Timing the Wounding of Dan Sickles on July 2

Tom Elmore

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Thanks to Capt. George B. Winslow of Battery D, 1st New York, I believe we can now, with considerable accuracy, establish the time that Maj. Gen. Daniel E. Sickles was wounded near the Trostle barn on July 2. In his official report, Capt. Winslow wrote that upon departing the Wheatfield with his battery, he immediately reported to Sickles and Capt. George E. Randolph, commanding Third Corps artillery brigade. After the war, Winslow provided additional details to John Bachelder, including the fact that Sickles was wounded just two or three minutes after Winslow delivered his report. Winslow was ordered to the rear to collect his battery, but he evidently remained just long enough to observe Sickles’ wounding.

Having completed the Wheatfield timeline on my battle map project, I estimate the time was 6:14 p.m. as Winslow accompanied his last piece as it struggled to pull away in the Wheatfield. Winslow’s other guns were already gone and moving to the rear, perhaps using the farm lane that ran through the woods north of the John T. Weikert place. Moments before, as Winslow’s guns were passing through the open Trostle woods to reach the clearing beyond, they cut right through the 64th New York of Brooke’s brigade, which I figure had just reached the wall on the northeastern edge of those woods, not far from where the 35th Pennsylvania (6th Pennsylvania Reserves) monument now stands.

Bringing with him his one remaining piece (from his center section), Winslow made directly for Sickles’ headquarters at the Trostle farm to report. Using the estimated average speed for a trot (200 yards), Winslow could have reached Sickles by 6:19 p.m., which would mean that Sickles was wounded (struck by a solid shot) at approximately 6:22 p.m. At that moment, I calculate that Barksdale’s brigade was just emerging from the woods on Warfield Ridge into full view of the Federals on the Peach Orchard line at the Emmitsburg Road. It was that same moment that Alexander’s guns briefly fell silent to allow the infantry to pass safely. Of course, no one can claim such precision about any event occurring on this battlefield, but perhaps we can come closer to the truth.

Main Sources:
-Official Report, Capt. George B. Winslow.
-Letter of Winslow to Bachelder, Bachelder Papers, 1: 590-591.
-Col. Daniel G. Bingham, 64th New York, History of Cattaraugus County, New York (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1879), pp. 105-106.
 
I love it. Just curious, Tom....I assume that your times represent local solar time, which was generally practiced before the establishment of standard time zones. If so, that would mean that to correct your times to Eastern Standard Time, about 9 minutes would have to be added. So, that 6:22 PM, now becomes 6:31 EST. Since this event occurred on July 2, another hour would have to added for Daylight Time. Therefore, if you were to visit the battlefield to examine the daylight situation at the moment of Sickle's wounding, you should plan to be there at 7:31 PM.
 
I love it. Just curious, Tom....I assume that your times represent local solar time, which was generally practiced before the establishment of standard time zones. If so, that would mean that to correct your times to Eastern Standard Time, about 9 minutes would have to be added. So, that 6:22 PM, now becomes 6:31 EST. Since this event occurred on July 2, another hour would have to added for Daylight Time. Therefore, if you were to visit the battlefield to examine the daylight situation at the moment of Sickle's wounding, you should plan to be there at 7:31 PM.

I expect you are correct. The time that I gave does represent local solar time for July 2, 1863. Put another way, sunset on that date at Gettysburg came at 7:32 p.m., so to duplicate lighting conditions, the wounding would have occurred one hour and 10 minutes before sunset.
 
Put another way, sunset on that date at Gettysburg came at 7:32 p.m., so to duplicate lighting conditions, the wounding would have occurred one hour and 10 minutes before sunset.

Right. If you check a modern table for sunset at Gettysburg on July 2, it reads, 8:42 PM, one hour and ten minutes difference from local solar time.
 
