Adjutant-General.
Captain
Louis Livingston, Additional Aide-de-Camp. Lieutenant Richard P. Henderson, Aide-de-Camp.
Lieutenant
William Harding, Ordnance Officer.
Captain
Philip L. Fox, Assistant Quartermaster.
Major Louis
W. Bead, Surgeon and Medical Director.
The brigades
were:
The First,
Colonel William McCandless, Second Reserve, with staff as follows:
Captain
Joseph R. T. Coates, First Reserve, Acting Assistant Inspector-General.
Lieutenant
William A. Hoyt, Second Reserve, Acting Assistant Adjutant-General.
Lieutenant
John. Taylor, Second Reserve, Aide-de-Camp.
Lieutenant
James B. Goodman, Sixth Reserve, Aide-de-Camp.
Lieutenant
John A. Waggoner, First Reserve, Brigade Quartermaster.
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at Gettysburg. 109
Lieutenant
A. A. Scudder, Sixth Reserve, Brigade Commissary
The
regiments were as follows:
First
Rifles, "Bucktails," Colonel Charles Frederick Taylor.
First
Infantry, Colonel William Cooper Talley.
Second
Infantry, Lieutenant-Colonel George A. Woodward.
Sixth
Infantry, Colonel Wellington H. Ent.
The Third,*
Colonel Joseph W. Fisher, Fifth Reserve, with
staff as
follows:
Captain Hartley Howard, Acting
Assistant Inspector-General.
Lieutenant John L. Wright, Acting
Assistant Adjutant-General.
Lieutenant Charles K. Chamberlain,
Aide-de-Camp.
Lieutenant William H. H. Kern,
Aide-de-Camp.
Captain George Norris, Brigade
Quartermaster.
Lieutenant Samuel Evans, Brigade
Commissary.
Major Joseph A. Phillips, Brigade
Surgeon.
The regiments were as follows:
Fifth
Infantry, Lieutenant-Colonel George Dare.
Ninth
Infantry, Lieutenant-Colonel James McK. Snodgrass.
Tenth
Infantry, Colonel Adoniram J. Warner.
Eleventh
Infantry, Colonel Samuel M. Jackson.
Twelfth
Infantry, Colonel Martin D. Hardin, U. S. Army.
At dark that night the division was
put in motion, and after a rapid and fatiguing march, near daylight were laid to rest, but
hardly an eye closed ere the drums of reveille beat. While in motion the news of the
defeat of the First Corps and the death of General Reynolds was received, depressing the
spirits of the men, but strengthening their resolutions for the fight. At noon, after
marching forty miles with but two hours' sleep we reached Rock Creek, and, filing to the
left
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*The Second Brigade, Colonel Horatio
G, Sickel, Third Reserve, was detained by the authorities within the defenses of
Washington. It participated with honor in General George Crook's campaign in West
Virginia. Colonel Sickel, was promoted Brevet Major-General U. S. V, and was severely
wounded near the close of the war.
**In the ambulance-wagon of the First
Brigade was secretly stored a magnificent sword for presentation to General Reynolds. The
General had consented to receive it upon being assured it was from the enlisted men only
of that brigade, and that no officer would be connected with it. A note was addressed
asking him, in the lull of the coming battle, to receive the gift direct from the boys,
one being chosen from each regiment to await an opportunity to present it to him on the
field. Subsequently It was presented by Sergeant W. Hayes Grier, Fifth Regiment, to the
general's sister, the wife of Captain Henry D. Landis.
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Pennsylvania at Gettysburg.
from the
Baltimore pike, joined our corps, the Fifth, Major-General Sykes, in rear and in support
of the right of the line of battle.
About 4: o'clock, General Crawford,
seeing the First and Second Divisions of our corps moving to the left, followed through
the woods to the cross-road leading to the Emmitsburg road. Here the division was massed
in the right rear of Little Round Top, in and near the old brier patch. Soon after General
Crawford, by order, sent the Third Brigade, Colonel Fisher's, with the exception of the
Eleventh Reserve, to Big Round Top to succor General Vincent, they marching by the left
flank. At the same time the First Brigade, Colonel Mc-Candless, was moved to the western
slope of Little Round Top and massed in column of regiments, left in front, the Eleventh
Reserve being the head of the column.
