Part 4

The 12th Corps of the Army of the Potomac occupied this part of Meade’s line on the night of the first day and until the afternoon of the 2nd, when the troops were ordered to the left to help repel Longstreet’s assault. Until this time the spring was used only by the Union troops. During their absence, the Confederates under Johnson moved up and took possession of part of the vacated line. In the early morning of the third day, the Union forces, who had returned from the left during the night of the 2nd, attacked Johnson, drove him out and succeeded in regaining possession of the line that had been vacated by them on the afternoon of the 2nd, including the spring.

The story that a truce was entered into between the opposing forces on the night of the 2nd and that they met in large numbers at the spring to get water is a mistake. The captured and wounded of the Union forces were allowed access to it along with the Confederates who were there at the time, but there was no truce. When armies were encamped, pickets from the opposing lines would sometimes get together, usually to trade coffee and tobacco, but this was never done when a battle was in progress.

The following extract from the address of Captain Joseph Matchett at the dedication of the monument erected by the 46th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment, shows that there was no truce:

“Some time in the night (2nd), we were ordered to return to our works on Culp’s Hill. It seems Captain Selfridge of Company H had taken some of his men’s canteens and gone ahead to Spangler’s Spring to fill them, when he discovered ‘Johnnies’ also filling their canteens. He backed out with the best grace he could command, and reported it to the colonel. Colonel McDougall, the brigade commander, did not believe it and got very angry, but the colonel of the regiment insisted on deploying his men, and sent a skirmish line, who found the enemy as stated and saved many lives.”

Colonel Avery’s Lost Grave

Among those who faced death in the desperate charge on the Union right on East Cemetery Hill, July 2nd, Colonel I. E. Avery, of North Carolina, in command of Hoke’s brigade, bore a gallant part. At the head of the column he led his men up the slope of Cemetery Hill and, a conspicuous mark, fell mortally wounded.

Unable to speak, he drew a card from his pocket and wrote the following: “Tell father that I died with my face toward the enemy.” In the retreat from Gettysburg, his body was taken along to be delivered to his family, but when the army reached Williamsport the Potomac was too high to cross. There, in the cemetery overlooking the river, the remains were interred in an oak coffin under a pine tree. He was buried in his uniform by the men who saw him fall.

Thirty years after, Judge A. C. Avery, of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, a resident of Morgantown, and Captain J. A. McPherson of Fayette, N. C., both veterans of the Confederacy, came to Williamsport with the object of locating Colonel Avery’s grave. Their search was fruitless.

The Leister House

On his arrival, General Meade established his headquarters at the Leister House, one of the oldest houses in the community, located at the intersection of Meade Avenue and the Taneytown Road. At the time of the battle it was the property of a widow, Mrs. Leister. It now belongs to the Government, and a bronze plate marks it as Meade’s Headquarters. It is built of logs, chinked and weatherboarded with rough pine boards, pierced by bullet-holes and scarred by shells.

Inside there are two rooms, a small kitchen at the west, and a larger room at the east. In the latter, Meade held a council of war after the battle of the 2nd had ended, summoning his Corps commanders between 9 and 10 o’clock to consult them as to what action, if any, should be taken on the 3rd. Generals Sedgwick, Slocum, Hancock, Howard, Sykes, Newton, Birney, Williams, and Gibbon were present. The following questions were asked:

(1) Under existing circumstances is it advisable for this army to remain in its present position, or to retire to another nearer its base of supplies?

(2) It being determined to remain in present position, shall the army attack or wait the attack of the enemy?

(3) If we wait attack, how long?

_Replies_:

Gibbon: (1) Correct position of the army, but would not retreat. (2) In no condition to attack, in his opinion. (3) Until he moves.

Williams: (1) Stay. (2) Wait attack. (3) One day.

Birney and Sykes: Same as General Williams.

Newton: (1) Correct position of the army, but would not retreat. (2) By all means not attack. (3) If we wait it will give them a chance to cut our line.

Howard: (1) Remain. (2) Wait attack until 4 P.M. tomorrow. (3) If don’t attack, attack them.

