Folks, we’re gonna talk today about General
Meade on the 2nd of July. And what we're going to do is, we got some challenges to overcome.
So we're going to have a little walk through here. The 2nd of July is an interesting day
for a lot of reasons. There will be detractors that talk about him not wanting to fight here,
I think you know who I'm talking about. That, that these detractors say they were the ones
that forced Meade to fight here on this day. And so what we’re gonna do, is we’re gonna
kinda challenge the naysayers on that and talk about what a active role General Meade
will take on the 2nd of July. We have a couple of problems in doing that. One is, is that
General Meade is not boastful in his writings and he doesn't take credit for anything. I
guess he would like historians to do their job and so he leaves it up to us to make sure
we capture what he does here. When you read his reports you don't see, “I ordered this”
or, “I ordered that.” Doesn’t say that all he'll say, “Things happened.” Well
lets, lets see if we can find the thumbprints today a little bit. Everyone got good shoes
on, I hope. Because we’re going to do a little bit of walking. We’re gonna end up
about right here, I dunno where. Somewhere between here and the Pennsylvania monument,
depending upon how we feel and all that. Okay. What I need for us to do right now, is to
form in two lines facing each other and so what I'd like is, is, is one line right about
here and one line right about there, about 5 feet facing each other. If I could get that.
equal numbers in each group. Okay, Civil War. How many bullets do we carry? 60! 60. 40.
40 to 60 but these fellows are carrying 40. How many rounds can we shoot in a minute? Three.
Two to three, so if you're going to be involved in a pitch battle, how long can you last?
Time wise? 30 to 40 minutes? Maximum, can be less than 20 minutes. And so if you're
a senior man and you send somebody somewhere to go do something you've got to do something
more in 20 minutes, or he's going to be in trouble. Right, and that's on your responsibilities.
Ok. And we’re gonna come back to that in a little while. So that’s one thing we have
to know. The second thing we have to know is, when I deploy in line, like we are now,
one group facing another, we have a degree of security on both sides. Generally speaking,
an equal number of people, can, for a while, withstand the pressure from the other person.
Everybody understand that? Do you feel comfortable with that statement? Aside from one side being
cowards or whatever, but, you understand what I’m talking about? Ok? Ok. Now what I’d
like to do is, take this group here, this line here, and just split right here. Go in
that direction about 10 feet each. In each direction. That’s pretty good. Close it
up. Keep your line. What I’m doing intentionally is putting a gap in the line. Now if I’m
a commander on this side, of the line, and I have a gap in my line. A minute ago I was
comfortable with it. It didn’t matter on what side I was. But now am I comfortable?
Am I comfortable with this situation. No. No. No, I’m not. Gaps in the line have a
dramatic effect on the commander opposite. Does everyone understand? Is that confusing
to anybody? At all? Everybody got it? Ok, good. Now we can gather around again. We’ve
made our point. We’re gonna explore the impact that gaps will have, on commanders
on opposite sides. So I needed you to walk through that, so you could have it in your
mind. I don’t know that people think about that very often. Ok? Ok. Ok, let’s talk
a little bit about the 2nd of July and General Meade. He’s now got four days on the job.
So, he’s 33% more experienced than he was the days before.Right. Early in the morning
he is primarily focused on the other side of the line, on the right side of the line.
He’s gonna do what he calls a strong and decisive attack on the other side of Culp’s
Hill. He has the 12th Corp over there, the 5th Corp that came in in the morning, and
he’s waiting for 6th Corp to come in. Total of about 35,000 men. He has been, in the morning,
exchanging messages with the 12th Corp commander, over there, Slocum. He does not know that
Slocum has taken up a new line. On toward noon, Slocum is going to inform him, “I’ve
taken up a new line, it’s not good for offense, but it’s good for defense.” So Meade’s
gonna confirm that. He’s gonna send Gouverneur Warren over there. But you can now imagine
his discomfort, as he has wasted half a day. And so, if I were him, Slocum’s name would
go in my book. Because I don’t like people making decisions without telling me. Right?
Ok. He is, at that time, again, about noon, going to dispatch 5th Corp, from over by Culp’s
Hill, and those fellows are going to go down to very near the George Spangler Farm. The
entire corp is by the George Spangler Farm. In the morning, and during that time frame,
General Sickles is supposed to be here. He commands 3rd Corp. His line is, generally,
from here to Pennsylvania Monument, and he’s supposed to be tied into the Round Tops. But
he doesn’t like his line. He has been sending messages back, aides back, saying, “I don’t
know exactly where I’m supposed to be,” “How much latitude do I have?” was another
message, “in forming my line?” Do we have any Sickles relatives here? Just checking.
12th Corp was down near Little Round Top the night before. One division of 12th Corp, that
means about 1,200 horses and 1,000 campfires for coffee. And, so, for Sickles to say that
he couldn’t tell where his line was supposed to be, not only was he visually impaired,
but nose impaired, from the horses. Everybody got me? Ok. But Sickles, but Sickles damns
himself, pardon? He was temporarily insane again? Might work. But Sickles damns himself
in his own writing. Sickles will writes that, on toward the end of morning, he is gonna
go get General Hunt, the artillery commander, and ask him, “Don’t you see that this
platform, that I’d like to go to, the peach orchard, is better than where I’m supposed
to be?” And Hunt says, “Yes, but I’m not a commander, I can’t approve that.”
And, so, Hunt’s own writing says, “I wasn’t where I was supposed to be.” Sickles, did
I say Hunt’s writing, Sickles’s writing, wasn’t where he was supposed to be. So now
Sickles is gonna move forward, and he’s gonna occupy a very long line. It is a non-contiguous
line. It has gaps in the line. Ok. A brigade here, a brigade there. And gaps, and we’ve
already talked about gaps today, and how important they were in the Civil War. So about 3 o’clock,
General Meade has called a meeting at his headquarters to talk about the late afternoon.
