I Remember Gettysburg

 

 I Remember Gettysburg

edited by Diana Loski

Pickett's Charge: A Scene from the Gettysburg Cyclorama (Author Photo)

The horrific three-day battle on the farmlands of Pennsylvania will never be forgotten.  One of the reasons so much is documented about the Battle of Gettysburg is that battle reports, soldiers’ diaries, letters and books, and civilian accounts have survived.  Here are some of the remembrances of those who were at Gettysburg during those fateful days in the summer of 1863:

Wednesday, July 1, 1863 :

“When we got on the top of Cemetery Hill we saw a long line of smoke from camp fires along the Chambersburg Pike, the first we knew of the soldiers being about.  We soon met people who said they thought there was going to be fighting out there.  When we got to town everybody was talking about it and said it looked like something was going on out there.  But they had no suspicion of the flood of bloody war that would roll through their streets and up into their doorways and gardens before the day was past.  It was about 9 o’clock.  William Young said, ‘Let’s go out on the Seminary road [sic] and see what there is out there any way.’  When we got up on the hill we saw down to our left Union soldiers….coming across the fields from the Emmitsburg Road.  We stood there watching them move up, form lines and take position…Directly a shell came whizzing over from the front and fell back toward the town.” – Nathaniel Lightner, farm owner1

“I can remember my mother and other women making lint and bandages in the big room over the bank where my father was cashier, and that I tried to help them.  I can also remember being in Mr. McCreary’s house next door and peering through bowed shutters at the Union troops as they marched by toward the Diamond...and that the martial music of the fifes and drums stirred me as it always has since.” – Robert D. Carson, aged 9 during the battle2

“Some of them [the Confederates] would throw down their guns and cry ‘I surrender’, and immediately pick them up and shoot some of our unsuspecting men.” – James P. Sullivan, 6th Wisconsin Infantry, the Railroad Cut3

“The shells and shot howled, shrieked and plunged through the air like infuriated demons.  There was no shelter, not even a stump or a tree.” – Alfred Lee, 82nd Ohio Infantry, 11th Corps Line4

“While going I felt my cheek burn, I saw that a grape shot had struck the folds of my blanket over my shoulder.  About this time I felt something strike my leg about halfway between my ankle and knee.  It seemed to be numb and I thought my leg was struck by a piece of spent shell.  But before I advanced far I looked down and saw that my shoe was red with blood.” – Thomas A. Martin, 38th North Carolina Infantry5

Thursday, July 2, 1863:

“During the fight I had special reason to feel the voice of the Bible passage ‘I shall shield thy head in the day of Battle.’  As I lay in the field near the wall I had no protection…As I lay on my back…a bullet hit me crack on my head, tearing my cap but doing no further damage.  During the second part of the engagement, men were shot on each side of me, but none (bullets) were permitted to reach me.” – Franklin Whitmore, 17th Maine6

“The air was soon full of flying shot, shell and canister – and a groan here and there attested to their effect.  For more than a quarter of an hour the roar of musketry and the crashing, pounding noise of guns and bursting shells was deafening.  Our own immediate line suffered severely from the enemy’s guns enfilading us.” – Captain Adolphus Cavada, of General Humphreys’s staff, the Peach Orchard7

“Every man realized in an instant what that order meant – death or wounds to us all, the sacrifice of a regiment to gain a few minutes time.” – Lt. William Lochren, 1st Minnesota8

“Captain Brainard, one of the bravest and best officers in the regiment, in leading his company forward, fell, exclaiming, ‘O God! That I could see my mother,’ and instantly expired.  John A. Oates, my dear brother, succeeded to the command of the company, but was pierced through by a number of bullets, and fell mortally wounded.  Lieutenant Cody fell mortally wounded, Captain Behume and several other officers were seriously wounded, while the carnage in the ranks was appalling.” – Colonel William C. Oates, 15th Alabama, Little Round Top9

“Closer and closer gleam the flashes…some over-eager ones begin to fire.  ‘Cease firing!’ shout the officers. ‘You will shoot your own men!’  The men restrain their nervous fingers.  The hostile guns flame out against us not 15 yards in front.  Our men are tumbling over the breastworks.  One just a little to my right throws himself lengthwise on the top to come over.  Z-z-z-t, a line of sound cuts through the air – I see it with my ears – and ends in that body, which rolls over and is silent.” – Captain Jesse H. Jones, 60th New York Infantry, Culp’s Hill10

“I think it was six days after my amputation before a doctor could be found to look at my stump.  The night before I had been made very nervous by crawley feelings on that side of me…He took the bandages off and found that there were a large number of full-grown maggots in the wound.” – Lt. Charles Fuller, 61st New York Infantry, wounded during the Wheatfield battle 11

Friday, July 3, 1863 :

“Our battalion suffered more than any other regiment in the brigade, as we had to charge up an open field and the remainder of our brigade were protected by the woods.  Our loss was frightful.  We went in with over five hundred men and came out with less than two hundred.  The men fell on my right and left and in front of me and I thought sure my time had come.” – Thomas Webb, 1st Maryland Battalion (CSA) Pardee Field, Culp’s Hill12

“We [waited] with bated breath as a sheet of flame burst like a tornado upon the mass. ‘Close up! Close up!’ rung along their lines which were fast loosing [sic] their grand organic form and becoming indistinct amid the smoke and dust and debris of battle.  The grand formation of a moment ago was soon utterly enveloped…Above the turmoil of battle we could hear curses, shouts, shrieks, and could see hats, guns, legs, arms and mutilated carcasses hurled out into the less murky atmosphere.” – Franklin Sawyer, 8th Ohio Infantry, Pickett’s Charge 13

