CIVIL WAR WEEK / BATTLE DAY 2 / BEHIND THE FISHHOOK & THE COUNCIL

 After two hours of fighting for Little Round Top and as ammunition ran critically low and sensing the Confederate were nearly spent, the word came along the 20th Maine's line to fix Bayonets. Col. Joshua Chamberlain ordered the left flank of the regiment to sweep down the hill toward the enemy like a door. The courageous charge broke the back of the rebel attack and preserved the left flank of the Union lines. Painting by Mark Maritato, 2008.

GUEST BLOG / By Allen C. Guelzo is the Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era at Gettysburg College and the author of Gettysburg: The Last Invasion (Knopf). 

 

The bloody second day’s fighting (at Devil’s Den, Little Round Top, the Wheatfield, the Peach Orchard, Cemetery Ridge, Trostle’s Farm, Culp’s Hill and Cemetery Hill) involved at least 100,000 soldiers of which roughly 20,000 were killed, wounded, captured or missing. 

The second day in itself ranks as the 10th bloodiest battle of the Civil War—with far more casualties than the much larger Battle of Fredericksburg. 

By the morning of July 2, the main strength of both armies had arrived on the field. Battle lines were drawn up in sweeping arcs similar to a "J," or fishhook shape. The main portions of both armies were nearly a mile apart on parallel ridges: Union forces on Cemetery Ridge, Confederate forces on Seminary Ridge, to the west. Gen. Robert E. Lee, commanding the Confederate troops, ordered attacks against the Union left and right flanks (ends of the lines). 

Starting in late afternoon, Confederate Gen. James Longstreet's attacks on the Union left made progress, but they were checked by Union reinforcements brought to the fighting from the Culp's Hill area and other uncontested parts of the Union battle line. 

To the north, at the bend and barb of the fishhook (the other flank), Confederate Gen. Richard Ewell launched his attack in the evening as the fighting at the other end of the fishhook was subsiding. Ewell's men seized part of Culp's Hill, but elsewhere they were repulsed. 

The day's results were bloody but indecisive for both armies.  But what happened that night in a meeting of Union generals was equally stunning.  They made a decision that ultimately led to the winning of the war.

What Union Gen. George Meade’s staff and fellow generals decided on the night of July 2 to stay and fight at Gettysburg turned the war in favor of the Union. 

AFTER SECOND DAY OF BATTLE UNION GENERALS VOTE NOT TO RETREAT. 

Now it is difficult to assess whether it was Union Gen. Daniel Sickles’ chicken-brained insubordination or Gen. George Meade’s neglect of his left flank that was more responsible for the sorry results of July 2. But wherever the blame lies, it is reasonably certain that by the evening of the 2nd, Meade’s mind was turning to the safety of Pipe Creek. Eight months after the battle, the Army of the Potomac’s chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Daniel Butterfield, testified before Congress that Meade had instructed him on the morning of July 2 “to prepare an order to withdraw the army… from the field of Gettysburg.” Butterfield swore that the onset of Longstreet’s attack prevented any distribution of the order, but whether Butterfield was, in fact, inventing the story for the purpose of evening up grudges with Meade, the army commander does seem to have been ready to issue such an order by 9 o’clock that night, when he called a council of his corps commanders. 

Even the usually loyal Gen. John Sedgwick told his VI Corps staffer Martin McMahon that he had been summoned to the council because “General Meade was thinking of a retreat.” If so, Meade was rudely jolted by the unanimous protest of his subordinates that the Army stay put and fight. “We have been hunting Lee for weeks,” Sedgwick protested, “and now that we’ve got him here, don’t retreat.” 

Gen. Winfield Hancock agreed: “The Army of the Potomac has had too many retreats….Let this be our last retreat.” 

Meade was “greatly displeased with the result,” and only gave way grudgingly: “Have it your way, gentlemen, but Gettysburg is no place to fight a battle in.” No one doubted Meade’s personal courage, but they could not help noticing his risk-averse inclinations: “He thought it better to retreat with what we had, than run the risk of losing all.” 

Meade wrote his wife that day: “We had a great fight yesterday…both armies shattered—Today at it again with what result remains to be seen.” Shattered indeed: The I, III, V and XI Corps had been wrecked in the previous two days’ fighting, as had two divisions of the II Corps and the XII Corps. Beyond Gen. John Gibbon’s old II Corps division, Meade was left with only the VI Corps as a reserve.  