5th Corp is down here, 6th Corp is due in momentarily, another 13,000 men. Maybe there’s
something that can be done on the 2nd of July. So he’s gonna have a meeting with his Corp
commanders, at 3 o’clock. 3 o’clock, also, by then General Lee has issued instructions
to Longstreet. Longstreet has conducted his march and counter-march. Longstreet is coming
out of the low ground, very near where the Longstreet Tower is today. And so, at about
3 o’clock, the cannons are gonna go off at the peach orchard. Now, I’m General Meade
again. Who did I fight on the 1st of July? Longstreet? Huh? I fought General Buell coming
in from the north, and who coming in from the west? Hill. A.P. Hill. And now I have
noise, way down, at a part of the battlefield, so who is that? Longstreet. Ok, and how much,
how many troops does Longstreet have? He has three divisions right? He has two divisions.
Yeah, but Longstreet wasn’t telling General Meade, “Yeah, I’ve only got two.” He
figures he has three. Worst case it. So he’s got three divisions and they think it’s
about 10,000 men each. So now I’m being assaulted by a flank, on my flank, with about
30,000 men. What has the Army of the Potomac done for two years, now, when hit on the flank?
Retreat. That has been a sufficient amount of stress, on the commander, to retreat. What
does Meade do immediately? He’ll order General Sykes, over here, to hold the high ground
at all cost. He will also tell his chief engineer, Gouverneur Warren, to go down to the southern
part of the battlefield. And Gouverneur Warren will go up Little Round Top and take a look-see,
and start taking action at that point. And he’s gonna ride forward, and buried behind
the peach orchard, there’s a gnoll. But very near the peach orchard, he’s gonna
ride up, and start looking at what he has got to deal with. Sometime after, he will
also direct Hancock’s 2nd Corp down here to assist down here, against the Round Tops.
And so, we will read you those reports in a minute. He will also direct 12th Corp, part
of 12th Corp, to reinforce down here as well. Ok. Any questions so far? The important thing,
to this point, is for you to recognize that the man is not considering retreating right
now. Ok. Everybody got it? Ok, what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna go from here, go
down to the George Weikert Farm and find some shade down there, and pick up the story. Any
questions before we leave? Ok, let’s go. Caldwell’s division was in mass formation,
down over by the Pennsylvania Monument. Down here, the dome monument. So Caldwell will
be ordered, by Hancock, to get his division ready and start moving. Caldwell’s division
is a little bit less than 4,000 men. They had been cut up, pretty badly, at Fredericksburg,
and a little bit, not badly, not too badly, at Chancellorsville. But there are a little
less than 1,000 men in each brigade. So it’s been cut up pretty good, they’ve got some
new commanders as well. So, Caldwell’s gonna come down this ridge here, where we just walked.
One of General Sickles’s aids, is gonna bump into one of his brigade commanders, and
ask him to follow him. And the brigade commander is smart enough to ask, “Well who do you
represent?” “General SIckles,” “If you give me the order from General Sickles,
then I will follow it.” And so, the aid says, in the name of General Sickles. So,
Zook’s brigade, three brigades, are gonna go like this, the fourth brigade is gonna
go to the other side of these trees. Ok. Here’s Caldwell’s report, “Early in the afternoon
the 2nd Corp had moved forward some distance toward the Emmitsburg Road, engaged the enemy,
and I was ordered to support. I had moved but part of the distance required when a column
of 5th Corp appeared, coming to the assistance, and by order, I resumed my former position.
The battle was raging with considerable fury at the left, where, between 4 and 5 o’clock
I received orders, with my command, to General Sykes.” Sykes is the commander of 5th Corp.
So you see here, Caldwell is not ordered to go and report to Sickles, he’s going to
report to Sykes, regular army guy. “I moved immediately by the left flank and sent forward
my aid, Lieutenant Cross, to find General Sykes. But he did not succeed in finding him.
Before reaching the position designated for me, I met a staff officer, who told me he
had orders to place me.” So now we’ve got three brigades going in this direction,
and one brigade going around the tree line. The cannons are still operating in the peach
orchard. The timeline is about 45 minutes. They’re gonna operate, for as long as it
takes, for Hood’s division to shift. General Lee has decided, that rather than attacking
with two divisions, one behind the other, they’re gonna start by spreading the two
divisions out and make them on line. So that’s gonna take about 45 minutes or so to accomplish.
And so all these actions are occuring, while that shift is going on. Now, for the longest
time, I thought that these 3 brigades are gonna proceed down the horse trail down here.
But, I think maybe not. I think they proceeded along this tree line, over here, because they
talk about crossing two fence lines while they moved. And that over there only has one
fence line, and this line has two. So, I think it was here, and they moved along the treeline.
So what we’re gonna do, is, we’re gonna go from here, it’s a little bit of a walk,
but we’re gonna go from here to Wheatfield Road. And then down Wheatfield Road a bit.
