The Bloodiest Battle of Gettysburg Day 2
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Hello, my friends, Stucky here and welcome back to another episode of the History of Everything podcast. Oh boy, are we moving into part two of Gettysburg. So I hope that for those of you who did not listen to the previous one, I don't know why that is the case in the first place. Go back and listen to that. What are you doing?

My friends, before it is that we really begin here today, there is actually something that I'm going to say. For those of you that joined me on Patreon, I appreciate all of you in the first place. I appreciate your feedback. And I got a number of you that mentioned something that I really should have thought of before it is that I posted this episode ad-free onto Patreon in the first place. I didn't post any of the pictures.

Like I'm listing all these names, all these different things that are happening in the battlefield. And not many people are able to follow your lead to the same degree because they don't know where something is on a map. Even if I am extremely descriptive, it is better to have a visual aid in front of you.

And I understand that. And I am deeply, deeply sorry that I forgot to do that in the first place. So what I'm going to be doing is for those of you who are my patrons, I will be posting the varying different battlefield maps and different pictures onto Patreon. So you all can see what I'm talking about.

Also, as a continuation of what I mentioned in the previous episode, please bear in mind that this series is not something that was written by either my editor, James, or by myself, but rather a fellow listener by the name of Nick. So if there are any factual errors or opinions that are presented in this, that is actually something that he specifically has noted is his, and that if you don't like it or it pisses you off, that is on him, not myself or my editor.

This is specifically what it is that he had in a note that was sent to me, and I am deeply appreciative to Nick for presenting this in the first place to me, especially with as busy as I have been. That is something that is changing this week as, oh dear God, the amount of things that we have prepared in order to be able to do are wild. But Gettysburg Day 2, are you ready for this? Because here it is that things begin as we address the morning positions.

By the morning of July 2nd, only Major General George Pickett's division of the ANV's 1st Corps and Major General John Sedgwick's 6th Corps of the Army of Potomac had yet to reach Gettysburg at this point. Now, just to recap so you all understand what I'm talking about, the Army of the Potomac held positions in the following locations. The 12th Corps was on Culp's Hill. The remnants of the 1st and 11th Corps was on Cemetery Hill. The 2nd and 3rd Corps on Cemetery Ridge.

The 5th Corps was two miles southeast of town. Now, Sedgwick's 6th Corps, when it finally arrived around 2 p.m., having marched for 17 hours straight, mind you, was naturally tired and would be held in reserve.

In those 17 hours, they had marched roughly 33 miles carrying 30 to 40 pounds of gear, including woolen uniforms, a nine-pound rifle with bayonet, canteen, knapsack or backpack, if you want to call it that, with all their varying different earthly possessions, or, you know, pretty much everything else that you could need as a soldier. Blanket roll, 40 rounds of ammo, food rations. Yeah, it was quite a lot.

And I didn't mention here, but by 2 p.m., it was 81 degrees outside, which is not necessarily too hot. But when you are carrying all of these varying different items and are wearing a thick uniform, yeah, that's not fun. Keep that in mind every time that you decide, oh, I'm going to go outside and you feel uncomfortable because people in the past have had it significantly worse.

The morning would find Uden in positions in the shape of a now-famous fishhook. Their opponent's lines would run parallel, but the Confederate lines would stretch over five miles in length. Not only that, the Army of the Potomac had the advantage of a highly defensible high ground and interior lines so they could move infantry and artillery to anywhere on the battlefield when needed.

As for what Lee's plans for the day were for the coming day ahead, when Robert E. Lee conferred with his generals, Lieutenant General Longstreet, Lee's old warhorse recommended that the entire ANV leave the field of battle and swing around the Union left, thereby cutting the Union line of communication and placing the army between the Army of the Potomac and Washington.

By leaving the field and redeploying elsewhere, the ANV could force the Army of the Potomac to leave their defensible positions on the high ground south of Gettysburg. Further, the ANV would then be in a position to pick a ground of their choosing for a fight, much like Buford had on the first day. With an invading army scarcely 80 miles from Washington, D.C., the Army of the Potomac would be forced to give battle. And to this, Lee would say, no.

He was worried about what leaving the field would do to the morale of his men and would have negated all that had been gained and lost since the first day, and from that, would lose him the initiative. Instead, Lee would decide to attack. So after further discussions with Yule and Longstreet, Lee would make some compromises. Two of Longstreet's divisions, that being because Pickett was still miles away and would not arrive for several more hours, would advance obliquely at an angle, straddling the Emmitsburg Road.

The division under Major General John Bell Hood on the right and the division of Major General Lafayette McLaws on the left, Hood's division was to capture Round Top and Sugarloaf Hill. Ewell's 2nd Corps would launch a demonstration at Culp's Hill to pin down the Federal right and would begin once Longstreet's Corps commenced fighting. When the time was right, a division from A.P. Hill's Corps would then attack the Union center.

Now, Lee had received intel reports that no federal troops were seen on the hills south and that the Union left seemed to be hanging in the breeze, which was true. But that was not true now. Since Stewart's cavalry was AWOL, Lee and his commanders would have no inkling that Meade's line nearly extended a half a mile further south along Cemetery Ridge to the base of a 650-foot-tall Sugarloaf Hill, later to be renamed Little Round Top.

Her larger sister to the Southwest would be renamed Big Round Top, which honestly, I know when describing all that, it's pretty clever. But now that that's pretty much how it worked. By this point, Lee felt like his cavalry commander was like a lighthouse in the desert. Bright, but not necessarily very helpful. So where is Stewart actually?

Well, James Ewell Brown Stewart, or Jeb Stewart, which is a significantly easier name to say here, at the age of 30 years old, was one of the three youngest officers to hold the rank of Major General in the Confederate Army. The other was 3rd Corps Division Commander Dorsey Pender, the commanding officer of Brigade ANV's 2nd Corps, Stephen Ramzer, who would achieve the rank the following year.

Another thing these three general officers shared in common was that all three would end up perishing during the war's end. One would be mortally wounded on this day. Back in 1839, Jeb Stuart would volunteer to be the aide-de-camp or personal assistant of then-Colonel Robert Lee during John Brown Raid on Harper's Ferry. Not only that, but he also would arguably have the most impressive beard of any general officer back in the Civil War. Like, seriously, go and look this up if you're curious. It is a nice thing in the first place.

Back on June 22nd, Stewart was given instructions to leave two of his cavalry brigades behind to guard the mountain passes, or the easy routes through the Blue Ridge Mountains while the A&B was still south of the Potomac River, which runs on the border between the states of Virginia, Maryland, and of the newly formed state, at this point breakaway territory, of West Virginia, which, until two days before, had been actually part of Virginia.

Once the A and V had crossed, Stuart was to send his remaining brigades to screen the right flank of General Eagle's 2nd Corps and the 2nd Corps' eyes and ears. End quote. From this, collect all supplies you can use for the army. This is something that Stuart was ordered to. In addition to that, he was ordered to, quote, judge whether you can pass around the Army of the Potomac's Army without hindrance, doing them all the damage you can. End quote.

By the time Stuart and his remaining brigade set off, columns of Union infantry were seen blocking his path. As he was skirting around these Union columns conducting raids in the area, he was getting further and further away from the ANV and had, as yet, to link up with Ewell. On the 28th, a column of 125 supply wagons filled with hay, bread, bacon, hardtack, and 400 soldiers were captured. But where was the ANV?

Well, while Stewart was trapezing around the Union capital, the A&V was already in Pennsylvania. Stewart wouldn't make it into Keystone State until June 30th. Even then, couldn't find any trace of General Ewell. Long story short, between June 25th and July 1st, Stewart had been completely out of communication with Lee.

