USA > New York > Disaster, struggle, triumph. The adventures of 1000 "boys in blue," from August, 1862, to June, 1865 > Part 10
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And here ends many a diary. The blank pages in the latter part of these little books tell each its affect- . ing story of those who laid aside the recording pen on the night of the 2d of July, and before the dawn of the "glorious" 4th had laid aside their brave young lives, and "slept the sleep that knows no waking," on the deadly field of Gettysburg.
This book being intended, in part, to give informa- tion respecting the details of army life; and the march from Centreville to Gettysburg being a specimen of many army "tramps," our readers will, perhaps, like a more detailed account of it.
The 126th, with the rest of the Brigade prepared to march from Centreville by storing surplus baggage in an old church, leaving a small guard over it with General ABERCROMBIE. But the disappearance of our pickets was a signal to guerrilla parties, who captured some cars of stores from a train bound to Alexandria ; and to save those in the church from the same fate, they were burned by order of General ABERCROMBIE. He, with the guard, then went on and overtook the army at Edward's Ferry.
During the two days march to that point it was rainy, and articles which had been deemed indispensable
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began to be intolerably heavy. The road was strewn with shirts, socks and drawers in a way that would have sorely grieved the careful sisters, mothers, and sewing circles who had provided them, while coats, blankets, paper and envelopes, and even precious trinkets, were sacrificed to ease the sore and weary shoulders of the wayfarers.
Strict orders were issued, and generally obeyed, to respect private property on the march. Colonel SHER- RILL endeared himself greatly to officers and men at this time, by careful attention to their welfare and jealousy of their rights. The fording of streams was a very severe part of the journey, for the sand and gravel filled the shoes and "ground" the poor feet sorely. Especially the march of thirty-three miles on the 29th of June, in alternate rains and scalding sun, with blistered feet and soaked clothing, was a terrible experience. Every superfluity and many necessaries had been thrown away before, but on this day not an ounce was retained that could by possibility be spared. Gun and cartridge must be carried. All else was dropped.
One incident showing the superiority of spirit over matter may be mentioned. On nearing villages, colors were unfurled and bands played lively airs. Instantly new life would pervade the exhausted troops. Guns which had been carried "any way" were brought to position, limping steps became firm and cadenced to the music; the line straightened itself and the men were soldiers all over. The village once passed, the music would cease, the flags were furled, the men
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drooped and limped again, and crawled along through rough field or stony highway, faint, but still obedient and onward.
Arrived at Union bridge they thought, "surely we shall halt here." But no. Their commanders knew that a battle was imminent somewhere ahead, and on they must go twelve miles farther. Through the "long, long, weary day" no pause had been made for a meal; the men ate their hard-tack as they walked ; and women and children from the houses on the road- side, came forward with food and pails of water and cups to refresh the boys in blue. Never were cups of cold water more blessed. But the spirit of even a loyal soldier cannot sustain the body under every thing, and in that evening march from Union bridge to Uniontown, even the strongest men dropped from the ranks by scores and slept where they dropped. But surely at Uniontown they may rest. Not so. As soon as they arrive, the order comes that the 126th is detailed for picket duty that night. (Band-box soldiers, indeed !) They stumble along to a wood and take position, when the order is countermanded, and they sleep where they are, undisturbed.
June 30th .- The stragglers come up ; loyal men and women bring cooked rations and delicacies ; the men are mustered for pay (as usual on the last day of each two months), and they rest that day.
(Pity the former day's march had not been divided.)
July 1st .- At Taneytown the men expected to fight, for MEADE had selected that place, or one very near it, as the probable battle-ground. To the intense dis-
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MAP OF THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG showing Positions held JULY IST 2ª & 3ª 1863.
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HAPTER XJJ.
ESCRIPTIONS of the battle of Gettysburg have been nearly as numerous as those of Niagara ; but who has succeeded in giving a vivid impres- sion of the one or the other ? When so many have failed, some of whom were eye-witnesses of parts of the conflict -no human eye could embrace the whole -it would ill become us to attempt to describe Get- tysburg. We shall simply follow the fortunes of the 126th N. Y. Volunteers ; and if this course takes us into the most exposed positions and the hottest con- flict of the terrible three days, we must "accept the situation," and tell the story as best we may.
