I'd like to welcome everybody to Gettysburg
National Military Park, Yankees and all. New Yawk? I don't know it's the Yellowstone hat I guess,
yeahhh. So my name is Matt. What we're going to do today is we're going
to have a Devil's Den tour. We're going to go out and we're going to concentrate
specifically on this sector of the battlefield. Now before we do that, I'm going to start
with big picture and then I'm going to go down to small picture. Devil's Den. Let's start with the beginning. These rocks which are out here which are unusual
rock outcroppings that still attract people 151 years after the battle. What may surprise you ladies and gentlemen
is that before the battle the unusual rock outcroppings were actually an attraction then
in the 1850s 1840s. People liked to come out to Devil's Den just
like you do today and relax, they liked to picnic out here. The name Devil's Den actually does not come
from the battle. It actually predates the battle itself. I cannot give you an exact origin of the word
but I can tell you that it's probably an Indian origin to it or possibly the legend of the
snake. For all the ghost hunters out here and somebody
I drove up when I got here about 15 minutes ago I asked some people if they wanted a tour
and they told me no they were hunting for orbs. And I said good luck to you right there. I don't guess I could give them a tour of
that. but as far as i know it has nothing to do
with cults or ghosts or anything else. as far as that matter i hate to burst your
bubble. as far as we know it's probably an old indian
name. now with that in mind devil's den when you
place that name on a battlefield that's a cool name. how many battelfields you've ever been to
that it's called devil's den. i mean yeah that's what i'm saying. so people still flock to this because of the
rocks and because of the name. now how do we get specifically here to 1863
where of all the places on this green planet out here. there's a green planet over here on her arm. out of all the places that are here on this
planet why do we end up having this as part of the battlefield. well actually ladies and gentlemen on july
2nd of 1863 and keep in mind that when i say the end i mean for that moment in time. it all depends on when you're talking about
during the battle. it all depends about when you're talking about. the end of the union line for a few hours
on july 2nd was actually here at devil's den. now if you look in front of you right up here
what is this hill called? little round top. probably more famous than devil's den arguably. but traditionally nowadays people think that
little round top is the end of the union line on july 2nd. well technically it is for a moment in time,
but before little round top was the end it was devil's den. so how do we get to this place right here. well the reason that devil's den ends up important
is because of uncle dan sickles. how many of you have heard of dan sickles? the amazing uncle dan. uncle dan
sickles ladies and gentlemen was out of seven union corps commanders was the only non-west
point graduate. and arguably and probably he conducts the
most controversial move of the battle of gettysburg when on july 2nd as a corps commander. there's seven union infantry corps in the
army. dan sickles is a commander of one of those
seven. he's got about 10,000 men a little under 10,000 men in his corps. he decides
to move his corps out in front of the rest of the union army. in other words he's supposed to be back here. all right? aligning himself with little round top. but what he does is thrust his corps out into
the middle - excuse me, from the left flank juxtaposed out in front of the rest of the
union line right out through here. i need some kids to pull this off all right
you two come over here. i'll be getting to you in just a second. actually come no i'll take you. if you stand back here i'll see how i want
to do this. you can stand beside him. this is gonna be pretty funny. okay, let's do it this way. ready? big round top. little round top. you like that? dad likes that? okay. that's pretty funny. i'm the union third corps. i'm dan sickles. she -- what's your name young lady? Sylvia. Sylvia, how nice to have you today welcome
to Gettysburg, remind me to give you some trading cards afterwards courtesy of gettysburg
national military park where you can find all your amenities here at the 6,000 acres. you are going to represent the second corps. so dan sickles is supposed to align his right
flank with the second corps and his left flank over here on little round top. pretty simple isn't it? so what dan sickles ends up doing is stepping
out front to this area. and what does he not do? he does not connect
with the second corps and he does not connect with little round top. here we get into specifically where we are
now. the left flank my left hand right here is
where we're standing right now. devil's den. the apex is the peach orchard. the right flank is along the highway. this where we're standing is where we're going
to concentrate upon today. the end of dan sickles line and in theory
for one moment in the battle the end of the union army. it ended right here where we're standing. big round top, little round top, second corps. mediocre? maybe? okay? that's what you get. who's he act like? [his mother] oh okay. the old redhead. she doesn't look too happy about it. forever eulogized in youtube. okay if you think about it out here ladies
and gentlemen what has dan sickles done? he's out here all by himself and he doesn't have
enough men to defend his position. keep that in mind as i go from this big picture
down to the smaller picture. we're now going to go from dan sickle's corps