While he had captured supplies, of course, which was great, and caused havoc behind enemy lines, he had failed to screen Yule's right flank and provide Lee's invading army with vital details as to the whereabouts of the Army of the Potomac as both armies proceeded north. So was Stuart to blame? Well, partly. While he had failed up the link with Yule, Lee had done with Stuart what he would do with Yule at Gettysburg on July 1st. He would give his generals too much discretion.

Lee allowed his cavalry commander to determine if he could swing around Meade's army without hindrance. Finding enemy infantry blocking the quickest and easiest path to reach Ewell's corps, Stewart's cavalry were forced to take the scenic route, which would take them to the southeast and then loop around towards Pennsylvania while the rest of the A&V moved north.

As if finding his path blocked the enemy wasn't bad enough, Stewart also had to contend with Union cavalry while still in Virginia and Maryland, and then ran into the same Pennsylvania militia in Carlisle, PA, in the hopes of finding the second corps there.

The absence of Stewart and his unit in the lead-up to the battle would cause him to be a scapegoat for the Confederates' eventual loss of the battle. He was still smarting after having been caught flat-footed on June 9th at the Battle of Brandy Station, the largest cavalry battle of the war. The raids and the captured supplies certainly helped to mend his wounded pride. Additionally, he had supreme confidence in his troopers, as evidenced by how they had been known for riding around the Army in the past.

Of course, that being said, some fault lies with old Bobby Lee. What would have been more advantageous to the NV would have been to order Stuart's cavalry to take two brigades to secure the mountain passes while the remainder stuck to Ewell's right like glue. But no. And so by noon on July 2nd, Stuart arrived in Gettysburg, men and horses drained of energy in both mind and spirit. This has been a major tangent, but it's an important aspect of the battle which historically gets glossed over.

Back in the burg, Gettysburg that is, two quotes would mark the leadership and the decisions made at the officer level on both sides on what would be the bloodiest day of the battle. In reference to the South, from Dante Algarri's Inferno, quote, delaying when he's ready hurts a man. Between 9 a.m. and noon, Lee would fail to give any orders and Longstreet would take until 5 p.m. to get his court position.

for the union the words of general george s patton would apply quote never tell people how to do things tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity

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Available for a limited time at participating restaurants. Tax not included. Prices may vary. Not valid with any other offer, discount, or combo. Interesting note here, Patton's great uncle, Lieutenant Colonel Waller Patton, was actually a commanding officer of the 7th Virginia Regiment in Longstreet Corps, and he would be mortally wounded during Pickett's Charge. So that's a funny little detail right there. Anyway, two Union generals, Warren and Sickles, both on their own intuition, would change the course of battle in the Union's favor.

One would help save the federal left and set the stage for the most famous fight in the battle, while the other would lead to the bloodiest fighting of the battle and perhaps the war. By the end of the day, these little patches of Pennsylvania dirt would be synonymous with what one would think of the Civil War. Places like Devil's Den, the Wheatfield, Peach Orchard, and Little Round Top. Buckle up, my friends. It's about to get very chaotic, very bloody, very fast. First off, Sickle Salient.

At 7.10 a.m., Meade ordered Major General Dan Sickles to station his 10,600-man III Corps to the left of Hancock's II Corps along Cemetery Ridge. Now, Sickles wasn't happy about the position his corps now occupied due to the terrain which provided good cover for an attacking enemy but limited the effectiveness of his artillery. Plus, the ground to his front was slightly higher in elevation. By noon, Sickles grew concerned about the slightly higher ground and must have had a flashback to Chancellorsville.

During the battle, he had been ordered to cede an advantageous position, one with higher elevation and clear trees, and found his men hit by galing fire of the Confederate artillery. He then asked Meade for permission to reposition his men at his discretion, which kind of like was a recurring theme here, and was told, quote, Certainly, within the limits of the general instructions I have given you, any ground within those limits you choose to occupy, I leave to you.

Now, Meade and Hancock's horror as they witness the entire Third Corps leave their positions at Cemetery Ridge and move onto Emmitsburg Road, three quarters of a mile away, creating a bulge or salient, which is now known as Sickles Salient. When it comes to military tactics, a salient isn't that kind of a big deal, except in this instance it created a lot of problems because, one, they could be attacked from several directions all at the same time. Two, they

Their nearest reinforcements were three quarters of a mile away. And three, their core was covering a line of battle that extended almost a mile, meaning they were far too spread out and not in a very defensible position.

By 4 p.m., Third Corps' new position would see their right flank running up the Emmitsburg Road and the left extending down to a rock formation called the Devil's Den, a collection of granite boulders and slabs ranging in size from automobiles to entire houses with a bunch of holes and crevices thrown in. While Sickles' move seems at first glance to be a real boneheaded move, he did guess correctly where the Federals were going to strike from.

The 6,900 men of Lafayette-McLaw's division were about to strike. The right wing of Longstreet's pincer movement, John Bell Hood's 7,300 men, were off to attack the Union left. And now, before it is that we really begin, a quick word before we delve into the fighting.

One, the assaults on the wheat field, the peach orchard, devil's den, and also the LRT would occur around the same time or simultaneously. So I'm going to divide this next part into three sections, combining devil's den and the little round top or LRT.

Two, Confederate brigades tended to be made up of four regiments from the same state and named after its commanding officer. For example, you have Barksdale's Brigade, who would be mentioned, which would be comprised of the 13th, 17th, 18th, and 21st Mississippi regiments. You would have the Union Brigades, which were comprised of regiments from two to four states and simply referred to as the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Brigades.

And to help limit confusion, I'm just going to go ahead and make passing references to division or brigade commanders names and not really give a play by play all the way down to the regimental or even worse company level as much as possible, because it's going to be a mess. This is a point where I'm going to say, keep those maps close by that I'm posting on a Patreon. And when I say that, I'm not going to post this at this point for just the people who subscribe to me. I will post that as just free information.

that goes up there and you can check like American Battlefield Trust for varying different maps. They are a great resource in order to pull up any of this so you can see what I'm talking about. Now moving on though, the Devil's Den. Brigadier General Hobart Ward and his 2,100 man brigade from the Union Third Corps would be left all by their lonesome against 5,000 men from John Bell Hood's division at Devil's Den south of Wheatfield.

Luckily, the 1,800-man brigade of Georgians were sent towards the wheat field to fight the Federals there instead. Confederate regiments from Texas, Alabama, Georgia, and a lone Arkansas regiment would push back the skirmish line held by the second U.S. sharpshooters. They were armed with the sharps rifle, the breech-loading rifle mentioned in the first episode that was capable of firing 8 to 10 rounds per minute, as opposed to the 3 rounds per minute by the average muzzleloader.

The sharpshooter rifle was so intense that it wasn't until the Confederates got within 100 yards of the skirmish line that they had no choice but to charge. And even then, the second U.S. sharpshooters held the line until their enemies were 50 paces away. And then, and only then, did they retreat and screw up Big Round Top.

The 15th Alabama would defy their orders and chase after the fleeing Federals. A smaller regiment from Alabama would follow the 15th as well and trade shots with sharpshooters at Big Round Top Summit. But we'll get back to the 15th Alabama later. A Maine regiment, which is not the famous 20th Maine, would be sent to cover the valley between Devil's Den and the base of Big Round Top. But this would leave a gap between the regiment and the rest of the brigade.

General Ward would send requests for reinforcements, and a New Jersey and New York regiment would come to their aid and help bolster the brigade's vulnerable left. 5th Corps would volunteer to send some troops down to the wheat field to move one of his regiments to the left flank, but still, that would not be enough to halt the Confederates' advance, and after hours of fighting, they too would be forced to retreat. Of the 7,900 men engaged at Devil's Den, 2,400 Union, 5,500 Rebel, 30% would become casualties.

