Copyright © 2019 John F. Oyler
August 22, 2019
Gettysburg
I have been interested in the battle of Gettysburg since I was a small child and my Uncle Joe took me for a tour of the battlefield. I am currently revisiting this interest because of a project in which my daughter Elizabeth is involved. The Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at the University of Pittsburgh is sponsoring a performance of ‘Gettysburg”, “a poetic expression of the ill-fated friendship between Confederate General Lewis Armistead and Union General Winfield Hancock and the unseen wounds of war”.
The play will be presented at the Charity Randall Theater on the University campus at 7:30 pm on September 14. It is a serendipitous confluence of two significantly different cultural icons – Japanese Noh theater and legends from the Battle of Gettysburg.
As part of her research on Gettysburg Elizabeth asked me about the participation of units from this area in the battle. I was aware of the three volunteer companies – Company D of the 149thPennsylvania Volunteers Regiment, Company H of the 62nd Pennsylvania Volunteers Regiment, and Company K of the 1st Regiment Pennsylvania Reserve Cavalry – who were at Gettysburg.
The story of Company K, organized in Bridgeville in the summer of 1861, is recorded on the Bridgeville Area Historical Society website under the “Bridgeville History” heading on the mast head.
My brother, Joe, discusses Company D extensively in his book, “Almost Forgotten”. It was organized in the Robinson Run area in August, 1862, under the command of Captain James Glenn.
Company H was organized in the Upper St. Clair/Bethel area by Captain Thomas Espy on July 4, 1861. They served admirably as part of the Army of the Potomac until their mustering out in August, 1864. Captain Espy was wounded and captured at Gaines' Mill on June 27, 1862. He died nine days later. Samuel Conner was promoted to Captain as his replacement and commanded the company for the duration of the war. Espy is memorialized as the namesake of Grand Army of the Republic Post 153; its headquarters are now the Civil War Room at the Andrew Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall in Carnegie.
Following its disastrous defeat at Chancellorsville in early May, 1863, the Army of the Potomac consolidated its position at Fredericksburg and waited for General Lee to make the next move. Following the tragic death of Stonewall Jackson, Lee reorganized his Army of Northern Virginia into three Corps, commanded by Generals James Longstreet, A. P. Hill, and Richard S. Ewell, plus J. E. B Stuart’s Cavalry. Union General Hooker had his Army subdivided into seven (smaller) Corps, commanded by Generals John F. Reynolds (I), Winfield Scott Hancock (II), Daniel Sickels (III), George C. Meade (V), John Sedgwick (VI), Oliver Howard (XI), Henry Slocum (XII) and Alfred Pleasonton (Cavalry).
Lee had convinced Jefferson Davis that the time was ripe for an invasion of Pennsylvania, up the Shenandoah Valley and into the Cumberland Valley. On June 3 Ewell’s Corps moved out. Hooker began to move Union troops north, east of the Blue Ridge which . Six days later there was a massive cavalry battle at Brandy Station, the largest ever fought in North America. Company H and the 62th, part of Meade’s V Corps, saw action at Kelly’s Ford, about five miles east of Brandy Station, as part of the battle. For the first time Union cavalry held their own against J. E. B. Stuart. Company K, now led by Captain J. H. Williams, was heavily engaged in the battle.
At this point Company D and the 149th, part of Reynolds I Corps, were still in position near Fredericksburg; they didn’t begin to move north until June 17. On the other side, Ewell’s Corps was well past Front Royal, with Hill and Longstreet not far behind.
On June 22 Company H found itself in a small skirmish at Aldie, then continued its march North. On June 26 they crossed the Potomac at Edwards Ferry, where they learned that Stuart had passed through several days earlier, on his ill-conceived expedition behind the Union Army. By June 28 they were encamped near Frederick, now under the command of George Sykes. Their previous commander, George C. Meade, had replaced Hooker as commander of the Army of the Potomac on that day.
Company D learned of the change in command at midday on the 28th when they moved into an encampment near Frederick after marching eight miles. Company K was nearby; it was the first time they had bee north of the Potomac in twenty months. Lee’s army was somewhere on the other side of the Blue Ridge; their intentions unknown. Everyone sensed the certainty of a major battle in the near future.
