All Roads Lead to Gettysburg: The battle of Gettysburg from the accounts of the soldiers and civilians who were there
What would be considered the
greatest battle in the history of the Civil War would also be one that many of
the soldiers who survived it would never forget. Even as it’s taught to
students in the 21st century and studied by historians what happened
on the battlefield at Gettysburg would change the course of the Civil War. The
battle and its aftermath were witnessed by not only the soldiers who fought on
the fields of Gettysburg but also by the people of the town as well as the
countless civilian nurses and doctors who traveled to the front lines to heal
the wounded. Many soldiers and civilians recorded their experiences at
Gettysburg as to attest of their existence at the battle and the significance
of the experience they gained while on the battlefield. Union Soldier Elisha
Hunt Rhodes knew that all the troops would be needed in this upcoming battle
saying “The troops that have been stationed here have been ordered to the
front, and it is rumored that we are to remain, but I do not believe it, for
the Rebels are in Pennsylvania the 6th Corps will be needed there.”[1]
The North and the South were about to clash in a battle unlike anyone had seen
before.
After a decisive victory against
Federal troops at Chancellorsville, Virginia General Robert E. Lee was poised
to move forward in his campaign to invade the north. Upon hearing that the
Federal troops were headed into Pennsylvania Gen. Lee knew that the next battle
would be fought on Union territory. Confederate Soldier Henry Kyd Douglas said “Soon an order came for concentration and the faces
of all three corps were turned toward Gettysburg. General Lee was satisfied
that Meade, who had been showing more activity of movement than his
predecessors, was marching toward that point.”[2]
Early on Confederate troops went towards Gettysburg in search of resources for
the upcoming battle causing the civilian population into a panic, school
children were sent home early before they arrived. Some were lucky to make it
to their homes and lock themselves in before the troops began ransacking homes.
Union troops were sent ahead to scout the area and found signs of Confederate
troops in the vicinity. The battle would soon be upon them and the aftermath of
what was to come would greatly impact the second half of the war.
In the early morning hours of July 1st
1863 the first shots in the Battle of Gettysburg were fired and would soon be
the beginning of a three day battle. The battle would start in the northern
part of the town both Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and Federal Gen. George
Gordon Meade would attempt to gain the higher ground over the other. Gen. Meade
was appointed as the commander of the Army of the Potomac just three days
before the battle. When Lee had begun the battle he didn’t have the full force
of the Confederate Army but he wanted to gain the upper hand and so he decided
to fight even without one of his cavalries which was led by brigadier general
J.E.B. Stuart and his Calvary whom Lee relied on for information on the
movements of the Union army. Stuart had been separated from Lee after he went
off on a mission to disrupt the communications of the Union army. Without the
intelligence he needed and only a third of his army Lee push through with the
battle. The confederate army was successful on the first day of battle Henry
Kyd Douglas says of the battle “The battle of the 1st of July was a
spirited one, with something over 20,000 engaged in each side, and one of heavy
loss for its size and duration.”[3]
Both sides didn’t leave the first day without casualties and rewards Douglas
goes on to say “That very able and distinguished officer, General Reynolds was
killed, and the gallant Harry Heth and General Pender were wounded. The
confederates captured about 5,000 prisoners and the Federals claim to have
captured 1,000. The Confederates were entirely successful and the federal
troops were driven from the field, in much apparent confusion.”[4]
Though it’s questionable whether the Confederates were really successful on the
first day because although they had won the battle they had also incurred
casualties in the thousands. By the end of the day the news of the battle had
reached Washington and many soldiers who hadn’t been issued orders to move into
Pennsylvania. In a letter to her father Sarah Rosetta Wakeman wrote “Our
regiment lays here yet and I don’t know how long we shall stay here. The rebs
is amaking Such work in Maryland and Pennsylvania that I don’t know how long
before we shall be call on for a reinforcement. For my part I am ready at a
minute’s warning to go into the field of battle and take my stand with the
rest.”[5]
Wakeman who was posing under an alias in order to serve in the army was ready
to be sent to the battlefield. As one of a few women who took up arms in the
war posing as men in order to make money for their families. Elisha Hunt Rhodes
regiment were gaining ground marching 20 miles a day they had yet to reach the
battlefield on July 1st they were just outside Manchester, Maryland
where he wrote in his journal, “We are quite near to the Pennsylvania line, and
it looks now as if we were to cross over. I am still in good health and spirits
and have faith that God will guide us on the final victory. The Rebellion must
be put down, and we are doing our best.”[6]
With both armies in place and
preparing for the next day of the battle General Meade finally arrived and set
up a headquarters nearby and decided to take on the next battles on the
offensive. General Lee and the Confederates were planning on capitalizing on