moving out front to smaller units such as divisions. divisions comprise corps, brigades comprise
corps, and regiments comprise brigades. this division there is one brigade holding
this ridge. that is from hobart ward. just like saying the name hobart ward. i mean who would name their kid hobart? oh you're named hobart? i'm sorry. no i'm sorry i'm just kidding. you know. whatever. john henry hobart ward. he's got a good name
i like john henry. hobart though i don't know it seems like it
would lead to a lot of fights. nevermind. johnny cash thing. no he named him sue. how do you do? if you look around through here ladies and
gentlemen we're now going to go down through this area right here which is going to be
hobart ward's brigade holding devil's den. let me as we do this what i need you to do
right now is we're going to about face. i'm going to walk to the other side of the
line i'm going to stand in the road on top of here and i'll want you to look toward the
confederate position. okay. now we're at stop number two. hope you all aren't too tired from the exertion
right there. now looking out through here ladies an gentlemen
we're now looking roughly towards the west. out here in the distance is going to be seminary
and warfield ridge basically it's technically the same ridge we just have to fancy here
at gettysburg but that continuous ridge right there is where the confederate forces are
going to come up on july 2nd, 1863. they're going to be under the command of james
longstreet lee's first corps commander lee's war horse. i don't need to go into specifics but suffice
it to say longstreet is late that day. longstreet is not getting into position until
around three o'clock. around three o'clock the confederate artillery
is going to open up along that ridge out in the distance. that's going to be hood's division of longstreet's
corps out here. hood's division sitting out there deploys
his batteries and they start exchanging cannon shots with the union artillery of captain
james smith his 4th new york battery which is positioned here in devil's den. that's some heck of a shots right here but
the union actually has in this position rifled cannons. if you want to get historically correct the
guns are not located where you're standing today they're actually further up on the ridge. but as they erected their monument you want
the monument to be -- visible! that's right, big round top. if you look at it out here that monument should
actually be up here on top of the ridge historically and you would be surprised once you get into
the minutiae of the battle of gettysburg this is what's debated. this is what gettysburg battle buffs get into. the exact position of the guns. what you need to know about smith's guns is
that they've got a good artillery position to be firing long range against the confederates
don't they? and they've got rifled guns. you can tell because they're black tubes. iron guns. has rifling in them. what you also need to think about though is
it an asset or a liability if the confederates get close underneath this ridge? that's right
they shoot over them so therefore it becomes a liability because the union gunners cannot
depress their tubes that far. that could be a problem. okay with that in mind smith's guns start
to open up and they have a lively artillery duel. then looking over here in this direction where
i was just standing out here in that distant treeline which you see off in that direction
you're going to see confederate infantry start to appear. they're going to form up they're going to
come out of the woodline in column and once they get out in the field they're going to
start to form into battle formation. as they start to form into this double ranks
which we're so familiar with napoleonic tactics smith's guns up there on the ridge are going
to redouble their efforts and the shells are going to start to strike amongst the confederates. they could see it. it would look like poofs of mushrooms if you
will white smoke as they explode around the confederates. and they could probably see
some confederates fall. you have to remember though that johnny reb
over here. all these troops over here are veterans. they're not going to scare because of some
artillery fire out here on the battlefield so the confederates start to come through
here and out through there what you see in the distance is the slyder farm right there. they're going to start to come off the ridgeline
right there through here where you see the slyder farm in the distance union sharpshooters
are going to start to open up against them. they're actually union skirmishers out here
but anyway long story short the union skirmishers start to fall back. that's that woodline right here. and what do they do? the union forces draw the confederates after
them. so the confederate line which should be contiguous
right through here is actually going to start stretching and stretching and stretching until
gaps start to open up within the line. that's going to be a problem but that plays
into the fighting here at devil's den. because of the confederate lines stretching here ladies
and gentlemen that's why you have two regiments corps division brigade regiment. you have two regiments out of the four from
the brigade attacking here at devil's den and two other regiments attacking little round
top. because they separated. does that make sense to everybody? and one half went this direction and stayed
with the alabamians that were on the texans right and the other half kept straight ahead
towards devil's den but that is how you end up with two confederate units that are going
to be coming up here to attack devil's den. they don't have many troops initially is what
