Hampton's Rock video

[eBrowne]

I recently came across this video about the discovery of Hampton's Battery Rock.

One of the interesting things about this video is that it contains a picture of the veterans grouped about their monument near the Pennsylvania Monument. On that day in 1889 they went down to select a spot for their other monument in the Peach Orchard. The men in the photo are identified in the photo if you stop the video and read the handwritten names. If you go to the Regimental History of Hampton's Battery, this photo is mentioned and all of the names are listed. A number of the veterans in the photo were actually on detached duty, serving with Battery H 1st Ohio that was stationed on Cemetery Hill.

 

[Wallyfish]

Thank you for posting. Hampton's Rock can now be easily found due to the NPS battlefield rehabilitation work.

It is amazing that such a distinctive looking large rock disappeared in the trees/underbrush for all those years.

I wonder how many other rocks are hidden in the underbrush!

 

[Tom Elmore]

Captain Robert Brown Hampton, who commanded Pennsylvania Independent Battery F, was killed at Chancellorsville. The battery was consolidated on June 3, 1863 with Pennsylvania Independent Battery C, under Captain James Thompson, who took command as the senior officer. But at Gettysburg, Captain Nathaniel Irish (an 1862 graduate of Norwich University) of Battery F was also present. Both Thompson and Irish were wounded on July 2. Battery C and F also had three lieutenants in the battle, all likewise wounded: 1st Lieutenant James Stephenson (of C; slightly wounded), 2nd Lieutenant Robert C. Hazlett (of C), and 2nd Lieutenant Joseph L. Miller (of F; died August 6). One gun and 18 horses were lost on July 2. Private Casper Carlisle was awarded a medal by Congress for bravery on that day for pulling another gun to safety with a crippled pair of wheel horses, after cutting free the other dead horses. On the afternoon of July 3, the battery focused their fire (double and triple canister) on the combined brigades of Wilcox (Alabamians) and Lang (Floridians), which appeared directly in their front. The battery was relieved off the line around 5 a.m. on July 4.

In 1862, a string band was organized in the Hampton Battery, composed of the following members, which played during winter quarters at Aquia Creek:
C. C. Arensberg, Leader and Violin
George V. Marshall, Second Violin and Guitar
James Wilson, Cornet
George Ritchie, Flute and Piccolo
Alonzo Cavitt, Bass Viol (sic)
Edmund J. Wilkins, Guitar and Violin
Frank A. Merrick, Flute

Batteries C and F served together until March 15, 1864, when both had recruited enough men to reform separate units. Battery C was originally raised in Pittsburgh, while Battery F was formed at Camp Lamon in Williamsport, Maryland.

(sources: History of Pennsylvania Volunteers, by Samuel P. Bates; The Irish Boys: The Civil War Letters of the Irish Family; History of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, pp. 366 and 623; History of the Hampton Battery in the Civil War; History of Hampton Battery F Independent Pennsylvania Light Artillery, compiled by William Clark; Manuscript Diary of Joseph B. Todd; Letter of October 3, 1898 describing the battle and a history of Battery C; Union Casualties at Gettysburg, by Travis Busey and John Busey.)