Gettysburg ! How that small village, with its rural cemetery, where generations of men lived quietly, and were gathered in peace to their fathers, has swelled in importance, till its name has become, historical; a companion name to Bunker Hill and Yorktown !
No plan of STUART or of LEE, of HOOKER or of MEADE, marked it as the site of the greatest battles of the war, the turning point of the rebellion! The spot where He "who stilleth the raging of the sea, he noise of its waves and the tumult of the people," said to the great wave of rebellion that rolled up into he loyal north, threatening"government, religion and
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social institutions, "Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther ; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." On that 30th morning of June, 1863, both armies were advancing toward each other; yet neither knew of the other's approach. " As unconscious (says a great writer) of the imminent shock as are two summer clouds charged with storms, and moving upon oppo- site winds silently toward each other. Three days of battle there were; one on the outlying hills, west and northwest of the town; and two along the slopes and rocky crests, south and southeast of Gettysburg. * Battles between the men of the tropics and the men of the temperate zones ; battles in which principles were contending in the air, while men were fighting on the ground."
But we must leave Mr. BEECHER's truthful poetry, or poetical truth, and proceed with details.
When LEE learned the advance of HOOKER's army into Maryland, and that it was threatening his line of retreat through Cumberland Valley, he gave up his design of striking at Harrisburg; and ordered HILL and LONGSTREET to march from Chambersburg across the South Mountain to Gettysburg, and EWELL to countermarch from York and Carlisle to the same point. This, Gettysburg, was a highly important place for LEE to secure; for, holding it, he could command the South Mountain passes toward the Potomac. MEADE, in entire ignorance of LEE's plan, and not knowing the importance of Gettysburg to the enemy -for he had never seen the place-had formed a plan to offer battle on the line of Pipe creek, a
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branch of the Monocacy, near Taneytown. Accord- ingly the 6th Corps, or right wing of the army, had been ordered to Manchester; the 2d Corps to Taney- town, where MEADE proposed to fix his head-quarters ; the center, composed of the 5th and 12th Corps to Hanover and Two Taverns; and the left wing, com- posed of the 1st, 3d and 11th, which would come nearest the line of the enemy's march, were ordered to Gettysburg, under command of General REYNOLDS. General BUFORD, a cavalry officer of the army of the Potomac, reached Gettysburg, with his cavalry, on the 30th of June, and immediately began reconnoissances toward the west and north, to discover LEE's army. That same morning HILL was approaching Gettysburg from the west, followed by LONGSTREET's Division. Neither force knew that the other was advancing. On this morning BUFORD, who was holding a position on the Chambersburg road, was suddenly attacked by the van of HILL's army. BUFORD manœuvred very skill- fully to check the enemy until REYNOLDS should join him with his forces, namely, the 1st (his own Corps) and the 11th. At ten o'clock REYNOLDS came up, with the 1st Corps, under General WADSWORTH, and the 11th, under General O. A. HOWARD. The country between Gettysburg and the South Mountain range rises into swells or ridges, running north and south ; one of them, named Seminary Ridge, being more than half a mile west of the village. Our forces occupied the latter, and the confederates one further west. Our plan does not permit us to give the parti- culars of the spirited and bloody actions of the first
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day of the month and of the battle. REYNOLDS, see- ing the great importance of keeping the rebels from gaining the commanding heights near Gettysburg, rushed to the support of BUFORD, and was leading his men with great gallantry, when he. fell, mortally wounded. Fresh forces came up on each side through the day ; many prisoners were made on both sides ; the carnage was fearful; the Unionists fought like men repelling an invader from their own soil ; the rebels, like men in a hostile country, cut off from retreat, who must conquer or perish. For more than half the day success was with us, but the rebel Divi- sions, from northwest and west, came up faster than ours, until they outnumbered us two to one. Our forces were obliged to retire, some of them to Ceme- tery Hill, south of the village, which they reached in good order, and joined the troops already placed there by General HOWARD; but those who retreated to Gettysburg were less fortunate, for that village was occupied by the confederates under EWELL, who cap- tured a large number of our men .* The troops on Cemetery Hill received a welcome reinforcement that evening, of the 12th and part of the 3d Corps. HAN- COCK arrived most opportunely, in advance of his
* Professor JACOBS says : "But, though the enemy attacked us with two men to our one, our left was able, from morning until three in the afternoon, not only to hold its own, but to drive back the enemy in their fearful charges, and, in an effort of General ARCHER (rebel) to flank and capture
one of our Brigades, they captured him and his whole Brigade.