you need to bring away from it. let's get down to small picture. this is a very brief stop but what we're doing
right now is we're following the road into rose's woods. i don't have a lot to talk about at this stop
for my next stop is where we'll do most of the talking, but what we're doing is the road
basically follows the battle line of hobart ward. and remember what i said at the last
stop. the texas brigade which is three regiments
and one arkansas regiment comprising the four regiments comprising the brigade have split. and so now you've got the arkansas and texas
men coming towards here with the 86th new york right behind here. one of my favorite monuments because of the
symbolism. you can read that for yourself i yield him
unto his country and his god. patriotic. it's a different symbolism a different type
of patriotism inside their symbolism back then. anyway the 86th new york is part of hobart
ward's line. what i want you to also note is that rose's
woods is pretty much the parameters that it was in 1863. what we've lost and what is a problem out
here is that we don't have the animals anymore and so the animals would do what to this underbrush? they'd tramp it down and chew it up so you
could see into rose woods a lot further than you can today. and you could see those therefore you could
see those confederates coming and vice versa. the confederates could see the union up there. okay what we're going to do is we're going
to continue our hike i wanted to give you a brief breather. we're going to continue our hike down to the
intersection and hang a left and we're going to stop at the 20th indiana monument and find
out what happens here. ladies and gentlemen what we've done is we've
walked down the road from the opening at devil's den to rose woods and we're now standing here
at the 20th indiana regimental marker which is basically the right-center of the union
line. as it's facing through here. so in other words from union left to right
your left to right as you're standing here it'd be the 124th NY the 86th NY the 20th
IN and the 99th Pennsylvania over here back in the woods. you would have the 4th maine which would be
positioned basically where you parked your cars today kind of guarding the flank right
there. but right here ladies and gentlemen i want
you to take away the road i want you to take away the monument, i want you to take away
the forest, and i want you to place yourself in the shoes of one of those indiana men that
day. and you're standing here in the woods and
you can hear firing going on. but how far can you see? combat is tunnel vision. as the accounts i'm about to tell you are
very tunnel vision like. but how far with the clearing open could you
see? 30 to 50 yards maybe, but you're still in
the woods. and what are you focused upon? straight ahead. everything goes straight ahead. okay? so with that in mind 20th indiana has 286
men under colonel john wheeler sitting right here. the men are nervous. the confederates are coming. they can hear them probably coming through
the woods but they can't see them. i told you at the earlier stop that the confederates
confronting devil's den were going to be the third arkansas and the first texas from confederate
left to right. so that means the third arkansas is going
to enter the woods. civil war soldiers used to say that musket
fire from a distance sounded like somebody chopping wood. i've always liked that comparison. the axe hitting the wood right there. the muskets start popping off as the skirmishers
those are the people in front of the battleline out there feeling for the confederates. the confederates coming up through here are
going to brush aside that skirmish line and those union soldiers will come running out
of the woods hollering something like they're coming they're coming get ready get ready
and the officers the union officers would then embrace their men if they weren't loaded
already they would be loaded. you would start hearing those metallic ramrods
going down into the muskets as they shoved the bullets down into the base of the muskets. powder being torn paper being shoved in there
balls going down greased balls musket balls going down on top of it. as they start to come up through here. he
just had to come up through here. y'all watch yourself he's a patriotic fella. what do you do? there's only so much we can control. visitor safety first of course. 20th indiana sitting out here they're getting
ready for the attack and the confederates are going to start firing from a long distance
away. but when you think about the 3rd arkansas
it's the primary confederate unit that enters up in here. it's one regiment. and they're going up against three regiments. okay? pennsylvania and two new york regiments. who's got the upper hand? who's got more men? the union has got more men don't they? keep that in mind because you're right too. but let the story unfold. initially out here the union has the upper
hand. they had the higher ground the confederates
do not know where they're going and these woods are doing what to their formation? they're breaking it up. these arkansas men come on though and they
start firing. the bullets start whistling through here. the union men brace themselves and as the
confederates draw closer they open up with volleys of musketry kind of like a row of
firecrackers that you've set off you know. pop pop all the way through here. the wind unlike today is not blowing 150 years
ago and what do those muskets produce a lot of? smoke. so what do these woods fill with? a lot of white smoke and it hangs out here