their early victory and made plans Douglas says of the plans “It was the
intention of General Lee to make a vigorous attack at all points early in the
morning of the 2nd, and orders were given with that view. Morning
came, but General Longstreet did not, and afternoon came, and he was not at
hand.”[7]
The Confederates wouldn’t get their chance to attack until late in the day and
by then more Union forces arrived ready for battle. The battle of the second
day had begun and though the incoming soldiers were tired from their journey
they would walk into battle with their head held high. En route to the battle
Rhodes saw wounded men strewn upon the ground “The firing in our front grew
loud and more distinct and soon we met the poor wounded fellow being carried to
the rear. At a place called Littlestown we saw large numbers of our wounded me,
and all kinds of carriages were being used to take them to the hospitals. At
about 2 o’clock P.M. we reached the Battlefield of Gettysburg, Penn. having
made a march of thirty-four (34) miles without a halt. The men threw themselves
upon the ground exhausted, but were soon ordered forward.”[8]
They would charge towards battle and fight into the night even though they were
plagued with exhaustion but that night the soldier of both armies would now
have to sleep to the sounds of the wounded surrounded by the dead and dying
soldiers who had fought for their country and lost their battle with their own
lives. The Confederates gained much needed ground on the second day by obtaining
and holding the Peach Orchard, the Wheatfield, as well as Trostle farm and
Devil’s Den. Overnight forces for the Confederates arrive and join Lee’s army, among
those who arrive are General Stuart’s cavalry and General Pickett’s division
who would become famous for a daring charge that would occur on the third day
of battle.
Before the start of battle on the
third the plans are made on both sides as they decide to continue the fight. As
the morning dawned on the battle field the soldiers knew they would have a long
fight ahead of them for the Union army Rhodes wrote “This morning the troops
were under arms before light and ready for the great battle that we knew must
be fought.”[9]
The final day of battle was now upon the soldiers of the North and South, if
the South won then they would win the war since the North had yet to win a
major battle, if the North won this would be the turning point of the war.
Starting in the early morning hours the battle would wage on between the two
forces. The 2nd of Rhode Island in which Rhode was a part of were
marching around Gen. Meade’s headquarters when suddenly the brigade was met
with a predicament, “Our Brigade marched down the road until we reached the
house used by General Meade as Headquarters. The road ran between ledges of
rocks while the fields were strewn with boulders. To our left a hill on which
we had many Batteries posted. Just as we reached Gen. Meade’s Headquarters, a
shell burst over our heads, and it was immediately followed by showers of iron.
More than two hundred guns were belching forth their thunder, and most of the
shells that came over the hill struck the road on which our Brigade was moving.
Solid shot would strike the large rocks and split them as if exploded by
gunpowder. The flying iron and pieces of stone struck men down in every
direction. It was said that this fire continued for about two hours, but I have
no idea of the time. We could not see the enemy, and we could only cover ourselves
the best we could behind the rocks and trees.” [10]
Confederate forces who though that their artillery was firing towards the Union
forces on the battlefield had misfired the cannons were overshooting and hitting
beyond the battle lines and without the knowledge of this grave mistake
Pickett’s Calvary would be headed towards the battlefield amidst smoke and face
the full force of the Union soldiers head on. Both the Union and Confederate
forces would witness this advance, as General Lee gives the go ahead for
Pickett’s Calvary to go forward into the heart of the Union forces. Rhodes says
about this charge from his position “Soon the Rebel yell was heard, and we have
found sine that the Rebel General Pickett made a charge with his Division and
was repulsed after reaching some of our batteries. Our lines of Infantry in
front of us rose up and poured in a terrible fire. As we were only a few yards
In rear of our lines we saw all the fight. The firing gradually died away, and
but for an occasional show all was still. But what a scene it was. Oh the dead
and dying on this bloody field.”[11]
Who was to blame for the miss information? On the Confederate side Henry Kyd
Douglas wrote in his memoir about the famous last battle “On the front of
Longstreet and Hill, there was one event on that day which obscured all others
and virtually closed the battle of Gettysburg. The famous charge of Pickett’s
division and its repulse. It was left unsupported and was slaughtered.”[12]
The Confederates lost on the battlefield and were now in retreat leaving behind
the wounded and the dead, the Union had won their first major battle and this
would become the turning point of the war between the two sides. As the night
came all that was left were the sounds of those who were wounded and the smell
of the rotting corpses of the dead. The three days of the battle were met with
heat and sun with no relief in sight. The battle was over but the stain of
those who fell on the battlefield would be seen by all who were left alive. The
Confederates left behind almost all of their casualties nearly 30,000, less
than 25,000 casualties for the union, together nearly 60,000 were lost.
