by Rod Gragg
I forward returns of our loss in killed, wounded, and missing. Many of the latter were killed or wounded in the several assaults at Gettysburg, and necessarily left in the hands of the enemy. I cannot speak of these brave men as their merits and exploits deserve. Some of them are appropriately mentioned in the accompanying reports, and the memory or all will be gratefully and affectionately cherished by the people in whose defense they fell.
The loss of Major-General Pender is severely felt by the army and the country. He served with this army from the beginning of the war, and took a distinguished part in all its engagements. Wounded on several occasions, he never left his command in action until he received the injury that resulted in his death. His promise and usefulness as an officer were only equaled by the purity and excellence of his private life.
Brigadier-Generals Armistead, Barksdale, Garnett, and Semmes died as they had lived, discharging the highest duty of patriots with devotion that never faltered and courage that shrank from no danger.
I earnestly commend to the attention of the Government those gallant officers and men whose conduct merited the special commendation of their superiors, but whose names I am unable to mention in this report.
The officers of the general staff of the army were unremittingly engaged in the duties of their respective departments. Much depended on their management and exertion. The labors of the quartermaster’s, commissary, and medical departments were more than usually severe. The inspectors-general were also laboriously occupied in their attention to the troops, both on the march and in camp, and the officers of engineers showed skill and judgment in expediting the passage of rivers and streams, the swollen condition of which, by almost continuous rains, called for extraordinary exertion.
The chief of ordnance and his assistants are entitled to praise for the care and watchfulness given to the ordnance trains and ammunition of the army, which, in a long march and in many conflicts, were always at hand and accessible to the troops.
My thanks are due to my personal staff for their constant aid afforded me at all times, on the march and in the field, and their willing discharge of every duty.
There were captured at Gettysburg nearly 7,000 prisoners, of whom about 1,500 were paroled, and the remainder brought to Virginia. Seven pieces of artillery were also secured.
I forward herewith the reports of the corps, division, and other commanders mentioned in the accompanying schedule, together with maps of the scene of operations, and one showing the routes pursued by the army.
Respectfully submitted.
R. E. LEE,
General.1
Acknowledgments
No one writes a book alone—especially a work of history. Many people contributed to this one. My thanks to associate publisher Alex Novak of Regnery History for his direction in developing this title, and to Regnery executive editor and fellow historian Harry Crocker. Maria Ruhl, Amber Colleran, Amanda Larsen, Lindsey Reinstrom, and others on the Regnery team were consistently professional and pleasant, and I appreciate their valuable assistance. Many thanks are due as well to Joel Kneedler, my literary agent, and the other great folks at Alive Communications. I’m grateful to Coastal Carolina University and the Center for Military and Veterans Studies at CCU for the opportunity to research and publish in the field of military history. I’m also grateful to Center chairman George H. Goldfinch Jr. and the Center’s board of directors.
Numerous research and archival institutions graciously assisted in the research for this work, including the Manuscripts Division and the Prints and Photographs Division at the Library of Congress, the National Archives, Musselman Library at Gettysburg College, the Minnesota Historical Society, the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke University, the U.S. Military Academy Library at West Point, the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, the Adams County Historical Society in Gettysburg, the Eleanor Brockenbrough Library at the Museum of the Confederacy, the Civil War Library and Museum of Philadelphia, the North Carolina Department of Archives and History, the U.S. Army Historical Center at Carlisle Barracks, the Moravian Musical Foundation, the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan, DeGolyer Library at Southern Methodist University, Alderman Library at the University of Virginia, and Kimbel Library at Coastal Carolina University.
I’m also grateful to historians Edward Bonekemper, H. W. Crocker III, David Cleutz, Robert Hancock, Edward Longacre, Phillip Tucker, Clyde Wilson, and Stephen E. Woodworth. Many thanks also to Scott Hilts, Dennis Reed, J. R. Gorrell, Mark Roach, and the Wednesday Bible study group; Jerry Curkendal and the men’s group at Carolina Forest Community Church; Stoval Witte, David Frost, the Rev. Rick Atkins, the Rev. John R. Riddle, Dr. Harry Reeder, and many others. I owe a unique debt to my parents, Skip and Elizabeth Gragg, who sparked my lifelong love of history with many books and trips, including my first visit to Gettysburg as a small boy in 1959. I’m very grateful to my brother Ted, my cousins Bob, Charles, and Tony, and “Aunty” Delores, who helped fuel the fires of history—and for Connie, Sandra, and Martha for their good-natured patience. I’m also thankful for Deborah, Margaret, Joe, Jackie, Doug, Tina, John, Gail, Jimmy, Newt, and Mama-O—and for the next generations of history-lovers: Wendy, John, Eddie, Vaughn, Holly, Shelley, Meagan, Chris, Emerson, Caroline, William, Mary Catherine, Rachel Grace, Clayte, Will, Danielle, Christi, Tommy, Abbey, Shannon, Joseph, Margaret, Sam, and Caleb. Special thanks for the love and encouragement I consistently receive from by beloved brigade of “troops”—Faith, Troy, Rachel, Jay, Elizabeth, Jon, Joni, Penny, Ryan, Skip, Matt, and Miranda—and my future campers and trekkers: Kylah, Sophia, Jaxon, Gracie, Cody, Ashlyn, and Jate. Always, my deepest love and gratitude to my wife Cindy, who has patiently worn the title of “Civil War widow” throughout our marriage. Finally, I’m eternally grateful for the abiding truth of John 3:16.