Little Round Top, rising two hundred
and eighty feet above the general water-level of the streams which drain the valley at its
base, like Big Round Top, nearly south of it and four hundred feet high, is of volcanic
origin, crowned with wood growing amid bowlders of syenite. The two hills, seven hundred
yards from crest to crest, are separated by a deep rocky depression, and form perfect
forts covering our left flank, they being the key-points of the whole battlefield. The
western slope of Little Round Top sinks to, a little stream called Plum Run, which drains
a swampy meadow. This run gradually assumes the character of a rivulet as it enters the
precincts of the Devil's Den, another chaotic distribution of bowlders. The
"Den," in an angle of this and a contributory stream that flows from Seminary
Ridge, is one hundred and eighty feet above the water-level and five hundred yards due
west of Little Round Top. Its eastern slope is steep; its western, prolonged as a ridge.
Its northern extremity is composed of huge rocks and bowlders, forming innumerable
crevices and holes, from the largest of which it derives its name. Plum Run Valley, three
hundred and fifty yards broad, is marshy but strewed with bowlders, as is also the slopes
of the Round Top. These afford lurking-places for a multitude of sharp-shooters, whom,
from the difficulties of the ground, it was impossible to dislodge, so that at the close
of the battle these hiding-places; and especially the "Den," were filled with
dead and wounded men
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at Gettysburg. 111
of the
contending armies. Extending northward from the "Den," beyond and on the western
side of Plum Run Valley and partially between the valley and the wheatfield, is a low
ridge terminating in "Houck's Hill." From near the "Den" a stone wall
runs over the "hill," through the level and beyond the "cross-road,"
it bordering on the then eastern edge of Trostle's woods. This wall, which runs nearly
northeast on the wheat-field side, was fringed with heavy timber from the "Den"
to the woods at the "cross-roads." The distance from the "den" to the
"cross-road" is five hundred and eighty-three yards. This
"cross-road," skirting the northern slope of Little Round Top, extends
northwesterly to the Emmitsburg road, in the southeasterly intersection of which is the
peach orchard, fourteen hundred and fifty yards from Little Round Top. This
"cross-road" separates the wheatfield from Troste's woods. This woods, four
hundred yards long, is separated at its western end by the "cross-road" and a
brief interval from Rose's woods, which sweeps to the southerly and to the easterly back
to Devil's Den, enclosing the wheat-field on the westerly and southerly sides. The
wheatfield is two hundred and twenty-two yards along the stone wall, three hundred and
sixty-one yards next to Trostle's woods, four hundred and forty-four yards along Rose's
woods, and five hundred yards, on the southwesterly side, containing about twenty-five
acres.
Into the depression between the Round
Tops, Law's Brigade of Alabamians, supported by Robertson's Texans, had forced themselves,
and were advancing to the possession of the Tops, when they were met by Vincent's Brigade
of Barnes' Division of our corps, that had been posted there by General Warren, where the
struggle became severe and protracted. .
As before stated, the Third Brigade
had gone to the assistance of Vincent, and the First was massed on Little Round Top; but a
very short time after these movements were made the situation in our front changed
rapidly. Sickles, who had been severely wounded, and who had been struggling for hours on
his line, extending from the Devil's Den around to the wheatfield and beyond the peach
orchard, was at last overpowered and swept away. Ayres' Division of regulars of our corps,
which had been sent, to his aid, had gallantly held the line wall, but was driven from it
and forced over the valley.
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Pennsylvania at Gettysburg.