Hancock: (1) Rectify position without moving so as to give up field. (2) Not attack unless our communications are cut. (3) Can’t wait long; can’t be idle.

Sedgwick: (1) Remain. (2) Wait attack. (3) At least one day.

Slocum: (1) Stay and fight it out.

The unanimous opinion of the council was to stay and await attack. Just as the council broke up, General Meade said to Gibbon, “If Lee attacks tomorrow, it will be on your front. He has made attacks on both our flanks and failed, and if he concludes to try it again it will be on our center.” The attack of Lee on the 3rd was made where Meade expected.

During the forenoon of the third day, conditions at headquarters were generally quiet. In the afternoon, when the Confederate artillery on Seminary Ridge opened fire as a prelude to Pickett’s Charge, it was directed mainly against the left center of the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. As the location of Meade’s headquarters was in the immediate rear, just under the crest of the ridge, much damage was done by the hail of shot and shell that crossed the ridge. A shell exploded in the yard among the staff officers’ horses tied to the fence, and a number of them were killed, while still other horses were killed in the rear of the building. Several members of the headquarters’ guard were slightly wounded.

George G. Meade, a grandson of General Meade, in his interesting narrative “With Meade at Gettysburg,” tells the following story:

“During this rain of Confederate shell, and while Meade, deep in thought, was walking up and down this little back yard between the house and the Taneytown Road, he chanced to notice that some of his staff, during the enforced inactivity while waiting the pleasure of their general, were gradually and probably unconsciously edging around the side of the house.

“‘Gentlemen,’ he said, stopping and smiling pleasantly, ‘Are you trying to find a safer place? You remind me of the man who was driving the ox-cart which took ammunition for the heavy guns on the field of Palo Alto. Finding himself within range, he tilted up his cart and got behind it. Just then General Taylor came along, and seeing the attempt at shelter, shouted, “You damned fool; don’t you know you are no safer there than anywhere else?” The driver replied, “I don’t suppose I am, General, but it kind o’ feels so.”’”

As the firing still continued it was decided to move the headquarters several hundred yards south on the Taneytown Road, to a barn on the Cassatt property. There a Confederate shell exploded and wounded General Butterfield, the chief of staff, who was obliged to leave the field and was unable to return that day. After remaining a short time, General Meade and staff removed to General Slocum’s headquarters at Powers’ Hill, along the Baltimore Pike, moving there by way of Granite Lane.

The Louisiana Tigers

Major Chatham R. Wheat’s battalion of Louisiana Infantry was organized in New Orleans in May, 1861. Their first engagement was in the first battle of Bull Run, where Major Wheat was shot through both lungs. After his recovery, he re-entered the service and took an active part in command of the battalion in the defense of Richmond in 1863 against the advance of the Union forces under McClellan. During this campaign the battalion became known as “The Louisiana Tigers” on account of their desperate fighting qualities. At the battle of Gaines Mill, Major Wheat and several other leading officers of the battalion were killed, and the loss of the organization was very heavy. It was then broken up and the survivors distributed among the other Louisiana regiments, of Hays’ brigade of Early’s Division, and Nicholls’ brigade of Johnson’s Division of Ewell’s Corps. A number of them were in the battle of Gettysburg with these brigades, but not as the separate organization originally known as “The Louisiana Tigers.” This designation was given to all the Louisiana troops after the original battalion was discontinued. The story sometimes told, that 1,700 Louisiana Tigers attacked East Cemetery Hill on July 2nd, that all but 300 were killed or captured, and that the organization was unknown afterward, is not correct.

General Meade’s “Baldy”

In the first great battle of the Civil War, at Bull Run, there was a bright bay horse with white face and feet. He, as well as his rider, was seriously wounded and the horse was turned back to the quartermaster to recover. In September General Meade bought him and named him “Baldy.” Meade became deeply attached to the horse but his staff officers soon began to complain of his peculiar racking gait which was hard to follow. Faster than a walk and slow for a trot, it compelled the staff alternately to trot and walk.

