The Battle of Gettysburg 7

The Battle of Gettysburg 7

Forewarned that he must look for the enemy to make his appearance

on the Chambersburg and Carlisle roads,[33] and feeling that there

was warm work ahead, Buford was keeping a good lookout in both

directions. To that end he had now taken post on a commanding ridge

over which these roads passed first to Seminary Ridge, and so back

into Gettysburg. First causing his troopers to dismount, he formed

them across the two roads in question in skirmishing order, threw

out his vedettes, planted his horse-artillery, and with the little

valley of Willoughby Run before him, the Seminary and Gettysburg

behind him, and the First Corps in bivouac only five miles away

toward Emmettsburg, this intrepid soldier calmly awaited the coming

of the storm, conscious that if Gettysburg was to be defended at all

it must be from these heights.

 

A pretty little valley was this of Willoughby Run, with its

green banks and clear-flowing waters, its tall woods and tangled

shrubbery, so soon to be torn and defaced by shot and shell, so soon

deformed by drifting smoke and the loud cries of the combatants.

 

The night passed off quietly. Nevertheless, some thirty thousand

Confederates, of all arms, were lying in camp within a radius of

eight miles from Gettysburg. Their vanguard had discovered the

presence of our cavalry,[34] and was waiting for the morning only to

brush it away.

 

[Sidenote: Heth comes down the Pike.]

 

Next morning Heth's division was marching down the Chambersburg

pike, looking for this cavalry, when its advance fell in with

Buford's vedettes. While they halted to reconnoitre, these vedettes

came back with the news that the enemy was advancing in force,

infantry and artillery filling the road as far as could be seen.

Warned that not a moment was to be lost, Buford at once sent off

word to Reynolds, who, after ordering the First Corps under arms,

and sending back for the Eleventh, himself set off at a gallop for

Gettysburg, followed only by his staff.

 

[Sidenote: He drives Buford.]

 

Buford's bold front had thus caused the enemy to come to a halt; but

soon after nine, supposing he had to do with cavalry alone, Heth

deployed his skirmishers across the pike, forming his two leading

brigades at each side of it; these troops then pushed forward, and

soon the crack of a musket announced that the battle of Gettysburg

had begun.

 

[Sidenote: Wadsworth comes to Buford's Aid.]

 

After an hour's stubborn fighting, Buford was being slowly but

surely pushed back over the first ridge, when a column of the

Union infantry was seen coming up the Emmettsburg road at the

double-quick. It was Wadsworth's division arriving in the nick of

time, as the enemy's skirmishers, followed by Archer's brigade,

were, even then, in the act of fording the run unopposed, and unless

promptly stopped would soon be in possession of the first range of

heights. It was really a neck-and-neck race to see who would get

there first.

 

[Sidenote: Reynolds forms the Division.]

 

[Sidenote: Charge of the Iron Brigade.]

 

[Sidenote: Reynolds falls.]

 

Reynolds was impatiently awaiting the arrival of his troops, who

were making across the fields for the ridge he was so desirous of

holding on the run. It was plain as day that he had determined to

contest the enemy's possession of Gettysburg here. Cutler's brigade

was the first to arrive. Hurrying this off to the right of the pike,

where it formed along the crest of the ridge under a shower of

balls, Reynolds ordered the next, as it came up, to charge on over

the ridge in its front, and drive Archer's men out of a wood that

rose before him crowning the crest and running down the opposite

slopes. It was done in the most gallant manner, each regiment in

turn breaking off from the line of march to join in the charge under

the eye of Reynolds himself, who, heedless of everything except

the supreme importance of securing the position, rode on after the

leading regiment into the fire where bullets were flying thickest.

Not only was the enemy driven out of the wood, but back across the

run, with the loss of about half the brigade, including Archer

himself. At the very moment success had crowned his first effort,

Reynolds fell dead with a bullet in his brain.[35]

 

[Sidenote: Evil Consequences.]

 

Nothing could have been more unfortunate at this time. With Reynolds

fell the whole inspiration of the battle of Gettysburg, but, worst

of all, with his fall both the directing mind and that unquestioned

authority so essential to bring the battle to a successful issue

vanished from the field. He had been struck down too suddenly even

to transmit his views to a subordinate. Disaster was in the air.

 

[Sidenote: Cutler is driven.]

 

This dearly bought success on the left was more than offset by what

was going on at the right, where Davis' Confederate brigade, after

getting round Cutler's flank, was driving all before it. Cutler had

to fall back to the Seminary Ridge in disorder.

 

Having so easily cleared this part of the line, Davis' men next

threw themselves astride the ridge, and seeing nothing before them

but Hall's battery, which was then firing down the Chambersburg

pike, they came booming down upon the guns, yelling like so many

Comanche Indians. Before the battery could be limbered up the

enemy were among the guns, shooting the cannoneers and bayoneting

the horses. It was finally got off with the loss of one of the

pieces.[36]

 

This success put the enemy in possession of all the Union line as

far down as the pike, and threatened that part just won with a like

fate. We had routed the enemy on the left, and been routed on the

right.

