As human events transpire and succumb to the past, the pages of history are usually the only way to learn what happened to those who came before us. To comprehend the pivotal events of history, the words of those who endured them are the best sources of information. Here are the accounts of some who experienced a certain event called Gettysburg, in their own words:

Wednesday, July 1, 1863: 

“We rode out and saw the Confederates’ batteries going into position…the lines of battle forming and skirmishers being thrown out. Opposed to them were our cavalry skirmishers, spread out like the fingers of a hand, falling back and firing, and, as I remember it, occasionally firing a field battery.” – Stephen M. Weld, Buford’s Cavalry¹

"The rain of bursting shells and bullets was so thick about me that the entire hayfield was mown down as if a scythe had cut it off.” – Captain Francis Jones, 149^th Pennsylvania, McPherson’s Ridge²

“I immediately ordered my brigade to advance. We passed over them [Heth’s Division], up the ascent, crossed the ridge [McPherson’s Ridge] and commenced the descent just opposite the Theological Seminary. Here the brigade encountered the most terrific fire…Every discharge made sad havoc in our line, but still we pressed on at the double quick…Every field officer of the brigade save one had been disabled.” – General Alfred Scales, commander of North Carolina troops³

“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, 75^th Ohio, Barlow’s Knoll⁴

“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, 75^th Ohio, on the Union retreat through town⁵

“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 the Baltimore Road was peremptorily stopped. Shattered remnants as they reached the hill were halted and reformed.” – Adjutant Walker, member of General Hancock’s Staff, Federal Second Corps⁶

Thursday, July 2, 1863:

“As we neared Gettysburg, in a number of instances we passed near the homes of relatives and friends, but with the merest greeting, the boys kept their places in the ranks. Reaching the summit of a hill east of town, the members of the company, with few exceptions, could see their homes in the village before them, in the immediate vicinity or in the distance, and all of them within the enemy’s lines.” – Captain H.N. Minnigh, Company K, 1^st Pennsylvania Reserves, known as “the Boys Who Fought at Home”⁷

“During the early part of the forenoon, my attention was then called to numerous boxes which had been placed along the [Taneytown] road just outside the garden fence. Ominous and dismal as was the sight presented, it nevertheless did not prevent some of the soldiers from passing jocular expressions. One of the men nearby, being addressed with the remark that there was no telling how soon he would be put in one of them replied: ‘I will consider myself very lucky if I get one.’” – Tillie Pierce, a civilian at the Jacob Weikert farm, behind the Round Tops⁸

“The day was hot. We had already marched 24 miles. Water details were sent out, each man carrying a dozen canteens. The only water we could find was a little pond, where there was gathered at a gap water quite hot and greenish. With this, we began making a double-quick to catch up with the marching army.” – Private W. C. Ward, 4^th Alabama⁹

“For the first time during the year or more that Lieut. Hazlett had been under my command as Division and Corps Chief of Artillery, he hesitated, and turning to me said: ‘I have a premonition that this will be my last battle’…He often said if he should fall in battle he hoped it would not be a skirmish or small engagement, but in a big battle.” – Captain Augustus Martin, Little Round Top¹⁰

“Roaring cannon, crashing rifles, screeching shots, bursting shells, hissing bullets, cheers, shouts, shrieks and groans.” – a member of Hood’s Texans, near Devil’s Den¹¹

“Leaping over the prostrate line before me, I shouted the order, ‘Forward!’ and started for the rocks. The response was a bound, a yell, and a rush, and in ten minutes my men were pouring into the Den.” – Colonel W.F. Perry, 44^th Alabama, Devil’s Den¹²

“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, 20^th Georgia, Devil’s Den. The battery mentioned was Smith’s Battery.¹³

“Our loss was heavy, not less than 400 killed, wounded, and missing. Of this number an unusually large proportion were killed and badly wounded…I had no means of ascertaining the precise loss of the enemy.” – General George Benning, whose Georgia Brigade fought in Devil’s Den and attacked Little Round Top¹⁴

