- Joined
- Jan 16, 2015
Brig. Gen. George T. Anderson’s brigade of Georgians fought hard in and around the Rose woods over the course of three hours on the afternoon and early evening of July 2. At various times they opposed elements of at least six Federal brigades representing the Third, Fifth and Second Corps. Toward sunset, Confederates from McLaws’ and Hood’s divisions who were still on their feet participated in a general advance in a final bid to overcome the Federal defenders on and near Little Round Top.
Four of Anderson’s regiments, the 8th, 9th, 11th and 59th Georgia, took part in the July 2 fighting. Anderson himself was wounded prior to the final push and he was succeeded by Lieutenant Colonel William Luffman of the 11th Georgia. A paucity of sources prevents us from fully documenting the brigade’s last movements of the day, but we can still gain an important understanding thanks to a detailed post-war recollection left by Captain George Hillyer of the 9th Georgia, along with other scattered references.
Major Henry D. McDaniel of the 11th Georgia provided a general impression in his official report: “The third advance was made in connection with the entire line on that part of the field, and resulted, after a conflict in the ravine of half an hour, in the rout of the enemy from the field. This rout was vigorously pressed to the very foot of the mountain [Little Round Top], up the sides of which the enemy fled in the greatest confusion.”
Captain Hillyer also recalled in his official report: “Our little band, now thinned and exhausted by three and a half hours’ constant fighting, made a gallant attempt to storm the batteries, but the enemy being again heavily reinforced, we were met by a storm of shot and shell, against which, in our worn-out condition, we could not advance.”
However, it was in a 1904 address to aged veterans, that Hillyer put flesh on his bare bones official statement: “Shortly after this a general charge was ordered; and we advanced about a quarter of a mile further; to the foot of Little Round Top, capturing one of Sickles’ [actually Sykes’] batteries on the way. The battle flag of my regiment passed through between the guns. I saw Jim Mead [Private James J. Mead], one of Company B, lay his rifle on one of the cannon, and taking deliberate but rapid aim, fire at the cannoneers of another battery on the summit of Little Round Top. … On this crest were fifteen or twenty [!] Federal cannon, a line of their Zouaves just in front of them down the hill towards and facing us; and back of them another line equally as strong. Their combined fire was almost relentless. Our line emerged from the stumpy brush through which we had charged and came out into a long, narrow but nearly straight opening, which skirted the foot of Little Round Top and the elevated plateau which stretched away on our left towards Cemetery Hill. … Although strengthened by McLaws on our flank, yet neither he nor Hood had any more than a single line, and, of course, by this time was greatly thinned. I could see to the right and left along the opening I have mentioned thirty-five or forty battle flags, and only from thirty to fifty men with each. On crossing this opening and going a little way up on the rocky slope (by my side was Newn Hudson [?], now of Rockdale county) we saw that no one of the entire line was nearer to the enemy’s position than we were, and that our little attacking column hesitated. They were all veterans in the highest sense. I heard no order to retreat and gave none, but everybody, officers and men, seemed to realize that we could not carry the position, the enemy outnumbering us probably ten to one, and we exhausted and our ranks thinned as they were. By common consent we fell back to a point where there was a stone wall. We moved back rapidly, but without panic of confusion. Just as I started back, I saw Captain [then Lieutenant James W.] Morrow, of the 11th Georgia, whom you all know so well and so favorably. He said to me, ‘If you have been up there any further and could not do anything, there is no use for me to go.’ So he fell in by my side and we double quicked back to the rock wall. I jumped on it, and by this time the firing having so much quieted that I could at least be partly heard, I called a halt. I saw, then Major, afterwards Governor McDaniel, do the same thing on the rock wall some fifty or seventy five yards to the right; and it is my testimony that every man who heard his voice or mine, or was near enough to see and be attracted by our words and gestures, stopped at once and formed our line behind that wall. … It was hardly a minute after the halt before our line was reformed, and the entire force, or what was left of it, in hand just as much as before the charge began. From that point we moved leisurely to the little branch or brook [Rose Run], and natural rifle pit I spoke of.”
The “natural rifle pit,” I believe, was created by the banks of Rose Run, where the remnant of the 9th (presumably joined by others from the 8th and 11th Georgia) held back Sweitzer’s brigade just before Wofford’s brigade crashed into Sweitzer’s exposed right flank. It is less clear where the 59th Georgia was at this moment – perhaps scattered to the east and southeast in the Rose woods. Men of the 9th, 8th and 11th followed close behind Wofford through the Wheatfield and soon intermingled with his brigade in pursuit of Federal forces fleeing eastward.