*
*
*
Early in the morning, the hills around Gettysburg had been carefully examined by General HOWARD and his signal officers. It was his prudent forethought that sent STEINWEHR to occupy Cemetery Hill, thus providing for the contingency that happened three hours after," etc., etc.
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Corps, in the afternoon, having been sent by General MEADE on learning the death of REYNOLDS. His per- sonal magnetism and self-possessed bravery, did much to restore order among the troops, and inspire them with fresh enthusiasm. He reported so favorably to MEADE of the position our forces had gained and held on the hill and ridge south of Gettysburg, that MEADE instantly decided to forego his own half-formed plan, and ordered all the different Corps of our army to this place. Indeed it seemed formed by nature for a defensive battle-ground. An abstract of SWINTON'S description, with our map, will, we think, give a good idea of it to any thoughtful reader.
The Gettysburg ridge is an irregular, interrupted line of heights and hills, running due south from the town of Gettysburg. At the town the ridge bends back, eastward and southward, in a crotchet formed by Cemetery and Culp's Hills. This eastern branch commands the portions available for the enemy at the north and northwest. Along its eastern base runs Rock creek. £ From Cemetery Hill, the line runs southward three miles, in a well defined ridge, which there terminates in a high, rocky and wooded peak, named Round-top. Little Round-top, or Weed's Hill, is a bald spur of the other. (Thus the whole range is in the form of an irregular syphon; its curve toward Gettysburg, its longer leg running directly south, and its shorter, southeast, from Cemetery Hill.) The whole ridge is four miles in extent, but so curved that while the line of battle on Cemetery Ridge must face westward, that on Cemetery and Culp's Hills must
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face north and northeastward. To the west, the ridge falls off into a cultivated and undulating valley, which at this time waved with golden harvests; and at the distance of about a mile is a parallel ridge of inferior height, sometimes called Seminary Ridge, which the rebels occupied in the second day's battle. The rear of these ridges slopes gradually, affording excellent cover for trains and reserve troops. The Emmittsburg road winds from northeast to southwest between Cemetery and Seminary Ridges, running, in fact, rather upon the eastern flank of the first, and then after crossing the valley, rising on the western slope of the other.
We have seen that on the first day of the conflict, the enemy being strengthened by the constant arrival of his Divisions from south and west, and only parts of our 1st and 11th Corps having arrived, the rest being many miles from the scene of action, the day went against us, many thousands being killed or taken prisoners. However, they sold their lives or their liberty dearly as possible, and the reverse was compensated to us by the superior position into which we were in a manner forced. When General MEADE arrived at one o'clock on the morning of the 2d, on learning the condition of things and the nature of the ground, he was more than satisfied with it, and imme- diately continued the work begun by Generals HAN- COCK and HOWARD, of placing the several Corps as fast as they arrived, in order of battle.
What strange scenes were passing beneath the mid- night moon, as, veiled in heavy clouds, she hung over
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Gettysburg Cemetery on that short July night! How ruthlessly does war trample over what is dearest in life, and what is most sacred in death ! To the sleep- ers there, the rattle of the artillery, moving into posi- tion, and the neighing of the war horse among their marble tombs, of course were nothing; but to friends, if any were left in the vicinity, how rude must have seemed the desecration. But this was death's carni- val. The great reaper was now gathering in harvests, compared to which the few sleepers in that cemetery were as the grains that drop from the wheat-ear in the early summer to the myriads that crowd the gra- nary in the autumn.