“We have had occasion heretofore to speak of 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 sunshine in their eyes.” – Captain R. K. Beecham, Union Third Corps¹⁵

“Such a shrieking, hissing, seathing [sic] I never dreamed was imaginable, it seemed as though it must be the work of the very devil himself.” – Charles Reed, 9^th Massachusetts Battery, near the Peach Orchard¹⁶

“Masses of Kershaw’s and Wofford’s Brigades had advanced up to the muzzles of [Union guns]…and literally blown to atoms…Arms, legs, heads, and parts of dismembered bodies were scattered all about, and sticking among the rocks and against the trunks of trees.” – Private Robert Carter, near the Rose Farm, the Wheatfield, arguably the bloodiest part of the battle, acre for acre¹⁷

“We knew at the moment we abandoned our position the Rebels would seize it. But we couldn’t hold it without ammunition, and as the troops on our right gave way, we saw it was now time for us to go.” – Private John Haley, 17^th Maine, the Wheatfield¹⁸

“The shots of the enemy came thick and fast, bursting, crushing, and ploughing, a mighty storm of iron hail, a most determined and terrible effort of the enemy to cripple and destroy the guns upon the hill.” – Lt. James Gardner, 1^st Pennsylvania Artillery, Cemetery Hill¹⁹

“These two companies, attacked in front and flank, fell back behind the traverse in very good order and met the flank attack with such a steady fire that the rebels again fell back, their third attack having failed as had the others. It was now pitch dark.” – Captain Charles Horton, 137^th New York, Culp’s Hill²⁰

Friday, July 3, 1863:

“Hunger had such a grip on us that it dragged us forth. Most had not eaten in thirty-six hours and felt we could devour a horse or mule, provided that it had not been too long defunct.” – Private John Haley, 17^th Maine²¹

“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 [and then] said encouragingly, ‘Stay with them, boys! I will soon be back with you.’ That was the last time we saw him alive…How we loved him.” – Private John Houtz, on the mortal wounding of Major Joshua Palmer, 66^th Ohio, Culp’s Hill²²

“As the lines cleared the woods that skirted the brow of the ridge and passed through our batteries, with their flags proudly held aloft, waving in the air with polished muskets and swords gleaming and flashing in the sunlight, they presented an inexpressively grand and inspiring sight.” – Adjutant James Crocker, Armistead’s Brigade, Pickett’s Charge²³

 “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, Pickett’s Charge²⁴

“I watched Pickett’s men advance, and opened up on them with an oblique fire, and ended with a terrible enfilading fire…Many times a single percussion shell would cut out several files and then explode in their ranks; several times a company would disappear.” – Lt. Rittenhouse, Hazlett’s Battery, Little Round Top, during Pickett’s Charge²⁵

“We had a splendid chance at them, and we made the most of it…We could not help hitting them at every shot.” – a captain in McGilvery’s Union Battery, Pickett’s Charge²⁶

“If men ever became devils that was one of the times. We were crazy with excitement at that fight. We just rushed in like beasts.” – Lt. William Harmon, 1^st Minnesota, Pickett’s Charge²⁷

“The loss of our gallant officers and men…causes me to weep tears of blood and to wish that I never could hear the sound of a gun again.” – General Robert E. Lee, after Pickett’s Charge²⁸

“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, 28^th Virginia, Pickett’s Charge²⁹

A Final Thought:

“We cherish the memory of our fallen comrades, and as one by one we are summoned to join the great majority, we hope to meet them again, and to stand side by side, in nobler array, with the brave and the true and the tried who were our comrades here.” – Captain H.N. Minnich, Company K, 1^st Pennsylvania Reserves³⁰

^Even the passage of years does not dim the memories of those who endured the Battle of Gettysburg. Hopefully, their words will continue to remind and educate, so that we will think carefully and eschew anything like it in the future.

