 Gettysburg National Military Park
Virtual Tour - Day One
The Eleventh Corps Line: Coster Avenue
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Coster Avenue which intersects with Stevens Street in the northeast section of Gettysburg.
Gettysburg NMP |
Nestled in the suburban streets of northeast Gettysburg is Coster Avenue, a narrow strip of property significant for the three regimental monuments and brigade tablet located here. The avenue is named for Colonel Charles Coster and marks the position of his brigade of the Eleventh Corps that stood at this spot on the afternoon of July 1, 1863. At the time of the battle this area was a open farmland interspersed by rail and board fences that enclosed pastures and small fields of corn, rye and oats. Adjacent to this strip of land was a tall rail fence that bordered a small brickyard, a factory where bricks were made for many of the homes in Gettysburg. Post-Civil War growth drastically changed this portion of the battlefield, making Coster Avenue into an island of monuments surrounded by houses and businesses.
The quiet of this avenue today contrasts with the desperate stand Coster's brigade made against overwhelming numbers of Confederates from Jubal Early's division on the afternoon of July 1, they being some of the last Union troops to leave this part of the field.
Confederate attack on Coster's Brigade near the brickyard. |
Col. Coster
CW Library & Museum |
Having received orders to support the right flank of Barlow's 1st Division engaged in the fields north of the county poor farm, Coster's three regiments- the 27th Pennsylvania, 154th New York, and 134th New York- raced through Gettysburg from Cemetery Hill and stumbled into the brickyard where they loaded their rifles and waited for the inevitable attack. From this point, Colonel Coster saw that Barlow's men were already heavily engaged and his line crumbling under the weight of the Confederate assault. The anxiety running through the ranks of the men must have terrible to witness. Ahead of them was the spectacle of the 1st Division of their corps being pounced upon and breaking into a rout by what appeared to be thousands of Confederate troops. It was not long before the tops of Confederate battleflags rose from the ground in front of Coster's soldiers. Surrounding each flag were determined southerners who moved up the gentle slope of the knoll toward the brickyard, finally raising their "Rebel yell" when they spied the Union troops. Charles McKay, a soldier of the 154th New York remembered, "I shall never always remember how the Confederate line of battle looked as it came into full view and started down toward us. It seemed... they had a battle flag every few rods... their formation in solid column. However our fire did good execution when we opened, and their line was stopped in front."*
Positioned on the left of Coster's men, Captain Lewis Heckman's Battery K, 1st Ohio Light Artillery was just then pulling into position. "The enemy was already in range," Heckman reported as his Buckeye artillerymen went to work. "I unlimbered and commenced firing as soon as possible, as the enemy were close to me and advancing. My battery was engaged thirty minutes... (and) expended 113 rounds of ammunition, mostly canister."
Col. Isaac Avery
NC Regiments |
Despite the artillery fire on these Southern formations, the fields around Coster's Brigade quickly filled with yelling, shooting Confederates. These were men of Hoke's Brigade, commanded at Gettysburg by the dashing Colonel Isaac Avery. "Colonel Avery now gave the order to double quick," reported Colonel Godwin of the 57th North Carolina, whose regiment was one of three to strike Coster. "The brigade gallantly dashed... up the hill to the fence, the enemy stubbornly holding their position until we had climbed over into their midst." First to be thrown back was Coster's right regiment and then the left gave way, leaving only the 154th New York Infantry stubbornly holding onto their section of fence. Racing forward, the 21st and 57th North Carolina regiments charged and lept over the fence. Nearly surrounded, the New Yorkers began to slowly fall back before turning to run with other fleeing soldiers toward Gettysburg.
Heckman's Ohio Battery was now in a bad fix, exposed to a flank attack by Avery's victorious Carolinians. Seeing that his battery was about to be overrun, Heckman ordered the gunners to limber up and retreat, though it came too late for two guns and their crews who fell into the hands of the 6th North Carolina Infantry. Drivers of the four remaining cannon frantically lashed the horses and drove the caissons and limbers into the growing throng of Eleventh Corps troops crowding Carlisle Street, blood from some of the wounded horses spattering the men as they passed. The horrible sight and warm blood panicked several men who dashed ahead screaming of imagined disaster, spreading confusion and panic to others. Orderly columns deteriorated into a mob as the Eleventh Corps stormed into the streets of Gettysburg. As one survivor put it, "The few that did get away were the best runners."* Troops of the First Corps, which had been fighting west of town, were just then beginning their retreat through town and the streets of Gettysburg were quickly filled with a milling mass of blue-clad soldiers, exhausted and confused- only a few had been told to rally on Cemetery Hill and even fewer knew were that was.
*(Quotes are from Mark Dunkelman's The Hardtack Regiment, An Illustrated History of the 154th New York Regiment, Farleigh-Dickinson Press, 1981.)
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National Park Service
Gettysburg National Military Park
1195 Baltimore Pike, Suite 100
Gettysburg, PA 17325
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