The same kind Providence which held back ANDER- SON'S Corps of LEE's army the day before, thus pre- venting the small force we had in the field from being entirely crushed, now caused LEE to spend the whole precious forenoon, and until after four in the after- noon of the second day, in preparation, thus giving time to our different Corps, which were making forced marches from various distant points, to reach it in time to be placed in order on the ridge, and partici- pate in the strife. Well might LEE pause in view of the vastly changed circumstances since the previous evening, when his elated troops were loudly boasting in the streets of Gettysburg that they had destroyed or captured a large part of our army that day, and would have the rest to-morrow. Instead of parts of two Corps, with whom they had fought on the first day, here was nearly every Division of our army, and the rest rapidly coming up. Stretching along the lofty
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ridge in his front were Division after Division, Corps after Corps, from near Little Round-top on the south, to the heights near Gettysburg on the north; and thence around toward Rock creek, beyond the Balti- more turnpike on the southeast ; while on the heights, above the ranks of men, frowned nearly 100 cannon. HOWARD, with part of the 11th, and DOUBLEDAY, with part of the 1st Corps still held their post on Ceme- tery Hill, the highest point in the continuous range, and the key to the whole position; part of the 11th Corps, and the 12th, under SLOCUM, occupied Culp's Hill, fronting northeasterly, and guarding against sur- prise from RHODES or EWELL; the right of the 12th resting on Rock creek. Next to HOWARD on his left on Cemetery Ridge,-an exposed point because without any natural defenses,-was placed HANCOCK with the 2d Corps (of which it will be remembered the 126th formed a part); and next to that, the 3d, under SICKLES, was ordered to take position. SYKES, with the 5th, was near Cemetery Hill. The 6th Corps, under SEDGWICK, was more than thirty miles away the evening before; but by severe marching got on the ground at four p. M, when the 5th was
ordered to the left, toward Little Round-top. When MEADE rode out toward the extreme left of our line to post the 5th, he found the line, which he sup- posed continuous along the ridge, broken by the advance of SICKLES' Corps several hundred yards toward the enemy. MEADE attributes this movement on General SICKLES' part to a misunderstanding of his orders. It seems more probable that SICKLES,
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MAP OF THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG showing Positions held JULY 2º 1863 . Prepared by Col. W.H. Payne.
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finding the portion of the ridge on which he was placed, somewhat depressed, and seeing in front of him that swell of land upon which the Emmittsburg road runs, thought best to abandon the line which MEADE had indicated and occupy the one in his front, lest the enemy should get it, and command his posi- tion .* It seemed an act of heroism, and was viewed by the rest of the army with astonishment, but it was undoubtedly ill judged. "His right Division, under General HUMPHREYS, was thrown forward several hun- dred yards beyond HANCOCK's left, which was to sup- port him," leaving a wide gap there. His left line continued to a point called "Sherfy's peach orchard," then ran back obliquely through a low ground of wheat fields and woods toward Round-top. Thus there was a "salient angle" at the peach orchard, a weak point; and an opportunity afforded by the oblique stretch toward Round-top to enfilade that line.
LEE'S forces were disposed in the best manner pos- sible to him, on the inferior ridge, called Seminary Ridge, about a mile in front of and nearly parallel to ours. LONGSTREET, with the Divisions of HOOD and McLAWS, were on their extreme right, which brought them facing Round-top and Cemetery Ridge, and, of course, facing, also, the slight ridge that SICKLES occupied. HILL's three Divisions continued their line
* " The object of General SICKLES' moving to the front, I could not con ceive. I recollect looking on and admiring the spectacle. * * But I soon saw it was going to involve a fight in front of our line, * and I thought it would be disadvantageous to us." General HANCOCK's testi. mony. 1
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from the left of LONGSTREET far enough to front the whole remainder of Cemetery Ridge. EWELL, with his three Divisions, held from the Seminary, round through Gettysburg village, and so on at the base of Cemetery Hill, ending in front of SLOCUM, on Culp's Hill, which was the Union right. Their line stretched over five miles, partly concealed by woods. LEE, too, had a powerful artillery force of at least 120 guns.