Rod Gragg
Conway, SC
Notes
Chapter 1
“Advance into Pennsylvania”
1 Ralston W. Balch, The Battle of Gettysburg: An Historical Account (Harrisburg: Gettysburg & Harrisburg Railroad, 1885), 33–37; Edwin B. Coddington, The Gettysburg Campaign: A Study in Command (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1963), 265.
2 War of the Rebellion: The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington, D.C.: Official Government Printing Office, 1880–1901), 27:2:305 (hereafter cited as OR); Coddington, Gettysburg Campaign, 73–52; Hermann Schuricht, “Jenkins’ Brigade in the Gettysburg Campaign: Extracts from the Diary of Lieutenant Hermann Schuricht, of the Fourteenth Virginia Cavalry,” Southern Historical Society Papers 24:339.
3 Douglas Southall Freeman, R. E. Lee: A Biography (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1947), 1:92–93, 371, 421, 436, 440–41, 2:92; J. William Jones, Christ in the Camp: Or, Religion in Lee’s Army (Richmond: B. F. Johnson, 1888), 50; Mark Mayo Boatner III, The Civil War Dictionary (New York: David McKay, 1959); David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler, eds., Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History (New York: W. W. Norton, 2000): 1153–63; Arthur Lyon Fremantle, Three Months in the Southern States: April–June 1863 (Mobile: S. H. Goetzel, 1864), 248–49.
4 Freeman, R. E. Lee, 3:18–28; Coddington, Gettysburg Campaign, 4–14; OR, 1:27:3:881, 887.
5 John Bell Hood, Advance and Retreat: Personal Experiences in the United States and Confederate States Armies (New Orleans: G. T. Beauregard, 1880), 137; Henry K. Burgwyn to father, May 21, 1863, Burgwyn Family Papers, Southern Historical Collection (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill); Coddington, Gettysburg Campaign, 11–15; Freeman, R. E. Lee, 3:13–16; James Bradshaw to wife, June 18, 1863, Samuel S. Biddle Papers (Special Collections Library, Duke University); Fremantle, Three Months in the Southern States, 205; Bell I. Wiley, The Life of Johnny Reb (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 1970), 291; Boatner, Civil War Dictionary, 768; Alexander Hunter, “A High Private’s Account of the Battle of Sharpsburg,” Southe
rn Historical Society Papers (October–November 1882) 10:508–9.
6 Encyclopedia of the Civil War, 999–1002; Walter H. Hebert, Fighting Joe Hooker (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1944), 49; OR, 1:24:2:4; Edward G. Longacre, The Commanders of Chancellorsville (Nashville: Rutledge Hill Press, 2005), 100, 273; Theodore Lyman, Meade’s Headquarters, 1863–1865: Letters from Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness to Appomattox, ed. George R. Aggasiz (Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1922), 230.
7 Hebert, Fighting Joe Hooker, 183; Encyclopedia of the Civil War, 98–101; Coddington, Gettysburg Campaign, 34–36; Stephen Minot Weld, War Diary and Letters (Boston: Riverside Press, 1912), 213; J. E. Ryder to father, June 24, 1863, Ryder Family Papers (Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan); John P. Sheahan to father, March 2, 1863 (John Parris Sheahan Collection, Collection # 184 1/5, Maine Historical Society).
Chapter 2
“Look at Pharoah’s Army Going to the Red Sea”
1 Henry Steele Commager, ed., The Blue and the Gray: The Story of the Civil War as Told by Participants (New York: Fairfax Press, 1982), 591–92; Coddington, Gettysburg Campaign, 8–11.
2 Coddington, Gettysburg Campaign, 54–60; Encyclopedia of the Civil War, 1531; George M. Neese, Three Years in the Confederate Horse Artillery (New York: Neale Pubishing, 1911), 175–79.