This is very interesting, and I know it took awhile to research out, but it sounds like it is worth it, and it establishes a time for his wounding, which is a good fact to know. I know there some exact times known at Gettysburg, like when the artillery assault began for Pickett's Charge. It was noted by Haskell.
 
It's difficult to find two witnesses who agree on the time for any event during the battle. It's not only their watch accuracy or the fact that time was different in every town (based on the sun's passage at the local meridian) - sometimes they are hours apart. Whenever you see a precise minute given, it leads you to think the observer fixed the time in their memory, and/or recorded it in a diary or letter. With regard to the opening of the grand artillery barrage on July 3, you may take your pick:

12:48 p.m. - Arabella M. Willson, Disaster, Struggle, Triumph (126 NY accounts)
12:50 p.m. - Thomas Francis Galwey, The Valiant Hours
1:05 p.m. - "Carleton," The Boston Journal
1:07 p.m. - Professor Michael Jacobs
1:32 p.m. - Maud Morrow Brown, The University Grays, Company A, 11th Mississippi

In my efforts to determine time, say on the late afternoon of July 2, it comes down to integrating dozens of accounts, akin to fitting the pieces together from a complicated puzzle, when many of the pieces are slightly distorted. The job is made easier knowing the approximate time of moving from point A to point B, in concert with a generally accepted sequence of events, plus the known time of a celestial occurrence like sunset. But it gets complicated because human beings make mistakes, or combat conditions distort time in the mind, or they are influenced by others (wrongly) in post-war reconstructions, etc.
 
It's difficult to find two witnesses who agree on the time for any event during the battle. It's not only their watch accuracy or the fact that time was different in every town (based on the sun's passage at the local meridian) - sometimes they are hours apart.

Exactly. Unless an observer was from Gettysburg, his watch had to be off by some amount. One thing that may help is that if a particular unit was from east of Gettysburg, their watches would tend to give times that were later than local time. Those who came from areas west of Gettysburg would tend to have watches giving times earlier.
 
Exactly. Unless an observer was from Gettysburg, his watch had to be off by some amount. One thing that may help is that if a particular unit was from east of Gettysburg, their watches would tend to give times that were later than local time. Those who came from areas west of Gettysburg would tend to have watches giving times earlier.

So long as that person did not set their watch by another clock in another town. And as long as they kept up with keeping it wound. Determining time in the mid-19th century is very fluid.

Ryan
 
Tom,

Captain Winslow didn't actually see Sickles hit. He wrote in "On Little Round Top, The Position and Achievements of the First New York Volunteer Artillery" (154), "...I rode a little further and found General Sickles, to whom I reported the situation in the Wheat-field. Expressing surprise and gratification that the battery was not lost, as he had supposed, he ordered me to get my pieces together and await orders. Just after leaving the general an orderly passed and informed me that General Sickles had lost his leg".

Also, according to Chaplain David Craft , Sickles' wounding occurred as the Peach Orchard was collapsing under Barksdale's assault. Describing the retreat of the 141st Pennsylvania the regiment's historian wrote, "...the Colonel on foot, his horse had been shot under him takes up the rent, shot-pierced flag and bears it from the field followed by only twenty of his brave men, all the rest having been killed, wounded or scattered." Craft also noted that Sickles met the 141st's Colonel Madill and, "...in a beseeching cry rather than a command says, Colonel! for God's sake, can't you hold on?" According to Craft, Madill replied, "...Where are my men? A moment after and the gallant Sickles is hit with a musket ball, his leg fractured...."
[ History of the 141st Pennsylvania, Craft 122, 123]

If Craft is correct, that would place Sickles' wounding about ten to fifteen minutes later than your estimate, closer to 6:34 p.m.

Jim
 
In this scenario, the conversation between Sickles and Madill would have occurred when the 141st was in full retreat, which I figure would be about 6:40 p.m. Sickles would have ridden back a short distance to the Trostle barn where he was seen by Winslow, and soon thereafter a solid shot took off Sickles' leg, in this case no earlier than 6:43 p.m. His staff would have to move quickly to get him off of the field, because at 6:55 by my calculations the 21st Mississippi was less than 100 yards from the spot where Sickles had been wounded. That would have been a very narrow escape for the General, especially considering they had to wait for an ambulance to arrive.