“Baldy” was wounded twice at the first battle of Bull Run; he was at the battle of Drainsville; he took part in two of the seven days’ fighting around Richmond in the summer of 1862; he carried his master at Groveton, August 29th; at the second battle of Bull Run; at South Mountain and at Antietam. In the last battle he was left on the field for dead, but in the next Federal advance he was discovered quietly grazing on the battleground with a deep wound in his neck. He was tenderly cared for and soon was fit for duty. He bore the general at the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. For two days he was present at Gettysburg, where he received his most grievous wound from a bullet entering his body between the ribs and lodging there. Meade would not part with him and kept him with the army until the following spring.

In the preparations of the Army of the Potomac for the last campaign, “Baldy” was sent to pasture at Downingtown, Pa. After the surrender of Lee at Appomattox, Meade hurried to Philadelphia where he again met his faithful charger, fully recovered. For many years the horse and the general were inseparable companions, and when Meade died in 1872, “Baldy” followed the hearse. Ten years later he died, and his head and two fore-hoofs were mounted and are now cherished relics of the George G. Meade Post, Grand Army of the Republic, in Philadelphia.

General Lee’s “Traveller”

The most famous of the steeds in the stables of General Lee, was “Traveller,” an iron-gray horse. He was raised in Greenbriar County, Virginia, near Blue Sulphur Springs, and as a colt won first prize at a fair in Lewisburg. When hostilities commenced, Traveller, then called “Jeff Davis,” was owned by Major Thomas L. Broun, who had paid $175 in gold for him. In the spring of 1862, Lee bought him for $200 and changed his name to “Traveller.”

“Traveller” was the especial companion of the general. His fine proportions attracted immediate attention. He was gray in color, with black points, a long mane, and flowing tail. He stood sixteen hands high, and was five years old in the spring of 1862. His figure was muscular, with deep chest and short back, strong haunches, flat legs, small head, quick eyes, broad forehead, and small feet. His rapid, springy step and bold carriage made him conspicuous. On a long and tedious march he easily carried Lee’s weight at five or six miles an hour without faltering and at the end of the day’s march seemed to be as fresh as at the beginning. The other horses broke down under the strain and each in turn proved unequal to the rigors of war, but “Traveller” sturdily withstood the hardships of the campaigns in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. When, in April, 1865, the last battle of the Army of Northern Virginia had been fought and Lee rode to the McLean House at Appomattox Court House, he was astride “Traveller” who carried him back to his waiting army, and then to Richmond. When Lee became a private citizen and retired to Washington and Lee University as its president, the veteran war-horse was still with him, and as the years passed and both master and servant neared life’s ending, they became more closely attached. As the funeral cortege accompanied Lee to his last resting-place, “Traveller” marched behind the hearse. After “Traveller’s” death, his skeleton was mounted and is on exhibition in the museum in the chapel on the campus of Washington and Lee University.

THE THIRD DAY

The first engagement on the third day was a continuation and conclusion of the attack and defense of Meade’s right. His forces, returning from the left, where they had been sent on the afternoon of the 2nd, found part of their earthworks in possession of the enemy. At daybreak preparations were made to recapture the lost entrenchments. By 10.30 the effort was successful, and Meade’s line was once more intact from end to end.

Second Battle at Culp’s Hill.

This action on the morning of the 3rd was one of the most hotly contested of the battle. The Confederate losses in killed were almost the same as those of Pickett’s Division in the attack on Meade’s left center in the afternoon. Meade’s losses were comparatively light, as his line was well protected by the line of earthworks. So intense was the artillery and musketry fire that hundreds of trees were shattered. After the repulse, Johnson’s forces were withdrawn, and this ended their participation in the battle.

Meade’s Line of the Third Day.