3 Coddington, Gettysburg Campaign, 73–77; Henry K. Burgwyn to father, May 21, 1863, Burgwyn Family Papers; David H. McGee, ed., “The James Wright Letters,” Company Front (1992) 1:69; Bradshaw to wife, June, 18, 1863, Samuel S. Biddle Papers; George S. Bernard, “The Gettysburg Campaign,” Petersburg Enterprise, March 3, 1894.
4 Encyclopedia of the Civil War, 827–28; Coddington, Gettysburg Campaign, 104–8; Julius Lineback, “Extracts from a Civil War Diary,” Twin Cities Daily Sentinel, June 14, 1914–April 3, 1915; Julius Lineback Journal, June 15, 1863, Julius Lineback Papers, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Thomas Perrett, “A Trip That Didn’t Pay,” Thomas Perrett Papers, North Carolina Department of Archives and History.
5 Coddington, Gettysburg Campaign, 150–53, 170–78; Fremantle, Three Months in the Southern States, 191; “Rebel Letter,” Newspaper File, Edward McPherson Papers, Library of Congress; Bernard, ”Gettysburg Campaign,” Petersburg Enterprise; J. A. Strikeleather, “Recollections of the Late War,” Company Front (October 1993), 17; W. W. Blackford, War Years with Jeb Stuart (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1945), 223; Worsham, Jackson’s Foot Cavalry, 150; Hoke, Invasion of 1863, 208, 176; OR, 1:27:3:942–943.
6 Hebert, Fighting Joe Hooker, 243–45; George C. Gorham, Life and Public Services of Edwin M. Stanton (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1899) 2:98–99; Coddington, Gettysburg Campaign, 129, 133; Journal of Marsena R. Patrick, June 17–19, 1863, Manuscripts Collection, Library of Congress; OR, 1:27:1:53, 60.
7 Gorham, Life and Public Services of Edwin M. Stanton, 2:99; Morris Schaff, Battle of the Wilderness (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1910), 40; Gamaliel Bradford (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1916), 87–88; Freeman Cleaves, Meade of Gettysburg (Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1960), viii–ix; Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel, eds., Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1956), 3:242–43; OR, 1:27:3:374.
8 Encyclopedia of the Civil War, 827, 1295; Boston Morning Journal, July 4, 1863 in Coddington, Gettysburg Campaign, 224; Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, 3: 256; Rufus Dawes, Service With The Sixth Wisconsin Volunteers (Marietta: Alderman & Sons, 1890), 152–53; Charles W. Reed, A Grand Terrible Drama: The Civil War Letters of Charles Wellington Reed, ed. Eric Campbell (New York: Fordham University Press), 107–8; Charles Wellington Reed Papers, Manuscripts Collection, Library of Congress; Samuel W. Fiske, Mr. Dunn Browne’s Experiences in the Army (Boston: Nichols and Noyes, 1866), 175–76.
9 Bell I. Wiley, The Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 1978), 36, 69; Julius Lineback Journal, July 1, 1863, Julius Lineback Papers; John P. Sullivan, An Irishman in the Iron Brigade: The Civil War Memoirs of James P. Sullivan, William J. K. Beaudot and Lance J. Herdegen, (New York: Forham University Press, 1993), 93; J. Michael Miller, “Perrin’s Brigade on July 1, 1863,” Gettysburg Magazine 13:22; Matthew Marvin Diary, Matthew Marvin Papers, Minnesota Historical Society.
Chapter 3
“Into the Jaws of the Enemy”
1 Coddington, Gettysburg Campaign, 244–50; Charles Carlton Coffin, Four Years of Fighting: A Volume of Personal Observations with the Army and the Navy (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1866), 259.
2 Richard N. Current, ed., Encyclopedia of the Confederacy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), 4:1551–1553; Douglas Southall Freeman, Lee’s Lieutenants: A Study in Command (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1944), 3:58–72; George Cary Eggleston, A Rebel’s Recollections (New York: G. P. Putnam, 1878), 169; Coffin, Four Years of Fighting, 259; Boatner, Civil War Dictionary, 333; G. Moxley Sorrell, Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer (New York: Neale Publishing, 1905), 61–62; John Esten Cooke, Wearing of the Grey: Being Personal Portraits, Scenes and Adventrues of the War (New York: E. B. Treat, 1867), 242–57.
3 Freeman, Lee’s Lieutenants, 3:76–78; Coddington, Gettysburg Campaign, 260–61; Rod Gragg, Covered With Glory: The 26th North Carolina Infantry at Gettysburg (New York: HarperCollins, 2000), 83–86; Louis G. Young, “Pettigrew’s Brigade at Gettysburg,” Histories of Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War 1861–65, Walter Clark, ed. (Goldsboro: Nash Brothers, 1901), 5:115–17.
