Gettysburg

At the end of June in 1863, three Union Army regiments from Vermont marched toward Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. A Confederate commander had taken his troops there in search of shoes. Some of his troops had an encounter with Union men, shots had been fired, and both Union and Confederate Commanders had sent word for all available troops to get to the Pennsylvania college town as quickly as possible. All nine roads leading into Gettysburg began to clog with incoming troops.

The 2^nd Vermont Brigade was made up of five regiments, all comprised of men who had volunteered for a nine month tour. The 2^nd Vermont had wintered in Fairfax, Virginia. They had been in a few small skirmishes, and their original commander had been captured, but all in all, they had seen no real action. There were Upper Valley soldiers in three regiments, the 12^th, the 15^th, and the 16^th.

The 12^th Vermont regiment had companies from West Windsor, Woodstock, Tunbridge and Bradford, with men from Hartland, Barnard, Pomfret, Chelsea, Corinth, Bradford, Newbury and Fairlee as well. The 15^th Vermont had a company from West Fairlee, with men from Vershire, Thetford, Strafford, Bradford and Newbury. The 16^th Vermont had companies from Bethel; including men from Royalton, Barnard and Norwich, and Barnard; including men from Hartford, Sharon, Pomfret and Hartland.

On July 1, our boys from Vermont had been on forced march for five days, in weather that was alternately rainy, humid, dry and dusty, but always, always hot. As they got closer to Gettysburg, the roads became more and more packed with regiments on the move. Howard Coffin, in his book “Nine Months to Gettysburg”, quotes Private Ralph Sturtevant of the 13^th Regiment. “The morning of July 1 was cloudy and gloomy, all was commotion and confusion and the vast army all about was moving in the direction of Gettysburg....a grand and imposing spectacle. Every road was filled with a moving mass of soldiers occupying every available avenue, path or field over which an army could march. Everything seemed to be on the move, the forest, cattle-dotted meadowlands, fields of waving grain, the clouds about and the land beneath, all apparently moving in the same direction.”

The numbers alone are almost too overwhelming to comprehend. The 2^nd Vermont arrived at Gettysburg at sundown, after the first day's battle was over. Statistics vary, but the most commonly. quoted numbers are more or less 20,000 Union troops and around 30,000 Confederate troops on that first day. 50,000 soldiers fighting in a college town roughly the size of White River/Wilder. If you imagine White River downtown as the town, and Wilder being mostly flat farmland with ridges all around it, you could get a somewhat reasonable picture of the size of the battlefields, with the battlefields extending all the way from, say, the top of the hill where Hartford High School is to Dothan Brook School, but much wider, really wider than you can see. On that first day, while the 2^nd Vermont was still marching, fighting was fierce in the ridges, woods and stone walls around the town, sometimes spilling over into the town itself. Day One was a defeat for the Union. They withdrew through the town, forming a three mile long defensive line in a fishook formation, on Cemetary Hill and Cemetary Ridge south of the town.

You can see from the map (which I got off of Wikipedia) that on day one the fighting started north of town, the Union forces were driven through the town, and they managed to form a defensive line on Cemetery Hill and Cemetery Ridge. If Lee had been able to regroup his troops real quick at the end

of that first day, and break through that fishhook line, Gettysburg would have been a one day battle and a Confederate victory. Confederate commanders decided not to try to take Cemetery Ridge because they felt their troops were too exhausted and that it would be better to wait for reinforcements.

                                           The view from Cemetary Ridge.  I think this road is the Baltimore Pike, and I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't a tree
                                                                     from the Copse of Trees

The Union's defensive position on Cemetery Hill and Ridge was crucial. Cemetery Hill right in the middle of all the roads leading into town, and also gave a commanding view of the town. The Baltimore Pike, running right in back of Cemetery Hill, was the most important road to the Union. This road ran north from Westminster, Maryland, which was the location of the railroad station where the Union Army offloaded supplies destined for Pennsylvania. General Mead, Commander of the Army of the Potomac, used the telegraph office in Westminster as his communication line to Washington.                                                                                   