The 20th Indiana, for instance, would lose 146 of its 400 men in less than 30 minutes of fighting. The Confederate Division commanding officer, John Bell Hood, would also be included in the group of wounded. As the Confederate attack kicked off, Hood would be severely wounded in the left arm by shrapnel from a federal shell that exploded just above him. Now, while the wound wasn't something that would require amputation, the limb would be rendered useless for the rest of Hood's life.

He would pass command of the division to one of his brigade commanders, but the brigade commander failed to have someone replace him, and none of the other brigade commanders knew of Hood's wounding until much later. This, along with the terrain in and around Devil's Den, would cause a breakdown in cohesion between the Confederate regiments and affect the overall attack. As for Hood, his life was only going to get worse.

See, once he recovered, he would be sent out west, only to be again wounded at the Battle of Chickamauga, and from there lose his right leg four inches below his hip. In November of 1864, wearing an artificial leg and strapped to his horse, he would send 20,000 men against fortified Union positions in the famous thing that would be called Pickett's Charge of the West. And the result was 6,000 casualties.

And as the shirt says, as you all know my merch, but wait, it gets worse. He would actually manage to survive the war amazingly enough, but a yellow fever epidemic in 1878 would kill him, his wife, his oldest daughter, and would leave his remaining 10 children orphaned as well as destitute.

The Texas Brigade Association would support the children for 20 years, and all the children would eventually be adopted by families in several states. Their life was not an easy one in that sense. Anyway, Little Round Top. General Meade would hear gunfire coming from the area around Little Round Top and would order his chief of engineers, Governor Warren, to investigate.

Now, like General Buford on the first day's battle, Warren recognized the significance of Little Round Top's elevation. Big Round Top was higher in elevation, but was steeper and more wooded. Little Round Top also had some clearings, one of which held a signal station on the north end of the crest of the hill. The only Union troops on the hill.

From the position Warren took up, he could see the approach of Hood's division even though it was partially obscured by a line of trees. With no infantry or artillery to counter the rebel attack, if the hill was lost, Hood's division would then be able to rake the Union left with artillery fire.

Now, modern day historians have refuted the claim that had Little Round Top fallen, Lee would have just captured the hill and rolled up Meade's left flank. That is something that has been said, but this just isn't really so. Even before the fighting happened, Meade had already ordered the Major General George VI of the Fifth Corps to the Union's left. So that's another 10,000 fresh troops.

Further, had the Confederates captured the hill, they would be outnumbered, low on ammunition, and their command would be in disarray since Hood had been wounded. Also, given the terrain on Little Round Top, Hood's artillery would have limited fields of fire against the army the Potomacs left. If they even could get any cannon into position in the first place, that's still something to be remaining seen. The battery that Warren had been able to put together there had to be hauled up by hand, aided by infantry, and even Warren himself.

So, anyway, with only a few men manning the signal station and representing them on top of that hill, the situation was not good in Warren's eyes. So, he sent off messengers to Meade, who would order George Sykes and his corps to the Union's left, and Sykes would then end a message to one of the division commanders, and from there, it would be this message that Colonel Strong Vincent would intercept. Quote, I will take the responsibility of taking my brigade there.

With these words, Vincent would send his brigade of 1,360 men consisting of 16th Michigan, 44th New York, 83rd Pennsylvania, and the soon-to-be-famous 20th Maine to take Little Round Top. And in doing so, into the history books. Commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, the brigade had barely gotten into position in a crescent shape when they were attacked by two Texas and one Alabama regiments.

Now, the Confederates' initial attack was broken up by Little Round Top's steep slopes and large rock formations that could be so large that men would be forced to funnel through them. This would break up their alignment and make it impossible for them to redress their lines. As one Southern private said, quote, a mountain goat would have reveled in it.

Now, remember that Alabama regiment that I mentioned earlier on Big Round Top? Well, they're joining the fight along with the smaller 47th Alabama. Unbeknownst to the men of the 15th Alabama, Chamberlain had positioned the Mainers in their way. Which, yes, that's the name for the people of Maine. The 15th would thus run headlong into volley fire from only 40 to 50 paces away from the Union lines.

Meanwhile, yet another Alabama regiment would tack on to the Confederate left, meaning Vincent's brigade now faced two Texas and four Alabama regiments. As the right of Vincent's line began to collapse, he dashed onto a boulder and yelled to his men, Don't give them an inch, boys. Don't give an inch. Now, these words would just leave his mouth when a musket ball would strike in the thigh and groin.

and he would die five days later, but not before being promoted to Brigadier General by Meade, dated July 3rd. As a longtime foreign correspondent, I've worked in lots of places, nowhere as important to the world as China.

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Now, interesting fact about Vincent here, even though it is that he has ended in this case, a marker exists that marks the supposed shot where he was mortally wounded. And unlike the statue of the man, when he climbed that boulder to encourage his men, he held a writing crop, not a sword. And the writing crop was a gift from his wife, who was pregnant at the time. A daughter, Blanche, would be born in September, but would die before her first birthday.

His wife would never remarry, and all three of them would end up being buried together in Erie, Pennsylvania. Again, not exactly a happy story for the way things go. During all of this, Warren would continue to try and find reinforcements. By chance, he ran into a regiment that was part of a brigade that he once commanded, the 140th New York, under the command of Colonel Patrick Rourke.

The brigade that 140th belonged to, with Brigadier General Stephen Weed commanding, had written ahead for orders. Warren would insist, and Hattie O'Rourke, for he was an Irishman, would take his regiment up and over the crest of Little Round Top. As two Confederate regiments attended the flanked Vincent's 16th Michigan, the rebels would be blasted by a volley from the Irishman's regiment from a mere 40 feet away.

Fighting would be brief and close, and at times, result in hand-to-hand fighting. Under this devastating fire, the rebel attack would falter. The rest of Weed's brigade would hook up alongside Vincent's brigade, but not before O'Rourke would be mortally wounded in the neck. Brigadier General Stephen Weed would himself be mortally wounded as well, presumably by a Confederate sharpshooter. He would call for the commander of the only battery on the round top, 1st Lieutenant Charles Haslett, and as the lieutenant knelt down to hear what the general had to say,

he was shot in the head. It was not a good day to be an officer. On the far left of Union lines on Little Round Top, Colonel Chamberlain's men weren't exactly doing well. According to Colonel Oates, the commanding officer of the 15th Alabama, his men had driven back the 20th Maine five times, and five times the Mainers had counterattacked. He also stated that on two occasions, the fighting was so close that bayonets were used.

By this point in firearms history, bayonets were about 18 inches long and were mounted on guns with a barrel about 40 inches long. So you could really reach out and touch someone with this thing. It was basically a miniature pike. A push on the 20th mains left would push their positions back into the shape of a hairpin or V-shape. Both sides were so low on ammo that they began to scrounge around through the cartridge boxes of their fallen comrades. Cartridge box fully loaded held 40 rounds. And since a trained soldier could fire three aimed shots per minute...

If you didn't get resupplied, you were toast. With his ammo and ranks depleted and seeing the 15th Alabama about to launch another assault, Chamberlain did the unthinkable. He gave the order to fix bayonets and charge. And if you've ever seen the 1993 film Gettysburg, Jeff Daniels, who portrayed Chamberlain, would liken his plan for the charge to be like swinging around the enemy like a door on a hinge.

Down with the 20th of Maine, descend upon the ranks of the 15th and 47th of Alabama. And then, oh no, in addition to that, it's a 40-man company of the 20th Maine and a 20-man company of the second U.S. sharpshooters that had spent the interim on skirmish duty. They would fire into the Alabamans' ranks and charge and create even more havoc for the Confederates to contend with.

