Download The Third Day at Gettysburg: Culp`s Hill

The Third Day at Gettysburg:
Culp’s Hill
The Third Day at Gettysburg was the climatic day of the War in
the Eastern Theater. General Robert E. Lee planned to conduct
another demonstration attack in the Culp’s Hill area on the
Union Right. After two days of hard fighting Lee knew that he
couldn’t stay in the area much longer so July 3rd must be
decisive for his Army of Northern Virginia.
Lee’s plan called for massive infantry charge preceded a
punishing artillery bombardment by against the Union center in
coordination with Lt. Gen. Richard Ewell’s demonstration
against Culp’s Hill.
Lt. Gen. James Longstreet was opposed to an all-or-nothing
attack against the Union center. He preferred for the
Confederate army to move around the Army of the Potomac and
interpose itself between the enemy and Washington. He felt
that by doing so they would be able to fight the Union army on
ground of their own choosing rather than the enemy’s.
General Lee adamantly refused to heed Longstreet’s advice and
insisted that after the attacks on the Union flanks on the
Second Day, the enemy’s center had been thinned and could be
broken with a concerted effort. And how could Longstreet say
no to Robert E. Lee?
Longstreet’s Corps had been
heavily engaged on the
previous day with both
Hood’s and McLaws’ Division
suffering grievous losses.
John Bell Hood had been
severely wounded and had
been replaced by Brig.
Gen Evander M. Law. Two of
Hood’s brigade commanders
had been wounded and 14
field grade officers had
been either killed or
wounded.
McLaws’ Division had a similar story. Two brigade commanders
had been mortally wounded and 14 field grade officers had been
either killed wounded or captured. Both divisions were unfit
for further immediate combat.
Lee replaced them with Dorsey Pender’s Division, now led by
Maj. Gen. Isaac R. Trimble who had stepped in after Pender had
been mortally wounded the previous day. The other formation
was led by Brig. Gen. James J. Pettigrew of Henry Heth’s
Division. Pettigrew commanded three brigades.
Maj. Gen. George Pickett’s had arrived on the field the
previous night and was fresh. They had been the last unit in
the Confederate army to arrive. Pickett’s Division had three
brigades for the coming engagement.
Due to the lengthy march for Longstreet’s units, particularly
Trimble and Pettigrew, Lee scheduled the attack for the mid
afternoon, preceeded by a long artillery bombardment.
However, the Union army did not cooperate with Lee’s plan. At
about dawn, the five Union artillery batteries on Culp’s Hill
began a bombardment against Brig. Gen. George H. Steuart‘s
Brigade of Maj. Gen. Edward Johnson‘s Division. The
Confederates were pinned down for 30 minutes in the rifle pits
that they had captured the previous day.
An attempt by Lee to hold off the start of the fighting was
fruitless. Ewell sent back a terse reply by messenger: “Too
late to recall.” Fighting continued until late in the morning
and consisted of three attacks by Johnson’s men, each a
failure. The attacks were essentially a replay of those the
previous evening, although in daylight.
The Union defensive force had been reinforced by units from
the I and VI Corps during the night. The Union commander on
the scene, Brig. Gen. George S. Greene, rotated regiments in
and out of the defensive works while they reloaded. This
enabled the Union defenders to maintain a high rate of fire.
The Johnson’s attacking force had been reinforced with
additional brigades from the division of Maj. Gen. Robert E.
Rodes, under Brig. Gens. Junius Daniel andWilliam “Extra
Billy” Smith and Col. Edward A. O’Neal. Despite this infusion
of needed manpower, the Confederates were unable to make much
progress against the
stubborn Union defense.
In the final of the three Confederate attacks, around 10 a.m.,
Brig. Gen. James A. Walker‘s Stonewall Brigade and Brig.
Gen. Junius Daniel‘s North Carolina brigade assaulted Greene
from the east, while Brig. Gen. George H. Steuart‘s brigade
advanced over the open field toward the main hill against two
Union brigades, which did not have the advantage of strong
breastworks to fight behind. Both attacks were beaten back
with heavy losses. The attacks against the heights were again
fruitless, and superior use of artillery on the open fields to
the south made the difference there.
The fighting at Culp’s Hill ended at about noon with a futile
counterattack by two Union regiments, the 2nd Massachusetts
and the 27th Indiana, against the strong Confederate near
Spangler’s Spring. An order to retake a position that had been
captured by the enemy. The order was misinterpreted to mean
that the units were to make a direct frontal assault. Both
regiments were repelled with terrific losses: 43% of the
Massachusetts soldiers, 32% of the Indianans.
The losses at Culp’s Hill included approximately 2,000 men in
Johnson’s division, nearly a third. An additional 800 fell
from the reinforcing brigades on July 3. The XII corps lost
about 1,000 men over both days, including 300 men in Greene’s
brigade, or one fifth.
One of the sad stories of the war involved the Culp family.
Two of Henry Culp’s nephews were brothers: John Wesley Culp
and William Culp. Wesley joined the Confederate Army and
William the Union Army. Wesley’s regiment, the 2nd Virginia
Infantry, fought at Culp’s Hill, and he was killed in the
fighting on his family property on July 3. Ironically, he
allegedly was carrying a message from another soldier, just
deceased, to “Ginnie” Wade, the only civilian killed during
the battle.