All the Union lines in our front were
irrevocably broken. The valley was covered with fugitives from all divisions, who rushed
through our lines and along the road to the rear. Fragments of regiments came back in
disorder and without arms. A section of a German battery, whose horses had all been
killed, was abandoned by the gunners immediately in front of the right and left of the
Eleventh and Sixth Reserves, and for a time all seemed lost. Close on these fugitives came
the enemy, his lines irregular but massed here and there and his colors flying.
While this scene was passing before
our eyes, the brigade, McCandless', with the Eleventh Reserve of Fisher's Brigade, formed
into two-lines, the first being composed of "the Sixth on the right, with their left
resting on the "cross-road," the Eleventh in the center, and the First on the
left. The second line was massed on the first; the Second Reserve on the right, and the
Bucktails on the left. Before this movement could be fully executed, our front was
practically uncovered, by the fugitives, and the enemy, recognizing the unexpected
obstacle, came direct for us. The first line opened a destructive fire at short range, the
Eleventh using "buck and ball," some of their muskets having the buckshot of
several cartridges in them.
The brigade was still left in front,
facing by the rear ranks. In fact, so sudden had been the change in our front, we had not
time to assume our proper formation. There cannot be the least doubt in the minds of those
who knew the exact state of affairs upon the field at that time, that few moments delay
in, our arrival on Little Round Top, the key of the field would have been lost, and very
probably the battle of Gettysburg would have closed that night. On the left of the second
line, Colonel Taylor, not realizing the position, undertook to countermarch the Bucktails,
which movement was also attempted by the Second, but in the confusion of the movement they
suddenly found themselves confronted and mixed up with the charging enemy. In the short
but desparate melee that followed, the greater part of these two regiments charged
without firing a shot. So far up the slope were the enemy, that the gunners of Hazlett's
Battery on the crest were preparing to spike their guns, but this movement encouraged them
not to do so. The right of the line had fired three or
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at Gettysburg. 113
four rounds,
when Crawford called on the men, "in the name of Pennsylvania," to charge. A
loud cheer broke from the boys as down the slope they moved, and breaking into a
double-quick they swept all before them over the valley and up to the stone wall, where a
short but desperate struggle ensued. But soon their banners mounted over it and into the
wheatfleld, where, by orders, they halted. On the slope and in crossing the valley the
Bucktails and Second inclined to the left to meet a heavy fire coming from that direction,
thus extending our line to the full brigade front. So heavy was this fire, and so
threatening were the enemy on our left, that four companies of the Bucktails, under their
major, dropped behind some rocks which afforded some protection to that flank. The other
six companies advanced over "Houck's Hill" in line with the brigade, until they
took and crossed the stone wall where Colonel Taylor fell, shot through the heart. Colonel
Taylor and several officers, with fifteen or twenty men were on the extreme left at the
time, and had just discovered some two or three hundred of the enemy but a short distance
away. He promptly demanded their surrender, when nearly every man threw down his arms.
Just then a Confederate in the rear cried out, with an oath, "I'll never surrender to
a corporal's guard." Most of them again grasped their arms, and it was by this fire
the colonel was killed. The quick fire of the breech-loading rifles induced some thirty or
forty to surrender, the others retreating to the Devil's Den.
Lieutenant-Colonel Niles being
severely wounded, Major. Hartshorne succeeded to the command of the "Bucktails,"
and sent Captain Kinsey with his company to the left to throw out skirmishers at right
angles with the regiment. As they approached the "Den" they were met with a
heavy fire, and the men taking cover, a lively skirmish ensued. Soon after several shells
exploded in their midst, followed by a volley from the enemy. Captain Kinsey was severely
wounded by a shell, and several men were killed and wounded. It now being dark the line
was withdrawn a considerable distance, and a strong Picket established on the left flank
and rear. A brisk fire was kept up along the left of the line until about ten o'clock when
it ceased, seemingly by mutual consent.
