The following, extracted from "Gettysburg, July 2: The Ebb and Flow of Battle", addressed the Cooper/Ricketts situation and my conclusion that the relief occurred at approximately 6:20 p.m.
6:20 PM
1. Cooper's Battery B, 1st Pennsylvania, is relieved by Ricketts' Battery F & G, 1st Pennsylvania.
1. Colonel Wainwright, commanding the 1st Corps’ Artillery Brigade, in discussing the duel between his and Major Latimer’s gunners, reported that, “...It was an hour and a half, however, before we were able to compel them to withdraw...A portion of the guns again took position farther to the right, but were soon silenced...Soon after, Captain Cooper’s battery...was relieved by Captain Ricketts battery of six 3-inch guns....” General Howard, 11th Corps commander, reported that, “...about 6:30 p.m. I sent word to General Meade that the enemy’s batteries on our extreme right had been silenced or withdrawn.”
Captain Cooper’s report seconds that of his chief, but the time he believed he was relieved is three quarters of an hour later than that given here, “...the enemy’s guns were silenced in about two and a half hours’ firing. The battery fired occasional shots into the position of these batteries until about 7 p.m., when it was relieved by Captain Ricketts’ battery....”
As described in
Pennsylvania at Gettysburg, Captain Ricketts recalled that his battery had, “...halted for a short time behind Cemetery Hill and then moved up the Baltimore pike and relieved Cooper’s Battery ‘B’....” Ricketts was under the impression that he relieved Cooper at
4 PM, citing as proof an entry made in his small pocket diary for Thursday, July 2d, 1863: “Ordered into position at 4 P.M. on Cemetery Hill, under a heavy artillery fire-Heavy artillery fighting until dusk-.”
Ricketts became quite exercised upon visiting the battlefield in 1883 when he noticed, “...a tablet
* erected by Cooper’s battery, on the most conspicuous part of the ground occupied by my battery,- and the statement cut in stone that Cooper’s battery had occupied that position on the 2d of July until 7 P.M.- Now the fact is my battery relieved Cooper at 4 P.M. on the 2d ...& as from 4 to 7 P.M. were three very important hours, it seems to me that the statement ought to be corrected....”
Ricketts penned that letter to Bachelder in October 1883, and a similar one in December of the same year to the Hon. R. G. McCreary, Vice President of the Battlefield Association, arguing, “If this mistake is not corrected, I will ask permission of the Battle-field authorities, to put up my own tablets and on them my own time, for my battery would be entitled to as much consideration on that ground, as Cooper’s. But if that sort of thing is permitted, all over the field, it would certainly cause great confusion.” Ricketts entreaty was apparently successful, because neither Cooper’s nor Ricketts’ batteries’ battlefield monuments are explicit regarding the time one was relieved by the other.
Notwithstanding Ricketts’ impassioned arguments, the fact that Cooper’s battery engaged Latimer starting at 4 PM, and proceeded to expend all its ammunition (approximately 475 rounds by the 4 gun battery) strongly suggests that it remained in position until at least 6:00 P.M. Cooper reported that most of Latimer’s guns had ceased fire at that time. While the enemy prepared to retire and for a short time thereafter, Cooper fired, “...occasional shots into the position of these batteries...until...relieved.”
Not all of Latimer’s guns evacuated their Benner’s Hill position; Raine and Dement still had two guns each and these continued sporadic firing as their comrades withdrew and then increased the tempo as Johnson’s Division, to their left, swept forward. Ricketts wrote that he took position in the midst of “heavy artillery” firing, which, he said, continued through to dusk. Obviously, the firing from Latimer’s four remaining guns had to have been less severe than when his whole battalion crowded Benner’s Hill. For Ricketts not to distinguish any difference in the Confederate artillery fire from the time he went into position until that fire ceased, is another strong indication that Ricketts only experienced the fire of Latimer’s remaining four guns (sometime after 6:00 PM.) As noted, the falling off of Confederate fire presented Colonel Wainwright the opportunity to relieve those batteries whose ammunition had become exhausted. Allowing time for Cooper to extricate his guns and for Ricketts to replace them, 6:20 PM appears to be a reasonable time for this to have been accomplished.
* Note: The tablet referenced by Ricketts has weathered over time, rendering it unreadable.