Gettysburg: The Last Invasion
Page 98
Wolseley, Garnet
Wood, James D., n
Woodruff, George, 23.1, 23.2, 23.3, 23.4, 24.1, 26.1
Woodward, George, 6.1, 7.1, 7.2, 25.1
Work, Philip, 15.1, 15.2
Wright, Ambrose Ransom, 17.1, 17.2, 17.3, 17.4, 18.1, 18.2, 18.3, 18.4, 18.5, 18.6, 18.7, 19.1, 19.2, 19.3, 21.1, 21.2, 22.1, 22.2, 25.1, 25.2, 25.3, nts.1n
Wright, James
Wrightsville Bridge, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3
“Yankee Doodle”, 3.1, 24.1
York, Pa., 5.1, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 7.7, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 10.1, 10.2, 20.1, 22.1
York County, Pa., 7.1, 7.2, 26.1
York Gazette
York Pike, 7.1, 7.2, 8.1, 11.1, 20.1, 20.2, 24.1, 26.1, 26.2
York River
Young, Jesse Bowman, n
Young, John Mumma
Young, Louis
Zeigler, David, 8.1, 22.1, 23.1, 23.2
Zook, Samuel Kosciusko, 16.1, 16.2, 16.3, 16.4, 16.5, nts.1n–60n
Zouaves, 1.1, 14.1, 15.1, 15.2, 15.3, 17.1, 23.1, 23.2
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
bm2.1 George Gordon Meade: Union League of Philadelphia
bm2.2 Robert Edward Lee: Mathew Brady, Library of Congress
bm2.3 James Longstreet: Mathew Brady carte de visite, Library of Congress
bm2.4 John Fulton Reynolds: Union League of Philadelphia
bm2.5 Andrew Gregg Curtin: Library of Congress
bm2.6 Oliver Otis Howard: Library of Congress
bm2.7 James Wadsworth: Mathew Brady, National Archives & Records Administration.
bm2.8 Richard Stoddert Ewell: Library of Congress
bm2.9 Winfield Scott Hancock: Library of Congress
bm2.10 Daniel Edgar Sickles: Julian Vannerson, Library of Congress
bm2.11 Colors of the 14th Brooklyn: Alfred Waud, Library of Congress
bm2.12 Pennsylvania College: Isaac and Charles Tyson, Gettysburg College Special Collections
bm2.13 View from college cupola: William Tipton, Adams County Historical Society
bm2.14 Defending the Colors at Gettysburg, July 1, 1863: from Orson Blair Curtis, History of the Twenty-fourth Michigan of the Iron Brigade (1891)
bm2.15 Lutheran Theological Seminary and Seminary Ridge: Alfred Waud, Library of Congress
bm2.16 Evergreen Cemetery gatehouse: Charles Himes stereo half, Cumberland County Historical Society
bm2.17 John Burns: Isaac and Charles Tyson, carte de visite, Adams County Historical Society
bm2.18 Barlow’s (or Blocher’s) Knoll: Adams County Historical Society
bm2.19 Francis Channing Barlow: Library of Congress
bm2.20 Lee’s headquarters: William H. Tipton, Library of Congress
bm2.21 Michael Jacobs: Isaac and Charles Tyson, Gettysburg College Special Collections
bm2.22 Lafayette McLaws: Library of Congress
bm2.23 Spine of Little Round Top, looking south: William Tipton, 1888, Adams County Historical Society
bm2.24 Spine of Little Round Top, looking northwest: William Tipton, 1888, Adams County Historical Society
bm2.25 Strong Vincent: Carte de visite, Library of Congress
bm2.26 The Joseph Sherfy house: William Tipton, 1888, Adams County Historical Society
bm2.27 Wheat field lane, looking east: William Tipton, 1880, Adams County Historical Society
bm2.28 Confederate dead: Alexander Gardner/Timothy O’Sullivan, Library of Congress
bm2.29 Francis Edward Heath: Maine Department of History
bm2.30 Union skirmishers at Cemetery Hill: Alfred Waud, Library of Congress
bm2.31 Wreckage of John Bigelow’s 9th Massachusetts Artillery: Timothy O’Sullivan, Library of Congress
bm2.32 Officers and staff of the 69th Pennsylvania: William Morris Smith, Library of Congress
bm2.33 Cadmus Marcellus Wilcox: Library of Congress
bm2.34 William Barksdale: Julian Vannerson, Library of Congress
bm2.35 Edward Porter Alexander: frontispiece from Military Memoirs of a Confederate: A Critical Narrative (1907)
bm2.36 Meade’s headquarters: Alexander Gardner, Library of Congress
bm2.37 The angle, looking south: William Tipton, Adams County Historical Society
bm2.38 Albertus McCreary’s retreat: from “Gettysburg: A Boy’s Experience of the Battle,” McClure’s Magazine (July 1909)
bm2.39 David Emmons Johnston: frontispiece to The Story of a Confederate Boy in the Civil War (1914)
bm2.40 House of Abraham Bryan: Mathew Brady, Library of Congress
bm2.41 Alexander Stewart Webb: Mathew Brady, Library of Congress
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Allen C. Guelzo is the Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era and Director of Civil War Era Studies at Gettysburg College. He is the author of Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President; Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America; Lincoln and Douglas: The Debates That Defined America; Lincoln: A Very Short Introduction; Abraham Lincoln as a Man of Ideas; and Fateful Lightning: A New History of the Civil War and Reconstruction. He is a member of the National Council on the Humanities.