heavier than a led zeppelin concert. it's a rock band from the 70s in case you. all right. those of you uninformed. the zeppelin. okay so looking out through here the arkansas
men are going to do the best they can. they're going to start shooting. it is mano a mano toe to toe. they start firing at each other. but the arkansas men are literally the union
soldiers walk into the arkansas men. i don't mean literally but i mean literally
they walk forward shooting as they advance and they drive the arkansas men back out of
rose woods where they have to reform and readjust but what do the arkansas men know now? they know where the enemy is. and colonel manning who is in charge of them
of that regiment is going to wait a few moments because coming up on his right is the first
texas that second confederate regiment now he's got support over here he knows where
the union forces are and he knows where his supports are and so they drive back into the
woods right here. this time manning instead of having a dense
line of infantry is going to disperse his line into one man deep. a single-file rank if you will. in other words he's extending his line over
to his left or to your right if you're in the crowd today. he's covering more front. those arkansas men with that yell come on
through the woods again in that arkansas style and they engage the union forces again in
close quarters fighting. you could hear the bullets impacting the bodies
up through here. now this is what i like about gettysburg. it's the places that you can get to today
that are really neat which are pristine which have really not been touched in 150 years. now i don't recommend you trying it today
but it is a free country and you're welcome to walk out there if you like. but if you happen to be here in the winter
time when the foliage is down and the bugs aren't around you can walk out into that down
that depression which is behind me right now and you can walk out into a culdesac which
is still the same terrain that those arkansas men were fighting in 150 years ago. they talk about being in a bowl. in an ellipse. and if you go down in there
without the foliage on the trees you can see it. you can see how the arkansas men would come. you'd see exactly what they'd do. they would shoot and then they would descend
down into the gully and reload. they would ascend and shoot and go back down. that way they somewhat protect themselves
even though they don't have any fortifications down there. there is not a trail there is not a monument. there is nothing to mark their spot it is
only their memories. what their recollections were. but it's pristine. so kind of cool isn't it? so with the 20th indiana fighting it out right
here the 99th pennsylvania on the union right to your right all of the sudden during the
midst of this firefight the 99th pennsylvania gets order to go to the left to extend the
line. so what do they do? 99th pennsylvania ends up being. where did big round top go? any time before
sunday sweetheart. okay this is the 20th indiana. i'm the 99th pennsylvania. we're two union regiments. the 99th is going to do what? pivot and march behind the 20th indiana and
back to where smith's battery monument is today. in fact the 99th pennsylvania monument is
on top of the ridge back where smith's battery guns should be today. but that is the reason it's not over here. it's back over here. all right in that area. with that in mind what does that do to the
union line right here? it takes union soldiers an entire regiment
out of the front of the arkansas men. so what does the 20th indiana have to do? turn this way. they have to extend themselves don't they. they have to go from being the main body to
thinning themselves out like this so they have to stretch their lines further into the
gap which they would extend two companies over here on the right flank into that area
to cover that gap right in there. and what do the arkansas men do? they can feel i have to assume they can feel
the slackening in the federal fire. but now they've got problems too in their
own right because they're coming up in here to confront the 20th indiana and all of the
sudden. do you want me to see how long you can hold
your arms up? face me. i'm the third arkansas. all of the sudden they've got a problem. you can put your arms down. all of the sudden they've got a problem. they come up in here and they start receiving
fire from over here. why is that a problem for the 3rd arkansas? it's on their left flank. very good boston. they're right over here they start getting
shot at from their left flank. this is the arrival of the 17th maine and
they are on the edge of those woods. it's hard for you to see today but if you
look up above the ends of the treetops you can see the end of the woods. that will be very hard to pick up on camera
but the 17th maine is over in that direction and they're firing into the flank of the third
arkansas. so what does arkansas do? they turn and they pivot. they make themselves into an L both to confront
the 17th maine and to confront the 20th indiana. but it boils down to a stalemate where the
arkansas men can't keep the momentum up but they can keep shooting if they don't advance. thank y'all. appreciate it boys. very kind. okay two hundred and eighty six men in the
20th indiana. you can count this. you figure this in your own head. in 25 minutes of fighting out of 286 men the
20th indiana is going to lose 146. that's a lot. that's over 50%. i'd have to do some more figuring. pull my shoes off. nevermind. so if you think about it out here their line
is thinning rapidly. so what has all this shooting done to their
ammunition? it's wiped it out. so by this time right where you're standing