Sources:  Adelman, Garry E. “Hazlett’s Battery at Gettysburg.” Gettysburg Magazine, no.l 21, pp. 64-73. Dayton, OH: Morningside Press, 1999. Alleman, Tillie Pierce. At Gettysburg: Or What a Girl Saw and Heard of the Battle. Gettysburg, PA: Stan Clark Military Books, 1994 (reprint, first published in 1888).  Baumgartner, Richard A. Buckeye Blood: Ohio at Gettysburg. Huntington, WV: 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 Press, 1996. Campbell, Eric. “Baptism of Fire: The Ninth Massachusetts Battery at Gettysburg, July 2, 1863.” Gettysburg Magazine, July 1991, pp. 47-77. Dayton, OH: Morningside Press,1991. 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. Felton, Silas. “The Iron Brigade at Gettysburg.” Gettysburg Magazine, July 1994, pp. 57-64. Dayton, OH: Morningside Press, 1994. Freeman, Dr. Douglas Southall. R.E. Lee. Vol. 3. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1940. Jorgensen, Jay. “Holding the Right: The 137^th New York Regiment at Gettysburg.” Gettysburg Magazine no. 15, pp. 60-67. Dayton, OH: Morningside Press, 1996. Meinhard, Robert W. “The First Minnesota at Gettysburg.” Gettysburg Magazine, July 1991. Dayton, OH: Morningside Press, 1991. Minnigh, H.N. The History of Company K, ist Penna Reserves: The Boys Who Fought at Home. Gettysburg, PA: Thomas Publications, 1998 (reprint). Norton, Oliver Willcox. The Attack and Defense of Little Round Top. Gettysburg, PA: Stan Clark Military Books, 1992 (reprint). O’Brien, Kevin E. “’Stubborn Bravery’: The Forgotten 44^th New York at Little Round Topo.” Gettysburg Magazine no. 15, pp. 31-44. Dayton, OH: Morningside Press, 1996. Pfanz, Harry W. Gettysburg: The First Day. Chapel Hill & London: The University of North Carolina Press, 2001. 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. Silliker, Ruth L, ed. The Rebel Yell and the Yankee Hurrah: Private John Haley, 17^th Maine Regiment. Camden, ME: Down East Books, 1985. Stewart, George R. Pickett’s Charge: A Microhistory of the Final Attack at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1987 (reprint, first published in 1959). Wittenberg, Eric J. “An Analysis of the Buford Manuscripts.” Gettysburg Magazine no. 15, pp. 7-22. Dayton, OH: Morningside Press, 1996.

End Notes:

1. Wittenburg, Gettysburg Magazine no. 15, p. 21.

2. Pfanz, Gettysburg: The First Day, p. 200. 

3. Felton, Gettysburg Magazine July 1994, p. 61. 

4. Baumgartner, p. 57. 

5. Ibid., p. 63. 

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

7. Minnigh, p. 49. 

8. Alleman, p. 49. 

9. O’Brien, Gettysburg Magazine no. 15, p. 37. 

10. Adelman, Gettysburg Magazine no. 21, p. 65. 

11. Pfanz, Gettysburg: The Second Day, p. 189. 

12. Norton, pp. 108-109. 

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

14. Norton, pp. 166-167. 

15. Ibid. p. 67. 

16. Campbell, Gettysburg Magazine, July 1991, p. 59. 

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

18. Silliker, p. 102. 

19. Campbell, Gettysburg Magazine, no. 15, p. 112. 

20. Jorgensen, Gettysburg Magazine no. 15, p. 60. 

21. Silliker, p. 102. 

22. Baumgartner, p. 128. 

23. Rollins, p. 168. 

24. Ibid., p. 196.

25. Adelman, Gettysburg Magazine no. 21, p. 72. 

26. Stewart, p. 187. 

27. Meinhard, Gettysburg Magazine, p. 87. 

28. Freeman, p. 154. 

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

30. Minnigh, p. 67.