- Joined
- Jan 16, 2015
Barksdale’s center crosses the Emmitsburg road, forcing back the 141st Pennsylvania and rolling up the 114th Pennsylvania, only to face the 73rd New York. Some Confederates temporarily capture a cannon of Thompson’s battery and threaten Clark’s battery. The 21st Mississippi confronts the 2nd New Hampshire. Two 12-pounder Napoleons deduced to come from Patterson’s battery advance to the Emmitsburg road to deliver close support. Map reflects the situation as of 6:34 p.m., July 2.
“The rebels [Brigadier General William Barksdale’s brigade] advanced in two lines and in good order, until they reached the barn, when our boys met them. … The rebels gained the Emmitsburg road on our left … bringing up … 12 pounders, planting [them] in the middle of road opened up with double grape and canister” – Acting Sergeant Major Alexander W. Given, 114th Pennsylvania.
“The enemy … pouring a murderous fire on our flank, threw the left wing of the regiment on to the right in much confusion. /// Soon it became apparent that it was impossible that we should be able to hold our ground against such overwhelming numbers. … Only one avenue of escape was open to us, and that was up the Emmitsburg road” – Captain Edward R. Bowen, 114th Pennsylvania.
“We are at the barn and scaling the fences at the lane and right across and in among the enemy, literally running over them”– Private Joseph C. Lloyd, Company C, 13th Mississippi.
“I walked up to the Colonel [Peter Sides] and … said, ‘It looks as though we will soon have to move out of here or be captured’ … [he] said, ‘Yes, I think we will go now.’ … [To warn those posted in the buildings I] started on a run from one building to another … take hold of and shake a man to get his attention … when I … looked out … enemy was in the yard with a large force not fifty feet away” – Captain Alanson H. Nelson, Company E, 57th Pennsylvania.
“Captain [A. H.] Nelson … tried to notify those in the house, and order them to fall back, but amid the noise and confusion it was impossible to make them understand the situation, and they kept on firing from the windows after the rest of the men fell back, and they were summoned to surrender by the rebels who came up the stairs in their rear” – Private Ellis C. Strouss, Company K, 57th Pennsylvania.
“Farther to the left … the enemy broke through, and flanking the position, caused [Brigadier General Charles K.] Graham to fall back. A considerable number of the men had taken cover in an old cellar [at Sherfy’s house], and amidst the noise and confusion, did not receive the order to retire, nor notice the withdrawal of the rest of the regiment, but still kept up a rapid and most destructive fire. When too late, they discovered their isolated position, and were nearly all taken prisoners” – Member of the 57th Pennsylvania.
“[Major M. W.] Burns [of the 73rd New York told] me that just as he got up to the ground where Gen. Graham’s troops were, those troops gave way and left him” – Brigadier General Andrew A. Humphreys.
“At last, the 114th [Pennsylvania], with a parting volley in the faces of the Mississippians, made room for us and our regiment sent a volley at the enemy who fell in scores among the dead and wounded Pennsylvanians. They staggered under our fresh fire, but waved their flags, cheered and returned our volley, seeing their supports close at hand. Their advance, however, was checked at the barn, as our men continued to load and fire with rapidity and coolness, but our thin line on the left could be seen melting away through the smoke /// [Major M. W.] Burns, mounted on his conspicuous old white horse [named] (A. P. Hill), escaped the bullets … an excited and bareheaded officer dashed up to us and implored us to drag away a couple of imperiled guns, the horses having all been killed and the gunners shot. … I called to the men of my company and those nearest me to follow with the officer and drag away the imperiled guns” – Lieutenant Frank E. Moran, Company H, 73rd New York.
“The writer of this article, like the fool that he was, sprang on one of the guns and was shot off of it” – Private William M. Abernathy, Company B, 17th Mississippi.
“The enemy … [captured] one of the guns facing to the west. The Union infantry, however, soon after rallied, and the gun was saved” – Member of Battery C-F, Pennsylvania Artillery.