Major General George Gordon Meade (1815–1872). Put hastily and unexpectedly in command of the Army of the Potomac, Meade preferred to conduct a cautious, defensive campaign against the 1863 Confederate invasion. He was “cownservative and cautious to the last degree, good qualities in a defensive battle, but liable to degenerate into timidity when an aggressive or bold offensive becomes imperative.” (Illustration Credit bm2.1)
General Robert Edward Lee (1807–1870) was convinced that only by risking an invasion of the North in 1863 could he save the Confederacy from the defeat he was certain would otherwise occur. “He is a strongly built man, about five-feet-eleven in height, and apparently not more than fifty years of age,” wrote a British admirer. “His hair and beard are nearly white; but his dark brown eyes still shine with all the brightness of youth, and beam with a most pleasing expression. Indeed, his whole face is kindly and benevolent in the highest degree.” (Illustration Credit bm2.2)
James Longstreet (1821–1904) was the senior corps commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. Lee regarded him as his “warhorse,” even though Longstreet questioned the wisdom of a Pennsylvania invasion in general and fighting an offensive battle at Gettysburg in particular. In the years after the war, he would be mercilessly (and unjustly) pilloried by Lee’s partisans as the principal bearer of blame for Confederate defeat. (Illustration Credit bm2.3)
Major General John Fulton Reynolds (1820–1863), commander of the 1st Corps of the Army of the Potomac. His determination not to leave Pennsylvania open to Lee’s invasion helped trigger the battle at Gettysburg. (Illustration Credit bm2.4)
Andrew Gregg Curtin (1817–1894). Republican governor of Pennsylvania, Curtin struggled to rouse the surprisingly sluggish response of his state to the Confederate invasion. “Five counties of our State are invaded and in the hands of rebels, five counties are overrun, and the soil of Pennsylvania is poisoned by the tread of rebel hordes. My God! Can Pennsylvanians sleep when Pennsylvanians are driven from their homes?” After the battle, Curtin authorized David Wills to take oversight of the creation of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery at Gettysburg. (Illustration Credit bm2.5)
Major General Oliver Otis Howard (1830–1909), commander of the 11th Corps of the Army of the Potomac. Together with Reynolds, Howard was responsible for forcing a fight at Gettysburg, instead of waiting passively at Pipe Creek. “He is the only religious man of high rank that I know of in the army,” wrote Charles Wainwright in his diary, “and, in the little intercourse I have had with him, shewed himself the most polished gentleman I have met.” (Illustration Credit bm2.6)
Major General James S. Wadsworth (1807–1864). A wealthy lawyer and committed abolitionist from upstate New York, Wadsworth commanded the first of the Army of the Potomac’s infantry divisions to reach Gettysburg on July 1, 1863. (Illustration Credit bm2.7)
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sp; Lieutenant General Richard Stoddert Ewell (1817–1872), who inherited command of “Stonewall” Jackson’s corps in the Army of Northern Virginia after Jackson’s death. He won accolades for his perfectly executed capture of Winchester in the first stages of the Gettysburg campaign, but was widely blamed for not pushing his corps to finish the rout of the Union forces on July 1, 1863. After the war, Ewell was supposed to have admitted that it took many mistakes to cause the Confederate loss at Gettysburg, “and I made most of them.” (Illustration Credit bm2.8)
Major General Winfield Scott Hancock (1824–1886), commander of the 2nd Corps of the Army of the Potomac. Colorful, profane, and combative, Hancock played the lead role in holding off Confederate attackers on both July 2nd and 3rd. (Illustration Credit bm2.9)
Major General Daniel Edgar Sickles (1819–1914) was the prime example of everything that was wrong with the practice of putting politicians in command of troops in the Civil War. Commander of the 3rd Corps, he nearly lost the battle singlehandedly for the Army of the Potomac on July 2nd. “He is, perhaps, loved more sincerely, and hated more heartily, than any man of his day. To serve his friends he will do anything which is tolerated by the license of modern politics: when he resolves upon the overthrow of a political enemy the strongest man finds him formidable.” (Illustration Credit bm2.10)
The Cashtown Pike, looking westward from Gettysburg; Oak Ridge is visible on the horizon, with a cut through the ridge to accommodate an as-yet-unfinished railroad. It was the first of three such cuttings through the ridges west of Gettysburg. Retreating Union soldiers followed this road into the town on July 1st.