The 2^nd Vermont arrived at Gettysburg at dusk on July 1. The battle was over for that day, but the evidence of battle would have been everywhere. They were directed to lay down to rest near a copse of trees on Cemetery Ridge. Keep these trees in mind.  Our guys didn't move far from this copse of trees until they left Gettysburg. Upon arrival, the 12^th regiment was ordered to go back 20 miles, to guard supply trains in Westminster. Howard Coffin quotes a letter from Roswell Farnum, from Bradford, second in command of the regiment. Farnum says, “Most of them (the troops) have blistered feet and I saw one man today whose feet were purple over two thirds of the bottom from blood settling. We marched eight days in succession and marched twenty-three and a half miles on the last day. It rained every day but one. The roads were very muddy and the mens' shoes gave out entirely in some instances.” The 12^th was about to march for 20 more miles. The next day, the 15^th regiment was ordered to guard supply wagons 2 ½ miles outside town. This left the 13^th, 14^th, and 16^th regiments on the battlefield.

On the second day, fierce fighting occurred all around the Union's fishhook defense line on Cemetery Ridge. If you look at the map, there were engagements in the Peach Orchard, Devil's Den, and from Wolf's Hill, all with Cemetery Ridge as their ultimate objective. These engagements are all worth studying. The fighting at Devil's Den and the fighting over Little Round top are especially legendary. The 2^nd Vermont was not the only Vermont Brigade at Gettysburg. The 1^st Vermont was there and ^th Vermont, which,  along with the 13^th and 14^th, stayed on the defense line at Cemetery Ridge. Although the battle didn't reach the ridge, they were being shelled and fired on.

held a reserve position at the rear of Big Round Top. There were Vermonters in three companies of sharpshooters, who fought on the second and third days. Here, I am just focusing on the the 16

Toward evening, a gap developed in the Union's line. Advancing Georgian soldiers almost made it over Cemetery Ridge, but Union soldiers, including the 13^th Vermont, beat them back, with the 14^th and 16^th as backup. The three Vermont units then took their places to fill the gap on the front line. At the end of the day, the fishhook was intact, although two days of brutal fighting had certainly taken its toll.

When night had finally fallen, Colonel Veazey posted a picket line along the ridge. Howard Coffin quotes Francis Clark from Bridgewater, who described the scene at about 9:00. “Here and there the moon revealed, amid the trampled grain, prostrate forms, whom no long roll, or reveille, could rouse again. The air was tremulous with sound, low and almost indescribably, resembling a far-off and just audible moaning of a forest of pines. It was the groaning of the wounded swelling up from field and wood and blending for miles in one low inarticulate moan.” The 16th Vermont ended their day sitting on cemetary ridge, in the dark, hearing the sounds of many thousands of wounded and dying men,

For the three Vermont regiments, the morning of July 3^rd began with incoming cannonfire. Lee's plan for July 3^rd was much the same as for the preceding day. July 2^nd had ended in an unsuccessful Confederate attempt to capture Culp's Hill. Looking now at a map of the battle on Day 3, Culp's Hill

is  on the right flank of the Union line. The curved part of the fishhook ends at Culp Hill. The fishhhook is a little bit longer. The Union has lengthened the defensive line to include Little Round Top hill and Round Top hill. Starting with the cannonfire at 4:30 AM, Confederate troops attacked Culp's Hill for 7 hours. At 11:30, Lee realized this tactic wasn't going to work. At noon, the fight for Culp's Hill was over.

Lee was still determined that this was it. The Confederate forces needed to damage the Union here at Gettysburg. He felt that this was the decisive moment of the war. He had attacked both ends of the fishhook, and had failed at both. Efforts to capture Little Round Top and Round Top during the morning on early July 2^nd had failed. Efforts to capture Culp's Hill during the evening of July 2^nd and morning of July 3^rd had failed as well. At noon on July 3, Lee decided that the Union line was weakest in the middle, and that would be the spot to focus Confederate strength.

For the boys from Vermont, noon was dead quiet and blisteringly hot. Some of the guys went to a nearby spring to fill canteens, and were shot at by rebel sharpshooters sitting in trees within range of the Spring. A quote from Coffin's book says that our soldiers are about one-third of a mile south of Cemetery Hill, at the foot of the west slope of Cemetery Ridge.