4 Coddington, Gettysburg Campaign, 260–62; Boatner, Civil War Dictionary, 334; Willard Glazier, Three Years in the Federal Cavalry (New York: R. H. Fergeson), 1970: 37; Tillie Pierce Alleman, At Gettysburg: Or, What a Girl Heard and Saw at the Battle (New York: Lake Borland, 1889), 28–29.
5 Edward G. Longacre, General John Buford: A Military Biography (Cambridge: De Capo, 1995), 191; J. Willard Brown, The Signal Corps, USA, in the War of the Rebellion (Boston: U.S. Veterans Signal Corps Association, 1896), 193; Aaron B. Jerome to Winfield S. Hancock, October 18, 1865, The Bachelder Papers: Gettysburg in Their Own Words, David and Audrey Ladd, eds. (Dayton: Morningside, 1994–1995), 1:200–2; Charles S. Wainwright, A Diary of Battle: The Personal Journals of Col. Charles S. Wainwright, Allan Nevins, ed. (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1961), 258; John W. Busey and David G. Martin, Regimental Strengths and Losses at Gettysburg (Hightstown: Longstreet House, 1994), 101; OR, 27:1:368; Erick J. Wittenberg, “An Analysis of the Buford Manuscripts.” Gettysburg Magazine 15: 9–11.
6 Henry Heth, The Memoir of Henry Heth, James L. Morrison, Jr., ed. (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1974), 173–74; Busey and Martin, Regimental Strengths and Losses at Gettysburg, 174; Coddington, Gettysburg Campaign, 266–67; OR, 1:27:2:637–639.
7 Coddington, Gettysburg Campaign, 266–67; OR, 1:27:1:927; John H. Calef, “Gettysburg: The Opening Guns,” Journal of the Military Service Institution of the United States (January–May, 1907), 40:46–52.
8 Coddington, Gettysburg Campaign, 268–69; OR, 1:27:1:922–924; Ezra J. Warner, Generals in Blue: Lives of Union Commanders (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 1964), 269–70); Charles H. Veil to David McConaughy, April 7, 1864, David McConaughy Papers, Special Collections, Musselman Library, Gettysburg College.
9 Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, 3:274–78; Coddington, Gettysburg Campaign , 269–71; E. P. Halstead, “The First Day of the Battle of Gettysburg,” Papers of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, District of Columbia Commandery (March 2, 1887) 1:3–10; W. H. Moon, “Beginning the Battle of Gettysburg,” Confederate Veteran (December 1925), 33:449–450.
10 Coddington, Gettysburg Campaign, 269–73; James Henry Stine, A History of the Army of the Potomac (Washington: Gibson Brothers, 1893), 463–65.
Chapter 4
“We Must Fight a Battle Here”
1 Freeman, Lee’s Lieutenants, 3:80–81; O. O. Howard to M. Jacobs, March 23, 1864, in Coddington, Gettysburg Campaign, 277; Civil War
Encyclopedia, 1008–1010; James I. Robertson Jr., A. P. Hill: The Story of a Confederate Warrior (New York: Random House, 1987), 11, 205; Fremantle, Three Months in the Southern States, 254; Encyclopedia of the Confederacy, 2:770–71.
2 John A. Patterson, “The Death of Iverson’s Brigade,” Gettysburg Magazine (July 1991) 5:10–15; Encyclopedia of the Civil War, 1054, 1668; Coddington, Gettysburg Campaign, 290; Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War 1861–1864, Walter Clark, ed. (Goldsboro: Nash Brothers), 2:234–37; Isaac Hall, “Iverson’s Brigade and the Part the 97th New York Played in its Capture,” National Tribune, June 26, 1884. H. C. Wall, “Twenty-Third Regiment,” Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War 1861–1864, Walter Clark, ed. (Goldsboro: Nash Brothers), 2:234–37.
3 Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, 3:281; Tom J. Edwards, Raising the Banner of Freedom: The 25th Ohio in the War for the Union (Bloomington, iUniverse, 2009), 85; Charles Carlton Coffin, Marching to Victory (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1888), 216–18; Frank Moore, The Civil War in Song and Story, 1861–1865 (New York: P. F. Collier, 1889), 334.
4 Coddington, Gettysburg Campaign, 304–5; Encyclopedia of the Civil War, 1713–14; Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, 3:281; Gary W. Gallagher, Chancellorsville: The Battle and Its Aftermath (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996), 24–25; Francis C. Barlow, “Fear Was Not in Him”: The Civil War Letters of Francis C. Barlow, Christian G. Samito, ed. (New York: Fordham University Press, 2004), xxi, xxxv; Alfred Lee, “Reminiscences of the Gettysburg Battle,” Lippincott’s Magazine of Popular Literature and Science (July 1883) 32:54–63.