Chamberlain's men would push back in the enemy's right flank, and by the time they stopped, the 20th Maine had suffered a 33% loss rate of the 386 men that had walked into Gettysburg that day. With the Texas and Alabama attack on Vincent's right and center having been halted, they had retreated before the historic charge.

Now that Weed's brigade had attached itself to Vincent's brigade, Little Round Top remained in Union hands. And in 1893, later on, Colonel Joshua Chamberlain would receive the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions and leadership on that day. It was a heroic effort. Moving on from that, the Peach Orchard. You see, Gettysburg had always been a fruit-growing area, but the property was owned by a Gettysburg resident by the name of Reverend Joseph Sherfy that would become known as the Peach Orchard.

Now, many farms at this time would contain a barn, a house, and perhaps a few extra structures, such as a smokehouse or something. Many of these still exist to this day. Now, granted, not all the structures are original, but those that still are bear the scars of the battle 161 years later. Sickle Division Commanders Major General David Burney and Brigadier General Andrew Humphrey would form a 90-degree line spanning the Emmitsburg Road, then running east along the Wheatfield Road, and would have seven batteries or 36 pieces of artillery with them.

One regiment deployed as skirmishers on the property belonging to Gettysburg resident Reverend Joseph Scherfie would be the 63rd Pennsylvania Regiment, which is actually the home unit of Nick, the person who created this episode in the first place. To their west would be Lafayette-McLaws Brigades, made up of regiments from the states of Mississippi, South Carolina, and Georgia.

The Brigade of Mississippians, led by Brigadier General William Barksdale, would push Sickles' Corps from their positions. While the ground was better for his artillery and offered better fields of fire for his infantry, his lines were spread too thin. And as mentioned earlier, he was three-quarters of a mile from Hancock's Second Corps. There was no room for reinforcements. Barksdale would then turn his brigade left and continue to roll the Third Corps flank. To make matters worse for the Army of the Potomac, the third part of Lee's plan would step off.

One of A.P. Hill's divisions, under the command of Brigadier General Richard Anderson, would advance on the 3rd Corps' right flank and the Union's center. Now, just as the fighting was heating up, Sickles was wounded in the right leg by a cannonball, and the leg would have to be amputated above the knee. The severed limb was then something that was shipped to the Army Medical Museum in Washington, D.C., which is now called the National Museum of Health and Medicine. For years afterwards, he would actually visit his lost limb on the anniversary of its loss.

It's still there on display, though only the fibula and tibia were actually preserved. As for what happened to Sickles in the aftermath of all this, and I know it's a bit of a spoiler, well, he would defend his actions, claiming that what he did disrupted Lee's plans and railed against Lee's leadership during the battle, along with many other claims. Now, historians would argue about his actions for generations to come.

Over 30 years later, he would be awarded the Medal of Honor for having, quote, displayed most conspicuous gallantry on the field, vigorously contesting the advance of enemy and continuing to encourage his troops after being severely wounded. So yeah, that's how that all plays out. He would actually survive.

It should be mentioned that the Civil War had an unusually high numbers of medals of honor. And I mean, when I say this, guys, they were handing these things out like candy back then. Like in every war after, the number of medals of honor given out would be considerably less. But in the Civil War, 1,523 medals of honor were given out. And many of them are very dubious in how little they were awarded for doing compared to those that were given out during other wars. This is

Partly due to the fact that the Medal of Honor wasn't even the top award given out in each military branch until World War I happened. And it's also partly due to a trend for veterans of the Civil War that happened in the 1880s and 90s, where they would write in and request a Medal of Honor for almost any battlefield heroics. For many of those awarded during the Civil War, if their actions were reviewed by the military now, many of them would have received Silver Stars or Bronze Stars or maybe Distinguished Service Crosses.

Now, this isn't an attempt to lessen their courage and accomplishments, but simply to explain why the Civil War included like twice as many Medal of Honors as any other conflict America has ever been involved in combined. 19 men in total even received two Medals of Honor, which isn't allowed today either.

In 1918, the criteria for receiving an award would be greatly refined, and now it's pretty dang hard to actually receive one. You basically have to have some pretty wild and selfless, like you have to do something crazy in order to get a Medal of Honor these days. But anyway, back to the story.

Further up the Emmitsburg Road, two of Anderson's brigades, comprising of Alabama and Florida troops, would link up with Barksdale's brigade. Two others would attack the Union's 2nd Corps in the center of federal lines. 2nd Corps Commander Winfield Hancock would scramble to find regiments to plug a gap in his lines that had developed on his left, and what had begun as an orderly withdrawal had become fleeing clusters of men and individuals to the rear. Scott would ride up to one regiment and cry, My God, are these all the men we have here? What regiment is this?

To which Colonel William Covel Jr. would reply, First Minnesota. Hancock then pointed to the flag of the leading Confederate regiment and shouted, Advance, Colonel, and take those colors.

with bayonets fixed and rifles prepared the 262 men of the only minnesota regiment in the army of the potomac would advance at double quick which normal marching is 110 steps per minute covering 85 yards per minute double quick is 165 steps and covering 150 yards per minute so that it's like a fast march running still isn't a great idea since all your gear would be bouncing around you get tired quickly

Also, don't forget it's July and they're all wearing wool. So if anyone thinks like, oh, they're running and charging into something, no, that's not really the case. They are fast marching. The 1st Minnesota, facing 6-1 odds, would slam into four regiments of Alabamans and stuff their advance and push them back across a stream called Plum Run. Bollies would be exchanged between the two forces until one Alabama regiment would outflank them. And a now wounded Colonel Colville would seize the opportunity and order his men back to their original positions.

During the Minnesotans' heroic charge, the regiment would lose 215 men, including five color bearers, in five minutes. And like the 26th North Carolina mentioned in the previous episode, they were still going to lose more men on July 3rd. It was going to be a brutal slog. With no fresh troops to be had, the Alabamians would retreat, followed soon by the Floridians. Only Barksdale's Mississippians would continue until Union cannon fire tore their ranks to pieces and Barksdale was mortally wounded.

They would be chased by two New York regiments until shrapnel removed a sizable chunk of their brigade commander's head.

The Confederate attack would continue to falter. The Georgian regiments under Anderson's command saw initial success, but for some inexplicable reason, his Mississippians never advanced any closer than 200 yards from Union lines. More mysteriously, Anderson's Virginia regiments were clearly on Seminary Ridge, over half a mile away, when one of General Anderson's aides rode over to the brigade commander with orders to advance. He declined, claiming Anderson had ordered him to remain in place.

It's okay, he's going to stay there for now. Fine. Well, then maybe go help the 2nd Corps night attack at Cemetery Hill later that day. Nope, the attack fails before the brigade can join. Okay, fine. Chip in on Pickett's charge. Nope, they never receive the orders. It's nothing ever happens. And with that, Lee's attack on the Union Center and the left wing of Lee's pincer movement up the Emmitsburg Road just peters out.

Anderson would lose 2,100 of the 7,100 men in his division. His brigade of Floridians would suffer 61% casualties, Georgians 50%, Alabamians 45%. On the other hand, his 2,800 men from Virginia and Mississippi would suffer less than 200 casualties. This, in turn, brings us to the wheat field.

The 19-acre field of wheat located between the Peach Orchard and Little Round Top would be the scene of one of the most intense and deadly fields of battle. Over 20,000 men from the Confederate States of South Carolina, Georgia, and Arkansas, Union troops from eight different states, regiments of U.S. regular troops, and regiments of Pennsylvania reserves and volunteers would all clash in this small area as a deadly game of tug-of-war would see this parceled land trade hands six times.