“When the blue coats saw us swarming over the fences and across the Emmitsburg road, without pausing, they began to ‘back out.’ Though they fought back bravely, retiring slowly until the firing was at close quarters, when the retreat became a rout in which our men took heavy toll for the losses inflicted on them” – Member of Brigadier General William Barksdale’s Brigade.
“Lieutenant [Joseph] Atkinson [of Company G], pointing to the rear, said, ‘Colonel, I’m afraid we are being surrounded; hadn’t we better fall back?’ ‘Fall back, **** no!’ replied Colonel [Henry J.] Madill. ‘I was ordered to hold this position.’” – Member of the 141st Pennsylvania.
“Our colors went down but were again raised to the breeze. Again they fell, when they were seized by the firm hand of Colonel Madill and again they floated in the air. They were riddled by rebel bullets and torn by rebel shells, but they did not fall again” – Sergeant J. D. Bloodgood, Company I, 141st Pennsylvania.
“The regiment was about-faced and retired, making a change of front to the rear while marching. Halfway through the peach orchard, it halted and maintained a sharp fire” – Private Martin A. Haynes, Company I, 2nd New Hampshire.
“I moved to the rear 140 yards and halted my line under the brow of the hill, halting also on the brow to give a volley to the enemy /// the 3d Maine regt. being twenty paces or so in rear of my left flank and the 68th regt. [Pennsylvania] charging on my right flank to get up to the crest of the hill; but it did not succeed, though most gallantly endeavoring, and was twenty paces or more behind the parallel of my line” – Colonel Edward L. Bailey, 2nd New Hampshire.
“A large force marching round to cut me off, and ordered my regiment to retire, and while doing so we received a most distressing fire, which threw my command into much confusion” – Colonel Moses B. Lakeman, 3rd Maine.
“The vents in our 10 pdr. Parrotts were burned out … about one half inch” – Private George W. Bonnell, Battery B, 1st New Jersey.
“The Captain [A. Judson Clark] gave the orders to limber up and go to the rear. … The enemy (Barksdale’s Brigade) were halfway through the Peach Orchard on our right flank … the lead team was hit … and the gun drove off with four horses. A Rebel yelled, ‘Halt, you Yankee sons of *******; we want those guns!’ Ennis yelled back, ‘Go to ****! We want to use them yet awhile.’ … Just as we started a single gun of the enemy came into position in Wentz’s yard and fired a round of canister. It killed six horses on No. 4 caisson and four on No. 3, wounding [four men]. This obliged us to leave one caisson and one caisson body on the field. … In passing to the rear we passed the left flank of Seventh New Jersey, 200 yards to the rear” – Member of Battery B, 1st New Jersey.
“The artillery [Battery B, 1st New Jersey] broke through our regiment in going into [Trostle] lane, on their way to the rear; they forced the four right companies to the other side of the [lane]” – Captain William R. Hillyer, Company K, 7th New Jersey.
“In falling back, the battery [B, 1st New Jersey] broke through our ranks, creating considerable confusion” – Major Frederick Cooper, 7th New Jersey.
“At the same time that our right fell back, the rebels [Kershaw’s men] had gotten so far into the woods on our left that their musketry became very annoying. … I ordered Lieut. [Frederic A.] Lull with the right section to retire 200 yards and come into position again. At this moment Major [Freeman] McGilvery ordered us all to retire … /// The right section being all ready got off ahead and the rest of the battery followed” – Captain Charles A. Phillips, 5th Massachusetts Battery.
“The order was given to ‘Limber up’ the guns,’ as the enemy was almost upon us” – 1st Lieutenant Henry D. Scott, 5th Massachusetts Battery.
“With the aid of C. [Casper] Carlisle [of Battery F], I unhitched the dead leaders and got the gun off the field” – Captain James Thompson, Battery C-F, Pennsylvania Artillery.
