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Download The Second Day at Gettysburg: Culp`s Hill and Cemetary Hill
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The Second Day at Gettysburg: Culp’s Hill and Cemetary Hill On the Second Day at Gettysburg General Robert E. Lee’s plan called for Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell‘s Second Corps to conduct a series of demonstration attacks against Culp’s Hill and Cemetary Hill. These were an attempt to draw Union troops from the left to the right so that Longstreet’s attack on the Union left could succeed. Ewell’s objectives were the hook part of the fish hook-shaped Union defensive line. Cemetary Hill, on the Union left, overlooks the town of Gettysburg to the north. Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard’s XII Corps had stationed troops there in the event that he needed a rallying point for retreating troops from the I and XII Corps. When his and I Corps troops were forced to retreat through the town, Howard was able to use these positions as an anchor. Culp’s Hill, the barb in the fish hook, was to the right of Cemetary Hill and set back from it. It consists of two rounded peaks, separated by a narrow saddle. Its heavily wooded higher peak is 630 ft above sea level. The lower peak is about 100 feet shorter than its companion. It dominated Cemetery Hill and the Baltimore Pike. The pike was critical for keeping the Union army supplied and for blocking any Confederate advance on Baltimore or Washington, D.C. At about 4:00 PM, the Confederates began to bombard the Union positions on Cemetary Hill. For the next three hours, Ewell limited his demonstration to an artillery bombardment by four batteries from Benner’s Hill, about a mile to the northeast. The Union gunners returned this fire with counterbattery fire of their own from Cemetary Hill. The Union positions were 50 feet higher than the Confederate ones and this height difference gave the Union gunners a decided advantage. The Confederate position was exposed and they suffered greatly while attempted to move to a less exposed position. It was during this attempt the Major Joseph W. Latimer, the 19-year old battalion commander was mortally wounded. Latimer had been a VMI student and a student of Lt. Gen, Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson. As the Confederate attacks on the Union left were petering out at about 7:00 PM, Ewell chose to send his initial infantry attacks forward. Ewell sent three brigades from the division of Maj. Gen. Edward “Allegheny” Johnson across Rock Creek and up the eastern slope of Culp’s Hill against a line of breastworks manned by the Gen. George S. Greene. XII Corps brigade of Brig. Greene’s troops were able to hold of the Confederate attackers for hours. The Confederates did establish a foothold on the hill by using abandoned Union rifle pits. The fighting on Culp’s Hill would resume the following day. At about 7:30 PM, Ewell ordered two brigades from the division of Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early against East Cemetery Hill from the east, and he alerted the division of Maj. Gen. Robert E. Rodes to prepare a follow-up assault against Cemetery Hill proper from the northwest. Early’s brigades were commanded by Brig. Gen. Harry T. Hays and Col. Isaac E. Avery. Hays, with five regiments, commanded 1,200 men while Avery’s three regiments numbered about 900 men. Defending East Cemetery Hill were the two brigades, commanded by Cols. Andrew L. Harris and Leopold von Gilsa, of Brig. Gen. Francis C. Barlow‘s division which was now commanded by Brig. Gen. Adelbert Ames of the XI Corps, after Barlow’s wounding. Both brigades had been heavily involved in the previous day’s fighting and their numbers had been reduced to a total of 1,150 men. Click image to enlarge. Harris’ men were positioned behind a stone wall at the northern end of their position and wrapped around at a right angle. Von Gilsa’s men extended this line south along Brickyard Lane. Two regiments, the 41st New York and the 33rd Massachusetts, were stationed in Culp’s Meadow beyond Brickyard Lane in expectation of an attack by Johnson’s division. To the west of this position were the divisions of Maj. Gens. Adolph von Steinwehr and Carl Schurz. Artillery positions were located in a number of locations throughout the defensive area. The relatively steep slope of East Cemetery Hill made artillery fire difficult to direct against infantry because the gun barrels could not be depressed sufficiently, but they did their best with canister and double canister fire. The Confederates attacked the stone wall position at about 7:300 PM, exploiting a gap in the Union line. They leaped the wall and rushed to the top of the hill. The fighting in the dark was desperate and the Union gunners engaged the Confederate gunners in hand-to-hand combat. Major Samuel Tate of the 6th North Carolina wrote later in his official report, “75 North Carolinians of the Sixth Regiment and 12 Louisianians of Hays’s brigade scaled the walls and planted the colors of the Sixth North Carolina and Ninth Louisiana on the guns. It was now fully dark. The enemy stood with tenacity never before displayed by them, but with bayonet, clubbed musket, sword, pistol, and rocks from the wall, we cleared the heights and silenced the guns. Samuel Tate is best known for taking his friend Isaac Avery’s note to Avery’s father. Unable to speak the mortally wounded Avery, wrote this poignant note to his father, “Major, tell my father I died with my face to the enemy. I. E. Avery.” Col. Avery died the following day. Howard and Schurz responded to the Confederate attack by dispatching the 58th and 119th New York regiments of Col. Włodzimierz Krzyżanowski‘s brigade reinforced Wiedrich’s battery from West Cemetery Hill, as did a II Corps brigade under Col. Samuel S. Carroll arriving in the dark double-quick from Cemetery Ridge. Carroll’s men secured Ricketts’s battery and swept the North Carolinians down the hill. Over at Wiedrich’s battery, Krzyżanowski led his men to sweep the Louisiana attackers down the hill until they reached the base and “flopped down” for Wiedrich’s guns to fire canister at the retreating Confederates. Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Robert Rodes’ Division had been ordered to attack from the northwest. By the time that they were positioned it was full dark. Brig. Gen. Dodson Ramseur, the leading brigade commander, saw the futility of a night assault against two lines of Union troops behind stone walls, backed up by significant artillery. The adjoining division from A.P. Hill’s Corps was under Brig. Gen. James H. Lane who had replaced Maj. Gen. William Dorsey Pender. Pender would die from his wound two weeks later. New to division command Lane hesitated to attack in the dark. When Ewell sent a staff officer to request his assistance, Lane explained that his orders were to attack if a “favorable opportunity presented.” When Ewell informed Lane that his attack was starting and requested cooperation, Lane sent back no reply. The casualties for the Second Day at Gettysburg were heavy for both sides. A number of officers were killed or wounded, besides troops on both sides. Both flanks of the Army of the Potomac had been attacked and both flanks had held. In a Council of War at his headquarters, General Meade asked his senior staff officers and corps commanders their opinions. All recommended that the army stay in this position and await Lee’s next attack. As the meeting broke up, Meade took aside Brig. Gen.John Gibbon, in command of the II Corps since Hancock was in command of the Union left, and predicted, “If Lee attacks tomorrow, it will be in your front. … he has made attacks on both our flanks and failed and if he concludes to try it again, it will be on our centre.”