“Shot through both thighs, I fall about 30 yards from the guns.  By my side lies Lt. Kehoe, shot through the knee.  Here we lie, he in excessive pain, I fearing to bleed to death, the dead and dying all around, while the division sweeps over the Yankee guns.  Oh, how I long to know the result, the end of this fearful charge!” – John Dooley, Pickett’s Division14

“Some succeeded in getting over the fence into the slashing, from which and behind the fence they kept up a murderous fire.  The men were now within quarter pistol-range, and, as the fence and fallen trees gave the enemy considerable cover, I ordered the Twentieth New York State Militia and One Hundred and Fifty First Pennsylvania Volunteers to advance to the fence, which they did, cheering, and in gallant style, and poured a volley into the enemy at very short range, who now completely broke….We took a large number of prisoners, and the ground in front of us was strewn with their dead and wounded.” – Col. Theodore Gates, 80th New York Infantry, Cemetery Ridge15

After the battle, Isaac Carter, a young worker in 1863 at the Alexander Currens Farm, decided to take a walk over the battlefield.  He came upon the Valley of Death at the base of Little Round Top.  He said, “It made me sick the bodies were no numerous and so swelled up, and some so shot to pieces – a foot here, an arm there, and a head in another place.  They lay so thick in the Valley of Death that you couldn’t walk on the ground.  Their flesh was as black as your hat….There were thousands of the prettiest kinds of muskets layin’ around, and any amount of blankets, and lots of other stuff.  Clearin’ up was a hard job, and anyone who wanted to work could make big money…The work was done in a hurry, and in some places you’d see feet or arms sticking out.  But within another week men and horses were all buried down decent.”  He added, “For years afterward farmers ploughing would once in a while find a skull, and they’d take those skulls home and have ‘em sittin’ up on the mantel piece for relics.  But I didn’t want no such relics as that.”16

It is not surprising, that with these memories, there were some who refused to return to Gettysburg after the war.  One Southern soldier who had participated in Pickett’s Charge, explained, “ I cannot dwell upon it, let others if they can, who feel it less, at all events less bitterly and personally than I.”17
Sources:  The 1st Minnesota File, Gettysburg National Military Park (hereafter GNMP).  Baumgartner, Richard A.  Buckeye Blood: Ohio at Gettysburg .  Huntington, WVA: Blue Acorn Press, 2003.  Campbell, Eric A.  “The Aftermath and Recovery of Gettysburg.” Part 2.  Gettysburg Magazine, Issue no. 12, January 1, 1995.  Carson, Robert D.  “Boy of Gettysburg Recalls Great Day”.  Civilian Accounts File, Adams County Historical Society (hereafter ACHS).  Alexander Currens File, Civilian Accounts, ACHS.  Gallagher, Gary W., ed.  The Third Day at Gettysburg and Beyond .  Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1994.  Jones, Jesse H.  “Saved the Day”, The National Tribune, 07 March, 1895.  Letter, Franklin Whitmore to his parents, July 5, 1863, 17th Maine File, GNMP.  Lightner, Nathaniel.  Nathaniel Lightner Account, The Gettysburg Compiler, 21 Nov., 1893.  Martin, Thomas A. Account, 38th North Carolina, Scales Brigade File, GNMP.  Oates, William C.  The War Between the Union and the Confederacy .  Dayton, OH: Morningside Bookshop, 1985 (reprint, first published in 1905).  O’Brien, Kevin E.  “A Perfect Roar of Musketry: Candy’s Brigade in the Fight for Culp’s Hill.”  Gettysburg Magazine no. 9, July 1, 1993.  Pfanz, Harry W.  Gettysburg: The Second Day .  Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1987.  Rollins, Richard, ed.  Pickett’s Charge! Eyewitness Accounts .  Redondo Beach, CA: Rank and File Publications, 1994.  Sullivan, James P.  “Gettysburg: Member of the 6th Wisconsin Takes Issue with ‘Carleton’.” The National Tribune, 14 May, 1885.

End Notes: 

1.  Lightner Account, The Gettysburg Compiler, 21 Nov., 1893. 

2.  Robert D. Carson Civilian Account File, ACHS. 

3.  Sullivan, “Member of the 6th Wisconsin Takes Issue”, The National Tribune, 14 May, 1885. 

4.  Baumgartner, p. 54. 

5.  Martin, Thomas A. /Scales Brigade File, GNMP. 

6.  Letter, Franklin Whitmore, July 5, 1863, GNMP. 

7.  Pfanz, p. 359. 

8.  1st Minnesota File, GNMP. 

9.  Oates, p. 218.  The 15th Alabama fought against the 20th Maine at the left flank on Little Round Top. 

10.  Jones, “Saved the Day”, The National Tribune, 07 March, 1895. 

11.  Campbell, Gettysburg Magazine no. 12, p. 104. 

12.  O’Brien, Gettysburg Magazine no. 9,  p. 93.  A battalion is another name used by the soldiers for their regiment. 

13.  Baumgartner, p. 157. 

14.  Rollins, p. 203. 

15.  Ibid., p. 213. 

16.  Alexander Currens Civilian Accounts File,  ACHS.  The other name for the Valley of Death at the base of Little Round Top, is Plum Run Valley. 

17.  Gallagher, p. 67.  

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