they are rifling the cartridge boxes of the dead and the wounded trying to keep the rate
of fire going up through here. colonel john wheeler commanding the 20th indiana
is riding behind the line on a horse and he turns to give a command a confederate bullet
an arkansasian is going to shoot him in the temple and wheeler topples from the horse. the lieutenant colonel comes up to take command
and he gets shot. that leaves him in command of a captain. the captain sends a messenger running to the
rear to say bring me more ammunition. the messenger comes back there is none to
be had. fire your last rounds and try to get out the
best you can. how would you like to be in that position? what would it feel like? i mean i don't have any answer for that. everybody's got their own answer for that. it's going to be chaos beyond anything. confusion and chaos. with all this smoke and the anguish and pain
going on. the dead of course being heaped up further
and further on the ground. this is ground zero for civil war combat in
the rose woods a very bloody affair. What we're going to do right now is we're
going to backtrack a little bit to the 124th New York where we're going to talk about the
new yorkers and their valiant stand outside of the triangular field. looking around through here ladies and gentlemen
we're now standing back at the edge of the devil's den. if you pan back behind me that is going to
be our first stop back there in the distance. so rose woods is back behind you obviously
and we're now standing at the edge of the triangular field. now the triangular field ladies and gentlemen
is one of our more famous ghost stories as far as what's happening out here. the triangular field is supposedly where no
picture can be taken. and back before there was digital cameras
and you could get automatic pictures up here they would actually take rangers would be
asked to take a picture of the triangular field and they would take their finger and
place it over the lense as they were taking it you know and when the people got back home
they would develop the pictures remember you used to have to develop pictures and what
would end up happening? oh my! it's true! [that's terrible] it is. it's terrible. okay. it's terrible i know. but you know. triangular field right out here now as far
as the triangular field the triangular field the base of the triangle is right here. you're not going to be able to see it all
so you're just going to have to take my word for it. but the corner of the triangle the base and
the corner of the triangle right here in front of me that stone wall the triangular field
extends the base of the triangle over this rise right here where you see that big boulder
and then on the other side of the rise that declivity it starts to cut back. on this side on our side on the right side
of the triangular field it basically follows the rose woods the outline of it right here. now it's not a perfect triangle it doesn't
have a point down at the bottom of it it's actually got a flat nose on it a flat tip
if that makes sense but it does resemble a triangle in the rough sense of the term as
it goes down through there. don't embarrass the children. now with that in mind this is the spot right
in here where the 124th new york is going to take position. that is the left flank. we were basically on the right flank of hobart
ward's line now we're on the left flank of the 124th new york. the 124th new york only has 220 men in their
regiment. let me put that into context for you. their line only extends 70 yards. it is also the 124th is the most unique regimental
histories that i've ever seen because it has a foldout map inside of it and i've never
seen this before or sense but every soldier in the regiment is listed in their place in
line. isn't that cool? i mean it's even got where the sergeants were
standing the fileclosers i mean i don't know how they recreated that the battle line of
july 2nd. i've never seen anything like that. now they were known as the orange blossom
regiment because they were raised from orange county new york. as long as C keeps nodding her head i'm in
good shape right over here because she loves the 124th new york. so their line is so thin but they're the left
half that they actually have to detach a company they're somewhere over in this area probably
generally in the area where we're standing in but their line is so short that they have
to extend the company of skirmishers that they have to extend to the 86th new york off
to their right. you getting the picture? and now with the
3rd arkansas attacking over here ladies and gentlemen i give you the first texas. the first texas. these are some of the best combat troops in
the army of northern virginia. and now they look at the base of the triangular field and
they say to themselves this is one heck of an objective to try to take but in true texas
fashion they come on with that yip that texas yell and they come up and they attack. the first attack must not have been that hard
meaning they didn't try that hard for lack of a better word. maybe they weren't organized. maybe they didn't have momentum it's kind
of a king of the hill type situation. but the second attack some of the texans are
going to claim that they're going to get close enough to the new yorkers that the blasts
from their muzzles from their muskets are going to singe their uniforms of the union
soldiers. that close. if that's true. but pretty close but what do the new yorkers
succeed in doing. they succeed in driving them back but they
take casualties but they don't have many casualties to take. now throughout this ladies and gentlemen if
we'll pan the camera over here throughout this engagement the regiment is commanded