We were then far in advance of our
main line, without immediate support, with the enemy in force on our left rear, and
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Pennsylvania at Gettysburg.
a heavy wood
on our right front, extending up to the enemy's line, affording a covered approach. A
strong line of pickets were thrown out into the wheatfield and wood in front, and on both
right and left flanks, well to the rear. Colonel Jackson, of the Eleventh, sent Captain
Mills with a portion of his company to prevent the enemy removing an abandoned battery
through the night. The whole line lay down behind the stone wall and took such rest as
they could under the circumstances. General Crawford and staff slept that night with the
brigade. Lieutenant-Colonel Woodward, on account of wounds received at Glendale, was
unable to accompany his regiment from Little Round Top, but slept that night at the stone
wall. The regiment in its charges was led by Major P. McDonough.
Nearly one-half our loss during the
engagement was from the severity of the enemy's fire before we charged. Lieutenant-Colonel
Porter and Lieutenant Fulton and a number of men were wounded, and Lieutenant John O'Harra
Wood and several men of the Eleventh were
killed before they delivered their first volley. The same to a less extent occurred in all
the regiments. When the section of the battery was abandoned on our right-front the
officer in command ordered the guns to be spiked. This was prevented by Lieutenant John
McWilliams, of the Sixth. Early the next morning the captain of the battery came over to
the stone wall and said, "The Pennsylvania Reserves saved mine pattery,
py——. I gets you fellers all drunk." His good intuitions were duly
applauded.
About the time Fisher was sent to the
left, Strong Vincent, the general commanding at that point, was mortally wounded, and
General Stephen H. Weed, commanding a brigade, and Captain Hazlett, the battery on Little
Round Top, were killed. Colonel Rice had succeeded to the command. The left of his line
was resting just at the eastern edge of the valley or depression between the Round Tops.
Fisher placed the Fifth and Twelfth Reserves immediately in the rear of this line and the
Eighth, Ninth and Tenth across the depression, covering Rice's left flank. The severe
fighting at this point was over, the enemy repulsed, appearing to shift to their left, on
to Little Round Top. Colonel Fisher, in a communication to the committee, says: "I
soon discovered that Big Round Top
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was in
possession of the enemy's sharp-shooters, and seeing the annoyance they were to us, and
the great importance of the position, as a key of our position, I said to Colonel Rice, I
will take that hill to-night.' To this proposition he assented, and proposed joining in
the undertaking. Seeing that three regiments were all that could be conveniently employed,
and having but two regiments that I could use without weakening Rice's support Colonel
Rice directed Colonel Chamberlain, with the Twentieth Maine, to report to me. Learning
that this regiment was armed with Springfield rifles, I directed Chamberlain to deploy it
as skirmishers, as my regiments, the Fifth, Lieutenant-Colonel Dare and the Twelfth,
Colonel Hardin, were armed with altered Harper's Ferry muskets. In the meantime I had sent
staff officers to report to Generals Sykes and Crawford my proposed movements. General
Crawford, however, arriving upon the grounds and approving my plan, directed me to 'move
up at once.' The line advanced as best it could in the dark, up the rough side, driving
the enemy before it and capturing over thirty prisoners, from some of whom they learned
that 'they were just in time,' as the Confederates had sent them word to hold the hill, as
they were organizing a force to occupy it." Colonel Fisher remained in this position
until the morning of the 4th, when he was relieved by General Wright, of the Sixth Corps.
At the first dawn of light the next
morning, the 3d, skirmishing commenced in our front and was continued throughout the day,
we remaining behind the stone wall and the trees fringing its front, whilst the rebs,
concealed in the thick foliage of the branches upon their line, annoyed us considerably.
On our extreme left, fronting the Devil's Den, things were not so quiet. Captains Bell and
Wolff were sent out to develop the enemy's strength, and when deployed as skirmishers, as
they approached the ridge of the "Den," the fire became severe, indicating a
heavy force, strongly posted. Taking cover, a rapid fire was opened in the hope of driving
the enemy from his position, or forcing him to come out from his stronghold to drive
them off. Armed with breech-loaders and Spencer repeating-rifles, any object that will
cover the body is all the protection a man needs, as he is not exposed in loading, and
this superiority in the Bucktails' arms soon gave them a decided advantage. The enemy were
not long in discovering this, and in a superior
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Pennsylvania at Gettysburg.