(Levi Mumper) Courtesy of William A. Frassanito, Gettysburg Then and Now: Touring the Battlefield with Old Photos, 1865–1889 (1996)
The colors of the 14th Brooklyn. Regimental flags were carried into battle in the Civil War to serve as markers and rallying points in the midst of battlefield noise that overpowered officers’ voice commands and thick banks of powder smoke that sharply limited visibility. The 14th Brooklyn was actually the 84th New York Volunteer Infantry, but most of the regiment had originally been members of the 14th New York State Militia, based in Brooklyn, and they insisted on identifying themselves by their old militia designation. They were uniformed in the pattern of French-style chasseurs (light attack infantry) in baggy red trousers and red kepis. (Illustration Credit bm2.11)
The charge of the 6th Wisconsin Volunteers on the middle railroad cutting west of Gettysburg on July 1st. This drawing faces west, with the Cashtown Pike and the McPherson farm buildings visible to the left, the railway line on the right, and South Mountain in the distance.
(Levi Mumper) Courtesy of William A. Frassanito, Gettysburg Then and Now: Touring the Battlefield with Old Photos, 1865–1889 (1996)
Pennsylvania College in 1862, looking northward along Washington Street. From left to right, the buildings are the house of President Henry L. Baugher, Linnaean Hall, and Pennsylvania Hall; Oak Hill can be seen in the distance, rising behind Linnaean Hall. Classes met on the morning of July 1st, but most of the college’s 116 students had already scattered, and when the fighting began, the classes were dismissed. “Amid repeated failures on the part of the class, our professor remarked, ‘We will close and see what is going on, for you know nothing about the lesson anyhow.’ ” (Illustration Credit bm2.12)
The view from the college cupola, looking west and slightly south toward the Lutheran Theological Seminary (faintly visible to the left). The structure in the foreground is the college’s Linnaean Hall. The railroad bed and the Cashtown Pike run upward to the right across the photograph. (Illustration Credit bm2.13)
“Defending the Colors at Gettysburg, July 1, 1863.” The 24th Michigan lost thirteen color-bearers during the fighting retreat that brought the regiment to its last stand around the Lutheran Theological Seminary on July 1, 1863. “When its flag was presented to the regiment in Detroit, a solemn vow was taken, never to allow it to trail before the enemy or fall into his hands. That flag, pierced by twenty-three fresh bullets from the enemy’s guns, aside from those that splintered its staff in this engagement, spoke more forcibly than any words could, with what sacredness the vow was kept.” (Illustration Credit bm2.14)
The Lutheran Theological Seminary and Seminary Ridge, looking southwestward from the Cashtown Pike. (Illustration Credit bm2.15)
The Evergreen Cemetery’s gatehouse, looking west from the crest of East Cemetery Hill. This photograph was taken in mid-July 1863, when the 1st Corps’ artillery emplacements were still untouched. The ninety-foot poplar tree on the right was a Cemetery Hill landmark until it was struck by lightning in 1876 and finally removed in 1886. The tree is faintly visible in this book’s jacket photograph of three Confederate prisoners, spiking the distant horizon. (Illustration Credit bm2.16)
John Burns (1793–1872). Former town constable and veteran of the War of 1812, Burns became celebrated as “the Hero of Gettysburg” for attaching himself, even though a civilian, to the 1st Corps and fighting alongside the Iron Brigade. (Illustration Credit bm2.17)
Barlow’s (or Blocher’s) Knoll, looking south from Rock Creek toward the position of Leopold von Gilsa’s 11th Corps brigade on July 1st. Jubal Early’s division of the Army of Northern Virginia arrived at this point after marching south from Heidlersburg that morning, and successfully attacked von Gilsa’s men, who had only briefly planted themselves on the crest of the hill. (Illustration Credit bm2.18)
Francis Channing Barlow (1834–1896), the gentleman ranker who commanded the first division of the 11th Corps. Severely wounded and left behind by the retreat of his corps, he was carried to the Josiah Benner farmhouse, where he recovered sufficiently to return to command in the Army of the Potomac the following year. (Illustration Credit bm2.19)
Lee’s headquarters at Mrs. Mary Thompson’s house on the north side of the Cashtown Pike. (Illustration Credit bm2.20)
The town center of Gettysburg, looking southward from the diamond, down Baltimore Street.