But it’s in the shade, so it’s gonna be a nice, easy walk for us. Ok. Any questions
before we leave here. Somebody had one a minute ago. Just protecting his flank down here,
General Meade has been accused of ignoring this flank early in the second day, but he
didn’t. He had a division and he replaced it with a corp, hoping to get reports, I suppose,
of something happening, like Longstreet coming up. And there’s something else, going on
here. And that is, is that, when the day started, Buford’s cavalry division was down over
here. And during the course of the morning, at some time, Buford got permission to go
some other place. And, so, Meade is probably of the assumption that there’s cavalry down
here as well. And, when Buford goes some other place, he’s not backfilled. There’s no
cavalry down here. We know that General Meade does not know that, because, when he finds
out that Buford has departed and there’s nobody else, cavalry to replace him, what
does he do? Who does he speak to? Pleasonton, his cavalry commander, because that’s the
only person that could have spoken to Buford, and gotten Buford to move. And Pleasonton
did not backfill him. So he also expects there’s a cavalry division down here, protecting his
flank as well. Any other questions before we leave here? It’s safe to assume the threats
are all north and west, and he arrived at the battlefield on the night of the first
in the dark, so he’s, I mean, it takes some time for him to scout all of the position
and determine all of the needs and for your reports to get from here to headquarters and
then for him to make a decision, so, I mean, is it really ignoring or is it just the slowness
of communication in the 19th century army? It does not take five minutes to get that
far, he is, by the end of the morning he is a little bit aggravated, I think, at Sickles.
Because Sickles just keeps going, I don’t know where I’m supposed to be. At one point,
he’s near his headquarters, at one point, at one point, he points to the Round Top,
and he just says, “Link into that.” So he’s getting a little bit frustrated with
this corp commander. Could he have paid more attention? Maybe. Just to get, sort of, the
lay of the land before Sickles moved out, would Humphreys be roughly in behind where
we are now, with Birney further down, or where were the divisions even at? That would be
a fair assessment. Yep. He’ll start moving people at about noon, his sharpshooters and
a couple infantry regiments. He’ll start moving a little bit forward, then he’s gonna
start migrating forward. And so, by 3 o’clock he has migrated forward. Ok. And if you’re
a student, you’re going to see, the first person to discover it, for the Confederates,
is General Pendleton. The artillery commander, he writes about wanting to take a bath, and
he’s in Willoughby Run, and he doesn’t want to bath in front of people, I don’t
know why. But he says he goes further down in Anderson’s division to take a bath. That’s
when he looks up and sees Federal troops in the peach orchard. And so at that point he
says, “I proceeded further south, knowing that General Lee was down there, to inform
him that there had been a change.” Ok. What other questions you got? About what time is
it, while these maneuvers you’re discussing? 3:00, 3:10 to 4 o’clock. So he’s got time
to maneuver, getting ready for the assault, that he knows that is coming at about 4:00,
right. Yep. Yeah. The assault will begin at about 4:00. What other questions you got?
Ok, let’s go out to the road and go for a gentle walk. Let’s pick up the story line
with Caldwell moving down. One, he’s moving very rapidly. His brigades are in the wrong
formation. They’re going to come out of the treeline over here and go down the road
a little bit, where Wheatfield Road is now. Cross is his lead brigade. Cross is going
to very quickly move into the correct formation. He has his file closers on the wrong side,
ok. So it’s a very quick march. Caldwell knows he’s gotta get down there as fast
as he can. This is Hancock’s report, “Having been directed by General Meade to send a division
to the assistance of 3rd Corp, with orders to report to General Sykes, the 1st Division,
under General Caldwell, was dispatched to the scene of conflict. The division was assigned
to its position by one of General Sykes’s staff officers. As soon as could form a line
of battle, the division advanced, It’s left at the foot of Round Top mountain and drove
the enemy steadily before it until, from want of any connection on its right, the right
flank of the division was turned by a column of the enemy.” By now several things have
happened, by the time Caldwell gets here. Over on Houck’s Ridge and Devil’s Den,
now, up here, Ward’s brigade has withstood several attacks of the Confederates. Ward
has done his job and bought time. But, now, Ward’s men, short of ammunition, are going
to have to start to fall back. So, right now, that part of the line is kind of like “Indian
country,” if you know what I mean. On the far side of the trees over here is Zook’s
brigade, and they’re gonna link up in the same general area as General Barnes out of
5th Corp. He’s got, Barnes has got two brigades over there. His third brigade is now moving
toward Little Round Top. So that’s good, that’ll be Strong Vincent’s. Over here
on Munshower Hill, that hill back here where we turned right on, to come down Wheatfield
Road, by now Ayer’s division out of 5th Corp is up there. Neither Burbank or Day,
the two brigade commanders mention it, but their company commanders do. They talk about
seeing Caldwell going across their front. And so, to see that, they’ve got to be over
here, on Munshower Hill. Ok. Here is Burbank’s report, “At this time, the brigade occupied
on the left side of an extremely rough and rocky hill, the right, extending into the
woods with some heavy undergrowth. The whole line moved forward to the foot of the hill
and out of woods to the edge of the wide marsh,” Right there. “At the double quick and move
forward to some shelter near some woods. At this time, the left flank was very much exposed.
During this time, another corp, 2nd I think, was advancing across our front and perpendicular
to my line, to attack the enemy on the left. In a short time, these troops fell back, and
as they did, so I ordered my line forward to offense.” So Caldwell’s division is
gonna deploy, very quickly, the entire division is gonna deploy in about ten minutes. Cross’s
brigade - boom. Kelly’s brigade - boom. Brook’s brigade, is gonna go in as well.
And then, Zook is on the far side of the field. So with 4,000 men, or less, Caldwell is gonna
have a pretty good affect. Caldwell is gonna advance, from across the wheatfield, down
across the low ground, all the way up to the backyard of Rose’s Farmhouse. That’s gonna
be a significant break in the Confederate line. Remember, we talked about breaks in
the line and how important they are back then. Over by the Rose Farm, someone is watching
that occur. That’s Kershaw. And Kershaw is with his South Carolinians, supposed to
advance against the peach orchard. And behind him is Semmes’s brigade. Semmes is to support
Kershaw, and go where Kershaw sends him. He can go right over Kershaw, to the right, or
to the left. Everybody got it? Now, up till now, General Lee’s plan was to do what?