“Gen’l [William T.] Wofford was beside himself with fury, chafing at not being ordered in, as he understood his task, to support Barksdale. He rode back and forth on his horse, sending courier after courier to [Major General Lafayette] McLaws, asking to be advanced. Our men busied themselves, as veterans are wont before a fight … Some wrote letters, or in diaries. Many, I noted, read favorite psalms or passages from their Testaments, while a few rascals, heedless of the possibility of facing their eternal fate, played cards or rolled dice and played ‘chuck-a-luck’” – Captain James L. Lemon, Company A, 18th Georgia.
Sources:
-Memoirs of Alexander Wallace Given, http://www.bivouacbooks.com/bbv4ils7.htm, 08/06/2015.
-Official Report of Capt. Edward R. Bowen; Address of Lt. Col. E. R. Bowen, Dedication of the Monument to the 114th Regiment Infantry, November 11, 1888, Pennsylvania at Gettysburg, II:616.
-Official Reports of Col. Moses B. Lakeman, Maj. Frederick Cooper.
-Lloyd quoted in, Barksdale’s Mississippi Brigade at Gettysburg, by J.S. McNeily, Mississippi Historical Society; reprint, Gaithersburg, MD: Olde Soldier Books, 1987, p. 239; Lloyd’s account appeared in the Meridian Dispatch, August 3 (year not given).
-The Battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, by Capt. A. H. Nelson, Minneapolis, MN: 1899.
-E. C. Strouss account, History of the Fifty-Seventh Regiment, Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteer Infantry, by James M. Martin.
-57th Pennsylvania, History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, by Samuel P. Bates, II:251.
-November 14, 1865 letter of Maj. Gen. Andrew A. Humphreys to J. B. Bachelder, Bachelder Papers, 1:225.
-January 24, 1882 letter of Capt. Frank E. Moran to J. B. Bachelder, Bachelder Papers, 2:773; H*** in a Peach Orchard, by Eric A. Campbell, America’s Civil War, July 2003, p. 42 [writings of Frank E. Moran].
-Gettysburg Incidents, Journal of William Meshack Abernathy, provided by John Hoopes, University of Kansas.
-Independent Battery C – Thompson’s, History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, by Samuel P. Bates, V:868.
-Barksdale’s Mississippi Brigade at Gettysburg, by J.S. McNeily, Mississippi Historical Society; reprint, Gaithersburg, MD: Olde Soldier Books, 1987, p. 237.
-Our Boys in Blue, Heroic Deeds, Sketches and Reminiscences of Bradford County Soldiers in the Civil War, by Clement F. Heverly, Towanda, PA: The Bradford Star Print, 1898, vol. 1, p. 42.
-Personal Reminiscences of the War, by Rev. J. D. Bloodgood, NY: Hunt & Eaton, 1893, pp. 140-141.
-A History of the Second Regiment New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry in the War of the Rebellion, by Martin A. Haynes, Lakeport, NH: 1896, p. 179.
-Official Report of Col. Ed. L. Bailey; Letter of Colonel Edward L. Bailey to J. B. Bachelder, Bachelder Papers, 2:847.
-March 24, 1882 letter of George W. Bonnell to J. B. Bachelder, Bachelder Papers, 2:844.
-History of Battery B, First New Jersey Artillery, by Michael Hanifen, Ottawa, IL: Republican-Times, Printers, 1905, p. 76.
-November 2, 1887 letter of W. R. Hillyer, Seventh Regiment, Final Report of the Gettysburg Battlefield, Commission of New Jersey, p. 104.
-History of the Fifth Massachusetts Battery, Boston: Luther E. Cowles, Publisher, 1902, pp. 624, 627, 631; Letter of Capt. Charles A. Phillips to J. B. Bachelder, Bachelder Papers, 1:168 and 3:1633.