force made a
dash from the "Den," and forced the boys to make a rapid retreat to prevent the
capture of the entire party. In this charge the loss was heavy, and Captain Bell received
a wound in the hip which caused the loss of a leg. The enemy, strange to say, did not
follow up their advantage. Thrust out, as we were, far in advance of our line of battle
with both flanks exposed, they should, during the night, have attempted to flank us out
and drive us down the wall. Whether they would have succeeded or not is problematic, yet
it seems strange they should have allowed our little brigade to occupy that advanced
position without attempting our dislodgement. Lieutenant Kratzer was then sent out with
thirty volunteers. Starting on a run, they passed up close to the "Den," when a
volley killed and wounded one-third of them. The enemy called upon them to surrender, but
the men took cover and fired at every mark that presented itself, until the brigade moved,
.
The battlefield is not always devoid
of amusing incidents. On the right, two men of the Sixth found a horse tied in the wood in
front of them, which they brought in. A youngster named Dan Cole, to relieve the monotony
of picket-firing, mounted the animal and rode down the front of the brigade line, playing
"Buck McCandless." He appealed in the most pathetic tones to the boys to
remember their "daddies" and "mammies" and "best gal," and
never to desert the old flag as long as there was a ration left. He created much amusement
until the horse bounced him off and scampered over to the rebels, when the cheers and
shouts of both lines caused us to forget for the moment we were enemies.
The tumult of a conflict on our
extreme right was heard from early dawn until near noon, occasioned by the Union troops
regaining their lost ground of the evening before. This was followed by a stillness over
the whole field—the ominous calm that presages a deadly storm—when at one
o'clock the signal guns of the enemy fired, and then opened that grand cannonade in which
two hundred and twenty-one guns* hurled their missiles through the air. The enemy's front
for two miles was soon covered with smoke, through which the flashes were incessant,
whilst the air seemed filled with bursting
___________________________________________________
*One hundred and fifty Confederate
and seventy-one Union guns. General H. J.
Hunt in the Century Magazine, January, 1887, p. 462.
Pennsylvania at Gettysburg. 117
shells and
their whirling fragments. The Union line blazed like a volcano, and the thunder of the
guns seemed like one prolonged sound. Suddenly the fire on both sides ceased, and then Pickett's charge was made. From the position
we occupied, in advance of our line of battle, we had a full view as they swept by of this
the most grand and thrilling sight the eye of man could rest on. That magnificent mass of
living valor, so full of hope and resolution,
so soon to be swept back, crushed, torn and bleeding, awakened in us mingled feelings of
admiration and apprehension, for it seemed like an irrestible avalanche. Those gallant
lines never faltered, but lost to view in the smoke of infantry, they melted away, and the glad earth drank their blood. Disorganized
stragglers and fragments could only be seen
coming back, and they followed by a relentless fire.
During this time firing ceased in our
front, all eyes awaiting the result that was
to decide the fate of the battle. In spite of the watchfulness of the officers, men from
every regiment slipped away and soon formed a line of sharp-shooters upon the flank of the charging column. Officers were
sent to drive them back, but the boys resorted to ingenious artifices to avoid or deceive them, some throwing themselves upon the
ground and imitating the agonies of death.
Several of them were wounded, and at least
one killed, but they inflicted considerable loss upon the enemy, whom they shot down as
they marched so gallantly on or rushed back in flight.