To drive in the Federal flank up the Emmitsburg Road, toward Cemetery Hill. And so now that
advance was supposed to go this way, which way is it going right now? It’s going toward
the wheatfield. And now I’m in Kershaw, got Kershaw’s brigade. I’m halfway into
McLaw’s division. I’ve spent a lot of my energy, and I’m still playing around
in the wheatfield. And Kershaw, near the Rose Farm, sees a large body of Federal troops
marching across the wheatfield. Who’s that? Caldwell’s division. And so what does he
do, he tells Semmes to move in on his right. Go into the wheatfield, more energy into the
wheatfield. If Semmes had gone the other way, it might have been a little different, later
on, in the afternoon. But, we’re concerned with gaps in the line, so Semmes is gonna
be drawn into the maelstrom of the wheatfield, ok. Ok, let’s see now, here’s Crawford,
another division commander in 5th Corp. “At 2 o’clock, an order had reached me to form
my command at once and proceed toward the left flank of our line when my position would
be indicated by a staff officer. The first division of the corp which I had been directed
to follow, had taken a different road from that indicated to me. Under the guidance,
however, of Captain Moore, an aid to the commanding general of the army. Meade’s thumbprint.
He has aids, he tells the aids, this is what I want done. And he goes and extends his authority
that way, by using his aids. Aids do not sit and cogitate on their own. And say, “I’m
gonna go and go get Caldwell or Crawford’s division, and take them by a different route,
and put them in myself.” Aids don’t do that. Ok. So now we have General Meade’s
thumbprint, on placing Crawford’s division as well. “I pushed rapidly forward and arrived
in a short time upon the field and reported to General Sykes. I received orders at once
to mass my troops upon the right of a road running through our lines, near our left flank,
descending a rocky slope, crossed a low marshy ground, right in front of us again, to a wheatfield,
lying between two thick belts of woods beyond.” So Caldwell’s division goes into the wheatfield,
and has a significant impact. How long do units last when they’re in contact? When
they’re in heavy contact? 20 minutes, tops. 20 minutes. Maybe. And we’re at about that
mark. Cross’s brigade is already having to be relieved by Brooks’s brigade. Brooks
not only relieves Cross, but keeps going to the Rose Farm. So he’s heavily engaged as
well. So now, what are you gonna do if you’re Caldwell? I gotta go find somebody to help
me. Ok? And so that’s what he’s going to go do, he’s going to talk to Ayers. “After
some time, perceiving the troops on my right, moving to the rear of my regiment, I saw information
of its cause. General Caldwell, commanding next to me, informed me repeatedly, his troops
were being relieved by fresh ones.” So Caldwell is of the mind that he is going to be relieved.
Ok. Them being out of ammunition, et. cetera. So Caldwell’s gotta pull back. “I then
determined to sweep through and occupy the woods on my front, and gave preparatory orders,
therefore, when I found that all troops on my right had gone, a large force of the enemy
were coming down the rear from the right.” So, Ayers’s division is going to come across
the marsh, and try and protect Caldwell’s flank, over here on Houck’s Ridge. They’re
gonna have to do a little bit of jockeying positions because they’re under pressure
from some sharpshooters. Caldwell is going to go to the other end of the line, and talk
to another 5th Corp commander, and have him protect his right. And, so, Caldwell has done
his job. Protect my left, protect my right. I have talked to two 5th Corp commanders.
The problem is, he never talked to Sykes. Sykes does not know the condition of Caldwell.
Yet, Caldwell is protecting his two flanks as well. If Caldwell falls back, Ayers’s
division is in trouble, and so is Barnes’s division. But Sykes never comes and talks
to Caldwell, about how his condition is. Do you need ammunition? What can I do for you?
Ok. Very confusing over in this part of the battlefield. Ayers talks about Caldwell’s
right being under a lot of pressure, coming down from the peach orchard. Who would that
be? Anybody know? Huh? Barksdale. It’s too early for Barksdale. No, you’re close though.
Wofford. Wofford is coming right down Wheatfield Road. And he’s hit the flank, and the brigades
of Barnes are pulling back. Caldwell is now in a panic, because his flank is exposed.
He, at first, can’t believe it. Somebody points out to him, “I think your men are
falling back.” “No, that’s not my men, they’re fine. It’s, they’re fine.”
“No, sir, you better pay attention here, they’re starting to really fall back.”
And so, Crawford know he’s got to pull his men out as well. Let’s talk about McCandless.
McCandless is one of the brigade commanders, in Crawford. McCandless is back over here.
“For my brigade, together with 11th Regiment of 3rd Brigade in two lines. The first line
being completely composed of the 6th regiment on the right, 1st on the left, yada yada yada.
As soon as our front was uncovered, the brigade advanced in gallant style. The first line
delivering one volley, then the whole brigade charged at the full run, down the hillside
and across the plain, driving the advanced masses of the enemy back upon a stone wall.”
That’s the stonewall right over there in the corner of the wheatfield. “For the possession
of which there was a desperate struggle, we finally carrying it. Prior to reaching the
wall, however, my left flank was being exposed to a galling fire, I deployed the second line
to the left, forming a prolongation of my first line. And so, McCandless’s brigade
is gonna move forward, secure that corner of the wheatfield, and push Wofford back,
into the wheatfield. Wofford almost gets all the way over here, to the base of Little Round
Top. That’s how far he advances before being pushed back. Ok. How am I doing so far? You’ve
got the book out. This thing is priceless. Which, what is it? It’s the map to Gettysburg.
