Sickles’ Corps Holds Confederates Off Both Round Tops at Gettysburg July 2, 1863

During the night of July 1 the two army commanders hurried up their troops to Gettysburg, but it was on the night of July 2 before the last of Sedgwick’s Sixth Corps and the last of Longstreet’s First Corps came into position. Meantime, at Hanover Junction, twelve miles east of Gettysburg, Kilpatrick was fighting Stuart, and, having whipped him and forced the enemy cavalry around to the left and rear of the Confederate Army, he took his position on the west of the Emmetsburg road, a mile and a half from Peach Orchard, on the left flank of the Union Army.

On July 2 General Daniel E. Sickles, with his Third Corps, came up. He was assigned to a position on the “left of Hancock,” and occupied the Emmetsburg road as far as the Peach Orchard, throwing his left toward Round Top. He was hardly in position before Longstreet enveloped the Union line, where, for five hours, from 3 until 8 o’clock, the battle raged furiously, the scene changing from the Peach Orchard to the Wheatfield and from there to the valley between Round Top and back again to the Devil’s Den and again back to the Wheatfield.

The interposition of Sickles’ corps between the Confederate Army and Round Top was what Longstreet least desired, for he intended to 454make a vigorous attack upon that strategic position, but the Union forces obtained the eminence just as the enemy was ascending the western slope.

In the desperate struggle for Little Round Top four Union generals were killed. On the Wheatfield two colonels were killed, and near the Peach Orchard General Sickles lost his leg.

In the second day’s fight Hood was wounded, but, minus a leg and an arm, he commanded the Western Confederate Army and fought Sherman near Atlanta.

The Confederate forces had pushed the Federal line back half a mile, but had failed to seize either Big or Little Round Top, and each side had suffered frightfully in killed and wounded.

When Longstreet opened his battle behind Cemetery Hill and Culp’s Hill it was expected that Ewell would attack the Union lines in front. He did not hear Longstreet’s guns and failed to attack until 7 o’clock in the evening, when, supported by numerous guns in a hot artillery fire, the Louisiana Tigers and North Carolina brigade of Early’s division stormed East Cemetery Hill, carrying everything before them, even to clubbing Wiedrich’s artillerymen in their hastily thrown up intrenchments. But Carroll’s brigade of infantrymen was back of the guns across the Baltimore pike, and this brigade Hancock personally led against the foe, with the result that the Union guns and positions were saved and the Louisiana Tigers as an organization went out of existence.

Ewell, failing to win East Cemetery Hill, at 7 o’clock pushed Johnson’s troops against the enemy on the east side of Culp’s Hill, and, after an hour’s fighting, gained a lodgment in part of the works of the Twelfth Corps, which had been vacated by troops called to aid in defending the line on the extreme left against the attack of Longstreet.

Johnson’s troops pushed their advance by 9 o’clock as far as the Baltimore road; but on account of darkness and fearful of being led into a trap, did not go farther. In this contest the Confederates secured Spangler’s Spring, but all through the long night boys of both sides filled their canteens at the gurgling fountain.

At daybreak on the morning of July 3 General Slocum, of the Twelfth Corps, made a successful attempt to drive the Confederates from the Union breastworks they had gained the previous night, and for six hours the woods howled with shot and shell, as this was one of the most desperate battles. Slowly, but surely, foot by foot, the Union troops advanced until the breastworks were wrested from the enemy, who was forced back across Rock Creek. This ended the Battle of Gettysburg, so far as Ewell’s and Slocum’s corps of the two sides were considered.

From 10 until 1 there was an ominous silence over the whole field in both armies. Then came the shot and shell from 150 Confederate guns posted along Seminary Ridge, directed upon the center of the 455Union line, and immediately 150 guns on the Union side responded, and for nearly two hours the earth trembled.

General Hunt ordered the Federal pieces to cease firing to cool off, while he replaced disabled guns with fresh ones and replenished his supply of ammunition for the assault which was sure to come.

Lee thought the Union guns were silenced from exhaustion and promptly gave orders for 15,000 of Longstreet’s and A. P. Hill’s choicest troops to force the Federal line. Pickett was in front with his 5500 men, and bravely they marched on and on when the charge commenced. From there it was a rush, until on and beyond the stone wall, at the Angle, both sides mingled in wildest disorder, shooting and clubbing each other in a hand-to-hand struggle that seemed to have no end. One by one the Confederates threw down their arms and sought retreat.

Of Pickett’s 5500 men, 224 had been killed, 1140 wounded and 1499 surrendered. Out of fifteen Confederate flags, twelve were left with the Federals, only three with the few brave troops making their way back to the Southland.

On this third day of the battle General Hancock was carried off the field badly wounded.

While Pickett was making his charge, Stuart, with the Rebel cavalry, endeavored to break the Union line in the center of the rear, but there he met General David McMurtrie Gregg, of Berks county, in command of the Union cavalry, and was defeated in the most important cavalry battle of the war.

All night long after the battle, Lee pushed his trains to the river through Fairfield Gap, and on July 4 he commenced to move his army; by the 14th he had carried it safely across the Potomac into Virginia.

Gettysburg was a drawn battle, yet, strange to state, was the decisive battle of the war and was treated by both sides and by the world as a great Union victory. The Gettysburg campaign was the last of several incursions upon Northern soil. Lee was afterward on the defensive.

While all the Northern states contributed their courage and manhood, Gettysburg, in its location, its leadership, and its incidents, was essentially a Pennsylvania battle.

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