by this gentleman right here colonel van horn ellis and he is placed atop this monument
right here much like he stood on july 2nd. one new yorker said that ellis stood during
all this firefight much like a farmer watching his fields with his arms crossed just impassionately
viewing it all. and that's what they captured in stone to
hopefully last for eternity hopefully. he's van horn ellis. you'll see another reason in just a second. now ellis is somewhere in this area he's in
command of the right half of the regiment. in combat you divide up the regiments. it's not like he's the overall boss. but you can't be everywhere at once so his
second in command james cromwell is commanding the left half of the regiment which is extending
over to your right obviously as i've backed you back around. these two are forever going to be written
in the story of the triangular field. let's walk over here just a second. for a brief interlude what we have here is
a veteran of the battle. nope. this is george gargas licensed battlefield
guide and nobody loves gettysburg national military park more than george gargas. how about a round of applause for old george? [thank you] george is always very kind to
bring the rangers water and so forth and he always shows up even on the hottest of days. let's about face and i'll go back and we'll
bring back the 124th. the question is did the men like van horn
ellis' demeanor? that laid back demeanor. well yes they liked it because soldiers expect
what of their leaders back then. they expect confidence and they expect the
officers to lead from the front. now that's not exactly what's happening right
here but when you're scared who do you look to? you look to the leaders. i'm about to tell you a story that's gonna
kind of fold into that but you look to your leaders and as long as the leaders aren't
panicked my gosh if he can do it i can do it. if he can stand up there i can definitely
crouch and fire. all is not lost up through here. so yes. they did look for that. now in the midst of this the texans in between
attacks are down at the base of the triangular field. it's kind of neat if you have the time to
walk down to the base of triangular field because those big boulders down there have
to be the exact same rocks those texans were crouching behind. now in the midst of this firefight ladies
and gentlemen. this is a story that's hard to believe but
it is written as true by the texans. but in the midst of this firefight one of
hoods one of the generals scouts is going to come riding up. let's just say this is a very brave man. his name is william j barbie a true texan.
and he comes riding up on his horse to the front line with bullets flying back and forth. his horse gets shot. and barbie springs down
from the saddle without missing a step on those very boulders or one of them, it's not
identified, barbie is going to climb up on top of it and he's going to look up at the
new yorkers and he's going to start saying things to them that are unpleasant. things that you would probably hear in new
york city on a regular occasion and not in kansas. after a few moments the wounded texans are
going to start throwing their rifles up to him and barbie is going to calmly stand on
top of that boulder and fire up here on top of those new yorkers. some texans said he fired 25 times. now he's not reloading every time. he's being
thrown loaded weapons so he could fire a little bit faster than you're probably imagining
but he stood up there in the hail of those bullets zipping by him until the inevitable
is going to happen right. he messed with a new yorker very good i like
that that's a good play. a bullet is going to come in and hit barbie
in his leg. whap! barbie topples off the rock. you can't kill a texan. you just can't kill him. barbie climbs back on top of the rock. i just have to assume the ball didn't hit
his bones. may have gone clean through. it didn't hit an artery either. he climbs
back up on the rock he resumes firing probably shouts a few things up here at them and everything. he resumes firing until what happens. he gets
shot again. another bullet is going to come in and clip
barbie in the leg. i don't know. you know i looked that up before i came out
here and i have to assume it was the same leg but i don't know actually it doesn't say. hits him in the leg again but a very good
question. don't ask anymore questions. i'm just kidding. hits him in the leg again and he goes toppling
off that rock. what does he do? gets back up. frazier goes down! he climbs back up on top
of the rock -- explain it to him later he won't get that -- that's right it is. very good. down goes frazier. is that better? okay. was cossell from new york? everybody's from new york right? so barbie goes and he topples off the rock
for a second time and he climbs back up there for a third time. he starts firing again. this time he gets hit in the chest. right and he topples back off that rock. and you know what he does? he lays there but
he curses his comrades for not helping him back up on the rock again. now this is the thing. i wanted to give you one example of confederate
heroism out here and then i'm going to turn around and give you two instances of union
heroism or one story of each out here. if you think about it ladies and gentlemen
i can't imagine what seizes a person where they think that they can do that. how do you ever get the courage to climb up
on top of that rock and face the music? literally. bullets like that. i don't know if i could ever do that. i'd like to say i could you know. it's sort of like the medal of honor winners
if you will. you know medal of honor winners if they did
