This scene depicts a dramatic episode from the battle on July 2, involving Capt. James E. Smith's 4th. New York Independent Battery.
In positioning his battery, Captain Smith, the battery commander, could only find enough room on the open and exposed crest of the southern end of Houck's Ridge, above Devil's Den, to place four of his ten-pounder black Parrott rifled guns. (The remaining two Parrotts in his battery were posted 150 yards to the rear, in the Plum Run Valley).
During the fighting that occurred here, one of Smith's four frontline guns pictured was disabled by a Confederate artillery shell and it was promptly hauled away to the rear. Interestingly, the depicted scene shows all four of Smith's forward guns as operational, suggesting it was early in the Confederate infantry assault when Confederate batteries (notably Reilly's and probably Latham's, too) exchanged artillery fire for about half an hour and this belief is backed up by the distance of advancing Southern infantry shown in the background.
As the Southern infantry advance gathered momentum, Smith's own infantry support fell back, leaving these three remaining forward guns unprotected, but Smith and his cannoneers continued to man their Parrotts as long as possible. When he decided to abandon these pieces, Smith ordered his artillerists to take their firing tools (sponges, rammer staffs, sponge buckets, friction primers, sights) when they withdrew. Smith subsequently retreated to operate his rear section of guns in the Plum Run Valley, and would soon afterwards relocate these cannon to the Wheatfield area.
While this is an attractive image, don't think this visual of Smith (is he identified in the picture?) and his gunners fully reflects the sheer desperation and intensity that they must have felt in anticipation of the impending fierce onslaught and fighting that would occur in the vicinity - around Devil's Den.
Believe that this loss of three guns from Smith's battery on Houck's Ridge represented half the total number of pieces permanently lost by the Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg.
In this action, Smith's battery crews suffered relatively light casualties. Apart from losing three guns, his battery crew casualties were: 2 killed, 10 wounded, and at least one missing.
Regarding the loss of half of his artillery battery, Harry Pfanz states in his authoritative work, 'Gettysburg: The Second Day', at page 200, that,
…"apart from its symbolism and impact on Smith's honor, the loss of the guns, in itself, was not a serious thing."…
Bringing the