Oh, ok, ok. Now there’s something else that is now happening back over here, near the
George Spangler Farm. Anybody know what it is? That’s where the artillery was reserved,
right? That’s where the artillery reserve is. And is the 5th Corp over there guarding
it? Who? The 5th Corp, originally. 5th, 5th was originally there, but now we have, Barnes
has been cut up, Crawford has been cut up, and Ayers has been cut up. So 5th Corp has
already been engaged. 6th Corp. 6th Corp is coming in. They come in all three divisions,
13,000 men. And they’re right behind 5th Corp in formation. Now who directs 6th Corp
to go anywhere? Sedgwick? Huh? Sedgwick. Sedgwick. Who gives Sedgwick orders? Meade? Meade. Meade
is the only one who can give Sedgwick orders. What road is Sedgwick coming in on? Baltimore
Pike. Right, how does know to come over here? He talks to his boss, ok. We don’t have
the order that says, “I was ordered by General Meade to come over here.” But he shows up.
You gotta believe in spontaneous combustion, if you think it just happens without the commanders
involvement. Have I made my point? Ok. So now I’m McLaws’s division commander, General
McLaws. A lot of my energy, half my energy, has gone into the wheatfield. I have one brigade
left, Barksdale’s. Mississippians. There is, in 18, I think 77 or 78, McLaws is giving
a talk to veterans, and by now, McLaws and Longstreet do not get along. McLaws is talking
about, on the 2nd of July, he wasn’t a division commander at all. Longstreet did it all, put
in his brigades for him. And that’s gonna cause some friction, between those two guys.
In this speech, though, McLaws goes on, and he says that somebody talked to Barksdale.
He doesn’t know who, he suspects Longstreet. Right, so we’ve got that friction still,
all these years later. But he says somebody told Barksdale that once he got over the peach
orchard, he is to incline to the left. Ok. Barksdale has four regiments of Mississippians.
One of the reasons why I bring you down here, is to point out, the Mississippians are on
the corner of those trees right there. 21st Mississippi, right across the street from
the Trostle Farm, ok. Everybody got it? That’s one regiment. The other three regiments are
inclining to the left considerably. There’s a gap of several hundred yards between one
regiment from Mississippi and the other three. You remember my talk about gaps? Ok. Now what
we’re gonna do now, is we’re gonna go the shorter route, because now you people
with flip-flops have already gone the farther route. So now I got your, we’re gonna go
back a little bit harder, but it’s shorter. We’re gonna go down through the woods, and
we’re gonna go to the Trostle Farm, and point some things out. I was asked a couple
questions, on the way over here, that I wanted to make sure I clarified for you and addressed.
Meade does not write any memoirs. Remember, we’re gonna let history speak for what I
did. A lot of times, memoirs, regardless of who it is, fill in the blanks. Longstreet,
you’re always trying to justify what you do. Sheridan, Sherman, Grant, et. cetera,
et. cetera. But Meade doesn’t do it, and it’s interesting, I don’t think it’s
by omission that that’s the case, ok. Second thing, is when we walked past that house,
where the man was standing on that RV, had that kinda stern look on his face, Nevins’s
brigade out of 6th Corp, remember we left 6th Corp lined up behind 5th Corp, in three
lines, waiting to be committed. Nevins’s brigade, out of 6th Corp, is gonna be ordered
to go forward, to get rid of sharpshooters that were in that house, that we walked past,
ok. “At that moment, three regiments were ordered to advance to supported on the left
by the 98th Pennsylvania. They immediately closed up on the Pennsylvania reserve regiment
and delivered two volleys into the advancing ranks of the advancing rebels and they immediately
charged their column, breaking the same, and, driving them in disorder down the hill, and
recovering in the charge, two light 12 pound pieces that had been taken from the 5th Corp.”
Ok, so that’s Nevins’s report. Nevins is the only brigade that’s gonna be engaged
out of 6th Corp. So, we’ve got the 21st Mississippi over here in this corner, we’ve
got a several hundred yard gap, between the other three regiments. The MIssissippi fellows,
when they went over the peach orchard, they expended some of their ammunition. Prior to
this time, General Hancock had been now ordered to send a brigade down to assist against this
effort. So, he’s gonna pick Willard’s Brigade. Sometime, about that same time frame,
again, we do not know, but General Meade decided to commit his army reserve. That’ll be Robinson’s
division, and Doubleday’s division out of 1st Corp. It’s gonna take a while for Robinson’s
division to get centrally located, because one of his brigades was separated. So, they’re
about 15 minutes behind, but somewhere in this time frame, they’ve been alerted to
get ready to move. Ok. Here’s Hancock’s report again, “About this time General Meade
informed me that General SIckles had been wounded and directed me to assume command
of the 3rd Corp in addition to my own. By this arrangement, the immediate command of
2nd Corp devolved upon General Gibbon, and that of the 3rd to General Birney. I had just
before received an order from General Meade to send a brigade to the assistance of General
Birney and to send two regiments to General Humphreys, who commanded the right of that
corp. I immediately led the brigade, 3rd brigade, 3rd division under Colonel Willard, intended
for General Birney, intended for the left of the original line.” So, again, we have
General Meade, telling Hancock to send more men down here. The thumbprint of General Meade,
ok. Hancock is gonna grab Willard’s brigade, and move them down Seminary Ridge, just about
the peak of it, maybe on the backside a little bit. They’re gonna get over here to a point,
very near where we started, the Father Corby Monument, and then Hancock is gonna place
them, go in here. And Willard’s men are going to do a right face, and go in. They’re
going to, at first, think they’re objective is a cannon line. By now, the success of the
Confederate infantry, to secure the peach orchard, is now going to allow the Confederate