The Confederates along the stone wall mentioned by Hillyer fell back concurrently with the charge of the Pennsylvania Reserves from their position on the north slope of Little Round Top. Andrew J. Deming of Company D, 13th Pennsylvania Reserves wrote: “I remember picking up one gun of a particular pattern. I took the owner of it a prisoner – a member of the 11th Georgia. I kept the reb but left the gun.”
Private W. T. Laseter of Company H, 11th Georgia, later recalled that they “drove the enemy to the foot of the big mountain [Little Round Top]. Night approached so we fell back a short distance.”
While no specific member of the 8th Georgia has yet been identified from the last advance, it does appear that some of its members were interspersed among those who went forward into Plum Run valley. Comrades of Lieutenant Reid of Company I, 8th Georgia (who was wounded earlier) afterwards informed him that: “We had penetrated half a mile beyond [the banks of Rose Run] when the fighting stopped.”
The attached map shows the approximate positions of the individuals identified by Captain George Hillyer, with the brigade’s general path into Plum Run valley. Bear in mind that they were intermingled with many from Wofford’s brigade along with representatives of Semmes’ and Kershaw’s brigades, who are not shown. Hillyer witnessed Private Mead and the unnamed color bearer of the 9th at what could only be the position held by Battery C, 3rd Massachusetts, just south of the John T. Weikert residence. At least two, and possibly four, Napoleons were abandoned there. It seems another two guns from the battery made it across the road before being abandoned. In falling back to the stone wall bordering the east side of the Wheatfield, Hillyer encountered Lieutenant Morrow, and upon reaching the wall noticed Major McDaniel further to his right. The projected path of the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves (PR) in their charge at sunset is also shown, and along this path an unidentified (U/I) soldier of the 11th Georgia was captured by A. J. Deming.
Sources:
-Official Reports of Henry D. McDaniel and George Hillyer.
-Battle of Gettysburg, by George Hillyer, Address Before the Walton County Georgia Confederate Veterans, August 2nd, 1904, From the Walton Tribune.
-Bucktails at Gettysburg, by A. J. Deming, Co. D, Bucktail Rifles, Spring Creek, Warren Co., Pa., The National Tribune, February 4, 1896, p. 3.
-Excerpts from an article by W. T. Laseter, published in the Shreveport Journal, October 31, 1929.
-Diary of 1st Lt. J. C. Reid, Alabama State Archives, on file at Gettysburg National Military Park.
Four of Anderson’s regiments, the 8th, 9th, 11th and 59th Georgia, took part in the July 2 fighting. Anderson himself was wounded prior to the final push and he was succeeded by Lieutenant Colonel William Luffman of the 11th Georgia. A paucity of sources prevents us from fully documenting the brigade’s last movements of the day, but we can still gain an important understanding thanks to a detailed post-war recollection left by Captain George Hillyer of the 9th Georgia, along with other scattered references.
Major Henry D. McDaniel of the 11th Georgia provided a general impression in his official report: “The third advance was made in connection with the entire line on that part of the field, and resulted, after a conflict in the ravine of half an hour, in the rout of the enemy from the field. This rout was vigorously pressed to the very foot of the mountain [Little Round Top], up the sides of which the enemy fled in the greatest confusion.”
Captain Hillyer also recalled in his official report: “Our little band, now thinned and exhausted by three and a half hours’ constant fighting, made a gallant attempt to storm the batteries, but the enemy being again heavily reinforced, we were met by a storm of shot and shell, against which, in our worn-out condition, we could not advance.”
