July 2 Action Against Long Lane (?)

Tom Elmore

Captain
Member of the Year
Joined
Jan 16, 2015
The following descriptive account by a Confederate junior officer in the 33rd North Carolina is unique in several respects. First, it describes a minor, although intense action that at this time cannot be definitively linked to an officially reported event. It could be part of an afternoon effort by the brigade skirmishers to take the lane that Brig. Gen. James A. Lane mentions in his official report, under the overall command of Major O. N. Brown of the 37th NC. Or it could be part of a broader effort launched around 09:45 in the morning that extended south to the Bliss farm. Or it could be an entirely independent effort.

The other interesting aspect has to do with the officer who ordered it, Maj. Gen. William Dorsey Pender. It is very rare to find any mention of Pender on the battlefield; in fact this account reveals more about Pender than any other I have yet found. It might even have been Pender's final executive order, because he was mortally wounded later the same afternoon. In addition, here Pender issues orders directly to one of his regiments; no mention is made of Lane, nor does Lane mention Pender's role in this affair.

The author is Wilson H. Lucas, who began the war as a sergeant in Company F and was promoted to second lieutenant in August 1862. He was afterwards advanced to first lieutenant of Company A, backdated to July 3, 1863. His account was penned in Middleton, NC on December 9, 1887, and was found in the Brake Collection at the U.S. Army History Institute in Carlisle, PA. The question mark in the title conveys the uncertainty of the mentioned road. It is probably the sunken road we know as Long Lane, but there is a slight chance it is the Emmitsburg Road. Their Federal opponents in this area included the 73rd and 55th Ohio, but reportedly they had only 7 and 11 men captured respectively in the battle, which adds to the mystery. The cited Lt. Joe Caldwell does not appear in the service records. There is a Lt. John Caldwell, but he was apparently a different individual.

[I have paraphrased the account for brevity] "On 2 July we were in line of battle on Seminary Ridge to the right and not far from a Theological Seminary. ... General Pender ... came up to Col. [Clarke Moulton] Avery, who commanded our regiment, and asked (Avery) if he could pick out 75 men from this regiment with two officers who could take a certain point in a road in our front that was held by some Federal troops. Col. Avery told Gen. Pender he could, and at once had 75 men picked men formed in a line. In command was Lt. (Joe R.) Caldwell and myself, we both second lieutenants, my commission being the oldest. ... We were brought up in a line in front of Gen. Pender, who addressed us ... 'Can you take that road in front?' I told him I did not know whether I could or not. At that reply, Gen. Pender became a little angry and said to me, 'If you can't take it, say so, and I will get someone who can.' ... I replied, 'I can take it if any other 75 men in the Army of Northern Virginia can.' Gen. Pender said, 'That it is the way I love to hear you talk.' He told us to hold our fire as long as possible, but be sure and take the road. We formed the men in a line, I commanding the right, and Lt. Caldwell the left. We had to charge through an open field with no protection. ... When we got within 200 yards of them we charged with a yell, and they stood their ground until we were within ten steps of the road. Then a part of them rose ... but 26 surrendered and the ---- [unclear] last time they fired upon us, which was not more than 12 or 14 feet from them. They shot Lt. Caldwell in the breast, I did not see him fall. As soon as we were in the road, one of the men told me Lt. Caldwell was killed. I found him lying part on his back and side; he was within 12 feet of the road. I called two men and we pulled him on his back and spread his oil cloth over him. ... Federal skirmishers would kill a man before he could go a hundred yards [so we could not send his body back immediately]. ... We had 12 men killed and wounded out of 75 ... It was the hottest place for a little while that I had [ever been in] during the war. Lt. Caldwell and myself were best friends. He was one of the noblest young men I ever knew. He was brave as a lion. After night, I had Lt. Caldwell placed upon a stretcher and carried to Seminary Ridge ... buried not far from an old two-story house [sounds like McMillan's]. There are seven graves near him - men killed in the same charge."
 
Last edited:
"On 2 July we were in line of battle on Seminary Ridge to the right and not far from a Theological Seminary. ... General Pender ... came up to Col. [Clarke Moulton] Avery, who commanded our regiment, and asked (Avery) if he could pick out 75 men from this regiment with two officers who could take a certain point in a road in our front that was held by some Federal troops.

25 years after the fact, I wonder if the author mixed up the days and was not part of the activity in the morning of the 3rd to dislodge federal skirmishers. Lane reported that "Next morning the skirmishing was very heavy in front of Thomas and Perrin, requiring, at times, whole regiments to deploy and resist this enemy back, which was always done most gallantly." The 33rd was the left flank of Lane's brigade during the charge afterwards.

25 years is a long time to remember details (or to think that what someone says he remembers might actually happened as and when he says that happened)
 
Hmm... interesting that Pender was directly giving such specific orders to a regiment. Gettysburg was Pender's first (and only) engagement as a division commander and I wonder if that was an old habit from his days as a brigadier.
 
Except Pender was not around on July 3.

Greg Coco, in his book on Confederate dead, identifies John Caldwell as the individual mentioned by Lucas, and thus places his grave "probably" near the McMillan house. Let's take a closer look at John Caldwell. His papers are in the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Caldwell's last letter is dated June 22. An 18 July letter is written by Col. Avery to Caldwell's father. Avery writes that Caldwell fell within 40 yards of the enemy's works during the great charge on July 3. Avery says: "A wounded lieutenant who was near Johnny thinks he was shot in the breast." Could this wounded lieutenant have been Wilson H. Lucas?

The plot thickens. An interesting account appears in the Marion Record of November 28, 1895. The article notes that after Lucas was elected to the state legislature in 1873, he called upon the governor, Tod R. Caldwell, to inform him of the circumstances of his son John's death at Gettysburg. He witnessed John being shot down while fighting with a New York soldier. After hearing the story, the governor locked himself in his room and was all day in tears. The article has a final twist. In 1895, Maj. Charles W. Cowtan, formerly of the 10th New York [Battalion, which was deployed near Meade's headquarters as a provost guard on July 3 - see Cowtan's book], contacted the author of the article to discuss a torn and bloody commission that he found after the fight, whose owner's name, although partially illegible, was John Ca-----. The document was confirmed to have belonged to John Caldwell, and it was sent to Mrs. Caldwell, his mother, who at the same time learned what Lucas had told the governor in 1873. Until that moment she had never known what had become of her son. Governor Caldwell died in 1874.

With this last information in hand, we go back to the account Lucas wrote in 1887, and indeed must now conclude that it was badly garbled. Since John Caldwell was likely buried as an unknown by Federal soldiers on Cemetery Ridge on July 3, who was it that was buried near the McMillan house? The saying, "truth is stranger than fiction," would seem to apply - or even partial truth.
 
Back
Top