The defeat of Picket was followed by
a breathless lull, soon to be broken by a revengeful fire from the battery and
sharp-shooters in our front. Major-General Meade, together with Generals Sykes, Warren, Sedgwick, Pleasonton and
Crawford, soon gathered on the summit of Little Round Top, and the general-in-chief,
becoming impatient at this fire, ordered General Crawford
to clean out the woods in his front. Crawford rode to the stone wall and gave the
necessary orders. During the night a section of a battery had been posted near the
cross-road in the interval between the Trostle's and Rose's woods on the west side of the
wheatfield, four hundred and fifty yards in our immediate front. Through the day our
sharpshooters had severely left it alone, as we did not wish to provoke an unequal
contest, and it only occasionally fired at us. : This battery it was necessary
to silence; McCandless' brigade
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Pennsylvania at Gettysburg.
leaped over
the stone wall and deliberately dressed their lines. The battery opened upon them
vigorously, when they lay down. Soon the gunners, becoming tired at firing at the air,
ceased. Then the brigade rose to its feet and slowly moved to the left some twenty paces.
Again the guns opened and we laid ourselves quietly down. This operation of see-sawing to
the right and left was continued, successfully drawing the harmless fire of the guns,
while the Sixth Reserve crept up through Trostle's woods to attempt its capture. But the
enemy discovered the movement, and, hastily limbering up, fled, the Sixth opening fire to
give them a good start. Their infantry support, after a brisk skirmish, was also driven
in. Upon hearing and seeing the muskets of the Sixth, McCandless marched the balance of
his brigade by the right flank, and filing left, formed line of battle, and deploying
skirmishers to the front, right and left, charged diagonally over the wheat-field to the
southwest, receiving the enemy's fire from three sides. Striking near the south end of
Rose's woods, they half-wheeled to the right, opened fire, and charged up and through it
to the crest, striking and piercing their line, the enemy, after a sharp resistance,
breaking mostly towards the peach orchard. The ground was strewed with the dead of
DeTrobriand's command. McCandless, learning the left flank of the Bucktails, which held
the left of the line, was being attacked, changed the direction of that regiment by the
left flank to the rear, which movement brought its front facing the enemy moving upon them
from this direction. At the same time, placing the balance of the brigade in columns of
regiments in the rear, he charged with his entire force in this new direction. Down
through the low land and up through the rising ground and woods went the brigade, they
striking the Fifteenth Georgia Infantry, posted behind a temporary breastwork of rails,
the Bucktails capturing their flag and many prisoners, scattering the remainder in flight.
The Reserves never liked charging in
column of regiments, and in this case, as in every similar one, the rear regiments,
without orders, pushed to the front, which soon changed into that of brigade line of
battle. The right being thus extended, the whole line swept upon their flank, doubling up
and throwing one regiment upon another, creating utter confusion and demoralization. They
fled across a ravine at the corner of a
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at Gettysburg. 119
woods and
near Slyder's stone house. Here we discovered a brigade drawn up across our front about
three hundred yards distant. Our impetuous charge had expended itself, and the men as they
came up were quickly got into line, and they were gathering fast, but before forty men
were in line, to our surprise, we distinctly heard the orders pass down the line of
"Left face, march!" The rear of their line, their front facing westward, had not
moved twenty paces before they broke, by order, into a "double-quick," carrying
their banners at a trail. Had this brigade resolutely charged, they would have driven the
head of our long, scattered column back for some distance, until we could have got
ourselves in shape to properly resist them, but such was our sudden appearance, and at
such disadvantage to them, that they naturally became demoralized and supposed we were in
much heavier force than we really were.
The Comte de Paris gives an account
of the "piking out" of this brigade, which he says was Kershaw's, that we cannot
refrain from adding it, gravely surmising, however, it was the ingenious invention of some
brilliant Confederate writer who conceived the idea of turning their somewhat laudable
exit into a dexterous military manoeuver. "Kershaw finds himself isolated in his
turn, and believing himself already surrounded, in order to escape from the enemy resorts
to a manoeuver which we mention on account of, as the count naively says, " 'its
singularity.' He sends the color-bearers of his regiments to plant their flags a few
hundred yards in the right-rear, across the tributary of Plum Run, subsequently ordering
his soldiers to break ranks and reform in this new position." So sudden was the
charge that we killed and captured their butchers while engaged in skinning beeves, and
also a fatigue party, who were burying their dead. We recaptured the greater part of the
battlefield lost by Sickles, with its thousands of dead and wounded, captured the colors
of the Fifteenth Georgia, which are now in the Adjutant-General's office at Washington, and over two hundred prisoners, among
them a lieutenant-colonel of a Georgia regiment, and captured and recovered three thousand
two hundred and fifty-eight muskets, one brass twelve-pounder, and three caissons. With
this charge ended the battle of Gettysburg. The movements of both days were made under the
personal direction and supervision of General Crawford.
