The Illustrated Gettysburg Reader: An Eyewitness History of the Civil War's Greatest Battle

by Rod Gragg

  Sawyer then ordered his regiment to shift its fire toward the next closest Confederate troops, and was joined by about seventy-five marksmen from the First Massachusetts sharpshooters. Hays saw the effect of the 8th Ohio’s fire on Mayo’s men and rushed two New York regiments—the 108th and the 126th—over to his far right flank to increase the fire. Together, they unleashed a staggering flank fire against the left side of Pettigrew’s division, taking down and driving away Davis’s Brigade just as its thin line was heading up the slope toward Cemetery Ridge. As the Federal flank fire cleared out Davis’s troops, it tore into the surviving troops of Marshall’s Brigade and then struck the support troops coming in from behind—General James H. Lane’s brigade of Trimble’s division. Slammed with searing infantry fire from the front and side, and blasted by Federal artillery just as they approached the crest of Cemetery Ridge, the entire left side of Pettigrew’s assault force fell back in retreat.

  Commanding the sector of the Federal line in the path of Pettigrew’s division was Brigadier General Alexander Hays. Bold and brash, he treated combat like a sport. “Now, boys,” he yelled to his troops, “you’ll see some fun.”

  National Archives

  An officer of the 39th New York Infantry practices his aim. The fire from the 39th and other Northern regiments on the Federal right was so fierce that one of Pettigrew’s Confederates compared its effect to hog-butchering.

  Library of Congress

  In 1881, Lieutenant Colonel Sawyer, commander of the 8th Ohio Infantry, would publish a history of his regiment, in it recounting in gruesome detail the critically important flanking fire his regiment unleashed against Pettigrew’s troops.

  Finally the artillery ceased firing, and all knew that an assault was the next movement. Soon we saw the long line of rebel infantry emerge from the woods along the rebel front, that had hitherto concealed them.

  These troops were the division of PICKETT, followed by that of PETTIGREW. They moved up splendidly, deploying into column as they crossed the long, sloping interval between the Second Corps and their base. At first it looked as if their line of march would sweep our position, but as they advanced their direction lay considerably to our left, but soon a strong line, with flags, directed its march immediately upon us.

  I formed the few remaining braves in a single line, and as the rebels came within short range of our skirmish line, charged them. Some fell, some run back, most of them, however, threw down their arms and were made prisoners. In this maneuver among the killed was Lieut. HAYDEN, Co. H. We changed our front, and taking position by a fence, facing the left flank of the advancing column of rebels, the men were ordered to fire into their flank at will. Hardly a musket had been fired at this time. The front of the column was nearly up the slope, and within a few yards of the line of the Second Corps’ front and its batteries, when suddenly a terrific fire from every available gun, from the Cemetery to Round Top Mountain, burst upon them. The distinct, graceful lines of the rebels underwent an instantaneous transformation.

  They were at once enveloped in a dense cloud of smoke and dust. Arms, heads, blankets, guns and knapsacks were thrown and tossed into the clear air. Their track, as they advanced, was strewn with dead and wounded. A moan went up from the field, distinctly to be heard amid the storm of battle, but on they went, too much enveloped in smoke and dust now to permit us to distinguish their lines or movements, for the mass appeared more like a cloud of moving smoke and dust than a column of troops. Still it advanced amid the now deafening roar of artillery and storm of battle.

  Suddenly the column gave way, the sloping landscape appeared covered, all at once, with the scattered and retreating foe. A withering sheet of missiles swept after them, and they were torn and tossed and prostrated as they ran. It seemed as if not one would escape. Of the mounted officers who rode so grandly in the advance not one was to be seen on the field, all had gone down.

  The Eighth advanced and cut off three regiments, or remnants of regiments, as they passed us, taking their colors, and capturing many prisoners. The colors captured were those of the Thirty-fourth North Carolina, Thirty-eighth Virginia, and one that was taken from the captor, Sergt. MILLER, Co. G, by a staff officer, the number of the regiment not being remembered.