For an hour, there was dead quiet. Then at 1:00, all hell broke loose. 150 Confederate cannons began a bombardment that lasted for an hour and a half. The Union responded in kind, and both sides became enmeshed in an earsplitting exchange of shot and shell. In “Pickett's Charge”, by Richard Rollins, a soldier says, “The bombardment opened up with a fury beyond description. 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 at his neighbor lying beside him to be heard at all. The constant roar of nearly four hundred cannon on both sides, was terrific beyond description. Men could be seen bleeding from both ears from concussion.” With the bombardment, Lee hoped to weaken the Union defenses enough to make them easier to overwhelm by an attack. In reality, most of the shells landed to the rear of Union forces. On the other hand, Union shells met their mark, and inflicted a fair amount of damage.

At 2:30, the shelling stopped as suddenly as it started, and an eerie silence returned. Then, in the distance, a mile-long line of Confederates stepped out of the woods and began a slow, measured march across the fields in front of Cemetery Ridge. From the beginning of their mile-long march toward their objective of a clump of trees on the middle of the ridge, the Confederate soldiers were mowed down by guns defending the Union line. Returning fire the whole way, the rebels closed ranks and kept coming. A quote from Coffin's book says, “On they came, regardless of the carnage among them, nearer and nearer, until horse and rider, officer and private, standards and banners waving in the lead plainly seen, almost within musket range, the right wing now face to face with Stannard's brigade.”

As the Confederates advanced closer and closer to Cemetery Ridge and the copse of trees in the middle, they seemed to be headed directly toward the 14^th Vermont. The three Vermont regiments opened fire and “at every volley, the grey uniforms fell thick and fast” (Coffin). The attack was headed toward “The Angle” a part of the Union line that made a corner around a stone wall. The Confederates kept coming, regardless of the fact that Union fire had made huge gaps in their line. It looked like, in spite of overwhelming odds, the southern onslaught was going to break through the Union line

As the Confederate wave attacked the Union position at the angle, George Stannard realized that their right flank was completely exposed. He ordered the 13^th and the 16^th to swing around at a right angle and face the attackers at their right flank. All that time spent drilling while they were hanging out in Vermont ended up being time well spent, as this was a maneuver our guys had practiced many times. The 13^th and 16^th fired at almost point-blank range into Confederate ranks. This drove the Rebels back and made them bunch up, making them even more vulnerable to Vermont firepower.

It appeared that the fighting at The Angle had ended, with Vermont's men taking hundreds of prisoners and the flag of the 8^th Virginia becoming a possession of the 16^th Vermont, when yet another enemy contingent attacked. Again, Stannard sent his men into the fray, and hundreds more prisoners were taken, and another flag captured, the flag of the 2^nd Florida, taken by Charles Brink, of Weathersfield, also of the 16^th.

In later years, the spot of the engagement between Vermont troops and the Confederates from Virginia and Florida at the Angle would become known as the “High Water Mark”, the northernmost spot where Southern troops advanced into Union territory. There, Vermont troops overpowered the Southern invaders and sent them back into the South. The war would last for another two years, with the Confederacy always on the defensive.

After that final encounter, the three Vermont regiment returned to their original position, and weathered a last barage, delivered by Confederate artillery as a cover for their retreating infantry. During those final moments, General Stannard was wounded by a piece of shrapnel that hit his thigh and went down deep into the muscle. Although in agonizing pain, Stannard waited to receive medical care until he was sure all his remaining men were safe.

Of the original 2400 men at Gettysburg, 342 of the 2^nd Vermont were killed, wounded or missing in action. Of the 5 regiments comprising the brigade, there were soldiers from the Upper Valley in the 12^th, 15^th, and 16^th, and only the 16^th saw action on the actual battlefield at Gettysburg. An article by Anthony Buono, originally printed in “America's Civil War Magazine” available online at Historynet, quotes praise from Major General George Meade and Major General Abner Doubleday regarding Stannard and his Vermont regiments. “Meade said, 'There was no individual body of men who rendered a greater service at a critical moment then the comparatively raw troops commanded by General Stannard.' Major General Abner Doubleday said: 'It is to General Stannard…that the country is mainly indebted for the repulse of the enemy's charge and the final victory of July 3. [His] brilliant flank movement… greatly contributed to if it did not completely insure our final success.”

 

(I didn't want to interrupt the narrative of Pickett's Charge with a map, but here is a map depicting the charge.  You can see that of all of the Brigades named, they were all defensive except Stannard's.  Stannard's men are shown with arrows going back toward Pickett's incoming arrow, which indicates that they counterattacked in two directions. Again, I got all of these maps from Wikipedia.)