Days end would see a third of those men become casualties. Among them, two generals would be mortally wounded. Now, to make describing the fighting gear even more fun for the script writer, not only were the Union forces from different states, but they belonged to the Army of the Potomac's 2nd, 3rd, and 5th Corps. That being said, I'm going to have to dumb this action down and piss off a lot of Civil War buffs here, but that's just how this whole thing has to be done.

Initial fighting would begin a little bit before 5 p.m. between Confederate Brigadier General George Anderson's Brigade of Georgians and a brigade commanded by Union Colonel Regis de Trebonant. Anderson was to support another brigade's attack at Little Round Top in Devil's Den, but wasn't 100% sure of where he was supposed to go.

So he improvised. He followed the sounds of the guns. The reason for this was the brigade he was supposed to be supporting was split in two, one half attacking Union positions at Devil's Den and the other at Little Round Top. After 20 minutes of fighting, with little to show for his efforts, Anderson just withdrew his Georgians and awaited reinforcements. What do you get when you take two childhood friends with a passion for unexplored history and a whole lot of booze? You get the goofiest game in history, Queen's Podcast.

Hi, I'm Nathan. And I'm Katie. And we're the hosts of Queens Podcast. Join us while we spill the tea on women from history. We get into all kinds of stories here, like biographies of lesser known figures. For instance, Saida Haltura, powerful pirate queen. To the stories you might already know, like Marie Antoinette or Cleopatra, but with a fun twist. Each queen is paired with a cocktail that'll totally get you in the mood to hear fun,

juicy and dramatic stories from history. Because history is so much more than just dudes on a battlefield, and we believe that the female perspective and roles are just as deserving of their time in the spotlight. Right. So come get to know these queens. Find us wherever you get your podcasts. Cheers! Serial killers. Strange disappearances. Unexplained mysteries. Terrible disasters. I'm Nate Hale, and in my show The Conspirators, I'm here to tell you all the stories from history your teacher never told you about.

Hear the real story behind the Bermuda Triangle, or about the history of people drinking blood to stay young, or about the serial killer operating in Nazi-occupied Paris, or what dark secret lurked within the walls of a Scottish castle. In my show, The Conspirators, I take you on a journey through some of the darkest corners of history, where you'll hear about the folklore, myths, and misconceptions behind some of the darkest events that ever happened. Listen to The Conspirators on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And remember, sometimes the truth really is stranger than fiction. A brigade from South Carolina would soon join them, as would two brigades from the Union's 5th Corps. The brigade of South Carolinians were split in two. One would support their comrades from the state of Georgia, while the rest would march to suppress the Union artillery placed along the Wheatfield Road. What sucked for this brigade, and remember that artillery they were supposed to suppress? Yeah, well, that was easier said than done.

You see, there were 35 artillery pieces along the Wheatfield Road, each one capable of spewing 10 to 12 pounds of accelerated iron in just one massive go. Yeah, at some point we're going to have to delve into Civil War artillery like the next episode and the prelude to Pickett's Charge, but that is a whole thing right there. A nervous colonel of one of the newly arrived brigades would get cold feet and would tell his division commanding officer that he felt his position was becoming untenable. The commanding officer then gave the order to retreat.

One anonymous soldier from the brigade's 1st Michigan Regiment wrote in his diary, quote, Shot, shell, and bullets fly pretty thick here. Men are dropping pretty fast. We are outflanked both right and left and fall back. With the retreat of that brigade, the left flank of the 5th Corps Brigade was left swinging in the breeze until it too was ordered to retreat. This was kind of a shitty situation for the brigade under Colonel Regis of the left, in as that he was part of the 3rd Corps, not the 5th.

Left all by his lonesome, sticking out like, well, pretty much like a game of whack-a-mole, he would order his men to retreat as well and move towards the Wheatfield Road. Once there, 3rd Corps Commanding Officer Major General David Burney, who replaced the wounded Dan Sickles, would order part of the brigade back. Now, just as all seemed to be lost for the Army of the Potomac, a whole 3,300-man division from Winfield Scott's 2nd Corps would arrive. One of the brigade commanders of these new arrivals was Brigadier General Samuel Zook,

Before the battle, a young private had entered Zouk's tent and asked the general to send his money to his family as he had a premonition that he would be killed in the upcoming battle. Now, premonitions of death such as these were not uncommon for the Civil War, and so he took pity on the kid and promised to do so. He would call upon the private later and say, quote, I have the same sensations as you that I will be killed. You had better take the money and give it to someone else, end quote.

Now, the sole source of this story, which means that there is a 99.9% chance that it is either apocryphal or grossly exaggerated, came from an online article. There's like no other source material, no name for the private or even what regiment he was from or anything. And if true, we don't know whether the youth survived or not, but Zook's words would turn out to be prophetic. He would be wounded at Wheatfield and die the following afternoon.

Another fresh brigade on the field would be the Boys of Eyre, which, in this case, is talking about Ireland, the famous Irish brigade comprising Irish-American volunteers from the states of New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. Throughout the Civil War, just as a side note on this, the Emerald Isle would swell the ranks of Union Army by an estimated 150,000.

Most had fled the country due to the Great Potato Famine of 1845-1852, which is a whole other podcast episode that we probably need to do a dedicated thing for. The Irish would swell the ranks of the South too, but not nearly to the same numbers. Now, many of them, only 10 or 15 years after arriving, were now fighting for their new country.

Foreigners and later African-Americans would make up a large percentage of Union soldiers. Europe in the decade or two before the Americans' war was kind of a shit show. There are lots of uprisings, lots of fights for independence, lots of famines, lots of everything. And oh, dear God, that is something that we need to go into. I think I remember talking about this before the whole like the revolutions of 1848. We need to cover that. Italians, Poles, Dutch, Canadians, Brits and many others would fight.

The country with the highest number of recruits was Germany. Some 216,000 were German-born, and another 250,000 were second or third generation German. Many of those German troops would see action at Gettysburg with Major General O.O. Howard's 11th Corps. Two German-Americans would be division commanders, while two others would lead brigades and another by a Polish-American.

Others would be regimental commanders, such as the 2nd Division Commanding Officer, Brigadier General Adolph von Steinwehr, who would even get an avenue named after him. Which could be worse. Pickett would be immortalized by a charge, and I kid you not, a buffet named after him. Coincidentally, it is now located on Steinwehr Avenue. Either way, in the early days of the war, the Irish Brigade's roster roles would be in the thousands. Two years later, it was down to 532.

Of the five regiments in the brigade, the 28th Massachusetts was the largest with 224 effectives. The other four had only between 75 and 98. Before the brigade went into action, 29-year-old William Corby, the chaplain for one of the New York regiments, would famously grant absolution or forgiveness of their sins to the members of the Irish Brigade before they went into battle. Of the 532 men, 200 would be killed or wounded at the Wheatfield.

A life-size statue of the priest stands upon the three-foot boulder with his right arm raised, where he supposedly stood, and that is something that marks the spot today. Regiments, both North and South, would blast away at each other from ranges at times as close as 30 paces, so like 50 feet. A brigade of Georgians, commanded by Brigadier General Paul Jones Sims, would trade volleys with Union troops, but he would be mortally wounded during the charge he led.

Union troops would charge and push back SEMS Georgians and the South Carolinian brigades. However, rebel brigades who had earlier overrun Devil's Den had continued past it to add their weight to the maelstrom of the wheat field, only to be pushed back as well. Federal ranks would swell with the arrival of 2,800 U.S. regulars.

Now, up to this point, all the regiments were regiments of volunteers, men who had signed up for three-year enlistments. In April of 1861, in those early days, naive days of the war, few thought that the war would last. Kind of a common theme when it comes to military history. After the fiasco at Bull Run that July, both sides realized that just 90-day enlistments were not going to cut it, and drafts would have to be instituted on both sides as well. The arrival of these regulars could not have been timed better.