  The battle was now over. The field was covered with the slain and wounded, and everywhere were to be seen white handkerchiefs held up asking for quarter. The rebel loss had been terrible, the victory to the Union army complete. . . .5

  “It Was a Slaughter-Pen”

  Federal Infantry and Artillery Shatter Pettigrew’s Ranks

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  “Everywhere Were to Be Seen White Handkerchiefs Held Up Asking for Quarter”

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  Pettigrew’s shredded ranks did not quit easily. As they were shot down in droves climbing the fences flanking the Emmitsburg Road, more followed, leaving the bloody roadway carpeted with bodies. Those who made it over the fence and surged up the slope toward Cemetery Ridge were shot down, swept away by artillery fire, or taken prisoner. As Pettigrew’s troops made their climactic surge toward the stone wall, a gun crew from Captain William A. Arnold’s battery of the 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery unleashed a blast of canister almost in the faces of the Southerners leading the charge. “The number four obeyed orders,” a Federal artilleryman would recall, “and the gap made in that North Carolina regiment was simply terrible.”

  Advancing on the far right flank of Pettigrew’s division were the survivors of Archer’s brigade from the first day’s fighting—now commanded by Colonel Birkett Fry. As they converged on the center of the Federal line near the clump of trees, they merged with the troops of Pickett’s division, and Tennesseans charged up the slope toward the stone wall alongside Virginians. As his troops neared their objective, Colonel Fry felt certain they were going to break the Federal line and achieve victory, when suddenly he went down with a serious leg wound. When some of his men stopped to help him, he waved them forward. “Go on,” he shouted, “it will not last five minutes longer.” Smoke obscured his vision as he heard the roar of rifle fire increase. Then the firing subsided and he heard rousing cheers—enemy cheers. He knew then that the charge had been repulsed. “All of the five regimental colors of my command reached the line of the enemy’s works, and many of my men and officers were killed or wounded after passing over it,” he would later report. “I believe the same was true of other brigades in General Pettigrew’s command.”

  As Pettigrew’s front-line brigades faltered and fell back from the crest of Cemetery Ridge, troops from General Trimble’s two support brigades—under General Lane and under Colonel Lee J. William Lowrance—piled up in the body-littered Emmitsburg Road and in the fields west of it and took to the ground. Lane tried to get his troops up and moving again—until he was frantically admonished by one of his officers. “My God!” the officer cried over the racket of battle. “General, do you intend sending your men into such a place unsupported, when the troops on the right are falling back?” After a moment’s hesitation, Lane called for a retreat. Yards to the rear, Lane’s and Lowrance’s division commander, Major General Isaac Trimble—still on horseback—tried to decide whether to press forward when he too was hit. Asked by a nearby officer if an attempt should be made to rally Pettigrew’s fleeing troops, Trimble said no. “Let them get out of this,” he said, “it’s all over.” Pettigrew’s assault had failed.

  Southern troops had to scale the fences flanking the Emmitsburg Road in order to assault the center of the Federal line. As they climbed the rails, they were pummeled with searing volley fire from the Federal defenders.

  National Archives

  Among the front-line Federal regiments whose fire drove back Pettigrew’s hard-charging troops was the 12th New Jersey Infantry. Posted with other regiments of Hays’s division behind the stone wall near the clump of trees, the Jersey men had armed themselves with buck-and-ball ammunition—cartridges loaded with a 69-caliber musket ball and three or more buckshot slug
s. When Pettigrew’s men surged up the slope toward them, the troops of the 12th New Jersey delivered “a sheet of flame.” Lieutenant Richard S. Thompson, an officer of the 12th New Jersey, would later chronicle the fight that unfolded before his eyes.

  Brigadier General James H. Lane saw the Federal fire stall his support troops at the Emmitsburg Road. “My God!” exclaimed one of his officers, “General, do you intend sending your men into such a place….?”