MEADE, seeing the position of SICKLES, remonstrated with him. "I will change it if you disapprove," said SICKLES. "The enemy will hardly give you time for that," replied MEADE; and, sure enough, a flight of shells from the other side soon made a change impossi- ble. It seems evident from General LEE's report, that SICKLES' position invited attack, as a weak point. He says: "In front of General LONGSTREET (i. e., the place occupied by SICKLES), the enemy held a position from which, if he could be driven, it was thought our army could assail the more elevated ground beyond, and so reach the crest of the ridge." LEE'S practiced eye saw, doubtless, the thinness of SICKLES' line, and its distance from support, and this determined his plan of attack. As we have said, heavy skirmishing was going on through the forenoon and a while after, between the lines of the two armies. At two o'clock the enemy opened a terrific cannonade, which was known to be the prelude to an assault. The 126th, who, with the remainder of the 2d Corps, had arrived that morning at eight o'clock, were supporting two batteries toward the northern extremity of Cemetery Ridge, in front of MEADE's head-quarters. From this point the scene
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was now most animated. Staff officers galloped swiftly to and from head-quarters, with dispatches and orders. Shot and shell, fortunately aimed too high, whizzed, shrieked, and burst just beyond the crest of the ridge. Under cover of this fire, LONGSTREET made a tremen- dous attack on that front of SICKLES' line which ran from the angle at the Emmittsburg road and another road back to Little Round-top. At the same time HOOD's Division attempted to pass between SICKLES' left and Little Round-top. This hill, which is bald and unsightly, and covered with huge boulders, was occupied by us merely as a signal-station. But when this attempt was made to turn SICKLES' left, the importance of gaining possession of the hill was appa- rent to the commanders of both armies. Most oppor- tunely, just as the enemy was advancing to seize it, a Division of SYKES' Corps came up, under VINCENT, and was ordered to its defense. And here ensued one of those terrible hand to hand struggles which, as well as the subsequent one on Culp's Hill, reminds us of the fierce contests in ancient warfare to secure or recover the body of a fallen hero. But with this difference. Here was added the modern enginery of war; bullet and bayonet, shot and shell. Whatever was savage or terrible in ancient and modern warfare was here combined. Batteries were dragged up the precipitous steeps by hand; men fought at the very muzzles of the guns, and were literally blown from before the cannon's mouth; muskets were clubbed and bayonets crossed ; our Regiment, who heard the uninter- rupted firing, describe it not as the rattle of musketry
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-rather it was a continuous roar, rising and swelling and shaking the earth, like the surf on the beach in a great storm. Both sides performed prodigies of valor; but the close of the struggle left us in posses- sion of the corpse-strown sides and summit of Little Round-top.
All this time a furious contest was going on at the angle of the peach orchard which we have spoken of, and the line running back from it. SICKLES' inces- sant cry for more men ! more batteries ! was answered by reinforcement after reinforcement sent by MEADE to "patch" his columns, but it was in vain. The line was broken. SICKLES, badly wounded, was borne to the rear. But all that men could do was done by HUMPHREYS and BIRNEY to prevent being flanked. HANCOCK, who took command when SICKLES was wounded, ordered up various detachments of the 2d Corps. The enemy had broken through our line in more places than one, and the cry came again for succor. The 3d Brigade of the 3d Division of the 2d Corps, including the 126th Regiment, heard at length the welcome order, "Fix bayonets ; shoulder arms ; left face ; forward march !" and instantly moved rapidly for a mile southward toward Round-top, then were faced westward toward a shallow ravine grown up with trees and bushes, through which were flying the routed Excelsior Brigade, driven by BARKSDALE'S Bridage in McLAWS' Division of LONGSTREET's Corps. The 39th New York were held in reserve, but the rest of the Brigade, namely, the 125th on the left, the 126th in the centre, and the 111th on the right, were
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