A fresh brigade of Georgians would be added to the meat grinder, and parts of two brigades from Devil's Den would advance northwards after their brief withdrawal. It was now 6.30, and the Union 3rd Corps had been swept away from the peach orchard. The Confederate line of battle looked like the jaws of an alligator about to snap down upon the three Union brigades, with the Rebs attacking from the north, west, and south. Four brigades would pack up their shit and just flee, leaving the two brigades regulars along with one composed of volunteers who held a corner of the wheat field.

The regulars would put up a fight, but by 715, they would be forced to fall back across Plum Run, a stream that runs north-south. One brigade of regulars would suffer 47% losses, and combined, the regulars would lose over 30% of the 2,800 men they went to battle with. Even though the Confederates had wrested control of the Peach Orchard and the Wheatfield from the Army of the Potomac, Robert E. Lee was not through yet.

As the Confederates continued to advance, the Royal Brigades had done the lion's share of the fighting, what now is described by some historians more of a mob than anything else, as the units had, from losing so many of their commanders and having been inflicted so much pain, lost their cohesion. Most of the regimental commanders had either been killed or mortally wounded. Even the brigade commanders weren't excluded, as both Paul Jones Semmes and George Anderson had both been wounded, and Semmes mortally so.

More Union troops would come into the area of the Plum Run Valley. More brigades from the Union's 5th Corps and two brigades from John Sedgwick's 6th Corps. Now, the name of Sedgwick may sound vaguely familiar to some of you who have seen my shorts that I've actually made on YouTube or TikTok. This is the guy who would actually, during the Battle of the Wilderness in May of 1864, would have a very ironic famous last word or last phrase. Yeah, that's the best way to say this.

After seeing his men ducking and flinching from enemy fire that were a thousand yards away, he would ride up to them and say, why are you dodging like this? They couldn't hit an elephant from this distance. And those were his final words before being struck by a sniper.

He is the highest-ranking American general ever killed in combat in American military history until Lieutenant General Simone Bolivar Buckner Jr. was killed in Okinawa during World War II. In addition to these brigades from the Army of the Potomac Sixth Corps, soldiers from Brigade of Pennsylvania Reserves would take to the field. When Abraham Lincoln called for volunteers to help put down the rebellion in the spring of 1861, the Commonwealth state would raise 25 regiments instead of the requested 14.

The then Secretary of War didn't like Pennsylvania's then governor for political reasons and refused to take the extra men into federal service. Pennsylvania's governor would then say, screw you then, we'll keep them, organize, train, and equip them at our own expense. So a total of 15 regiments would be organized and would be labeled the 1st through 15th Pennsylvania Reserves. Both General Meade and John Reynolds would have regiments of Pennsylvania Reserves serve under them when they were division commanders prior to the Battle of Gettysburg.

While Vincent's brigade had held Little Round Top and Colonel Chamberlain's famous charge had stuffed Hood's attack, Vincent's right flank would be in danger if Union forces couldn't hold the valley to the north of Little Round Top. The Pennsylvania reserves and a brigade of 6th Corps troops would advance. Confederate 1st Corps Commanding Officer James Longstreet saw how hopeless the attack on Little Round Top had become and ordered one brigade of Georgians to withdraw from the fight.

The beleaguered trio of remaining rebel brigades had been marching all morning and half the afternoon only to fight until early evening, and they were just simply running out of gas. They, too, would withdraw. It was over for the day. By 8 p.m., of 20,000 men that had been engaged, 6,100 were wounded, and two brigade commanders paid with their lives. The stream at Plum Run would run red with the blood of soldiers from the north and south. More importantly, Lee's flanking attack around Meade's left flank had failed.

With that, we will move on to two miles north of Wheatfield and reset the clock back to 7 p.m. for Cemetery Hill. If you recall, these plans for the day's actions were to have Longstreet's Corps attack the Army of the Potomac's left in the vicinity of Devil's Den, Little Round Top, and the Peach Orchard around 4 p.m. When he heard the cannon fire initiating the beginning of Longstreet's assault, Ewell was to lead his second corps on a divisionary attack upon the AOP's right to pin down the Union forces there.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending upon who you're rooting for, Yule would spend the next three hours conducting his demonstration via an artillery barrage. While this fire would inflict some damage, Union counter-battery fire, which is artillery fire directed at your opponent's artillery, that inflicted heavy losses, which forced Yule's batteries to bug out. Yule wouldn't send in his infantry until 7pm, by which time Longstreet attack was winding down and a Peahill's attack on the Union center has long since fizzled out.

The men of the embattled 11th Corps would help the bend of the Union fishhook. Four Union brigades would curve backwards between the Tonytown Road and the Baltimore Pike, facing northwest. Several more faced northeast behind a lane or small road called the Brickyard Lane. And behind these, Union brigades would be dozens of cannons covering the west, north, and northeast atop Cemetery Hill, south of Gettysburg.

Now, this brings up the question of why exactly Cemetery Hill is called Cemetery Hill. Well, because it was, and still is, a cemetery called the Evergreen Cemetery. In the coming action, Confederate forces would charge up hills straight towards the cemetery's gatehouse, which talk about irony for how many would die.

The caretaker of the cemetery had enlisted with the 138th Pennsylvania that previous August, leaving his wife, Elizabeth Thorne, in charge. She would be forced to feed hungry Confederate cavalrymen in the week leading up to the battle, and then cook dinner for three Union Corps commanders, Sickles, Howard, and Slocum, before it is that she was forced to flee her home. Returning on July 7th, she found her home had become Howard's headquarters and an 11th Corps field hospital.

She immediately would go to work tending to the wounded and, with her elderly father, bury the dead. In all, they would bury around 100 people. Oh, and did I mention at the time that she was doing this, she was six months pregnant? Yeah, she would name the child Rosemead Thorne after the Army of the Potomac's commanding officer. One could wonder why she would do so, especially since you consider they lost nearly everything that they owned and she was never compensated for her losses.

Then again, many claims were filed. Do you ever got anything from the conflict? It was highly destructive. She and her husband, who would survive the war, would later be buried in the cemetery, and a bronze statue of a pregnant Elizabeth leaning on a shovel, wiping her brow, would actually be dedicated back in the year 2002. But anyway, back to July 2nd. General Yule would send three brigades to assault Culp's Hill.

and at dusk, he would order two more brigades against the east side of Cemetery Hill. He also alerted the division commander, Major General Robert Rhodes, to prepare to assault the hill from the northwest. 900 North Carolinians under Colonel Isaac Avery would charge up Cemetery Hill towards the gatehouse, while 1,200 men of the Louisiana Tigers, a brigade of five Louisiana regiments, would attack from the north. Facing them would be two brigades from the bruised and battered 11th Corps, numbering 1,150 men.

If you recall from the previous episode, the 11th Corps took a real beating the day before. These brigades had entered Gettysburg numbering over 2,400. Now some regiments had less than 100 effective amongst their ranks. But wait, it gets worse. While the elevation of the hill provided an excellent location to place artillery, the steep slope on the hill would hamper the Union gunners as the rebels got closer, as they couldn't lower the barrels of their cannons sufficiently.

Still, they would do their best, pouring canister and double canister at and onto the enemy, which is a brutal thing in and of itself when we go and talk about cannons. We're going to go into that later. It was Union Major General William Tecumseh Sherman, who was not President of Gettysburg. He was out in Vicksburg, Mississippi with Ulysses S. Grant, who famously said, war is hell. And my friends, in the end here, you know what is probably worse than fighting during the day?

fighting at night. As one soldier of the 75th Ohio would put it, quote, they come on us about dark, yelling like demons with fixed bayonets, end quote. At one point in the battle, two Union regiments would flee for the rear, causing a gap to form in the Union lines. Another soldier would recall, quote, muskets being handled as clubs, rocks torn from the walls in front of the throne, fists and bayonets used.