-Account by Captain James Thompson, October 3, 1898, provided by Robert J. Brown of Spring Mills, Pennsylvania.
-Feed Them the Steel,” Being, the Wartime Recollections of Capt. James Lile Lemon, Co. A, 18th Georgia Infantry, Mark H. Lemon, 2016.
“The rebels [Brigadier General William Barksdale’s brigade] advanced in two lines and in good order, until they reached the barn, when our boys met them. … The rebels gained the Emmitsburg road on our left … bringing up … 12 pounders, planting [them] in the middle of road opened up with double grape and canister” – Acting Sergeant Major Alexander W. Given, 114th Pennsylvania.
“The enemy … pouring a murderous fire on our flank, threw the left wing of the regiment on to the right in much confusion. /// Soon it became apparent that it was impossible that we should be able to hold our ground against such overwhelming numbers. … Only one avenue of escape was open to us, and that was up the Emmitsburg road” – Captain Edward R. Bowen, 114th Pennsylvania.
“We are at the barn and scaling the fences at the lane and right across and in among the enemy, literally running over them”– Private Joseph C. Lloyd, Company C, 13th Mississippi.
“I walked up to the Colonel [Peter Sides] and … said, ‘It looks as though we will soon have to move out of here or be captured’ … [he] said, ‘Yes, I think we will go now.’ … [To warn those posted in the buildings I] started on a run from one building to another … take hold of and shake a man to get his attention … when I … looked out … enemy was in the yard with a large force not fifty feet away” – Captain Alanson H. Nelson, Company E, 57th Pennsylvania.
“Captain [A. H.] Nelson … tried to notify those in the house, and order them to fall back, but amid the noise and confusion it was impossible to make them understand the situation, and they kept on firing from the windows after the rest of the men fell back, and they were summoned to surrender by the rebels who came up the stairs in their rear” – Private Ellis C. Strouss, Company K, 57th Pennsylvania.
“Farther to the left … the enemy broke through, and flanking the position, caused [Brigadier General Charles K.] Graham to fall back. A considerable number of the men had taken cover in an old cellar [at Sherfy’s house], and amidst the noise and confusion, did not receive the order to retire, nor notice the withdrawal of the rest of the regiment, but still kept up a rapid and most destructive fire. When too late, they discovered their isolated position, and were nearly all taken prisoners” – Member of the 57th Pennsylvania.
“[Major M. W.] Burns [of the 73rd New York told] me that just as he got up to the ground where Gen. Graham’s troops were, those troops gave way and left him” – Brigadier General Andrew A. Humphreys.
“At last, the 114th [Pennsylvania], with a parting volley in the faces of the Mississippians, made room for us and our regiment sent a volley at the enemy who fell in scores among the dead and wounded Pennsylvanians. They staggered under our fresh fire, but waved their flags, cheered and returned our volley, seeing their supports close at hand. Their advance, however, was checked at the barn, as our men continued to load and fire with rapidity and coolness, but our thin line on the left could be seen melting away through the smoke /// [Major M. W.] Burns, mounted on his conspicuous old white horse [named] (A. P. Hill), escaped the bullets … an excited and bareheaded officer dashed up to us and implored us to drag away a couple of imperiled guns, the horses having all been killed and the gunners shot. … I called to the men of my company and those nearest me to follow with the officer and drag away the imperiled guns” – Lieutenant Frank E. Moran, Company H, 73rd New York.
“The writer of this article, like the fool that he was, sprang on one of the guns and was shot off of it” – Private William M. Abernathy, Company B, 17th Mississippi.
“The enemy … [captured] one of the guns facing to the west. The Union infantry, however, soon after rallied, and the gun was saved” – Member of Battery C-F, Pennsylvania Artillery.
“When the blue coats saw us swarming over the fences and across the Emmitsburg road, without pausing, they began to ‘back out.’ Though they fought back bravely, retiring slowly until the firing was at close quarters, when the retreat became a rout in which our men took heavy toll for the losses inflicted on them” – Member of Brigadier General William Barksdale’s Brigade.