cannons, under E. P. Alexander, to come forward, so there is. There is some degree of cannon
line, up on the peach orchard line. He’ll eventually get 36 cannons, but we don’t
know at that one moment. But, the point is is that Willard is trying to figure out his
objective, but all he can see in front of him, for enemy, is the cannon line, whatever
portion it is The Confederates, the Mississippians, are down in the low ground, and he cannot
see them. That gives you an idea as to the density of the thicket, and also the height,
as it would cover their flags, and they would not be seen by Willard. Now, Willard and the
Mississippians have, what you would call, “a history.” Sometime earlier, when Willard’s
brigade was being formed, they were being formed at Harper’s Ferry, and they were
not yet all together. They didn’t even have weapons. There weren’t, everyone was not
there. And some bright-eyed person there, said, “We need some unit to go up and protect
Maryland Heights, across the river, and so, the men get selected to do that. They volunteer
to go do it, even though they aren’t trained, they don’t have their men, and they don’t
have muskets yet. And so, they’re gonna go up to Maryland Heights, And who are they
gonna deal with up there, who’s gonna attack them? Jackson. The Mississippians. So now
they have to go to a stinking, rotten, parole camp, named Douglas, outside of Chicago, Illinois,
and sit for a few months until they get paroled. It’s a POW camp, every single time they
get on a train, every single time they get to a station, some smart guy is gonna yell
at them, “Harpers Ferry cowards, Harper’s Ferry cowards!” And so, they have their
manhood being challenged all the way there. And now they’re gonna go to a vermin infested
camp for several months, and then they’re gonna finally get paroled. They’re gonna
be on picket line, down in Virginia, for a few months. And they’re gonna, at that time,
get a new boss. That’ll be Alexander Hays. Alexander Hays, every day, when he gets them,
he doesn’t like them. Their reputation has preceded them. These people are lousy soldiers,
he writes his wife. Over the months, you can start to see his letters change, about how
he thinks about them. Over that time, every single day, over the winter, Alexander Hays
rides his entire picket line, and talks to every soldier. So his soldiers know that he
cares about them. Snowstorm, rainstorm, it does not matter. As a matter of fact, in one
snowstorm, he goes up to one picket, and he says, “Have you seen your regimental commander
today?” And the picket goes, “no.” And Hays rides from that, right back to the regimental
commander, wakes him up, and in his underwear, puts him in the saddle. Not allowing him time
to put his clothes on, puts him in the saddle in the middle of a snowstorm, and rides out
and forces him to check his picket line. So you can now well imagine that he is forming
a bond, Alexander Hays, is forming a bond, with those men. Ok. By the time they’re
done with picket duty Alexander Hays will write, “These Harper’s Ferry boys are
trumps.” Meaning, you know, you ever play bridge? They’re trumps, these are good men.
So he’s ready for them. So now he’s in a camp, somewhere, moving toward Pennsylvania.
And guess who comes in to that camp, and throws his men out of that camp? Hancock’s corp,
on the way here. And Hays goes after their command structure, like nobody’s business,
about throwing them out of their camp. And it’s ironic, because a couple days later
now, Alexander Hays, is done what? He’s assigned to who’s corp? Hancock’s corp.
So, it’s kinda interesting, about all that. But, now all we do is we have Willard’s
brigade coming down, Alexander Hays now having risen to division command. And they advance,
headed for the low ground in the Codori/Trostle Thicket. And they hit resistance, down in
the low ground, that they did not expect. That would be the Mississippians. But once
they figure out who it is, those are the fellas caused all of our last years aggravation.
And it is like a fire storm, comes over Willard’s men. And Willard’s brigade goes through
them, and pushes them back. As that attack moves forward, he takes a cannonball to the
side of the head. So he’s down. His deputy, the guy that takes over for him, is a guy
named Sherrill. Sherrill does not know the orders. Without orders, Sherrill is going
to start executing a wheel. This wheel impacts the Confederates. The Mississippians have
been pushed back, but the fellows next to them are who? Wilcox’s brigade out of Anderson’s
division. Let’s spend a moment here. While Wilcox is back in the treeline, waiting to
go in, who stops by to see him? Anybody know? It’s in an article called “Wilcox to the
Rescue,” has nothing, too much, to do, with the 2nd of July, but it has a very interesting
paragraph about this timeframe. And he says he’s waiting to go in, and General Lee stops.
Now you’ve read, many of you, I’m certain, have read, General Lee writes, more than once,
“Once I give my orders, I don’t talk to brigade and division commanders, because that
will only cause more difficulty.” Well that’s not an in concrete kind of thing. Because,
today he does talk to one of his division commanders. He talks to Wilcox. And Wilcox
goes on to write that, “General Lee shows him where to strike the line.” Which, where,
it’s considerably down what? The Emmitsburg Road. To the left. Incline to the left. So
when Wilcox begins his movement, he has to shift his brigade about 500 yards north, and
then starts toward the line, so he can hit it, where General Lee told him to hit it.
So, now my question is, if General Lee stopped and talked to Wilcox, did he also stop and
talk to Barksdale? Somebody told Barksdale to incline to the left, after he got over
the peach orchard. Somebody did, we don’t know. But we do know Lee talked to the next
guy. So, now, Wilcox has advanced down into the low ground, on the flank of the Mississippians.
He’s got five regiments, three in the front, two in the back. And the problem is, there’s
a lot of smoke. But suddenly, he realizes that he’s got Federals on his flank, and
rear. Who is that? That’s Willards turning, now Sherrill. And so, Wilcox writes, that,
“I have no supports coming, the Mississippians are gone, and I got enemy on my flank.”