Company K moved on the next day, reaching Middleburg at 2:00 am on the 30th. After a short rest they were back on the road at daylight, arriving and camping at Taneytown in the afternoon. Company D marched twenty-five miles on the 29th, encamping near Emmetsburg. On the 30th they crossed into Pennsylvania, camped at Brown’s Farm, five miles south of Gettysburg on the Emmetsburg Road. Despite the anticipation of bad things to come, they enjoyed the prospect of pay day, the last one many of them would enjoy.
Company H and the 62nd marched nineteen miles through Frederick and encamped at Libertytown on the 29th. On the 30th they were on the road again at 4:00 am and reached Union Mills, ten miles short of the Pennsylvania border, twenty-three miles later. By now there were reports of Rebel troops in Chambersburg, York and Carlisle.
Company D was the first to be engaged. At 9:00 am on July 1, they moved up the Emmetsburg Road toward Gettysburg, and soon heard the first guns of Buford’s engagement, west of the village. They left the Emmetsburg Road and moved west to Seminary Ridge, which they followed to the Hagerstown Road. At the Seminary Building they “stacked arms … and awaited events”.
The events turned out to be a wholesale assault by General Henry Heth’s division that drove them back to a position on McPherson’s Farm on the Chambersburg Pike. After heavy fighting there the company withdrew into Gettysburg and eventually to the safety of the Union lines on Cemetery Ridge. Company Commander James Glenn assumed command of the regiment; he was the highest ranking officer still alive. Although they had been driven from the field, their efforts had delayed the Rebels long enough to permit Meade’s army to consolidate on a defensible line.
Corps Commander John Reynolds was killed during the action and replaced by Abner Doubleday. Company D’s casualties were seven or eight, out of a probable complement of fifty. According to “Almost Forgotten” one of the casualties was Benjamin Kerr, captured by the enemy. He later escaped and rejoined his company, only to be captured a year later and die in a Confederate prison.
In the meantime Company H, with the rest of Sykes’ Corps, had marched twenty miles through Hanover and was within five miles of Gettysburg at Bonneauville, on the Hanover Road. At 6:00 am on July 2 they moved into position on Cemetery Ridge, south of XII Corps on a “desperately hot day”. By 3:30 the day got considerably hotter. Because of a series of unforeseen circumstances Sykes’ Corps was broken up into brigade sized units (a brigade is three regiments, about fifteen hundred men).
General Sickles had moved his III Corps forward, leaving Sykes’ Corps vulnerable. The third brigade, which included the soon to be famous 20th Maine regiment, was sent to occupy Little Round Top. Company H and the second brigade was marched to the Wheat Field, with two other famous battlegrounds, the Peach Orchard and Devils’ Den on either side.
At the height of the battle their Division commander (a division is three brigades), General James Barnes, ordered a retreat from what appeared to be a highly defensible site. The ensuing confusion turned into a rout back to Little Round Top. Company H’s casualties were enormous – three dead, nine wounded, and seven captured. Barnes’ decision was widely criticized. Ironically it was the only time he, a West Point classmate of Robert E. Lee, ever commanded troops in battle.
Company D played a minor role in the battle at the Peach Orchard late in the evening, suffering no casualties. On July 3 they were subjected to heavy artillery fire prior to Pickett’s Charge, but were too far from the brunt of the attack to be able to participate. The remnants of Company H protected an artillery battery on Little Round Top and were subjected only to sporadic sniper fire.
And what of Company K, whom we left at Taneytown on June 30th? The evening of July 1 they were ordered forward to Gettysburg. After marching all night they reached the battlefield at 9:00 am on July 2 and were immediately deployed to a position behind the left center of the line as support for the reserve artillery of the Cavalry Corps. The next day they were subjected to the full brunt of the Rebel artillery barrage – one hundred artillery pieces.
Although Company K is reported to have been in reserve, they did suffer casualties, including one documented fatality – Joseph McClanahan. It appears likely that they were part of the reserves that swept back the Rebels from the “High-Water Mark of the Confederacy”, Armistead’s climbing over the wall at “the Angle” and capturing two Union artillery pieces before being cut down by the onslaught of Union Reserves.
It appears to me that all three local companies performed admirably at Gettysburg. In retrospect it is easy to imagine Armistead’s spirit wandering the battlefield, hoping to get reassurance that his friend Hancock has forgiven him. I am eagerly looking forward to the performance of this play and its presentation of this question.
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