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- Jan 16, 2015
Steuart's brigade deploys in the woods near the edge of a clearing, undetected by the Federals. McDougall's 20th Connecticut halts south of the woods. Daniel's 32nd North Carolina shifts to the left, behind the entrenchments. Lockwood's 150th New York replaces the left wing of 1st Maryland Eastern Shore in the works. Map reflects movements as of 10:25 a.m., July 3.
"The brigade then formed in line of battle at right angles to the breastwork in the following order: Third North Carolina, First Maryland Battalion, Thirty-seventh Virginia, Twenty-third Virginia, and First North Carolina" – Brigadier General George H. Steuart.
"One company and part of another … detached to fill up a space [on the right of the line] … Withdrawn by the left flank along the line of breastworks and ordered across them to form line with the rest of the brigade to charge the enemy's works on what was supposed to be their right flank. I formed the few men then remaining in my regiment upon the right of the brigade and was very soon thereafter ordered forward" – Major William M. Parsley, 3rd North Carolina.
"'Captain [William H.] Murray [of Company A], you will take command of the right,' were my last words to one of the noblest of men. … I felt I had but a minute more to live. … I looked up the line, and there stood the brave Steuart, calmly waiting for the troops to get in position. 'Fix bayonets' was the command, quietly given … the sword of the Genl. Is raised on high! 'Forward, double quick!' rings out" – Major William W. Goldsborough, 1st Maryland Battalion (CSA).
"Our gallant brigadier [George H. Steuart], with a full heart, passes along the line, changes the direction, sees all that is ready, then, with bright blade waving high, with clear command, cries, 'Forward!' and leads the way" – 1st Lieutenant George Thomas, Company A, 1st Maryland Battalion.
"When the final order to charge was received, the General [Steuart] remarked, 'It is a slaughter pen.' A gallant captain [William H. Murray] replied, 'It can't be helped; it is ordered'" – 2nd Lieutenant William P. Zollinger, Company A, 1st Maryland Battalion.
"We were marched by the left flank out of the works and formed in rear of a ridge of rocks, running at right angles to the works. … In this order we advanced to the assault" – Junior 2nd (3rd) Lieutenant Samuel T. McCullough, Company D, 1st Maryland Battalion.
"A Maryland battalion on our right. Our company being next to the Maryland troops, was ordered forward with them in a charge" – Private George C. Pile, Company A, 37th Virginia.
"There was a stone wall … in rear of … that portion of the line where the 20th Connecticut was stationed, which … afforded considerable protection from time to time" – Member of the 20th Connecticut.
"Our line to oppose [the enemy] consisted of the Twenty-ninth Pennsylvania and the One hundred and ninth Pennsylvania, the latter on the right extending to the wall, their front partially protected by the ledge of rocks. The left of the Twenty-ninth Pennsylvania extended to the breastworks" – Members of the 29th Pennsylvania.
"Again I was ordered forward, and kept position just under the edge of the crest" – Colonel William A. Owens, 53rd North Carolina.
"In our rapid firing today, my gun became so hot that the ramrod would not come out, so I shot it at the Yankees, and picked up a gun from the ground, a gun some poor comrade dropped after being shot" – Private Louis Leon, Company B, 53rd North Carolina.
"Moved farther to the left and formed on the right of the Forty-third Regiment North Carolina troops, to hold an entrenchment that had been captured" – Colonel Edmund C. Brabble, 32nd North Carolina.
"Relieved troops who occupied [the] works … ordered to go over the breastworks, and support General Steuart in a charge on the enemy's position" – Lieutenant Colonel William G. Lewis, 43rd North Carolina.
"Relieved by the One hundred and fiftieth New York" – Colonel James Wallace, 1st Maryland Eastern Shore.
"In about an hour it was again ordered into action" – Colonel John H. Ketcham, 150th New York.