So he’s going to have to start backing up, ok. So now the Alabamians are starting to
back up. They suffer the 1st Minnesota assault, but they barely write about it, because it
does not have that much impact on them. Here’s Hancocks, again, “I established Colonel
Willard’s brigade at the point through which General Birney’s division had retired, and,
fronting the approach of the enemy, who were pressing us vigorously on. There were no other
troops on the right or left and the brigade soon became engaged, losing its commander,
Willard, and many other officers and men. At this juncture, reinforcements which I had
previously sent to General Meade by a staff officer, consisting of General Newton’s
corp, Doubleday’s division, and the remnants of the Robinson division arrived, establishing
on them, a line, meeting the enemy at once, and doing good execution.”
Here is Hancock’s further comments, about this timeframe, “On the left of the 2nd
Corp, the line still being incomplete.” What’s that mean? There’s gaps. We got
gaps, Hancock’s gaps. “In intervals through which the enemy approached out line of battle.
General Meade brought up, in person, a part of 12th Corp, consisting of two regiments
of Lockwood’s brigade, under General Lockwood, which formed line, and advanced against the
enemy, then closely engaged with us, and was soon driven from the area.” So now we have
Meade again, he’s got Lockwood’s brigade, he’s leading forward personally. And he
enplaces Lockwood’s brigade where? Right on the left, right on the left of where Willard
went in. So what are we trying to do if we’re Meade and Hancock? We’re trying to split
the Confederate attack. We’re going into the gap. We used Willard’s brigade, now
we’re gonna send in Lockwood’s brigade. Lockwood has two regiments, they’re very
massive. They go in one right after the other. How far do they get? Anybody know? The thickets?
There you go, the monuments way up here. They’re up seizing the cannon, that’s how successful
they are. But they’re now by themselves because Willard had to turn around. Hancock
is enraged, he wants to do a court martial against Sherrill. Sherrill explains he didn’t
know the orders, so Hancock drops the charges. But you understand the intent of what these
two commanders were trying to do, at this critical point. So, now we’ve split the
Confederate attack again. It’s quiet over on the Round Tops, for the most part, right.
The wheatfield is secure. Ok. But we’ve got an intermittent line over here, up on
where the Pennsylvania Monument is, in that area. So, now what we’re gonna do is we’re
gonna go from here, I gotta put you in the sun up here for the next stop. But it’s
only for a few minutes. Ok. Everybody doing ok? Yeah. Ok, good. But to point something
out to you, in my last quote, I talked, in Hancock’s comments, I talked to you about
that General Meade had released the Army Reserve, Robinson’s and Doubleday’s divisions to
come. And Robinson’s division was not yet centralized, and so, it’s gonna take them
about 15 minutes to get that additional brigade with that division, so they’re trailing
Doubleday. So now I have a gap in my line, a pretty significant gap here. I’m General
Meade, where do we place Doubleday? If you look over here behind me, up there you see
Cemetery Hill. Where does the hill start? The base of the hill, if you had to stay here
and say, “ok, the base of the hill is where?” Where those cars are going by. Ok, you got
a little dip there, and then that car that just left into the treeline, very near the
Hancock Wounding Monument, ok. Ok, is that, everybody with me? What is that area? There
are no Federal troops there, yet. That’s part of the gap. But what is that? What does
that represent? Where Sickles should have been. No. It’s the back door to Cemetery
Hill. General Meade has got to protect Cemetery Hill. That’s the key. And, so, Doubleday’s
division is gonna go right in up there, and who are they gonna hit right immediately?
They’re gonna hit the Floridians, Lang’s brigade. And Lang and Doubleday, it’s going
to be a very brief thing, but now Lang is going to back up very quickly, at that point.
Ok. So what does this mean now? The Mississippians have pulled back, and I’m sure, always they
write, in good order. Even though Lockwood’s brigade is up, all the way, pretty much past
them. You have, over here, Wilcox’s brigade, who had to back up, because they had enemy
in their flank and rear and no supports. And now, further north, you have the Floridians
having to back up, as well. You have only one more brigade, that’ll be “Rans”
Wright’s brigade. They’ll come up for a while, and then inevitably be pushed out.
So, so far now, we’ve secured the wheat field, the Round Tops, we’ve secured this
part of the line, but we still have a gap over here. Who’s gonna fill the gap? Artillery.
Artillery to some degree. Robinson’s division is gonna be 15 minutes behind. Robinson’s
gonna go in right over here. But also, who’s in that gap right there? Anybody know? Is
it the 1st Minnesota? Huh? Is it the 1st Minnesota. No, the 1st Minnesota is up by the Pennsylvania
Monument at that, ok. 6th Corp, maybe? Nope. You’re on the right track, Ruger’s division,
out of 12th Corp. They’re coming over a little bit later than Lockwood. So, they’re
gonna go right into that gap. And that’s where they are, on division line. So, now
we have a continuous line, for the, for this part of the line. Ok. So, let’s go find
some shade, probably, let’s go to the Weikert Farm again, at our first stop. And I think
that’s probably where we’re gonna end. Meade is going to send, over in this direction,
to include the 10,000 or so in 3rd Corp, he’s gonna send over how many men? A total of about
41,000. Ok, who do we send out over here? 3,900 out of 1st Corp, 4,800 out of 2nd Corp,
11,000 out of 5th Corp, 13,000 out of 6th Corp, and 8,400 out of 12th Corp. Total, 41,000
men. Now some people have criticized Meade, because he may have sent too much. It got
pretty tenuous, over on Culp’s Hill. And it got tenuous, over here, by the end of the
attacks we just talked about. But you see, Meade did not know that Pickett was not with
Longstreet that day, did he? And if Pickett had been with Longstreet, those extra men
may have come in handy. So, I don’t wanna criticize too much, about over reacting, to
this threat. You have to consider, the bad end, of not winning this battle. That’s
the first thing. Second thing is, this is the day that, again, remember, we talked about
some detractors, wanted to say that Meade did not want to fight here. And, so, let’s
review what Meade did, personally, if he didn’t wanna fight here. He’s gonna send Warren
to Little Round Top, four batteries of cannon to the peach orchard, to support, Sykes to
send his entire corp to help out, Hancock to send one division, Caldwell’s division,
he’s gonna have one of his aids lead up Crawford’s division and McCandless’s brigade.