After the engagement on the morning of the 2nd, the 12th Corps reoccupied its original line, beginning on the right at Spangler’s Hill and extending to and over Culp’s Hill. Wadsworth’s Division of the 1st Corps retained its position of the 2nd, between Culp’s Hill and Barlow’s Division under Ames of the 11th Corps, at the foot of East Cemetery Hill. Barlow’s Division was strengthened by a brigade of the 2nd Corps. Doubleday’s Division of the 1st Corps, which had taken the position of Caldwell’s Division on the left of the 2nd Corps, remained. Caldwell was posted so as to support the artillery reserve to the left of Doubleday.

The other divisions of the 1st and 2nd Corps remained in the positions they occupied on the morning of the 2nd. The 5th Corps extended the line from the left of the artillery reserve to Big Round Top. Some of the brigades of the 6th Corps were put in position as local reserves and others to protect the flanks of the line. The 3rd Corps was posted in rear of the center as a general reserve. A detachment of cavalry was in reserve in rear of the 2nd Corps at the Angle. Few changes were made in the artillery positions. Beginning at Cemetery Hill and extending to Little Round Top, about ninety guns, under General Hunt, were in position to operate.

Lee’s Line of the Third Day.

Beginning on the right, Longstreet’s Corps held the ground west of Plum Run, including the base of Big Round Top, Devil’s Den, and the Peach Orchard. Pickett’s Division, after its arrival on the field on the morning of the 3rd, took the place of Anderson in reserve. Heth’s and Pender’s Divisions extended the line to the left on Seminary Ridge, connecting with part of Rodes’ Division in the western part of the town. Early’s and Johnson’s Divisions, after the engagement on the morning of the 3rd, held their positions of the 2nd. Changes in the positions of the batteries of artillery were made on the morning of the 3rd. A total of 138 guns were in position to operate. Those on the right were in charge of Colonel E. P. Alexander; those on the left under Colonel R. L. Walker.

The Bliss Buildings.

After the end of the engagement at Culp’s Hill at 10.30 A.M. there was a short battle for the capture of the Bliss house and barn, midway between the lines in front of Ziegler’s Grove. These buildings were occupied by Confederate sharpshooters, who were causing considerable loss in Hays’ line of the 2nd Corps at the grove. Two regiments were sent forward, the 12th New Jersey and the 14th Connecticut, and the buildings were captured and burned.

The Artillery Duel.

Until 1 o’clock there was comparative quiet. It was ended on the stroke of the hour by two guns of Miller’s battery belonging to the Washington artillery of New Orleans, posted near the Peach Orchard, and fired in rapid succession as a signal to the Confederate artillery.

The Confederate Colonel Alexander says:

“_At exactly 1 o’clock by my watch the two signal guns were heard in quick succession. In another minute every gun was at work. The enemy was not slow in coming back at us, and the grand roar of nearly the whole of both armies burst in on the silence._

“_The enemy’s position seemed to have broken out with guns everywhere, and from Round Top to Cemetery Hill was blazing like a volcano._”

The artillery duel was but a preface, intended to clear the ground for the infantry action to follow. The order had already been given by Longstreet to Alexander:

“_Colonel: The intention is to advance the infantry if the artillery has the desired effect of driving the enemy off, or having other effect such as to warrant us in making the attack. When the moment arrives advise General Pickett, and of course advance such artillery as you can use in making the attack._”

General Wright, who was present when this order was received, expressed doubt as to whether the attack could be successfully made. He said:

“_It is not so hard to go there as it looks; I was nearly there with my brigade yesterday. The trouble is to stay there. The whole Yankee army is there in a bunch._”

For one and a half hours the air was filled with screaming, whistling shot and shell. An occasional Whitworth missile, from Oak Hill on the north, made, on account of its peculiar form, a noise that could be heard above the din of all others. The headquarters of General Meade at the Leister House formed a concentric point continually swept with a storm of shot and shell. Headquarters were therefore moved to Slocum’s headquarters at Powers’ Hill, along the Baltimore Pike.

Batteries on the Union line, especially at the Angle, were badly damaged, and General Hunt had others brought forward with additional supplies of ammunition. On the whole the losses inflicted upon the Union infantry were comparatively light. The stone wall and the undulations of the ground afforded protection, as most of the men were lying down.