it on a tuesday whatever brave act which they deserve could they do it on a wednesday if
the same situation happened again? i don't know it's a moment in time so i don't
know if barbie could repeat that if the battle happened on another day but he did on july
2nd. now returning to the union side and talking
about heroism up here i told you about van horn ellis and james cromwell the two gentlemen
commanding this regiment the 124th new york. in the midst of all this ellis is still standing
here very non-chalantly. all right? that's all you're going to remember from this
tour. cromwell is not standing non-chalantly. and
so what ends up happening ladies and gentlemen is cromwell comes over to ellis somewhere
where we're standing today and he comes to ellis and he says you know we're losing men
we're losing momentum we need to attack. ellis brushes him off. cromwell goes back to his position. cromwell comes over to ellis for a second
time and he urges ellis once again to attack. and for a second time ellis sends him back
to his position but when cromwell leaves ellis turns to one of his aides and he tells him
to go behind this ridge right here and bring up the horses. in the midst of this firefight cromwell and
ellis climb into the saddle. in the midst of this. you know when you climb in that saddle nothing
good is going to come out of that. nothing. there is nothing good that can happen. nothing is going to come out of you climbing
that saddle that is positive. the soldier one soldier rushes up to him to
ellis and he says please colonel please get down please get down off the horse. and ellis looks down at him and he says the
men must see us today. what does that mean? what does ellis mean when he says that. they need to be inspired. what does it say about his life? his personal life? that's right. his life is worth this moment. do you think you could come to that moment? you climb into that saddle and it happened
over and over again on this battlefield where that's going to take place. but here at this moment cromwell is sitting
in the saddle way up there. after a few moments the smoke is pretty thick
out here. cromwell is looking over at ellis. both of them sitting in the saddle by this
time and they look at each other and ellis nods to cromwell. this is the romance of war. okay? this is what i grew up pretending playing
in houston mississippi in my parents pasture. cromwell on that horse gallops out draws his
sword out of his scabbard and gallops out over the top of this wall right here, jumps
the wall with his horse and in front of the new yorkers waves that sword over his head
and screams at his men to charge. the american flag does forward. the 124th new york state colors go forward
and the rest of the line surges ahead with a loud huzzah and down through the triangular
field go the 124th new york. the texans this is the last thing they expected
to see coming down on top of them. cromwell remains in front of the line urging
the men forward. the texans recover fairly quickly they're
loading reloading fairly fast. the new yorkers as they get down to the bottom
of the hill the texans under the supervision of the officers level their muskets those
hammers click and as those new yorkers yelling come down on top of them they fire a volley. one new yorker estimated that they lost 25%
of their men in one volley when the texans let loose. so that's roughly fifty sixty seventy men
right there in one volley. meanwhile cromwell is still in the saddle. and the texas confederate officers are going
along the edge of their men behind them and they're touching them on the soldier and they're
pointing at cromwell saying don't shoot that man don't shoot that man cause bravery like
this they don't say that but bravery like that is universal. and it should be preserved. so they're trying to get cromwell saved but
all of the sudden as they're dashing down through there, i don't know if this happened
on purpose or if it just happened cause there's a lot of things flying around in the air right
now. they said cromwell is dashing along on that
horse and all of the sudden he waves that sword and he starts to wobble. he goes forward
and he goes back and off the back of the saddle he goes tumbles off slides off the back onto
the ground. ellis is still behind the line at this time. and seeing cromwell fall in the distance ellis
dashes out ahead on horseback and he's yelling at his men my god men my god your major is
down save him save him. and the new yorkers the battle line which
is stopped in the middle of the triangular field surges ahead again with ellis now leading
them on on horseback. as he's dashing down through there urging
his men to follow him on all of the sudden ellis is going to turn to give an order and
as he's halfway through it he stops and he starts to reel in the saddle. his horse starts to go out of kilt and ellis
is going to pitch straight forward off of that horse and land in those boulders head
first. he didn't make it don't know what killed him the thunder or the lightning but he didn't
make it. when ellis goes down the new yorkers are running
out of momentum at this point. loss of men lack of ammunition. and loss of leadership up here. they will recover cromwell and ellis' body
and bring them back as they retreat up the hill. they drive the texans back momentarily but
confederate reinforcements come up under benning's georgians and the handwriting is almost on
the wall at this point. let's about face for one last cool story and
we'll move on to our conclusion. let me get this car past. come on. that monument which i pointed out to you earlier
