Captured Confederates at Gettysburg

(Library of Congress)

The Battle of Gettysburg is well documented, largely because many survivors wrote about their personal experiences during this most pivotal fight. Here are some of them:

Wednesday, July 1:

My…impulse was to load the musket and get at least one parting shot at the enemy. While I was thus engaged, a stalwart young fellow dropped at my side and cried, ‘Oh, help me!’ Having taken my hand, he struggled to rise, but could not, and finding his efforts unavailing, murmured, ‘Oh I’m gone!’” – Captain Albert Lee, 75th Ohio, Barlow’s Knoll1

“If a man straggled he was sure to be captured, and this was the case with many who were attempting to get off their wounded friends, and chose to die with them rather than leave them to the foe.” – Colonel Andrew Harris, 75th Ohio, on the Union retreat through town.2

 “Upon this field of wreck and disorder now appeared Hancock…At once the doubtful halt on Cemetery Hill was transformed into the confident assumption of a new line of battle; the fearful stream down Baltimore Road was peremptorily stopped. Shattered remnants as they reached the hill were halted and reformed.” – Adjutant Walker, a member of General Hancock’s staff, 2nd Corps, Cemetery Hill.3

Thursday, July 2:

“Roaring cannon, crashing rifles, screeching shots, bursting shells, hissing bullets, cheers, shouts, shrieks and groans.” – A soldier in Hood’s Texas Division, Devil’s Den4

“After capturing a battery of three guns, I took my Enfield, aimed at a Yankee, and was shot by a minie ball in the right thigh. I felt as if lightning had struck me.” – J.C. Lokey, 20th Georgia Infantry, Devil’s Den5

“We have had occasion heretofore to speak of the expert marksmanship of the Confederate soldiers, but on no field of war did they exhibit greater skill…They were shooting upward, and the boulders of Little Round Top were aglow with the rays of the setting sun. The Union soldiers stood out against the sky clear and distinct to their eyes, a shining mark for their dexterity…on the other hand, the Union soldiers were staring into an abyss…with the dazzling sunlight in their eyes.” – Captain R.K. Beecham, Union 3rd Corps, on the issues with the setting sun on Little Round Top6

“Masses of Kershaw’s and Wofford’s Brigades had advanced up to the muzzles [of Union cannon] …and literally blown to atoms…Arms, legs, heads, and parts of dismembered bodies were scattered all about, and sticking among the rocks, and against trunks of trees.” – Private Robert Carter, near the Rose Farm, the Wheatfield7

“The Johnnies, pushing, crowding, gained our first epaulements in spite of our efforts to block the way. It was almost impossible to distinguish who were Union, who were Confederate, to shoot and not kill our own men. Artillerists fought with ramrods, wielding them like ball bats…So infuriated were the [Louisiana] Tigers that they jabbed with their bayonets. Fought with rocks. A tall rebel shoved right at my elbow, a huge rock raised ready to dash it at [Captain] Fox. I jabbed with my bayonet. A burst of fire! The rebel fell, shot through the head. The rock crashed down upon one of his screaming comrades.” – Private William Southerton, 75th Ohio, Cemetery Hill8

Friday, July 3:

“I saw he was breathing through the hole the ball had made…I took a fine silk handkerchief I happened to have and wet it from my canteen and pressed it upon the wound. ‘Oh, that did me much good,’ he told me…[he] said encouragingly, ‘Stay with them, boys! I will soon be back with you.’ It was the last time we saw him alive…How we loved him.” – Private John Houtz, 66th Ohio Infantry, on the mortal wounding of Major Joshua Palmer, Culp’s Hill9

“The earth seemed to rise up under the concussion, the air was filled with missiles, and the noise and din were so furious and overwhelming as well as continuous that one had to scream to his neighbor lying beside him to be heard at all.” – Private George Clark, Wilcox’s Brigade, on the cannonade preceding Pickett’s Charge10

“If men ever became devils that was one of the times. We were crazy with excitement of that fight. We just rushed in like beasts.” – Lieutenant William Harmon, 1st Minnesota Regiment, on the Union resistance to Pickett’s Charge11

“Our loss was heavy. My company went into the charge with about forty men, and the next morning only five answered roll call.” – Private J.R. McPherson, 28th Virginia, Pickett’s Division, after the famous charge12

Sources: Baumgartner, Richard A. Buckeye Blood: Ohio at Gettysburg. Huntington, W. VA: Blue Acorn Press, 2003. Campbell, Eric. “’A Field Made Glorious’: Cemetery Hill, From Battlefield to Sacred Ground.” Gettysburg Magazine no. 15, pp 107-112. Dayton, OH: Morningside House, 1996. Coco, Gregory A. “Where Defeated Valor Lies: A Rose Farm Mystery Solved.” Gettysburg Magazine no. 30, pp. 115-128. Dayton, OH: Morningside Press, 2004. The Confederate Veteran, vol. VI, 1898. Copy, Gettysburg National Military Park (hereafter GNMP). The Confederate Veteran, vol. XXII, 1914, copy GNMP. Meinhard, Robert W. “The First Minnesota at Gettysburg.” Gettysburg Magazine, July 1991. Dayton, OH: Morningside Press, 1991. Norton, Oliver Willcox. The Attack and Defense of Little Round Top. Gettysburg, PA: Stan Clark Military Books, 1992 (reprint, first published in 1913). Pfanz ,Harry W. Gettysburg: The Second Day. Chapel Hill & London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1987. Rollins, Richard, ed. Pickett’s Charge! Eyewitness Accounts. Redondo Beach, CA: Rank and File Publications, 1994.

End Notes: 

1. Baumgartner, p. 57. 

2. Ibid., p. 63. 

3. Campbell, Gettysburg Magazine no. 15, p. 109. 

4. Pfanz, p. 189. 

5. The Confederate Veteran, vol. XXII, p. 400. 

6. Norton, p. 67. 

7. Coco, Gettysburg Magazine no. 30, p. 117. 

8. Baumgartner, p. 115. 

9. Ibid., p. 128. 

10. Rollins, p. 196. 

11. Meinhard, Gettysburg Magazine Jul. 1991, p. 87. 

12. The Confederate Veteran, vol. VI, p. 148.