“Lieutenant [Joseph] Atkinson [of Company G], pointing to the rear, said, ‘Colonel, I’m afraid we are being surrounded; hadn’t we better fall back?’ ‘Fall back, **** no!’ replied Colonel [Henry J.] Madill. ‘I was ordered to hold this position.’” – Member of the 141st Pennsylvania.
“Our colors went down but were again raised to the breeze. Again they fell, when they were seized by the firm hand of Colonel Madill and again they floated in the air. They were riddled by rebel bullets and torn by rebel shells, but they did not fall again” – Sergeant J. D. Bloodgood, Company I, 141st Pennsylvania.
“The regiment was about-faced and retired, making a change of front to the rear while marching. Halfway through the peach orchard, it halted and maintained a sharp fire” – Private Martin A. Haynes, Company I, 2nd New Hampshire.
“I moved to the rear 140 yards and halted my line under the brow of the hill, halting also on the brow to give a volley to the enemy /// the 3d Maine regt. being twenty paces or so in rear of my left flank and the 68th regt. [Pennsylvania] charging on my right flank to get up to the crest of the hill; but it did not succeed, though most gallantly endeavoring, and was twenty paces or more behind the parallel of my line” – Colonel Edward L. Bailey, 2nd New Hampshire.
“A large force marching round to cut me off, and ordered my regiment to retire, and while doing so we received a most distressing fire, which threw my command into much confusion” – Colonel Moses B. Lakeman, 3rd Maine.
“The vents in our 10 pdr. Parrotts were burned out … about one half inch” – Private George W. Bonnell, Battery B, 1st New Jersey.
“The Captain [A. Judson Clark] gave the orders to limber up and go to the rear. … The enemy (Barksdale’s Brigade) were halfway through the Peach Orchard on our right flank … the lead team was hit … and the gun drove off with four horses. A Rebel yelled, ‘Halt, you Yankee sons of *******; we want those guns!’ Ennis yelled back, ‘Go to ****! We want to use them yet awhile.’ … Just as we started a single gun of the enemy came into position in Wentz’s yard and fired a round of canister. It killed six horses on No. 4 caisson and four on No. 3, wounding [four men]. This obliged us to leave one caisson and one caisson body on the field. … In passing to the rear we passed the left flank of Seventh New Jersey, 200 yards to the rear” – Member of Battery B, 1st New Jersey.
“The artillery [Battery B, 1st New Jersey] broke through our regiment in going into [Trostle] lane, on their way to the rear; they forced the four right companies to the other side of the [lane]” – Captain William R. Hillyer, Company K, 7th New Jersey.
“In falling back, the battery [B, 1st New Jersey] broke through our ranks, creating considerable confusion” – Major Frederick Cooper, 7th New Jersey.
“At the same time that our right fell back, the rebels [Kershaw’s men] had gotten so far into the woods on our left that their musketry became very annoying. … I ordered Lieut. [Frederic A.] Lull with the right section to retire 200 yards and come into position again. At this moment Major [Freeman] McGilvery ordered us all to retire … /// The right section being all ready got off ahead and the rest of the battery followed” – Captain Charles A. Phillips, 5th Massachusetts Battery.
“The order was given to ‘Limber up’ the guns,’ as the enemy was almost upon us” – 1st Lieutenant Henry D. Scott, 5th Massachusetts Battery.
“With the aid of C. [Casper] Carlisle [of Battery F], I unhitched the dead leaders and got the gun off the field” – Captain James Thompson, Battery C-F, Pennsylvania Artillery.
