The Battle of GettysburgPub. under the auspices of the Commandery of the State of Massachusetts, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, 1908 - Gettysburg, Battle of, Gettysburg, Pa., 1863 - 94 pages Eyewitness accounts are some of the best resources to bring history to life. Nearly 150 years have passed since the Battle of Gettysburg. Since then, countless histories, poems, stories, plays and movies have been created to honor and remember the momentous American event. The very first account, which remains among the best, was written by Union Colonel Frank A. Haskell only weeks after the battle. Haskell arrived with the Union Second Corps on July 2nd and spent the day defending various positions including Cemetery Ridge and the Peach Orchard. He was present at the council of war meetings of General Meade and his commanders. Haskell's position saw some of the heaviest fighting during Pickett's Charge. After General Gibbon was wounded, Colonel Haskell was credited with rallying the troops to repel the rest of the Confederate assault. Just weeks after the battle, he recorded his experiences. Sadly, only months later, he was killed leading a charge at the Battle of Cold Harbor. His writings were published in 1898 in a book titled, "The Battle of Gettysburg." To this day, Frank A. Haskell's experiences are regarded as some of the best accounts of Gettysburg and are indispensable in the study of the battle. |
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1st of July 2d of July 6th Wisconsin advance ambulance arms army artillery assault attack Baltimore Pike batteries battle of Gettysburg brigade bullets cannonade captured cavalry Cemetery Cemetery Ridge Chancellorsville Colonel command conflict crest Culp's Hill Dartmouth College dead Eleventh Corps Emmettsburg road enemy enemy's eyes faces fell field Fifth Corps fight fire flags flank Fredericksburg front ground guns halt Hancock and Gibbon hands Haskell heard horses Lieutenant line of battle Little Round Top looked loss Massachusetts Meade mentioned morning move muskets night o'clock Pickett's places Pleasanton position Potomac prisoners rear rebel regiments repulsed result ridge roar rode Round Top Second Bull Run Second Corps Second Division shells shot Sickles side skirmishers slope smoke soldier soon sound storm Taneytown road Third Corps Third Division thousand tion to-day town trees troops Twelfth Corps victory wall wave Webb's woods yesterday
Popular passages
Page 47 - ... march away, turn ashy white? None on that crest now need be told that the enemy is advancing. Every eye could see his legions, an overwhelming resistless tide of an ocean of armed men sweeping upon us! Regiment after regiment and brigade after brigade move from the woods and rapidly take their places in the lines forming the assault. Pickett's proud division, with some additional troops, hold their right; Pettigrew's (Worth's) their left.
Page 55 - These changes accomplished on either side, and the concentration complete, although no cessation or abatement of the general din of conflict since the commencement had at any time been appreciable, now it was as if a new battle, deadlier, stormier than before, had sprung from the body of the old; a young phoenix of combat, whose eyes stream lightning, shaking his arrowy wings over the yet glowing ashes of his progenitor.
Page 41 - A half a dozen horses start, they tumble, their legs stiffen, their vitals and blood smear the ground. And these shot and shells have no respect for men either. We see the poor fellows hobbling back from the crest, or unable to do so, pale and weak, lying on the ground with the mangled stump of an arm or leg, dripping their life-blood away; or with a cheek torn open, or a shoulder mashed.
Page 40 - ... say that it was like a summer storm, with the crash of thunder, the glare of lightning, the shrieking of the wind, and the clatter of hailstones, would be weak. The thunder and lightning of these two hundred and fifty guns and their shells, whose smoke darkens the sky, are incessant, all pervading, in the air above our heads, on the ground at our feet, remote, near, deafening, ear-piercing, astounding; and these hailstones are massy iron, charged with exploding fire. And there is little of human...
Page 78 - Corps, the trees were almost literally peeled, from the ground up some fifteen or twenty feet, so thick upon them were the scars the bullets had made. Upon a single tree, not over a foot and a half in diameter, I actually counted as many as two hundred and fifty bullet marks. The ground was covered by the little twigs that had been cut off by the hailstorm of lead. Such were the evidences of the storm under which Ewell's bold Rebels assaulted our breastworks on the night of the 2d and the morning...
Page 13 - Sickles1 right flank — his former front — and in the same quarter appeared the rebel infantry also. Now came the dreadful battle picture, of which we for a time could be but spectators. Upon the front and right flank of Sickles came sweeping the infantry of Longstreet and Hill. Hitherto there had been skirmishing and artillery practice — now the battle...
Page 48 - The red flags wave, their horsemen gallop up and down; the arms of eighteen thousand men, barrel and bayonet, gleam in the sun, a sloping forest of flashing steel. Right on they move, as with one soul, in perfect order, without impediment of ditch, or wall or stream, over ridge and slope, through orchard and meadow, and cornfield, magnificent, grim, irresistible.
Page 56 - By the tactics I understand my place is in rear of the men." " Your pardon, sir ; I see your place is in rear of the men.
Page 50 - Rebel wont; but the courage of these silent men amid our shot seems not to need the stimulus of other noise. The enemy's right flank sweeps near Stannard's bushy crest, and his concealed Vermonters rake it with a well-delivered fire of musketry. The gray lines do not halt or reply, but withdrawing a little from that extreme, they still move on. And so across all that broad open ground they have come, nearer and nearer, nearly half the way, with our guns bellowing in their faces until now a hundred...
Page 46 - The artillery fight over, men began to breathe more freely, and to ask, What next, I wonder? The battery men were among their guns, some leaning to rest and wipe the sweat from their sooty faces, some were handling ammunition boxes and replenishing those that were empty. Some batteries from the artillery reserve were moving up to take the places of the disabled ones; the smoke was clearing from the crests. There was a pause between acts, with the curtain down, soon to rise upon the final act, and...