On the afternoon of July 2, 1863, the key to the battlefield at Gettysburg, Little Round Top, was empty of fighting troops. It was a definite oversight. The commander of the Federal Third Corps, Dan Sickles, was supposed to have occupied it with members of his own troops – but through misunderstanding, he instead left the main Union line, moving his men forward and elsewhere.

When General Warren from General Meade’s staff noticed the hill without defending troops, he hurriedly ordered units from part of the Union Fifth Corps to secure it. It was, after all, the left flank of the Union line – and were it to fall into Confederate hands the entire Federal army was in danger of complete surrender.

Many wearing Union blue answered Warren’s frantic call that day, and many gave their lives to secure Little Round Top. One of them was a twenty-four-year-old Ohio artilleryman named Charles Hazlett.

Charles Edward Hazlett was born near Zanesville, Ohio – located just east of Columbus – on October 15, 1838. He was one of the youngest of eight children born to Robert and Lucy Welles Hazlett. The Hazletts were well connected in Ohio, and were ardent abolitionists. They eagerly served in the Underground Railroad in the years before the war. John Hazlett, Charles’s older brother by seven years, shared his younger sibling’s patriotism, and fascination with the military, and attended West Point. In 1855, when Charles was just 17, he too was able to secure a place at the prestigious military academy with his brother’s endorsement.¹

At one point Charles Hazlett was suspended from West Point, but later reinstated. He graduated with the last class before the war, in the spring of 1861. Among them was the highly respected Patrick O’Rorke, who graduated first in the class, and George Armstrong Custer, who graduated last. Hazlett was close to the top, graduating 15^th – and like O’Rorke was assigned to the artillery. After as his graduation, Hazlett quickly offered his services to the Union.

Within weeks he saw his first battle, at First Manassas in July 1861. He served on the staff of General Joseph Mansfield, a brigadier general and veteran of the Mexican War.²

Because of his prowess with the big guns, and his exactness with West Point protocol, Hazlett was ordered to drill new recruits. Among those he taught were the men of the 69^th New York Infantry, all Irishmen from New York City. He was “very popular” with the men, and his “kind and affectionate disposition” coupled with his military prowess soon got him noticed among the high command.³

The governor of Wisconsin requested Hazlett to become the colonel of a new regiment from the Badger State, but Hazlett refused. He also requested removal from Mansfield’s staff so that he could work with artillery. He was given Battery D of the 5^th U.S. Artillery, with the rank of lieutenant. “He had no selfish ambition,” remembered one, and “had no desire to be a show officer, but preferred to serve his country in the field.” His battery, then, was just what he wanted, and he served as its commander for the rest of his life.⁴

In all, Lieutenant Hazlett was engaged in eleven battles. Some, like First and Second Manassas, the Peninsula Campaign, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg were large engagements. Others, like Lewisville and Hanover Court House, were smaller fights. Hazlett said that if he were to fall in battle, “he hoped it was for a big battle instead of a skirmish”. Wherever the fight took him, Hazlett was at the front, and eager to fight for his country.⁵

When Robert E. Lee headed north after the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Union troops quickly followed him through the mountains of Virginia, the fields and hills of Maryland, and into Pennsylvania. Hazlett’s Battery was part of an artillery brigade attached to the Federal Fifth Corps. On the way into Pennsylvania, the men of that corps learned that their own corps commander, George Meade, had been promoted to command the entire Army of the Potomac.

The artillery brigade, newly commanded by Captain Augustus Martin, headed through Hanover, Pennsylvania and Bonneauville before reaching the outskirts of Gettysburg on July 2. They rested awhile under the shade of the trees. It was at this time that Charles Hazlett read a letter from home. It contained distressing news. His brother, John, who had helped him enter West Point, had fought in the war in the Army of the Cumberland, an officer of the Zanesville Guards. He was severely wounded in the Battle of Stone’s River (also known as Murfreesboro) in Tennessee at the beginning of the year. He never healed from the wound, and later suffered from illness and infection. He died on June 7, 1863. The letter from home alerted his younger brother with the tragic news as he arrived at Gettysburg.⁶

With the sudden realization that Little Round Top was devoid of fighting troops, and with the Confederates rapidly approaching it, General Warren gave the order for infantry, and artillery, to scale the hill.

It was not an easy task. The hill, wooded behind and cleared in front, was strewn with boulders. Muddy soil from recent rains also made any attempt extremely difficult.