Would that be enough to win Day 3?

 CIVIL WAR WEEK Continues tomorrow with Day Three, Battle of Gettysburg July 1 thru 3, 1863.

CIVIL WAR WEEK / JULY 1, 1863 / DAY 1 /THOSE DAMNED BLACK-HATTED FELLOWS, AGAIN!

“Iron Brigade,” a painting by Don Trojani showing the 24th Michigan in the Herbst Woods on July 1, 1863.

The first day of the Battle of Gettysburg akin to hot coals from a summer BBQ grill being spilled on to dry grass causing pockets of flames to erupt everywhere.  The following is just one such hot spot among hundreds that happened in and around the village of Gettysburg on July 1, 1863. 

 “…those damned black-hatted fellows again.” 

By 10 am on the morning of July 1, 1863, the temperature was soaring into the 80s and the situation near McPherson’s Ridge, outside the town of Gettysburg, was becoming increasingly desperate for the Army of the Potomac. 

Tennessee and Alabama soldiers from Gen. James Archer’s Brigade had already crossed over the open field in front of Herr Ridge, splashed across the tangled stream bottom at Willoughby’s Run, and were now pressing up through the Herbst (or McPherson’s) Woods. 

The Union cavalry screen (Buford's cavalry) that had been gallantly holding the ground west of Gettysburg was simply no match for the huge Confederate force converging upon the strategic town. Fortunately for the Army of the Potomac, the veteran 24th Michigan aka Iron Brigade, among the toughest units in the army, was just arriving on the western outskirts of the town of Gettysburg, near the prominent Lutheran Seminary. 

Death of Major General John Reynolds entering Herbst Woods on the West side of Gettysburg, July 1, 1863.

The first regiment to arrive, the 2nd Wisconsin, was hustled down to the edge of Herbst Woods by Left Wing commander Maj. Gen. John Reynolds (left) himself. 

 Shortly after entering the woods, Reynolds, who was still conspicuously mounted on his horse, was struck by a bullet, reeled from his saddle, and fell to the ground, dead. The popular Reynolds was the highest-ranking general killed at Gettysburg and his death had a profound impact upon the rapidly developing Union defenses July 1st. 

The 24th Michigan followed closely on the heels of the 2nd Wisconsin and advanced so fast that the men lacked time to load their rifles before entering the smoke-filled woods to the left of the 2nd Wisconsin. Joined by the 19th Indiana and 7th Wisconsin, the Iron Brigade now had roughly 1,450 men positioned to take on the 1,200 soldiers in Archer’s Brigade. 

Reaching the southern edge of Herbst Woods, the Michigan men were quickly greeted by Confederate bullets. Color Sergeant Abel Peck of the 24th was killed straight off and the regiment’s colors were quickly grabbed by Corporal Charles Bellore before it hit the ground. Despite the growing enemy fire, the 24th pressed forward. 

Legend has it that the Confederate soldiers of Archer’s Brigade, who thought at first that they were facing inexperienced local forces, saw the soft-brimmed Hardee hats worn by the Iron Brigade and exclaimed, “there are those damned black-hatted fellows again. ‘Taint no militia. It’s the Army of the Potomac.” 

As more of the tough westerners from Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan filed into the woods, Archer’s men began to slowly fall back towards Willoughby’s Run. Little did they know, time was already rapidly running out for Archer’s Brigade. Pressing further into Archer's right flank, the 24th Michigan and the 19th Indiana struck and overlapped the 13th Alabama, forcing them to rapidly retire towards Herr’s Ridge. 

 Col. Henry Morrow of the 24th then directed the Michigan troops across Willoughby’s Run and into the rear of the Tennessee regiments who were busy holding off the rest of the Iron Brigade. Pressed in front, flank, and rear, many of Archer’s men barely escaped the Union vise. Upwards of 200 Confederates who failed to run early, including Gen. Archer himself, quickly surrendered to the Iron Brigade. Despite taking heavy casualties during the morning counterattack, the Iron Brigade had performed brilliantly once again. With Archer’s Brigade now driven back or captured, the Union troops pressed forward across Willoughby’s Run and into the open fields beyond. So many men were exhausted and it was only noon of that bloody day.

 

Union Army soldiers in the 7th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Company I, of the Iron Brigade 

 CIVIL WAR WEEK Continues tomorrow with Day Two, Battle of Gettysburg July 1 thru 3, 1863.

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