 

[Sidenote: The Ridge recovered.]

 

[Sidenote: Davis in a Trap.]

 

Fortunately, the Sixth Wisconsin had been left in reserve near the

Seminary a little earlier, and it was now ordered to the rescue.

Colonel Dawes led his men up on the run. This regiment, with two

of Cutler's that had turned back on seeing the diversion making in

their favor, drove the enemy back again, up the ridge, to where it

is crossed by a railroad cut, some two hundred yards north of the

pike. To escape this attack most of them jumped down into the cut;

but as the banks are high and steep and the outlet narrow, this was

only getting out of the frying-pan into the fire, since while one

body of pursuers was firing down into them from above, still another

had thrown itself across the outlet and was raking the cut from

end to end. This proved more than even Davis' Mississippians could

stand, and though they fought obstinately enough, all were either

killed, taken, or dispersed.

 

[Sidenote: Heth brought to a Standstill.]

 

Heth's two attacking brigades having thus been practically used up

after a fierce conflict, not with cavalry alone, with whom they had

expected to have a little fun, but with infantry, in whom they

recognized their old antagonists of many a hard-fought field, and

who fought to-day with a determination unusual even to them, Heth

hesitated about advancing to the attack again in the face of such

a check as he had just received, without strong backing up; but

sending word of his encounter to Lee, he set about forming the

fragments of the two defeated brigades on two fresh ones, where they

could be sheltered from the Union fire.

 

Yet Hill, his immediate chief, had told him only the night before

there was no objection in the world to his going into Gettysburg the

next day.

 

This success also enabled Doubleday[37] to reform his line in its

old position. The troops on the left had not been shaken, and

Cutler's men were now coming back to the front eager to wipe out the

disgrace of their defeat.

 

If the enemy's van had not been without cavalry to clear its march,

Heth must inevitably have got into Gettysburg first. As it was, the

unexpected resistance he had met with made Heth cautious. Lee's

orders to his lieutenants were not to force the fighting until the

whole army should be up. Pender was therefore forming behind Heth,

the artillery set at work, and all were impatiently looking out

for Rodes' appearance on the Carlisle (or Mummasburg) road, before

renewing the action.

 

[Sidenote: Eleven o'clock.]

 

This proved a most fortunate respite to the small Union force on Oak

Ridge, as, in consequence of it,--the state of things just pointed

out,--some hours elapsed before there was any more fighting by the

infantry, though the artillery kept up its annoying fire. Meanwhile

the two remaining divisions of the First Corps came on the ground.

Robinson's was left in reserve at the Seminary, with orders to

throw up some breastworks there; Doubleday's, now Rowley's, went

into line partly to the right and partly to the left of the troops

already there, thus extending both flanks considerably; and at the

extreme left, which was held by Biddle's brigade, two companies of

the Twentieth New York were even thrown out across the run, into

the Harman house and out-buildings, where they did good service in

keeping down the enemy's skirmish fire.[38]

 

[Sidenote: Rodes on Union Flank.]

 

Meantime, also, Pender's division had got into line. When formed for

the attack it considerably outflanked the Union left. And a little

later Rodes was seen coming down the Mummasburg road, or out quite

beyond the right of the First Corps. Clearly, the combat just closed

was child's play in comparison with what was about to begin.

 

[Sidenote: Oak Hill seized.]

 

These troops gave notice that they were shortly coming into action

by opening a sharp cannonade from Oak Hill, the commanding eminence

situated just beyond and in fact forming a continuation of Oak

Ridge, where the First Corps stood, though separated from it

somewhat.

 

This artillery fire from Oak Hill enfiladed the Union position so

completely that nothing was left for the right but to fall back to

Seminary Ridge, so as to show a new front to this attack. The centre

and left, however, kept its former position, with some rearrangement

of the line here and there, which had now become a very crooked one.

 

Twenty odd thousand men were thus waiting for the word to rush upon

between ten and eleven thousand.

 

[Sidenote: Eleventh Corps comes up.]

 

Before the battle could be renewed, however, the Eleventh Union

Corps came up through Gettysburg.[39] Howard, its actual head, was

now in chief command of the field, as next in rank to Reynolds.

He sent forward Schurz's and Barlow's divisions of this corps to

confront Rodes, leaving Steinwehr's in reserve on Cemetery Hill.

 

[Sidenote: Howard calls for Help.]

 

Having preceded his corps to the field, Howard had already notified

Meade, too hastily by half, that Reynolds was killed and the First

Corps routed--a report only half true, and calculated to do much

mischief, as it soon spread throughout the entire army. He also

sent off an urgent request to Slocum, who was halted in front of

Two Taverns, not five miles off, to come to his assistance with the Twelfth Corps.