Building A Bridge

PART TWO: GETTYSBURG

Lt. Frank Haskell of neighboring Tunbridge vividly described what 21 “men attributed to Stockbridge” experienced on the afternoon of July 3rd, 1863.

“To say that men grew pale and held their breath at what we and they there saw, would not be true. Might not 6,000 men be brave and without shade of fear, and yet, before a hostile 18,000, armed, and not five-minute 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 their left…”

Pickett’s Charge, as the final, decisive action at Gettysburg has been named, had begun. Over 10,000 Confederate soldiers advanced on the Federal force defending a position whose name must have unnerved the superstitious – Cemetery Ridge. There, hugging for dear life a line of stone walls, lay the body of the Union army. Out in front of these defenses, lay skirmishers of Colonel Veazey’s 16th Vermont:

“…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 yards, no more, divide our ready left from their advancing right… the rattling storm soon spreads to the right, and the blue trefoils are vying with the white. All along each hostile front, a thousand yards, the volleys blaze and roll; as thick the sound as when a summer hailstorm pelts the city roofs; as thick the fire as when the incessant lightning fringes a summer cloud…”

The Vermonters, after initial contact, were withdrawn into lines atop the ridge. But when Pickett’s division suddenly veered left, concentrating the attack on the Union center, Stannard ordered Veazey’s men to advance back into the open ground in an attempt to flank the movement and pour an enfilade fire into the Confederate advance. “At this short range,” Vermont historian George Benedict wrote, “the 13th fired 10 or 12 rounds, and the 16th half that number, into a mass of men in which every bullet took effect, and many doubtless found two or three victims. The effect upon the Confederate mass was instantaneous. Its progress ceased. For a few moments the gray lines crowded together, falling meanwhile like wheat before the reaper; then breaking into a disorderly mob, they fled in all directions. On the right and center, they dropped their arms and rushed within our lines as prisoners.”

Haskell, in a collage of sound and fury, if not a bit of purple prose, described what then occurred further north along the stonewall, “…this portion of the wall was lost to us, and the enemy had gained the cover of the reverse side, where he now stormed with fire… some scores of venturesome Rebels, that in their first push at the wall had dared to cross at the further angle, were promptly shot down, and speedy death met him who should raise his body to cross it again. At this point little could be seen of the enemy, by reason of his cover and the smoke, except the flash of his muskets and his waving flags. These red flags were accumulating at the wall every moment, and they maddened us as the same color does the bull… 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 arrowly wings over the yet glowing ashes of his progenitor. The jostling, swaying lines on either side boil, and roar, and dash their flamy spray, two hostile billows of a fiery ocean. Thick flashes stream from the wall, thick volleys answer from the crest. Individuality is drowned in a sea of clamor. The frequent dead and wounded lie where they stagger and fall – there is no humanity for them now, and none can be spared to care for them. The men do not cheer or shout; they growl, and over that uneasy sea, heard with the roar of musketry, sweeps the muttered thunder of a storm of growls…”

The debacle unfolding, Pickett ordered reserves to advance. Afterward, Major General Stannard wrote, “…I saw another rebel column charging immediately upon our left. Colonel Veazey, of the 16th, was at once ordered to attack it in its turn upon the flank. This was done as successfully as before. The rebel forces, already decimated by the fire of the 14th Regiment… were scooped almost en masse into our lines. The 16th took in this charge the regimental colors of the 2nd Florida and 8th Virginia Regiments, and the battle-flag of another regiment.”

Advertisement

The turning point of the Civil War occurred on the afternoon of July 3rd, 1863, when Pickett’s Charge was defeated. The 16th Vermont, in its very first action, had played a pivotal role, and had suffered accordingly. Over 100 of 660 men deployed were casualties. Of 21 Stockbridge warriors, Chauncey Angell and Azro Rice were wounded, and twenty-six-year-old Chester Larnard was Killed in Action, and lies in Gettysburg National Cemetery.

NEXT WEEK, PART THREE: THE GRAPES OF WRATH

For the first entry, go to: https://gvimes.link/bldgbrdgs