(Levi Mumper) Courtesy of William A. Frassanito, Gettysburg Then and Now: Touring the Battlefield with Old Photos, 1865–1889 (1996)
Professor Michael Jacobs (1808–1871) of Pennsylvania College. A mathematician, Jacobs made meticulous weather observations and later wrote the first history of the battle, Notes on the Rebel Invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania (1863). (Illustration Credit bm2.21)
Major General Lafayette McLaws (1821–1897). A Georgian, McLaws commanded one of the three divisions employed by James Longstreet in his overwhelming attack on the Union left flank on July 2nd. Named for the Revolutionary War hero, he nevertheless disliked the tendency of Southerners to collapse it into two syllables: Lafet (Illustration Credit bm2.22). Although a mediocre student at West Point, he “has always been distinguished for his talents and sound judgment.”
On the spine of Little Round Top, looking southward toward Big Round Top, from approximately the position occupied by the right flank of Strong Vincent’s brigade. “The ground occupied by the brigade in line of battle was … composed mostly of high rocks and cliffs in the center and becoming more wooded and less rugged as you approached to the left. The right was thrown forward somewhat to the front of the ledge of rocks, and was much more exposed than other parts of the line.” (Illustration Credit bm2.23)
Looking northwest from the spine of Little Round Top, toward Houck’s Ridge and, beyond it, John Rose’s wheat field. (Illustration Credit bm2.24)
Colonel Strong Vincent (1837–1863). “If Vincent had not taken upon himself the responsibility of taking his brigade” to Little Round Top on the afternoon of July 2nd, “the arrival of his brigade would have found the enemy in possession of the ground, from which in all probability it could not have been dislodged.” (Illustration Credit bm2.25)
Joseph Sherfy’s peach orchard, at the intersection of the Wheat Field Lane (left) and the Emmitsburg Road; to the east, Little Round Top and Big Round Top are clearly visible in the distance.
(Levi Mu
mper) Courtesy of William A. Frassanito, Gettysburg Then and Now: Touring the Battlefield with Old Photos, 1865–1889 (1996)
The Joseph Sherfy house, looking northward. William Barksdale’s Mississippi brigade stormed through this yard on July 2nd. (Illustration Credit bm2.26)
The Emmitsburg Road, looking north toward Gettysburg and Cemetery Hill; the Rogers house and the Codori barn can be seen on the left and the right of the road.
(Levi Mumper) Courtesy of William A. Frassanito, Gettysburg Then and Now: Touring the Battlefield with Old Photos, 1865–1889 (1996)
The Wheat Field Lane looking east from the stony ridge across the wheat field and Houck’s Ridge toward Little Round Top; the monument in the center marks the place where Brigadier General Samuel Zook was mortally wounded on July 2, 1863. (Illustration Credit bm2.27)
Confederate dead, probably of Paul Semmes’ brigade, on the Rose Farm, looking north toward the Wheat Field Lane; the stony ridge rises to the right. (Illustration Credit bm2.28)
Colonel Francis Edward Heath (1838–1897), 19th Maine Volunteers, who refused Andrew A. Humphreys’ frenzied order to have his regiment turn their bayonets on Humphreys’ own men. (Illustration Credit bm2.29)