 Gettysburg National Military Park
Virtual Tour - Day Two
Cemetery Ridge
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Hancock Avenue marks the line of Cemetery Ridge in the center of this view, taken in the 1980's. The Round Tops are in the distance and the Emmitsburg Road is to the right.
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Beginning on the southwest edge of Cemetery Hill, Cemetery Ridge runs southward approximately 1 1/2 miles to the Round Tops. Unlike Seminary Ridge, the gradual rise of Cemetery Ridge and better soil base allowed it to be farmed as pasture and planted in crops. Cleared of trees and lined with fences that could be used for emergency barricades and defenses, it was a perfect position for infantry and artillery to be placed to cover the ground to the west over which the main Confederate attack was directed. The Taneytown Road, which lies directly east of the ridge, was perfect for the rapid movement of troops, artillery and supplies up and down the line. When General Sickles moved his Third Corps to the Emmitsburg Road on the afternoon of July 2, he left a large section of the ridge between Little Round Top and the Angle area unoccupied. This gap in the line was an open invitation for the Confederates to march through the center of the Union position and break it in half. But to achieve this goal, the southerners would have to sweep away veteran Union regiments, determined to stop the Confederate attack before it reached that point .
Union artillery had a commanding view over Plum Run as seen from Dow's Battery on Cemetery Ridge.
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Reserve troops rushed into battle by General Meade were sent to the left of the Third Corps line, which was facing the most pressure. Yet he was unable to fill the section of Cemetery Ridge vacated that morning by General Sickles. This left a gap between the area of the Angle to the north and Little Round Top to the south. Several hours into the fighting, three Confederate brigades under Generals Barksdale and Wilcox, and Colonel Lang threatened this area. Only a handful of battered artillery units fresh from the ordeal of the Peach Orchard and rallied by Colonel Freeman McGilvery were unlimbered along the ridge, and these were not enough to stop the masses of Confederate infantry moving across Plum Run valley below them. The long march under fire from Seminary Ridge to this point had disorganized the southern formations and exasperated officers hurriedly reformed their commands at Plum Run, a crucial delay. Seeing that troops were desperately needed in the center, General Hancock quickly rushed forward a brigade of New York troops commanded by Colonel George Willard. The New Yorkers immediately charged into Barksdale's exhausted Confederates, driving them away from Plum Run and across the farm fields to the Emmitsburg Road. The 39th New York Infantry drove off Mississippians who had just captured Lt. Malbone F. Watson's Battery I, 5th US Artillery, and pursued the refuges into the Trostle yard where they, along with the 150th New York, re-took the lost guns of the 9th Massachusetts Battery. In the center of the fight, General Barksdale was shot from his horse and lay terribly wounded on the field until later that night when Union troops brought him in as a prisoner.
Monument to the 1st Minne- sota Infantry on Hancock Ave.
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Just north of Barksdale's hard-pressed Mississippians, Brig. General Cadmus Wilcox was getting his Alabama regiments started again when he was surprised to see a small formation of Union infantry appear in his front, take deliberate aim and fire. The line bore straight toward his brigade, light from the setting sun glittering on leveled Union bayonets. This lone Union regiment was the 1st Minnesota Infantry, stationed on Cemetery Ridge to support a Union battery. After directing Willard into battle, General Hancock observed that a critical gap still remained where Wilcox could break through. Quickly taking in the situation, he galloped up to the only available Union infantry at hand, the 1st Minnesota and its commander Colonel William Colvill, Jr. "My God," Hancock roared, "are these all the troops we have here?!" Colvill replied in the affirmative. "Do you see those colors?", Hancock asked. The colonel peered through the battle smoke to see a large mass of gray-clad southerners with red battle flags defiantly waving above them.
"Yes," Colvill stated.
"Well, capture them!", Hancock commanded, then galloped away to search for additional troops to fill the gap. Without hesitation, Colvill ordered his 262 officers and men forward toward Plum Run where they crashed headlong into Wilcox's men. Within minutes the charge was over. Barely a handful of Minnesotans escaped to rally on Cemetery Ridge, but they had stopped the Alabamians cold while Union troops from Willard's brigade and other commands moved in. Finding himself in danger of being cut off, Wilcox ordered his regiments to retreat and the threat was over. The 1st Minnesota Infantry suffered an appalling loss in this suicidal charge, and more soldiers in the regiment were killed and wounded the following day in repulsing "Pickett's Charge". The regiment's 82% loss at Gettysburg was never equaled by any other Union regiment during the Civil War.
Just north of the melee in Plum Run, Brig. General Ambrose Wright's Georgia Brigade attacked Union troops at the Codori House and drove them back, pursuing the retreating soldiers to the Angle on Cemetery Ridge. Wright was vigorously counter-attacked by Vermont troops- "Green Mountain Boys" of the 13th, 14th and 16th Vermont Infantry Regiments, which overwhelmed Wright's Confederates, a number of whom were taken prisoner. This was the first and last battle for these Vermont "nine-month regiments", which would be mustered out two weeks after the close of the battle. With the arrival of fresh Union batteries, the gap on Cemetery Ridge was now closed.
July 2nd ended under a fiery red sunset, in sympathy to the blood spilled in the fields, pastures, and woods of the Adams County countryside.
Pennsylvania Honors Her Sons at Gettysburg
The Pennsylvania Monument
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One of the largest and most ornate monuments on the battlefield, the Pennsylvania Memorial was constructed by the commonwealth in 1909-1910. This unique memorial is made of North Carolina granite set over an iron and concrete frame. Adorning the base are bronze statues of Pennsylvania-born generals, Governor Curtin, and President Abraham Lincoln. The statues were sculpted by several artists including J. Otto Schweizer, Cyrus E. Dalin, and Lee O. Lowrie. The prominent figure of Winged Victory by sculptor Samuel Murray, adorns the top of the dome. Around the base are bronze plaques that list the Pennsylvania regiments and batteries that participated in the Battle of Gettysburg, along with a list of the Pennsylvanians in each unit who were present during the three day battle. This project presented the state's monuments commission with special problems as the records and muster rolls were still in the possession of the War Department, and there were numerous spelling and statistical difficulties encountered. A large staff worked for over a year to complete the rosters, though corrections had to be made to the tablets after the dedication of the memorial on September 27, 1910. The work of architect W. Liance Cottrell of New York, the Pennsylvania Memoerial weighs an estimated 3,840 tons and cost the state over $240,000.
The Rite of Absolution
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Another interesting monument near this location is that to Father William Corby, chaplain of the famous "Irish Brigade". On the afternoon of July 2, just prior to the brigade's advance to the Wheatfield, Father Corby stood upon a large boulder and granted general absolution to the catholic members of the brigade. It was a most stirring moment as the chaplain raised his voice above the din of battle while over 300 Union soldiers who were about to face death knelt before him. Within the hour, the brigade was in the thick of the battle. To commemorate this unique event, a statue of Father Corby was erected upon the exact boulder where he stood that afternoon, and was dedicated on October 29, 1910.
After the war, Corby returned to his pre-war occupation of teaching at Notre Dame University and was appointed university president. He spent a few years away from Notre Dame for a brief appointment at Sacred Heart College in Watertown, Wisconsin, and returned to Notre Dame in 1877. The university flourished under his guidance until his retirement in 1881. Corby also founded the Notre Dame Post No. 569 of the Grand Army of the Republic, the only post in the nation, "composed entirely of members of a religious order." Father William Corby died in 1897 and is buried at Notre Dame where a similar statue to Father Corby stands today.
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Gettysburg National Military Park
1195 Baltimore Pike, Suite 100
Gettysburg, PA 17325
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