One North Carolina regiment, as they approached the Federal's extreme right flank, would receive a volley of canister from an entire six-cannon battery. With only four Union regiments holding the position, the Confederates would get so close that they could briefly capture some Union cannons. One Louisiana Tiger, placing a hand on a cannon as he approached it, said, I take command of this gun. And a German artilleryman would reply with, Du sollst die haben.

roughly translated said, "You shall have it," then pulled the lanyard and blew the rebel to kingdom come. Apparently, as that story goes. Sticks and stones may break your bones, but canister produces red mist in chunks as it blows you to bits.

Everybody shush! William Shatner has something to say. Cat and Jethro, box of oddities. What do you do when the woman you love dies? Well, of course you dig her up and you live with her. Aww. The show examines weird things. There are plenty of old photographs from this time period of children out in the streets playing in and among the dead horse carcasses. Aww.

I miss those days. Things used to be so much simpler. Cat and Jethro. Then there's the urine wheel, which sounds like a really bad game show. Weird things. Weird things.

Cat and Jethro, Box of Oddities. That is really mysterious. Join Cat and Jethro Gilligan-Toth for the strange, the bizarre, the unexpected, as they lift the lid and cautiously peer inside the Box of Oddities.

The Webby Award-winning Box of Oddities podcast from Airwave Media. There are really many reasons to listen to our podcast, Big Picture Science. It's kind of a challenge to summarize them all, Molly. Okay, here's a reason to listen to our show, Big Picture Science, because you love to be surprised by science news. We love to be surprised by science news. So, for instance, I learned on our own show that I had been driving around with precious metals in my truck

before it was stolen. - That was brought up in our show about precious metals and also rare metals like most of the things in your catalytic converter. I was surprised to learn that we may begin naming heat waves like we do hurricanes. You know, prepare yourself for heat wave Lucifer. - I don't think I can prepare myself for that.

Look, we like surprising our listeners. We like surprising ourselves by reporting new developments in science and while asking the big picture questions about why they matter and how they will affect our lives today and in the future. Well, we can't affect lives in the past, right? Oh, I guess that's a point.

So the podcast is called Big Picture Science, and you can hear it wherever you get your podcasts. We are the hosts. Seth is a scientist. I'm a science journalist. And we talk to people smarter than us. We hope you'll take a listen. Intense hand-to-hand fighting would even include Union gunners using their rammers as clubs in an all-or-nothing effort to defend their guns from falling into rebel hands.

urgent requests for Confederate reinforcements were sent to General Rhodes for his division. They would not know it, but Rhodes had ordered three brigades to move westward, out of Gettysburg proper, and attack Cemetery Hill. However, moving 3,700 men and negotiating the narrow streets of the town, and then assembling the masses of men, is easier said than done. This delay traversing through the town was only exasperated by the fact that the move had started later than it was originally supposed to.

Naturally, his one side gets reinforced, so too does the other. Four regiments from Hancock's 2nd Corps, located south of Cemetery Hill, and two 11th Corps brigades would rush to the hill. During a brief lull in the fighting, the Louisianans heard and could see troops moving towards them. And not knowing if they were friend or foe, their CO ordered his men to hold their fire. Not one, not two, but three volleys were fired at him before he was convinced that he faced Federals and ordered his men to return fire.

But by this final volley, it had ripped his men from less than 100 yards away. Don't forget, by this time in battle, it was approaching 9pm, so the sun was well on its way to setting, and black powder from both rifles and cannon fire can completely obscure one's vision, especially if there's no breeze. And he'd been expecting help, which wasn't coming.

Now, for some mind-boggling reason, Rowe's division never attacked. He never managed to get his men through the town and then deployed by the time the rest of the Louisianans and North Carolinians would crest the hill. What's even more of a head-scratcher is that he turned over tactical command to one of his brigade commanders. He, in turn, would march them halfway to their objective and then order them to retreat. They were already too late to be of help as the brigades which had assaulted the hill had already retreated.

We will never really know with 100% certainty why Rhodes did what he did because, well, he would die in battle the following year, as would the commander of the brigade that he had put in charge. The men from Louisiana and North Carolina would lose around 300 each. One of those who perished was the commanding officer of the North Carolinians, Colonel Isaac Avery.

avery had been struck in the neck as he was seated in the saddle having been found pinned under his horse he was transported to a nearby farmhouse knowing that he was on death's door and left paralyzed on his right side with his left hand and writing in his own blood he would scribble a note to a major from the sixth north carolina major tell my father i died with my face to the enemy i.e avery this letter is held in the state archives in rally north carolina

Isaac came from a very large family, and two of his brothers, Clark and Willoughby, would also be wounded on the field of Gettysburg. Clark and another brother, William, would die in combat in 1864, and Willoughby would pass away from wounds sustained in battle 11 years after the war ended in 1876. But that then brings us to Culp's Hill. Major General Henry Slocum and his 12th Corps would arrive at the field late in the afternoon on July 1st, but they didn't occupy Culp's Hill until the early morning of July 2nd.

Culp's Hill was actually two hills with a saddle, or a low gap between the summits. It would be here where the Army of the Potomac's position would form the bend and the point of the Union fishhook. The division from the 1st Corps would man the upper summit, while the 12th Corps would cover the saddle and lower summit. Due to a command misunderstanding, Slocum thought that he was put in charge of the 11th and 12th Corps, so he put the commanding officer of his 1st Division, B.G. Alphys Williams, another man with some impressive facial hair, in command instead.

While the Corps was slow in getting up the Culp's Hill, one thing they did not do was kick up their heels and take a rest. To quote Patton again, a pint of sweat saves a gallon of blood. And most of the men would be put to work building breastworks or temporary fortifications. They would fell trees, dig and pile up dirt, stack rocks, literally anything that could provide protection from Confederate bullets.

Confederates under the command of Major General Edward Allegheny Johnson could see and hear the Federal soldiers at work, but could only rant, rave, and clasp their hands in frustration as they awaited the order to attack. By noon, the breastwork had been completed, and the men could relax. 4:00 PM would see General Ewell's demonstration against the Union right begin, not with the infantry, but with artillery, as mentioned previously.

A little after 7 p.m., Williams would receive urgent orders to send most of his men to bolster Union positions on the Wheatfield. They would arrive just in time for the fight to end. With his transfer of men, all that remained on Culp's Hill was a division from 1st Corps and a brigade from New York under the command of B.G. George Green. This was bad. The division had entered town with over 3,800 men, but a little more than 24 hours later, one brigade was going to suffer 50% casualties.

The commanding officer even had two horses shot from under him as his men retreated through town. The other, the famous Iron Brigade, would muster 1,883 men on the morning of July 1st, and they would later leave Gettysburg with just 730. Two of the Iron Brigade regiments, the 24th Michigan and the 2nd Wisconsin, would suffer 80% and 77% casualties respectively during the battle.

Only the 1st Minnesota would suffer greater losses percentage-wise, 82% during that fight. Three Confederate brigades, totaling 4,700 men from Louisiana, Virginia, North Carolina, and one from Maryland, would bump into General Green's skirmish line around 8 p.m. These brigades had already run the gauntlet of crossing open ground under federal cannon fire from Cemetery Hill. Then they had to cross Rock Creek, whose waters at some place was chest high.

The Brigadier General George Stewart would command a brigade made up of regiments from Virginia, North Carolina, and Maryland. Stewart found himself forced to perform what he called a right half-wheel. The right side of his men would move faster than the left would while on the move.

