- Joined
- Oct 10, 2012
- Location
- Mt. Jackson, Va
In the Wrong Place, and All Alone
When General Sickles moved the 3rd Corps away from Cemetery Ridge and out to the Emmitsburg Road, he came to the realization that he didn't have enough infantry to cover all the ground he needed to.
He decided to cover a section of his line solely with artillery. This was against all the "best practices" of battlefield leadership. On one end of this artillery line was the Ninth ( Bigelow's ) Massachusetts Battery with six brass Napolean smoothbore cannons, nearly a hundred horses and almost a hundred men. They set up their line along what is today known as Wheatfield Road, just east of The Peach Orchard
As the Confederate attack of James Longstreet's Corps began to roll out of the woodline of Seminary Ridge late that afternoon, the guns of this battery, for a short while, enjoyed the "artillerist's dream" of being positioned on the flank (one end) of the enemy's battleline. This meant that they could send hordes of devasting cannister shot right down through the Confederate line barely having to aim, so easy was the shooting that they caused great havoc.
Eventually Sickles infantry line collapsed at The Peach Orchard, and the Ninth Massachusetts Battery found itself in a completely different situation. Soon they became nearly surrounded by the Confederates who were closing in on them. The artillery had no infantry to protect them and were sitting ducks in the face of galling musket fire. They began to withdraw. The Rebels began shooting their horses, leaving the men with no option but to abandon their big guns or pull them back and away by hand. This they did. They "retired" slowly and deliberately in the face of devasting Confederate fire, withdrawing nearly two hundred yards through an open field until, at the the far end of the field near the Trostle Farmhouse (see image), they encountered a stone wall which trapped them in. They began to tear the wall down, taking losses every second.
When it was all over, the battery had lost four of its six guns, more than 80 horses and more than half the men who went into the fight. Horrific by any measure. But not a single man left his post under the most difficult circumstances. Incredibly, this was the first time these men had ever been in combat. What a way to start your career as a soldier!
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