to the 124th new york there's a reason why the 124th new york monument is there. it's their battle line. but there is a specific reason why that monument
sits upon that rock right there. the reason for that is ladies and gentlemen
is when colonel ellis is brought back up that hill his body his lifeless body is placed
on that boulder. that is why the veterans wanted to come here
in the postwar year and erect a monument on that spot. literally that rock is soaked with his blood. right there. that is a pretty neat story and there are
hundreds of those here at gettysburg national military park waiting for you to find. okay we're going to walk down to basically
the big tree down here and we're going to finish off the fighting down there. looking around through here ladies and gentlemen
we're now back under the best tree on the whole battlefield at this moment, the one
giving us all shade. now we have walked in the course of this program
right here the length of hobart ward's line. we have started here on the left flank of
the line on july 2nd and devil's den and we have walked all the way down almost to the
exact right flank to rose's woods and now we're back. so i told you at our last stop ladies and
gentlemen that the new yorkers pushed the texans back but were stopped by confederate
reinforcements. those are going to be under the command of
rock benning and they're all georgians. and bennings brigade is going to come up through
here right in the nick of time and help these texans out who don't have enough men to get
up over the hill. the georgians are also going to extend their
line all the way around to the south end of devil's den. they will be joined over here in this direction
by alabamians who have shifted around. the 44th and 48th alabama who are going to
be coming through here. now i've told you about the union forces up
here. the 99th pennsylvania has shifted down. that is their regimental monument up there
on top of the ridge. remember they're up there on the right. they're now on the left. the 4th maine is fighting valiantly for its
life down here in the parking lot but they're going to have to give way. with one last surge the confederates texans
georgians some alabamians are going to start working their way up this ridge. now you look at where you're seated today
where you're standing around. smith's new york battery is up there on top
of the ridge. what do we talk about at the beginning of
the talk? what is the problem with the artillery now
that the confederates are working themselves amongst these boulders? that's right. you can't fire through them. you can't hit them. so what are the texans and georgians going
to wait on? they wait on the cannons to fire, then they
pop up behind those boulders and pick them off. now it's advantage confederate because of
the terrain. and they're lower and it's hard for those
union guns to depress to hit them. they become prime targets. there are four union cannons on top of that
ridge right there. the georgians surge ahead the texans with
them. they get up to the top of the ridge right
there and they seize upon three of those guns. they get one out of there. they end up capturing three of those cannons
on top of the ridge and push them back. the 124th new york melts away along with the
rest almost the rest of the hobart ward's line. union is not done though. the fourth maine who is down in that parking
lot regroups and captain smith with tears streaming down his eyes rushing back behind
the hill and begs these union officers to retake his guns. he doesn't want to lose his
cannon. the union counter-attack along with the 40th
new york and sixth new jersey they're going to be counterattacking here when the union
line surges ahead and right here where we're standing and on top of the ridge they throw
the confederates back off the top and the confederates retreat back off the hill in
this direction. the confederates regroup and they start working
their way and circling the union troops until finally the force of numbers is going to make
those union men fall back and relinquish those three cannons up on top. and finally the confederates are in possession
of devil's den. now in conclusion ladies and gentlemen what
you need to know is tactically devil's den is a confederate victory. tactically. small battlefield picture. big picture what is the true objective of
the battlefield of this area. what is the objective which controls the area? little round top. that is what controls the area out here. and what the union troops have done here. come on through. what the union troops have done here although
they did not know they were doing it but what the union troops have done here is buy time. they have bought time for union reinforcements
to get to little round top and they have kept these confederates which ordinarily would
have attacked behind those union reinforcements. they have kept them engaged here at devil's
den until even more union forces can reach little round top. that's the big picture. the confederates are pretty much spent by
taking devil's den. they had hit the enemy head on they had showed
given a very good account of themselves fighting wise but they are out of gas and the true
objective is yet to be captured. all this of course hindsight being my benefactor. devil's den ladies and gentlemen is a microcosm
of the bigger picture here at the battle of gettysburg. it has the big picture of being the flank
of the union army. it has the small picture of these individual
men who rise to the occasion on july 2nd and through their actions and through their heroism
are going to leave devil's den as one of those indelible names in american history that will
not soon be, hopefully, forgotten. thank y'all very much. [applause]