  Wikimedia Commons Images

  From their cover, on the wooded slope of Seminary Ridge, emerged the assaulting column of the enemy. It advanced in double line of battle, with a strong force of skirmishers in front. The right of their line consisted of three brigades of Pickett’s division, with Wilcox’s brigade in support of their right flank; the left of their column consisted of the four brigades of Heth’s division, then under command of General Pettigrew, closely supported by the brigades of Scales and Lane of Pender’s division, under the command of General Trimble. Two batteries of artillery also advanced in support of the assaulting column. On they came, a column seventeen thousand strong, with flags flying, bands playing, and arms at right shoulder shift. All in open sight of friend and foe, over the green valley they marched in “battle’s magnificently stern array. . . .”

  Commencing at the right of Hays’s division, which rested on Zeigler’s Grove, the front line was occupied as follows: Thirty-ninth New York; One Hundred and Twenty-sixth New York, of Willard’s brigade; then followed the Twelfth New Jersey, First Delaware, and Fourteenth Connecticut, of Smyth’s brigade, in the order named. In rear of the right regiment at Zeigler’s Grove was stationed Woodruff’s Battery I, First U.S. Artillery, supported by the One Hundred and Eighth New York, of Smyth’s brigade. While in rear of the Twelfth New Jersey and the First Delaware were the One Hundred and Eleventh New York and One Hundred and Twenty-fifth New York, of Willard’s brigade.

  At the left of Hays’s division the low wall, made of loose stones and fence rails, turned at a right angle to the front for about fifty feet, and then at a right angle resumed the general southerly direction toward Round Top. On the left of Smyth’s brigade of Hays’s division, and with their right resting in the advance angle of this wall, were the brigades of Webb, Hall, and Harrow, of Gibbon’s division, in the order named, with Stannard’s brigade of the Third division of the First corps thrown out in front on the left. Gibbon’s division, in order from right to left, in the front line, was as follows: Seventy-first Pennsylvania; Sixty-ninth Pennsylvania, of Webb’s brigade; Fifty-ninth New York; Seventh Michigan; Twentieth Massachusetts, of Hall’s brigade; Nineteenth Maine; Fifteenth Massachusetts; First Minnesota; and Eighty-second New York, of Harrow’s brigade. In rear of Webb’s brigade was Cushing’s Battery A, Fourth U.S. Artillery, supported by the Seventy-second Pennsylvania, of Webb’s brigade. In rear of Hall’s front were Brown’s Battery B, First Rhode Island Artillery, and Rorty’s Battery B, First New York Artillery, supported by the Forty-second New York and the Nineteenth Massachusetts, of Hall’s brigade, while Arnold’s Battery A, First Rhode Island Artillery, was stationed in rear of the junction of these two divisions.

  The distance between the lines of the two armies at the point in question was between 1,300 and 1,400 yards. The charging column advanced for some time without interruption, the enemy’s artillery continuing its fire upon the divisions of Hays and Gibbon. When about a third of the distance had been covered by the advancing column, the Union artillery stationed on the left, toward Round Top, opened fire. The bands of the enemy then retired. As the assaulting column neared our line, the artillery of the enemy ceased its fire on the divisions of Hays and Gibbon, and turned its attention to the batteries in the other portions of the line....

  Relieved from the cannonade, we immediately unfurled and raised our colors. The batteries in the divisions of Hays and Gibbon had nothing but canister left. As the enemy came within canister range, these batteries opened. Hundreds fell, but from the fact that their lines were somewhat converging, the tendency was to thicken, rather than leave the gaps open.

  Our infantry held their fire until the enemy were within about 250 yards, when a sheet of flame flashed along our front and the rifle regiments were in action. For a moment the enemy hesitated, in the next they returned the fire, which they continued as the advance progressed.

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  “A Sheet of Flame Flashed along Our Front”

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  The Twelfth New Jersey regiment had about four hundred men in line. They were armed, as already stated, with smoothbore Springfield muskets. The regulation cartridge contained a ball and three buckshot; but the men always provided themselves with extra buckshot, and on occasions like this, when close work was to be done, added a generous supply of buckshot to the regulation charge. General Hays ordered that this regiment be kept down until the enemy were within forty yards. Hence, on its immediate front seemed the safest road to our line.