"We advanced at double-quick with a rush and a cheer. Our course of 40 rods [220 yards] led over a ridge and then down a slope … found a line of hastily built breastworks filled with soldiers who were pouring an incessant fire into the valley below. Relieved a regiment … found it was the 1st Maryland Eastern Shore" – Member of the 150th New York.
Sources:
-Official reports of Brig. Gen. Geo. H. Steuart, Col. W. A. Owens, Col. E. C. Brabble, Lt. Col. W. G. Lewis, Col. Jas. Wallace, Col. J. H. Ketcham.
-Report of Maj. William Murdoch Parsley, Supplement to the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, ed. by Janet B. Hewett, Wilmington, DE: Broadfoot Publishing Company.
-Account attributed to Maj. Goldsborough, Civil War Memoirs of Washington Hands, Special Collections, University of Virginia, Charlottesville.
-Address of Captain Thomas, The Maryland Confederate Monument at Gettysburg, Southern Historical Society Papers, 1886, vol. XIV, p. 445.
-General George H. Steuart's Brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg, by William P. Zollinger, Southern Historical Society Papers, vol. 2, pp. 105-107.
-Diary of Samuel Thomas McCullough, Manuscript Collections, University of Virginia, Charlottesville.
-Account by George C. Pile, The War Story of a Confederate Soldier Boy, by Oliver Taylor, Confederate Collection, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Robert L. Brake Collection, U.S. Army Military Heritage and Education Center, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
-The "Twentieth Connecticut," a Regimental History, by John W. Storrs, Ansonia, CT: Press of the Naugatuck Valley Sentinel, 1886, pp. 92-93.
-Sketch of the Regiment (29th Pennsylvania), compiled by committee of Thos. De Maistre, George A. Brown, Louis R. Fortescue, Theo. S. S. Baker and John R. Hughes, Pennsylvania at Gettysburg, I:221.
-A Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier, by Louis Leon, Charlotte, NC: Stone Publishing Company, 1913, p. 37.
-The "Dutchess County Regiment" [150th New York] in the Civil War, ed. by S. G. Cook and Charles E. Benton, Danbury, CT: The Danbury Medical Printing Co., Inc., 1907, p. 34.
"The brigade then formed in line of battle at right angles to the breastwork in the following order: Third North Carolina, First Maryland Battalion, Thirty-seventh Virginia, Twenty-third Virginia, and First North Carolina" – Brigadier General George H. Steuart.
"One company and part of another … detached to fill up a space [on the right of the line] … Withdrawn by the left flank along the line of breastworks and ordered across them to form line with the rest of the brigade to charge the enemy's works on what was supposed to be their right flank. I formed the few men then remaining in my regiment upon the right of the brigade and was very soon thereafter ordered forward" – Major William M. Parsley, 3rd North Carolina.
"'Captain [William H.] Murray [of Company A], you will take command of the right,' were my last words to one of the noblest of men. … I felt I had but a minute more to live. … I looked up the line, and there stood the brave Steuart, calmly waiting for the troops to get in position. 'Fix bayonets' was the command, quietly given … the sword of the Genl. Is raised on high! 'Forward, double quick!' rings out" – Major William W. Goldsborough, 1st Maryland Battalion (CSA).
"Our gallant brigadier [George H. Steuart], with a full heart, passes along the line, changes the direction, sees all that is ready, then, with bright blade waving high, with clear command, cries, 'Forward!' and leads the way" – 1st Lieutenant George Thomas, Company A, 1st Maryland Battalion.
"When the final order to charge was received, the General [Steuart] remarked, 'It is a slaughter pen.' A gallant captain [William H. Murray] replied, 'It can't be helped; it is ordered'" – 2nd Lieutenant William P. Zollinger, Company A, 1st Maryland Battalion.
"We were marched by the left flank out of the works and formed in rear of a ridge of rocks, running at right angles to the works. … In this order we advanced to the assault" – Junior 2nd (3rd) Lieutenant Samuel T. McCullough, Company D, 1st Maryland Battalion.