However, it was in a 1904 address to aged veterans, that Hillyer put flesh on his bare bones official statement: “Shortly after this a general charge was ordered; and we advanced about a quarter of a mile further; to the foot of Little Round Top, capturing one of Sickles’ [actually Sykes’] batteries on the way. The battle flag of my regiment passed through between the guns. I saw Jim Mead [Private James J. Mead], one of Company B, lay his rifle on one of the cannon, and taking deliberate but rapid aim, fire at the cannoneers of another battery on the summit of Little Round Top. … On this crest were fifteen or twenty [!] Federal cannon, a line of their Zouaves just in front of them down the hill towards and facing us; and back of them another line equally as strong. Their combined fire was almost relentless. Our line emerged from the stumpy brush through which we had charged and came out into a long, narrow but nearly straight opening, which skirted the foot of Little Round Top and the elevated plateau which stretched away on our left towards Cemetery Hill. … Although strengthened by McLaws on our flank, yet neither he nor Hood had any more than a single line, and, of course, by this time was greatly thinned. I could see to the right and left along the opening I have mentioned thirty-five or forty battle flags, and only from thirty to fifty men with each. On crossing this opening and going a little way up on the rocky slope (by my side was Newn Hudson [?], now of Rockdale county) we saw that no one of the entire line was nearer to the enemy’s position than we were, and that our little attacking column hesitated. They were all veterans in the highest sense. I heard no order to retreat and gave none, but everybody, officers and men, seemed to realize that we could not carry the position, the enemy outnumbering us probably ten to one, and we exhausted and our ranks thinned as they were. By common consent we fell back to a point where there was a stone wall. We moved back rapidly, but without panic of confusion. Just as I started back, I saw Captain [then Lieutenant James W.] Morrow, of the 11th Georgia, whom you all know so well and so favorably. He said to me, ‘If you have been up there any further and could not do anything, there is no use for me to go.’ So he fell in by my side and we double quicked back to the rock wall. I jumped on it, and by this time the firing having so much quieted that I could at least be partly heard, I called a halt. I saw, then Major, afterwards Governor McDaniel, do the same thing on the rock wall some fifty or seventy five yards to the right; and it is my testimony that every man who heard his voice or mine, or was near enough to see and be attracted by our words and gestures, stopped at once and formed our line behind that wall. … It was hardly a minute after the halt before our line was reformed, and the entire force, or what was left of it, in hand just as much as before the charge began. From that point we moved leisurely to the little branch or brook [Rose Run], and natural rifle pit I spoke of.”
The “natural rifle pit,” I believe, was created by the banks of Rose Run, where the remnant of the 9th (presumably joined by others from the 8th and 11th Georgia) held back Sweitzer’s brigade just before Wofford’s brigade crashed into Sweitzer’s exposed right flank. It is less clear where the 59th Georgia was at this moment – perhaps scattered to the east and southeast in the Rose woods. Men of the 9th, 8th and 11th followed close behind Wofford through the Wheatfield and soon intermingled with his brigade in pursuit of Federal forces fleeing eastward.
The Confederates along the stone wall mentioned by Hillyer fell back concurrently with the charge of the Pennsylvania Reserves from their position on the north slope of Little Round Top. Andrew J. Deming of Company D, 13th Pennsylvania Reserves wrote: “I remember picking up one gun of a particular pattern. I took the owner of it a prisoner – a member of the 11th Georgia. I kept the reb but left the gun.”
Private W. T. Laseter of Company H, 11th Georgia, later recalled that they “drove the enemy to the foot of the big mountain [Little Round Top]. Night approached so we fell back a short distance.”
While no specific member of the 8th Georgia has yet been identified from the last advance, it does appear that some of its members were interspersed among those who went forward into Plum Run valley. Comrades of Lieutenant Reid of Company I, 8th Georgia (who was wounded earlier) afterwards informed him that: “We had penetrated half a mile beyond [the banks of Rose Run] when the fighting stopped.”
The attached map shows the approximate positions of the individuals identified by Captain George Hillyer, with the brigade’s general path into Plum Run valley. Bear in mind that they were intermingled with many from Wofford’s brigade along with representatives of Semmes’ and Kershaw’s brigades, who are not shown. Hillyer witnessed Private Mead and the unnamed color bearer of the 9th at what could only be the position held by Battery C, 3rd Massachusetts, just south of the John T. Weikert residence. At least two, and possibly four, Napoleons were abandoned there. It seems another two guns from the battery made it across the road before being abandoned. In falling back to the stone wall bordering the east side of the Wheatfield, Hillyer encountered Lieutenant Morrow, and upon reaching the wall noticed Major McDaniel further to his right. The projected path of the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves (PR) in their charge at sunset is also shown, and along this path an unidentified (U/I) soldier of the 11th Georgia was captured by A. J. Deming.
Sources:
-Official Reports of Henry D. McDaniel and George Hillyer.
-Battle of Gettysburg, by George Hillyer, Address Before the Walton County Georgia Confederate Veterans, August 2nd, 1904, From the Walton Tribune.
-Bucktails at Gettysburg, by A. J. Deming, Co. D, Bucktail Rifles, Spring Creek, Warren Co., Pa., The National Tribune, February 4, 1896, p. 3.
-Excerpts from an article by W. T. Laseter, published in the Shreveport Journal, October 31, 1929.
-Diary of 1st Lt. J. C. Reid, Alabama State Archives, on file at Gettysburg National Military Park.