“Gen’l [William T.] Wofford was beside himself with fury, chafing at not being ordered in, as he understood his task, to support Barksdale. He rode back and forth on his horse, sending courier after courier to [Major General Lafayette] McLaws, asking to be advanced. Our men busied themselves, as veterans are wont before a fight … Some wrote letters, or in diaries. Many, I noted, read favorite psalms or passages from their Testaments, while a few rascals, heedless of the possibility of facing their eternal fate, played cards or rolled dice and played ‘chuck-a-luck’” – Captain James L. Lemon, Company A, 18th Georgia.
Sources:
-Memoirs of Alexander Wallace Given, http://www.bivouacbooks.com/bbv4ils7.htm, 08/06/2015.
-Official Report of Capt. Edward R. Bowen; Address of Lt. Col. E. R. Bowen, Dedication of the Monument to the 114th Regiment Infantry, November 11, 1888, Pennsylvania at Gettysburg, II:616.
-Official Reports of Col. Moses B. Lakeman, Maj. Frederick Cooper.
-Lloyd quoted in, Barksdale’s Mississippi Brigade at Gettysburg, by J.S. McNeily, Mississippi Historical Society; reprint, Gaithersburg, MD: Olde Soldier Books, 1987, p. 239; Lloyd’s account appeared in the Meridian Dispatch, August 3 (year not given).
-The Battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, by Capt. A. H. Nelson, Minneapolis, MN: 1899.
-E. C. Strouss account, History of the Fifty-Seventh Regiment, Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteer Infantry, by James M. Martin.
-57th Pennsylvania, History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, by Samuel P. Bates, II:251.
-November 14, 1865 letter of Maj. Gen. Andrew A. Humphreys to J. B. Bachelder, Bachelder Papers, 1:225.
-January 24, 1882 letter of Capt. Frank E. Moran to J. B. Bachelder, Bachelder Papers, 2:773; H*** in a Peach Orchard, by Eric A. Campbell, America’s Civil War, July 2003, p. 42 [writings of Frank E. Moran].
-Gettysburg Incidents, Journal of William Meshack Abernathy, provided by John Hoopes, University of Kansas.
-Independent Battery C – Thompson’s, History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-5, by Samuel P. Bates, V:868.
-Barksdale’s Mississippi Brigade at Gettysburg, by J.S. McNeily, Mississippi Historical Society; reprint, Gaithersburg, MD: Olde Soldier Books, 1987, p. 237.
-Our Boys in Blue, Heroic Deeds, Sketches and Reminiscences of Bradford County Soldiers in the Civil War, by Clement F. Heverly, Towanda, PA: The Bradford Star Print, 1898, vol. 1, p. 42.
-Personal Reminiscences of the War, by Rev. J. D. Bloodgood, NY: Hunt & Eaton, 1893, pp. 140-141.
-A History of the Second Regiment New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry in the War of the Rebellion, by Martin A. Haynes, Lakeport, NH: 1896, p. 179.
-Official Report of Col. Ed. L. Bailey; Letter of Colonel Edward L. Bailey to J. B. Bachelder, Bachelder Papers, 2:847.
-March 24, 1882 letter of George W. Bonnell to J. B. Bachelder, Bachelder Papers, 2:844.
-History of Battery B, First New Jersey Artillery, by Michael Hanifen, Ottawa, IL: Republican-Times, Printers, 1905, p. 76.
-November 2, 1887 letter of W. R. Hillyer, Seventh Regiment, Final Report of the Gettysburg Battlefield, Commission of New Jersey, p. 104.
-History of the Fifth Massachusetts Battery, Boston: Luther E. Cowles, Publisher, 1902, pp. 624, 627, 631; Letter of Capt. Charles A. Phillips to J. B. Bachelder, Bachelder Papers, 1:168 and 3:1633.
-Account by Captain James Thompson, October 3, 1898, provided by Robert J. Brown of Spring Mills, Pennsylvania.
-Feed Them the Steel,” Being, the Wartime Recollections of Capt. James Lile Lemon, Co. A, 18th Georgia Infantry, Mark H. Lemon, 2016.
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