"A Maryland battalion on our right. Our company being next to the Maryland troops, was ordered forward with them in a charge" – Private George C. Pile, Company A, 37th Virginia.
"There was a stone wall … in rear of … that portion of the line where the 20th Connecticut was stationed, which … afforded considerable protection from time to time" – Member of the 20th Connecticut.
"Our line to oppose [the enemy] consisted of the Twenty-ninth Pennsylvania and the One hundred and ninth Pennsylvania, the latter on the right extending to the wall, their front partially protected by the ledge of rocks. The left of the Twenty-ninth Pennsylvania extended to the breastworks" – Members of the 29th Pennsylvania.
"Again I was ordered forward, and kept position just under the edge of the crest" – Colonel William A. Owens, 53rd North Carolina.
"In our rapid firing today, my gun became so hot that the ramrod would not come out, so I shot it at the Yankees, and picked up a gun from the ground, a gun some poor comrade dropped after being shot" – Private Louis Leon, Company B, 53rd North Carolina.
"Moved farther to the left and formed on the right of the Forty-third Regiment North Carolina troops, to hold an entrenchment that had been captured" – Colonel Edmund C. Brabble, 32nd North Carolina.
"Relieved troops who occupied [the] works … ordered to go over the breastworks, and support General Steuart in a charge on the enemy's position" – Lieutenant Colonel William G. Lewis, 43rd North Carolina.
"Relieved by the One hundred and fiftieth New York" – Colonel James Wallace, 1st Maryland Eastern Shore.
"In about an hour it was again ordered into action" – Colonel John H. Ketcham, 150th New York.
"We advanced at double-quick with a rush and a cheer. Our course of 40 rods [220 yards] led over a ridge and then down a slope … found a line of hastily built breastworks filled with soldiers who were pouring an incessant fire into the valley below. Relieved a regiment … found it was the 1st Maryland Eastern Shore" – Member of the 150th New York.
Sources:
-Official reports of Brig. Gen. Geo. H. Steuart, Col. W. A. Owens, Col. E. C. Brabble, Lt. Col. W. G. Lewis, Col. Jas. Wallace, Col. J. H. Ketcham.
-Report of Maj. William Murdoch Parsley, Supplement to the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, ed. by Janet B. Hewett, Wilmington, DE: Broadfoot Publishing Company.
-Account attributed to Maj. Goldsborough, Civil War Memoirs of Washington Hands, Special Collections, University of Virginia, Charlottesville.
-Address of Captain Thomas, The Maryland Confederate Monument at Gettysburg, Southern Historical Society Papers, 1886, vol. XIV, p. 445.
-General George H. Steuart's Brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg, by William P. Zollinger, Southern Historical Society Papers, vol. 2, pp. 105-107.
-Diary of Samuel Thomas McCullough, Manuscript Collections, University of Virginia, Charlottesville.
-Account by George C. Pile, The War Story of a Confederate Soldier Boy, by Oliver Taylor, Confederate Collection, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Robert L. Brake Collection, U.S. Army Military Heritage and Education Center, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
-The "Twentieth Connecticut," a Regimental History, by John W. Storrs, Ansonia, CT: Press of the Naugatuck Valley Sentinel, 1886, pp. 92-93.
-Sketch of the Regiment (29th Pennsylvania), compiled by committee of Thos. De Maistre, George A. Brown, Louis R. Fortescue, Theo. S. S. Baker and John R. Hughes, Pennsylvania at Gettysburg, I:221.
-A Diary of a Tar Heel Confederate Soldier, by Louis Leon, Charlotte, NC: Stone Publishing Company, 1913, p. 37.
-The "Dutchess County Regiment" [150th New York] in the Civil War, ed. by S. G. Cook and Charles E. Benton, Danbury, CT: The Danbury Medical Printing Co., Inc., 1907, p. 34.
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