Accidental Shootings

[Tom Elmore]

I'm always interested in Stone's Bridage material, so I'm curious about Manderback. Given that he shot himself in the left hand, I got the idea that it may have happened while loading. Given that he was a member of Company C, he would not have been among the skirmishers the 149th advanced at Willoughby Run. That was Company K. If Manderback's wounding occurred on July 1, it seems likely that it would have been after the Brigade moved to Cemetery Hill. Some of the battle maps that I see place Wadsworth's and Robinson's Divisions on the evening of Day 1, but the third Division of the First Corps becomes a phantom on Cemetery Hill. Col. Dana (then commanding the brigade) says the brigade was positioned behind a stone wall facing the town. Two of the regimental reports say they were positioned in the rear of a battery for support, but do not identify the battery. One would imagine that pickets must have been sent forward, which Manderback's story tends to confirm. I am fairly certain that Tom Elmore, the originator of this thread, will have some thoughts on Manderback and where the 149th PA and its sister regiments were located on the evening of July 1.

I think the likeliest possibility is early in the morning at the bivouac near Marsh Creek. The brigade did not move toward Gettysburg until about 9 a.m. As for the brigade's position in the late afternoon and evening, I have been under the impression that they occupied a stone wall in rear of Cemetery Hill that was afterwards held by Stannard's brigade, and I am not aware that the brigade contributed pickets that night.