That would also place Winslow's meeting with Sickles at say 6:41 p.m., meaning he had departed the Wheatfield close to 6:36 p.m., which in turn means Cross did not advance across the Wheatfield until at least 6:37 p.m., which is way too late to squeeze all the subsequent events in and around the Wheatfield into the available time.

Bottom line is that I cannot easily rectify Chaplain Craft's account into my current timeline. I presume that he developed a narrative after gathering and integrating information from the men in his regiment. Could the meeting between Sickles and Madill have instead occurred earlier, as the 141st was pulling back from the south side of the Peach Orchard and realigned itself to confront Barksdale's advance from the west?

There are a few moving and interconnecting parts to reconcile. There is the link between Kershaw and Barksdale - Kershaw wrote that he was already near the Emmitsburg Road when Barksdales' drummers were beating the assembly. That would mean that at least 10 minutes separated their respective advances, and it would have taken Barksdale another 10 minutes to meet the 141st. Meanwhile, Kershaw advanced quickly into the woods on the west side of the Wheatfield, where his arrival threatened Winslow's guns and forced his departure.
 
I just reread Major General David B. Birney's official report, in which he writes: "At 6 o'clock I found Major-General Sickles seriously wounded, and, at his request, took command of the troops [Third Corps]. I immediately visited Humphreys' division, and finding that the enemy, advancing through a gap in the line of my division, would take it in reverse, I ordered a change of front. General Humphreys accomplished this promptly ..."

While working my way through the Peach Orchard map series I figured Barksdale opened that gap by 6:40 p.m., prompting Brewster's 120th and 70th New York to change front to confront him. That in turn would put Birney at Humphrey's support line within a handful of minutes of 6:40 p.m., meaning he left Sickles' side by around 6:35 p.m. Assuming it took Birney only a few minutes to reach Sickles' side once notified (by a staff officer or courier) that the latter had been wounded, I figure Sickles was wounded about 6:25 p.m., give or take, which is not far off my previous independent estimate of 6:22 p.m. At 6:25 p.m., by my timeline, Barksdale was nearly half way to the Emmitsburg road in his charge.
 
I just reread Major General David B. Birney's official report, in which he writes: "At 6 o'clock I found Major-General Sickles seriously wounded, and, at his request, took command of the troops [Third Corps]. I immediately visited Humphreys' division, and finding that the enemy, advancing through a gap in the line of my division, would take it in reverse, I ordered a change of front. General Humphreys accomplished this promptly ..."

While working my way through the Peach Orchard map series I figured Barksdale opened that gap by 6:40 p.m., prompting Brewster's 120th and 70th New York to change front to confront him. That in turn would put Birney at Humphrey's support line within a handful of minutes of 6:40 p.m., meaning he left Sickles' side by around 6:35 p.m. Assuming it took Birney only a few minutes to reach Sickles' side once notified (by a staff officer or courier) that the latter had been wounded, I figure Sickles was wounded about 6:25 p.m., give or take, which is not far off my previous independent estimate of 6:22 p.m. At 6:25 p.m., by my timeline, Barksdale was nearly half way to the Emmitsburg road in his charge.
Really nice, methodical, and informative work.
 
"as Winslow’s guns were passing through the open Trostle woods to reach the clearing beyond, they cut right through the 64th New York of Brooke’s brigade,"
In addition Clark's Battery B 1st NJ crashed through the 7th NJ and Seely's 4th US passed head long through the 19th Maine. Gen Hancock witnessed this last event and rode over to Lt.Robert James, who commanded the 4th US after Seeley's wounding and bellowed, "If I commanded this regiment I'd be God-Damned if I would not bayonet charge you!"
 
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