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Pennsylvania at Gettysburg.
The distance charged over the
wheatfleld was seven hundred and fifty yards, from that point towards Slyder's house six
hundred and sixty-six yards—fourteen hundred and fifteen yards in all. Taking them,
as we did in a measure, by surprise, and on the flank, their rout was no disgrace to them,
nor was their military honor tarnished. Such occurences are not unknown in war. Those
landless resolutes who had gallantly performed their part on many hard-fought fields, and
who subsequently proved their devotion to the end, cannot be judged as wanting in spirit
or courage.
Soon after we halted, Captain Coates
came with orders from General Crawford for us to proceed no farther, and at this point we
were rejoined by the Sixth Reserve. After dark we retraced our steps to the southwestern
edge of Rose's woods and bivouacked on the ground where we first encountered the enemy and
pierced their line. Here we buried our dead, some seven or eight in number, our wounded
having been removed on stretchers following the charge. Some distance in our front was
Rose's springhouse, in which lay dead a Confederate officer and two men. From this stream
we refilled our canteens, and our pickets, being concealed near it, captured a number of
prisoners, who came there for the same purpose. All night long the ambulances and
stretchers were collecting the wounded, who had lain there from the afternoon of the 2d.
During the night a supply of ammunition was received, Colonel McCandless carrying it on
his horse, one hundred and four thousand eight hundred and twenty rounds having been
issued to the division during this battle, and at 2 o'clock the next morning, the 4th,
we moved down the eastern side of the woods along the wheatfleld to near its northern
border, where we entered the woods, and, moving through it, lay down on its western edge
fronting the peach orchard, with our right resting near the cross-road. Soon after
daylight, the enemy's pickets called to us to come and get our wounded who lay between
the two lines. Volunteers went out for that purpose, but, being fire upon, returned.
Several round-shots were fired from a distant battery, but they richochetted harmlessly
over the field. The fire was returned by such of the boys who felt inclined to do so; a
skirmish line was sent out to develop their position, but the whole affair was spiritless,
and after 10
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at Gettysburg. 121
o'clock we
saw no more of them on that field. These were the
There was an abandoned gun and
caisson of a Union battery near Trostle's woods. During the morning of the 3d the
Confederates attached a long rope to the gun and tried to pull it over the hill near
Trostle's barnyard, but one of the Sixth, who was out hunting "grub" from the
rebel's haversacks, discovered the manoeuver and, creeping up, cut the rope, which created
quite a surprise to those pulling on it. Late in the afternoon of that day, when the Sixth
attempted the capture of the enemy's battery, Company "I" was sent to the
extreme right to cover the house and barn, and when they returned they brought them into
our lines.
Company K, First Reserves, was from
the town and neighborhood of Gettysburg, many of the men fighting within sight of their
homes, and some even to drive the invaders from their own fields. The fathers and younger
brothers of some of the boys accompanied them to Little Round Top, and one went to the
stone wall with us.
When we advanced across the
wheat-field, Brigadier-General Bartlett, at the request of General Crawford, moved a
regiment to the stone wall, and threw a force to our right to protect that flank.
About noon, being relieved by a
brigade of regulars, we moved back to the stone wall, passing an artillery horse seated on
his haunches with his front-feet on the ground and head erect, just as he had been killed.
Against the wall were resting thousands of muskets picked up off the field. Soon after
other troops came to the wall, and we moved back to Little Round Top, where rations were
distributed, and where we remained until the afternoon of the next day, the 5th; the
rain, which commenced about noon of the day before, still continuing. Then we started on
our fifth tramp up and down through Virginia.
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