He’s tell Slocum to send most of 12th Corp over here. He’s gonna tell Sedgwick, I believe,
to come over to this part of the line as well, because I don’t believe in spontaneous combustion.
He’s gonna direct Hancock to send a brigade in this direction, that would be Willard’s
brigade. He’s gonna lead Lockwood’s brigade for it, individually, and he’s gonna agree
with Hancox’s request for the army reserve, Robinson and Doubleday. So, you gotta admit,
if he didn’t wanna stay here on this day, I don’t know what else he could have done,
from that perspective. I will leave you with a short story, that I always like to finish
with, on this talk. It’s about this time, Robinson’s division has showed up, closed
the gap. Ruger’s division, showed up, we’re good. 6th Corp, if I need them, right over
here. Newton, now commanding 1st Corp, because Reynold’s was killed on the 1st, so we’re
gonna bring John Newton over, to command 1st Corp, right. So, Newton’s the corp commander.
Newton pulls up along side Meade. Now Meade had been there for a little while, when this
gap was huge. He was in front, on his horse, with four or five staff officers behind him.
And in front of them, were the Alabamians, 1,600 or so of them, and they were at about
800 yards. And, we have, in our library, an account of one of the staff officers, under
General Meade, during this time frame. And so the staff officer writes that, General
Meade is in front of us, and four or five are behind, and the Confederates are still
coming, and this aid is talking about, when is he gonna get out of here. I can’t, I
can’t go until he goes, and he ain’t moving yet. And the aid is looking at the other aids,
and they’re all looking at each other with a concerned look. And the enemy keeps coming.
It’s at this time, that Meade pulls out his sword. Now when your boss pulls out his
sword, what do you do? Pull out yours. And so, now, their aggravation is now at an extreme
level, because now they think, they are of the opinion that he is getting ready to charge,
those 1,600 men, with those five. And you can well imagine the aggravation that those
aids are suffering under. Now, Meade, on a day-to-day basis, doesn’t carry a regular
sword. He has a ceremonial sword, I mean, after all, he is the general, right? If he’s
gotta start whacking on people, something ain’t right. So, the sword that he carries,
is, is a little bit more than a dagger, and it could probably cut butter on a good day,
if you heated it. And the butter was soft. But he pulls out the sword, and then, the
aids pull out their swords, and they’re just, by now, I’m sure, looking to find
where they’re gonna put their trousers at the end of the day. Find some place that can
deal with that stuff. You may have to edit that out. And this is when Robinson’s division
comes in, and intercedes, and closes the gap. And this is when Newton comes in, and is right
next to Meade. So, now I have eight horse legs there, and a cannonball comes in, from
some place, and goes right in between all eight legs, and doesn’t hit anything. And
it hits the ground and throws dirt up. Now, you can well imagine, that the men, in 1st
Corp, have not seen Meade, maybe, but this would be impressive, because Meade didn’t
flinch. Yeah, not bad. It’s at this time that, General Newton pulls out a flask, and
offers a flask to General Meade. General Meade takes the flask, and drinks all of it, and
hands it back empty. You can well imagine the positive impact, this has on the men.
Because, not only was he worried about living or dying, he also drinks, he must be a pretty
good man. I tell that story, one, because I think it to be accurate, but two, it goes
to his character, but three, more importantly, the detractors say he was trying to get out
of here, and I’m going to suggest to you, if you’re trying to get out of here, if
you’re looking for an excuse, you’ve had plenty of them all day. And, on an individual
basis, this is a great example of, this is an opportunity for him, to personally get
out of the area, and he turns it down. As an individual, not just a commander of the
army. And it’s a testament to his character, but also a testament to the fact that he was
not intending on leaving here. There’s no indication that he was intending on leaving
here. As we talked about when we started, what had the Army of the Potomac done, for
the past two years, when struck on his flank, and presented an emergency? Retreat. What
had it done? Retreat. It retreated back to the Washington defenses. On the 2nd of July,
the Army of the Potomac does not retreat. When you start the day out, if you’re a
commander, you put your men where you think you’re gonna need them, because if I don’t
like where they’re at, I’m gonna move them before the enemy shows up, right? And
so, I start my day out, and I place my men where I think I’m gonna need them. During
the 2nd of July, he’s going to shift 87% of his army, whether they’re going out to
help out at Culp’s Hill, or coming over here. And so, again, this gives you an idea
of the magnitude of his effort on this day, to shift that many men, out of their area,
to do battle where they were not expecting it. 87%. It’s also important to note, that,
after the 2nd of July, the Army of the Potomac never retreats again. It gets outmaneuvered
in October, for a couple days, but it responds positively, but it never retreats after battle
again. So, now you have, on this day, the 2nd of July, a sudden birth, of a worthy adversary,
for General Lee. He’s now in trouble, he just doesn’t know it yet. I’d like to
thank you folks for coming out today. It was a very big group, and again, thanks for staying
tight and buying us a little bit of time.
