The Battle of Gettysburg: The Country, the Contestants, the ResultsStorrick, W. C. (William Clayton)
History
The Battle of Gettysburg: The Country, the Contestants, the Results
Storrick, W. C. (William Clayton)
Gettysburg National Military Park (Pa.); Gettysburg, Battle of, Gettysburg, Pa., 1863
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.
[Illustration: Locations, Buildings and Avenues as referred to in “The
Battle of Gettysburg”
High-resolution Map]
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.
[Illustration: Devil’s Den.—Hid among the rocks of Devil’s Den,
Confederate sharpshooters picked off officers and men occupying
Little Round Top]
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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