Now, doing a wheel in any direction is a grade eight pain in the ass. If you don't stand shoulder to shoulder or if your pacing is off even slightly, next thing you know, instead of a nice straight line, you've got a crescent shaped line or an inverted V. Maybe you've got a third or half your line walking off on their own and you're left yelling for them to get back in line, hollering, where the hell are you going? Long story short, Stewart's formation went completely to shit.

Performing the maneuver, marching uphill, over difficult terrain, with fading daylight, made it basically impossible. Plus, you're soaked at this point and exhausted. Because of the encroaching darkness and the thick forest at their front, Green's New Yorkers couldn't see what the rebels were doing. One soldier recalled their skirmish line, quote, came running, followed by a Confederate line of battle, yelping and howling in its particular manner. Now realizing the danger the Union possession was in, a brigade of 11th Corps was sent from Cemetery Hill.

Not only was Culp's Hill the location of the Army of the Potomac's right flank, but along the Baltimore Pike, directly behind them were the Federal supply wagons. While the Confederates had the manpower, they still had to contend with the hill's terrain. The All-Virginia Brigade had the job of assailing the steepest part of the hill, while Louisianans, had half of Stewart's Brigade, would attack the saddle and southern summit.

The other half of this brigade, from Virginia, found themselves separated by 200 yards from their comrades, thanks to the rocks and dense forests. If you visit Culp's Hill today, it is much more overgrown and the forest thicker than it was 161 years ago, due to domestic animals no longer greeting the area. An officer in the 1st Maryland Battalion would say during the attack, quote, the heavens are lighted up by the flash of thousands of muskets and the deadly miniers tear and rend our ranks fearfully. Our column reeled and staggered like a drunken man.

Another officer would say, the fire thickens and the shrieking shells fill the air with horrid sound, but still the line moves on over huge projecting rocks, men falling with every step. The 71st Pennsylvania would be sent to reinforce the Union position on Culp's Hill, all the way from a part of Cemetery Ridge, which would become famously known as simply The Angle. Now we'll learn about this next part of the field and how it got its name and what happened there in the next episode, how the 71st got there, and why it's a bit of a head-scratcher.

To quote Inigo Montoya, and yes, we are quoting the Princess Bride, let me explain. No, there's too much. Let me sum it up. First, the 71st Pennsylvania is a second corps regiment. Hancock hears gunfire on Culp's Hill. He sends two regiments. One stops at Cemetery Hill for unknown reasons.

Secondly, from the angle to where Culp's Hill Observation Tower is now is about 5,000 feet as the crow flies. There's numerous regiments all closer. Why them? No idea. That's the difference between fact and fiction. Fiction has to actually make sense. Third, they would engage Stewart's Virginians and blunts their attack only to turn right around and head back. It already took them 30 minutes of marching to get to Culp's Hill in the first place.

Until the 71st timely arrival, only a single regiment would bear the brunt of Stuart's attack, the 432 men of the 137th New York. They knew they were outnumbered, but even then, they had known that they had faced 2,100 Confederate soldiers. Surely, they would have felt like the big kid in dot ball that is getting aimed at, vulnerable. By day's end, they would lose 137 men while still holding their positions.

By 9pm, the Virginians who had attempted to capture the upper summit of Culp's Hill had thrown in the towel and retreated. Only the brigade of Louisiana and Stewart's brigade were left on the field. Stewart's Virginians managed to capture some of the breastworks held by the 137th New York. Much like the 20th Maine on Little Round Top earlier in the day, the New Yorkers found themselves holding the extreme flank of the Army of the Potomac and facing down a strong Confederate flanking attack.

Had the fighting on Culp's Hill been mentioned in the movie, which it really wasn't at all, people may be familiar with Colonel David Ireland and his men's actions that day. While the 20th Maine Bayonet Charge would lead the regiment to near-mythical status and Chamberlain the Medal of Honor, the loss of Culp's Hill would have been catastrophic for Meade, unlike the loss of Little Round Top. Because of Colonel Ireland and his men's defiance, as well as the fading daylight, the Virginians wouldn't know how close they could have turned the tide of the battle.

As stated earlier, the Baltimore Pike ran southeast out of the town of Gettysburg. The Pike was also located about 600 yards behind Union forces on Culp's Hill. The Pike was also the Union's lifeline to not just their wagon trains, but also its lifeline to the railhead at Westminster, Maryland, 20 miles southeast.

Furthermore, of the 10 roads that converged on Gettysburg, only the Baltimore Pike and Tawny Town Road remained in human hands. Meade and his Army of the Potomac easily could have found themselves up Shit Creek without a paddle. With the attack upon the Federal's left having ground to a halt and the attack on the center losing steam, two regiments from the First Corps would be transferred to the lower summit to bolster the New York regiment. The 6th Wisconsin, part of the Iron Brigade mentioned at the top of the section, and the 84th New York.

As the 71st Pennsylvania left to return back to Cemetery Ridge, the 84th would fire a volley and charge down the hill, forcing the remaining Virginia regiments back. Between 10 and 11 p.m., General Stewart would then order his men to fall back, finally ill as well as the major fighting for the day. However, fighting would continue on July 3rd, as at this point, the battlefield would fall silent around 10.30 p.m., except for the cries of the wounded and dying that were left on the field. And in the end...

In conclusion, all three parts of these objectives had failed. First, Hood and McLaughlin's divisions hadn't made any impact on battle lines. By the end of the day, the rebels gained control of Peach Orchard, Devil's Den, part of Wheatfield, and part of Big Round Top.

General Richard Anderson's attack on the Union center fell flat as his Mississippi brigades entered the fray piecemeal and an entire brigade from Virginia never advanced, citing no orders. Approximately 1,500 men never used or used fully. Neither saw any further action.

At Cemetery Hill, Robert Rhodes had his entire division stay put due to much delay getting through the town that the attack was called off. That is 8,000 more men that were not used, and they would stay in their positions. In what is now the southwest part of Gettysburg, and they would see no further action. At Culp's Hill, the famous Stonewall Brigade, formerly led by late Stonewall Jackson, was also never deployed. Another 1,300 men not used.

They would remain three quarters of a mile north-northeast of Culp's Hill until they were deployed against the hill on July 3rd. In the end, it is estimated that over 100,000 men were involved on the second day of fighting. 20,000 of these would become casualties. Now I want you to try to wrap your head around this.

Antietam would see the highest number of casualties, 23,000 in a single day. The fighting at Antietam had lasted 12 hours. Almost the same number would be lost at Gettysburg in just six hours. Among those lost were two corps commanders who were wounded, Oden Sickles, one division commander, mortally wounded, Major General Dorsey Pender,

Confederate A&V 3rd Corps, who would die on July 18th, and five brigade commanders mortally wounded, that being Confederate Brigadier General Semes Barksdale, Union Brigadier Generals Zook, Weed, and Vincent. Vincent would be promoted on July 3rd from Colonel to Brigadier General. But hold on, the carnage is not over.

Coming up, we're going to be covering the third and final day of fighting, which will bring us back to Pulp's Hill and even some cavalry fighting by Big Round Top. More cavalry fighting would see Jeb Stewart finally see some action, and we'll see another famous face involved in the fighting, three miles east of town. Then, of course, we're going to cover potentially the most famous part of the entire battle, Pickett's Charts. That, my friends, is the end of today's episode. My throat hurts at this point, and I am deeply worried that I may be getting sick.

But in the end, I hope it is that you all enjoyed this episode right now. Thank you all very much for listening. I appreciate all of you for supporting me. And keep in mind, if you want pictures of any of these things, this will be going up here on Patreon. So I will be posting that there. Links for that are in the description. So by all means, check us out there if you'd like. Thank you, my friends. And I will see you next time. Goodbye, guys.

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