Reconstructed Rebel
1st Lieutenant
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2021
I'm hoping for some general comments on the actions, including this one, of the 71st Pennsylvania on July 3. Did they deserve the criticism some gave them after the battle?
Quoted from: https://ehistory.osu.edu/exhibitions/Regimental/pennsylvania/union/71stPennsylvania/gettysburg
More than an hour of continuous shelling..... had disabled many of Alonzo Cushing's pieces and gunners.... At length, Cushing, who had sustained a shoulder wound, struggled over to General Webb seeking help from nearby infantry to work his guns. The plea for aid was transmitted to Colonel Smith whose call for volunteers was answered by as many as 50 Californians, including almost everybody in Company E...."My men - my most brave men worked his [Cushing's] battery, until all [ammunition] was gone," pronounced Penn Smith.
The frightful artillery fusillade finally slackened by about 3:00 p.m. and an ominous stillness enveloped the smoke-filled field. Infantrymen on Cemetery Ridge strained to see through the low-lying haze......
Penn Smith was standing with Alexander Webb near the Copse of Trees when the Southerners debouched from the woodline preparatory to their attack.... The general ordered Smith to move his men up to the stone wall and to place the left of the regiment on a sapling.... the prone men .... climbed to their feet and trotted down the slope toward the unoccupied segment of stone wall on the right of the 69th Pennsylvania.... Some of the Californians, apparently without orders, ran one of Alonzo Cushing's remaining rifles to the apex of the outer angle, close to the location of the regiment's monument on the battlefield...... the infantry troops began loading the muzzle "with all sorts of things, they even put a bayonet in it." Penn Smith saw these same men jam rocks and broken shells into the barrel....
The Californians at the forward stone wall had finished loading their artillery piece just as the Rebels arrived at the post-and-rail fence along the west side of the Emmitsburg Road. At about this time, First Sergeant Frederick Fuger of Alonzo Cushing's battery rushed up and instructed the Californians to sight the gun on the road and fire just as the Rebels were climbing the fences. At the appointed moment, the lanyard was pulled sending the bizarre collection of projectiles on its way to the gray-clads struggling over the fences. "[T]he havoc caused by that overloaded gun," observed Penn Smith, "scattering its deadly missiles in the enemy's ranks, was frightful, being fired at short range."
Quoted from: https://ehistory.osu.edu/exhibitions/Regimental/pennsylvania/union/71stPennsylvania/gettysburg
More than an hour of continuous shelling..... had disabled many of Alonzo Cushing's pieces and gunners.... At length, Cushing, who had sustained a shoulder wound, struggled over to General Webb seeking help from nearby infantry to work his guns. The plea for aid was transmitted to Colonel Smith whose call for volunteers was answered by as many as 50 Californians, including almost everybody in Company E...."My men - my most brave men worked his [Cushing's] battery, until all [ammunition] was gone," pronounced Penn Smith.
The frightful artillery fusillade finally slackened by about 3:00 p.m. and an ominous stillness enveloped the smoke-filled field. Infantrymen on Cemetery Ridge strained to see through the low-lying haze......
Penn Smith was standing with Alexander Webb near the Copse of Trees when the Southerners debouched from the woodline preparatory to their attack.... The general ordered Smith to move his men up to the stone wall and to place the left of the regiment on a sapling.... the prone men .... climbed to their feet and trotted down the slope toward the unoccupied segment of stone wall on the right of the 69th Pennsylvania.... Some of the Californians, apparently without orders, ran one of Alonzo Cushing's remaining rifles to the apex of the outer angle, close to the location of the regiment's monument on the battlefield...... the infantry troops began loading the muzzle "with all sorts of things, they even put a bayonet in it." Penn Smith saw these same men jam rocks and broken shells into the barrel....
The Californians at the forward stone wall had finished loading their artillery piece just as the Rebels arrived at the post-and-rail fence along the west side of the Emmitsburg Road. At about this time, First Sergeant Frederick Fuger of Alonzo Cushing's battery rushed up and instructed the Californians to sight the gun on the road and fire just as the Rebels were climbing the fences. At the appointed moment, the lanyard was pulled sending the bizarre collection of projectiles on its way to the gray-clads struggling over the fences. "[T]he havoc caused by that overloaded gun," observed Penn Smith, "scattering its deadly missiles in the enemy's ranks, was frightful, being fired at short range."