Captain Martin of the artillery brigade received the orders from Warren, and quickly dispatched three of his batteries, telling Hazlett to take the lead. As Hazlett and Martin rode up the northern slope of the hill to reconnoiter the position, Hazlett hesitated. “I have just received some bad news from home,” he said, “and I would rather that someone else lead off today.” Martin replied that he had every confidence in the young soldier, who then told him, “I have a premonition that this will be my last battle.” Hazlett, however, obeyed the order, and promptly rode to help his battery up the hill.⁷

It is miraculous that Hazlett managed to get his six Parrott guns up the backside of Little Round Top, especially in time to use them on the advancing Confederates. They used the horses as best they could, but the mud made the advance difficult. Then the men “sweated and strained to pull their guns by hand” up the slope, especially the last gun. Even General Warren lent a hand to place them atop the hill.⁸

General Warren expressed doubt that the artillery would do much good in repelling the advancing men in gray, as the muzzles could not dip low enough to fire into the valley. “Never mind that,” Hazlett said. “The sound of my guns will be encouraging to our troops, and disheartening to others and my battery’s of no use if this hill is lost.”⁹

Hazlett had made many friends in the army, including his classmate Patrick O’Rorke from West Point. He was also a close friend of the current infantry brigade commander at the front of Little Round Top, Brigadier General Stephen Weed. Weed had served with the artillery early in the war, and had commanded the 5th U.S. Artillery, of which Hazlett's Battery was a part, until weeks before Gettysburg, when an opening was available to command an infantry brigade. As the infantry was always hotly engaged in the front lines, while the artillery pummeled their enemy from behind that line, fewer artillerists were casualties, creating fewer advancements for artillerymen. While Weed and O’Rorke received promotions in the infantry, Hazlett had turned down any advancement to infantry in order to remain with his battery. All three men in their varied capacities ended up fighting on Little Round Top.

As the Confederate troops attempted to scale Little Round Top from the west and south, two infantry brigades lined up to repel them. Hazlett’s big guns roared from the heights, with Weed commanding nearby. Colonel O’Rorke was killed instantly upon arrival, attempting to charge with his men against the oncoming men in gray. Additionally, Confederates took over Devil’s Den below, pushing out the Union defenders among the large boulders – a brigade from Sickles’ Corps.

The Southerners in Devil’s Den were excellent shots, farm boys from Georgia and men from the frontier in Texas. With the sun behind them, setting in the western sky, they found any man in blue wearing a long coat and carrying a sword instead of a rifle, recognized him as an officer, and aimed for him. General Warren was grazed in the neck. Colonel Strong Vincent, commander of the Third Brigade, was shot in the abdomen, a fatal wound. Stephen Weed, too, was shot in the neck, from a rifleman in Devil’s Den, five hundred yards distant. He fell to the ground, paralyzed. “I am cut in two,” he said. “I want to see Hazlett.”¹⁰

Captain Martin saw Weed fall, and “turned to go to his assistance, but before reaching him, Lieutenant Hazlett, who was a little to the left of General Weed hurried to his assistance.” As Hazlett leaned over the prostrated body, Weed whispered personal wishes to his friend. Suddenly, a bullet struck Hazlett “in the back of the head.” Hazlett fell over Weed’s body. For both men, Gettysburg was their final battle.¹¹

The dying General Weed and the bodies of Colonel O’Rorke and Lieutenant Hazlett were taken to the Jacob Weikert Farm, located behind Little Round Top. Weed was placed in the cellar, where he died hours later. His body was placed on the porch alongside the bodies of Hazlett and O’Rorke. Inside the house, every inch of space was needed to lend aid to the wounded.¹²

Throughout the night and during the next morning, more wounded from the second day’s fight were gathered and taken to the Weikert Farm, which served as a Fifth Corps hospital. Among the wounded was another artilleryman, Lieutenant Malbone Watson, who had commanded Battery I of the 5^th U.S. Artillery. He had fought in another area near the Round Tops, and had not known the fate of Weed, Hazlett, and O’Rorke, who were all his friends. Because the house was full of wounded, he was placed on the porch temporarily until a place for him could be procured. A gust of wind blew off the sheet covering the three men, and Watson was shocked to see his three comrades lying together in death. The sight “almost killed him,” he later told another artilleryman.¹³

Charles Hazlett was buried temporarily in the Weikert garden. His family solemnly came to Gettysburg to retrieve his body. The 24-year-old soldier was buried in Woodlawn cemetery beside his brother, John. They remain there to this day.

“Gallant young patriot!” were the words penned for him from the Zanesville Daily Courier. “He died where every soldier desires to fall – and Death found him ready.”¹⁴

Captain Martin said of Weed and Hazlett, “Thus ended the service of two as brave and heroic men as the sun ever shone upon.”¹⁵

In 1889, the 91^st Pennsylvania Infantry, which had been part of General Weed's brigade at Gettysburg, placed a memorial at the summit of Little Round Top on a boulder near Hazlett’s Battery. The monument reads “In memory of Brig. Gen. Weed, 3 Brig. 2 Div., 5 A.C. and Lt. Chs E. Hazlett, 5^th U.S. Arty who fell at this spot July 2, 1863”.¹⁶

The monument seals the two friends at the moment of their fatal woundings at Gettysburg, procuring the hill for the Union forces. 

While Lieutenant Hazlett died on the field of battle, it is interesting, and worthy, to note that he was killed not while engaged in taking lives, but in coming to the aid of a dying friend. Kind to the last, the commander of Battery D, 5^th U.S. Artillery, spent his last moments on earth doing something benevolent – a certain rarity in any war.