“Was ever the Nation’s Birthday
celebrated in such a way before.”[13]
July 4th had come and the Union forces weren’t going to stand down
until it was certain that they had won the battle. Though there were still
picket firing throughout the night no major battle would be fought that day. On
July 5th the news reached the Union forces still stationed at
Gettysburg that they had won the three days battle and General Lee’s army was
in retreat back over to the South attempting to cross the Potomac with the 6th
Corps in pursuit trying to catch up to him. A call was sent out for doctors and
nurses to help out on the battlefield and care for the wounded. Among the
nurses to arrive at Gettysburg was Cornelia Hancock, “As we drew near our
destination we began to realize that war has other horrors than the sufferings
of the wounded of the desolation of the bereft. A sickening, overpowering, awful
stench announced the presence of the unburied dead, on which the July sin was
mercilessly shining, and at every step the air grew heavier and fouler, until
it seemed to possess a palpable horrible density that could be seen and felt
and cut with a knife. Not the presence of the dead bodies themselves, swollen
and disfigured as they were, lying in heaps on every side, was as awful to the
spectator as that deadly, nauseating atmosphere which robbed the battlefield of
its glory, the survivors of their victory, and the wounded of what little
chance of life was left to them.”[14]
The finally rain came down onto Gettysburg a sign of relief after the long
battle, what was left to do was to pick up the injured and to care of them, and
for the soldiers to bury the dead and dying. The nurses who cared for the
wounded would be regarded as angels as they helped the doctors and cared for
the survivors. The doctors worked long hours performing surgeries and
amputations on the wounded, piles of limbs as they went from wounded soldier to
wounded soldier. When they finished with all of the Union soldiers and sent the
ones who were still able bodied they began working on the Confederate soldiers
who were left behind. The days were long and hard since the death had to be
buried or sent to be buried in their homes. Families would get notices of their
lost loved ones.
Three days of battle with campaigns
on both sides working to get to this halfway point. Where did General Lee’s
army go wrong on the battlefield? Did they truly believe that their first day’s
battle would result in a victory or if they had waited until they were in full
force that they would have had the upper hand? Before the battle at Gettysburg
the Confederate army suffered the loss of General “Stonewall” Jackson, Henry
Kyd Douglas wrote in his memoir “Sandy Pendleton…, said to me quietly and with
much feeling, “Oh for the presence and inspiration of Old Jack for just one
hour !”[15] later
admitting “Yes, but it took the battle of Gettysburg to convince General Lee that
General Jackson was really dead;”[16]
President Abraham Lincoln would deliver the now infamous Gettysburg address in
late 1863 honoring those who fell in battle. The war would rage on for another
two years General Lee’s surrender on April 9th 1865, with Henry Kyd
Douglas’s regiment firing the final shot. The Union would suffer on last
casualty that would come days after the end of the war, President Lincoln would
be assassinated at Ford’s Theater while attending a show with his wife. The war
would end but it would take years for the North to once again trust the South.
[1]
Elisha Hunt Rhodes, ed. Robert Hunt Rhodes, All
For The Union, (Vintage Civil War Library, 1985), 106.
[2]
Henry Kyd Douglas, I Rode with Stonewall,
(University of North Carolina Press, 1940, 1968), 246.
[3] Ibid. 248
[4] Ibid.
[5]
Lauren Burgess, ed. Uncommon Soldier
(Oxford University Press, 1994), 36
[6] Elisha Hunt
Rhodes, ed. Robert Hunt Rhodes, All For
The Union, (Vintage Civil War Library, 1985), 107.
[7] Douglas, I Rode
with Stonewall, 248
[8] Rhodes, All for
the Union, 107
[9] Ibid, 108
[10] Ibid
[11] Ibid
[12] Douglas, I Rode
with Stonewall, 251
[13] Rhodes, All for
the Union, 109
[14] Cornelia
Hancock, Letters of a Civil War Nurse (First Bison Books, 1998), 5.
[15] Douglas, I Rode
with Stonewall, 247
[16] Ibid
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