After the artillery had operated for about an hour and a half, Meade and Hunt deemed it prudent to stop the fire, in order to cool the guns, save ammunition, and allow the atmosphere between the lines to clear of the dense cloud of smoke before the expected attack was made. This pause in the fire led the Confederates to believe that the Union line was demoralized, and that the opportune time had arrived for the onset of the infantry. Accordingly, they moved forward and Pickett’s Charge was on.

At the signal station on Little Round Top, General Warren and others saw gray infantry moving out across the plain in front of the Spangler Woods. Warren at once wig-wagged to General Hunt:

“_They are moving out to attack._”

This message was passed from man to man along the entire Union line.

Pickett’s Charge.

Pickett’s Division of Longstreet’s Corps was moved from the rear to the ravine in front of the Spangler Woods and placed in line as follows: Kemper on the right; Garnett on the left in the front line; Armistead in the rear, overlapping Kemper’s left and Garnett’s right, in the second line. On the left of Garnett was ranged Archer’s Brigade of Hill’s Corps under Frye, then Pettigrew’s Brigade under Marshall. Next to Marshall came Davis’ Brigade of Hill’s Corps, and on the extreme left Brockenbrough’s Brigade, also of Hill’s Corps. In the rear of the right of Pickett were the brigades of Wilcox and Perry of Hill’s Corps and in the rear of Pettigrew were the brigades of Scales and Lane of Hill’s Corps, in command of Trimble.

The column of assault consisted of 42 regiments—19 Virginia, 15 North Carolina, 2 Alabama, 3 Tennessee, and 3 Mississippi—a total of about 15,000 men.

In addition to the artillery fire, they encountered 27 regiments—9 of New York, 5 of Pennsylvania, 3 of Massachusetts, 3 of Vermont, 1 of Michigan, 1 of Maine, 1 of Minnesota, 1 of New Jersey, 1 of Connecticut, 1 of Ohio, and 1 of Delaware—a total of 9,000 to 10,000 men.

In advance of the assaulting column a strong skirmish line was deployed. A skirmish line was also deployed in front of Meade’s line, which fell back as the assaulting column drew near.

The Advance.

General Longstreet ordered General Alexander, Chief of Artillery, to watch the havoc wrought in the Union line and signify the moment for advance.

General Alexander says:

“_Before the cannonade opened I made up my mind to give the order to advance within fifteen or twenty minutes after it began. But when I looked at the full development of the enemy’s batteries and knew that his infantry was generally protected from fire by stone walls and swells of the ground, I could not bring myself to give the word._

“_I let the 15 minutes pass, and 20, and 25, hoping vainly for something to turn up. Then I wrote to Pickett: ‘If you are coming at all, come at once, or I cannot give you proper support; but the enemy’s fire has not slackened at all; at least eighteen guns are still firing from the cemetery itself.’_

“_Five minutes after sending that message, the enemy’s fire suddenly began to slacken, and the guns in the cemetery limbered up and vacated the position._

“_Then I wrote to Pickett: ‘Come quick; eighteen guns are gone; unless you advance quick, my ammunition won’t let me support you properly.’_

“_Pickett then rode forward, and on meeting Longstreet said: ‘General, shall I advance?’ Longstreet nodded his assent and the column moved forward._”

The column passed through the line of guns, fifteen or eighteen of which had been ordered to follow. Meanwhile the eighteen Union guns that were withdrawn were replaced by others. The Union line was once more intact, and it opened a terrific fire against the rapidly moving columns of assault. As the Confederates continued to advance, their courage unaffected in face of the tremendous fire of both artillery and infantry, their enemies were filled with admiration.

At the Emmitsburg Road, where post-and-rail fences had to be crossed, the line was broken, but only for a moment. The musketry fire from the Union line was so heavy that the attacking column was unable to maintain a regular alignment, and when the Angle was reached the identity of the different brigades was lost.

Armistead’s Brigade forged to the front at the Angle, and, reaching the wall, Armistead raised his hat on his sword and said:

“_Give them the cold steel, boys!_”