  As the alignment of the advance became more and more broken, there was a very decided thickening and doubling up in the position of apparent least resistance. It was with the greatest difficulty that the men were kept down, and when the mass in that front was less than fifty yards away, and the men could be restrained no longer, the caution was given, “Aim low.” The order that followed was neither needed nor heard; it was drowned in the roar of musketry, and the position of least resistance was to be looked for somewhere else.

  The front of the column opposite Smyth’s brigade went down. The brigades of Scales and Lane of Pender’s division, being immediately in rear of Heth’s right, were staggered for a moment, but, recovering, advanced over the fallen double line of Heth’s division in the face of a fire that had settled into that continuous character where firing is at will instead of by volley. Soon all semblance of the enemy’s line of battle was abandoned; yet still they advanced until the foremost reached a position about twelve to fifteen yards from our line, when the entire force in front of Hays’s division gave way, not in sullen retreat, but in disordered flight. Many threw themselves upon the ground to escape the deadly fire. Large numbers of Hays’s division rushed to the front to capture battle-flags and secure prisoners.

  As the firing on Hays’s front ceased, we discovered the enemy’s flags flying in the angle to the front on our left, where Pickett’s division had broken through the line held by Webb’s brigade of Gibbon’s division. Instantly Smyth’s brigade opened an oblique fire on the left of this mass of Pickett’s division occupying the angle. Stannard’s brigade was pouring upon them a destructive fire from their right rear, while Gibbon’s division, on their front and right, was bravely closing in on them. It was a slaughter-pen. Pickett’s temporary success was soon over and the remnant of his division in flight. . . .6

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  “Many Threw Themselves upon the Ground”

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  “You Can Never Know What This Has Cost Me”

  General Lewis A. Armistead and His Friend the Enemy

  On the Confederate right, Federal artillery raked the troops of Pickett’s division as they crossed more than a half-mile of open fields. For much of the way they were somewhat protected by a swale—low ground—but when they emerged near the Emmitsburg Road, they were scoured with deadly artillery fire from General Hunt’s well-placed guns. On they came, absorbing their losses, and moving forward. When huge gaps were torn in the ranks by incoming rounds, they “closed ranks”—sliding toward each other to fill the open spaces—and kept going. Garnett’s front-line brigade shifted to the left as it advanced, aiming for the distant clump of trees. Its ranks had been thinned by the Federal artillery fire, and as the troops neared the fences lining the Emmitsburg Road, they slowed their pace—which allowed the troops of General Armistead’s Brigade to catch up with them and join their ranks as they pressed forward.

  Forty-six-year-old Brigadier General Lewis A. Armistead led his troops toward the enemy line on Cemetery Hill with a unique burden: the Second Corps Federal
troops posted there were commanded by his dear friend, General Winfield Scott Hancock. Armistead, a North Carolinian, came from a prominent family with a tradition of American military service and a parade of American presidents in its lineage, including James Monroe and John Tyler. He had entered West Point, but was dismissed after two years for allegedly breaking a plate on the head of another cadet—the future Confederate general Jubal Early. Armistead saw combat in the Seminole War and in the Mexican War, where he was decorated for valor three times. Highly disciplined but soft-spoken and attentive, he developed close friendships with his fellow officers, especially Hancock. He and Hancock had served in the Mexican War, and Armistead—who had been widowed twice—developed a deep friendship with Hancock and his wife Almira. Posted to California before the war, he was often a guest in the Hancock home. When Virginia seceded, his loyalties were torn between his state and his nation. He finally chose Virginia, which led to a heart-wrenching farewell with his friend Hancock, a Pennsylvanian who decided to side with the North.

  The final parting of Armistead, Hancock, and other officers occurred at Hancock’s home in Los Angeles, where the group of officers was posted. Almira Russell Hancock would later describe the last meeting between Armistead and Hancock before they went their separate ways to become “enemies” at war.