Lieutenant Charles Warner’s Sightseeing Excursion on July 2

Tom Elmore

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On the afternoon of July 2, while all was still quiet along the lines, Second Lieutenant Charles L. Warner of Company F, 145th New York, decided to have a look around, so he left his regiment where it had been posted – behind a stone wall in the woods on Culp’s Hill. Apparently he borrowed a spare horse and rode over to Cemetery Ridge, on ground occupied by the Second Corps. He was looking over the fields when enemy batteries far away to the left opened fire, about 3:30 p.m. Believing it might be the prelude to a general attack, Warner rode back to his regiment. But all remained quiet in the Twelfth Corps sector, so Warner returned to Cemetery Ridge. Just then, artillery on both sides picked up again, generating thick smoke that obscured the battlefield. Not being able to see anything, Warner turned back, but he soon encountered a captain from his regiment (then under arrest), who talked him into visiting the Eleventh Corps, although Warner “hated to be away from [his] regiment for so long.”

It was getting on toward sunset when Warner rode up to a battery on Cemetery Hill, and as he surveyed the ground in front, he noticed what he first thought was a drove of cattle in a wheat field a little over a half mile distant. He called the attention of the battery commander to these “cattle,” however they soon transformed into a long line of men steadily advancing with flags at set intervals. The battery commander first believed they were Union soldiers, but after Warner explained the position of his corps, they concluded it must be the enemy, and indeed the guns on Cemetery Hill immediately opened up. They must have been observing the advance of Maj. Gen. Edward Johnson’s division. When that line disappeared into the woods, Warner decided it was time to get back to his regiment.

As he passed behind Brig. Gen. Greene’s line in the woods, he could hear the opposing skirmishers already exchanging fire beyond Rock Creek. Approaching his regiment’s position, the musketry increased and the “horrible” Rebel yell could be made out. But he discovered no friendly troops within sight. Warner’s initial thought was that his division had been frightened away, and he was so disgusted that he thought of submitting his resignation. Backing out, by chance he encountered an aide who informed him that his division had in fact been sent to assist another part of the line. It was now nearly dark (around 7:50 p.m.), and Warner headed off in the general direction of the Federal left. Nearing the Taneytown road, he met his own brigade returning to Culp’s Hill, it having arrived on the left too late to be of help. Warner felt a little better, because he was worried that his colonel, E. Livingston Price, would prefer charges against him for being absent in the presence of the enemy, a serious offense. Luckily for Lt. Warner, apparently Col. Price never learned of it, or else he was preoccupied dealing with his own problems, of a similar nature; see: https://civilwartalk.com/threads/stampede-of-mcdougall’s-brigade-on-the-night-of-july-2.170314/

Source: 9 July letter of Charles L. Warner to his mother, Special Collections Department, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University of Maine, Orono, Maine.
 
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