CONFEDERATE SKIRMISHERS AT THE FOOT OF CULP’S HILL.
JOHN L. BURNS, “THE OLD HERO OF GETTYSBURG.”
Sergeant George Eustice, of Company F, 7tli Wisconsin Volunteers, in a letter from Gilroy, Santa Clara County, California, gives tMs account of John Burns’s action in the ranks of that regiment:
“ It must have heen about noon when I saw a little old man coming up in the rear of Company F. In regard to the peculiarities of his dress, I remember he wore a swallow-tailed coat with smooth brass buttons. He had a rifle on his shoulder. We boys began to poke fun at him as soon as he came amongst us, as we thought no civilian in his senses would show himself in such a place. Finding that he had really come to light I wanted to put a cartridge-box on him to make him look like a soldier, telling him he could not fight without one. Slapping his pantaloons-pocket, he replied, ‘ I can get my hands in here quicker than in a box. I’m not used to them new-fangled things.* In answer to the question what possessed him to come out there at such a time, he replied that the rebels had either driven away or milked his cows, and that he was going to be even with them. About this time the enemy began to advance. Bullets were flying thicker and faster, and we hugged the ground about as close as we could. Burns got behind a tree, and surprised us all by not taking a double-quick to the rear. He was as calm and collected as any veteran on the ground. We soon had orders to get up and move about a hundred yards to the right, when we were engaged in one of the most stubborn contests I ever experienced. Foot by foot we were driven back to a point near the seminary, where we made a stand, but were finally driven through the town to Cemetery Ridge. I never saw John Burns after our movement to the right, when we left him behind his tree, and only know that he was true blue and grit to the backbone, and fought until he was three times wounded.”
The 7thWisconsin served in the “ Iron Brigade,” First Corps. Burns’s bravery is mentioned in General Doubleday’s official report.
in line or going into position. They stretched — apparently in one unbroken mass—from opposite the town to the Peach Orchard, which bounded the view to the left, the ridges of which were planted thick with cannon. Never before had such a sight been witnessed on this continent, and rarely, if ever, abroad. What did it mean ? It might possibly he to hold that line while its infantry was sent to aid Ewell, or to guard against a counter-stroke from us, but it most probably meant an assault on our center, to be preceded by a cannonade in order to crush our batteries and shake our infantry; at least to cause us to exhaust our ammunition in reply, so that the assaulting troops might pass in good condition over the half mile of open ground which was beyond our effective musketry fire. With such an object the cannonade would be long and followed immediately by the assault, their whole army being held in readiness to follow up a success. Prom the great extent of ground occupied by the enemy’s batteries, it was evident that all the artillery on our west front, whether of the army corps or the reserve, must concur as a unit, . . . and beginning on the right, I instructed the chiefs of artillery and battery commanders to withhold their fire for fifteen or twenty minutes after the cannonade commenced, then to concentrate their fire with all possible accuracy on those batteries which were most destructive to us —but slowly, so that when the enemy’s ammunition was exhausted, we should have sufficient left to meet the assault. I had just given these orders to the last battery on Little Bound Top, when the signal-gun was fired, and the enemy opened with all his guns. Prom that point the scene was indescribably grand. All their batteries were soon covered with smoke, through which the flashes were incessant, whilst the air seemed filled with shells, whose sharp explosions, with the hurtling of their fragments, formed a running accompaniment to the deep roar of the guns. Thence I rode to the Artillery Beserve to order fresh batteries and ammunition to be sent up to the ridge as soon as the cannonade ceased; but both the reserve and the train had gone to a safer place. Messengers, however, had been left to receive and convey orders, which I sent by them; then I returned to the ridge. Turning into the Taneytown pike, I saw evidence of the necessity under which the reserve had “decamped,” in the remains of a dozen exploded caissons, which had been placed under cover of a hill, hut which the shells had managed to search out. In fact, the fire was more dangerous behind the ridge than on its crest. . . .
I now rode along the ridge to inspect the batteries. The infantry were lying down on its reverse slope, near the crest, in open ranks, waiting events. As I passed along, a bolt from a rifle-gun struck the ground just in front of a man of the front rank, penetrated the surface and passed under him, throwing him “ over and over.” He fell behind the rear rank, apparently dead, and a ridge of earth where he had been lying reminded me of the back-woods practice of “ barking” squirrels. Our fire was deliberate, but on inspecting the chests I found that the ammunition was running low, and hastened to General Meade to advise its immediate cessation and preparation for the assault which would certainly follow. The headquarters building, immediately behind the ridge, had heen aban-
have seen, was attacked, so that the contest was over on the left before that at the center was begun. The hoped-for concert of action in the Confederate attacks was lost from the beginning.
On the Federal side Hancock’s corps held Cemetery Bidge with Bobinson’s division, First Corps, on Hays’s right in support, and Doubleday’s at the angle between Gibbon and Caldwell. General Newton, having been assigned to the command of the first corps, vice Beynolds, was now in charge of the ridge held by Caldwell. Compactly arranged on its crest was McGilvery’s artillery, forty-one guns, consisting of his own batteries, reinforced by others from the Artillery Reserve. Well to the right, in front of Hays and Gibbon, was the artillery of the Second Corps under■ its chief, Captain Hazard. Woodruff’s battery was in front of Ziegler’s Grove; on his left, in succession, Arnold’s Rhode Island, Cushing’s United States, Brown’s Rhode Island, and Rorty’s New York. In the fight of the preceding day the two last-named batteries had been to the front and suffered severely. Lieutenant T. Fred Brown was severely wounded, and his command devolved on Lieutenant Perrin. So great had been the loss in men and horses that they were now of four guns each, reducing the total number in the corps to twenty-six. Daniels’s battery of horse artillery, four guns, was at the angle. Cowan’s 1st New York battery, six rifles, was placed on the left of Borty’s soon after the cannonade commenced. In addition, some of the guns on Cemetery Hill, and Bittenhouse’s on Little Bound Top, could be brought to bear, but these were offset by batteries similarly placed on the flanks of the enemy, so that on the Second Corps line, within the space of a mile, were 77 guns to oppose nearly 150. They were on an open crest plainly visible from all parts of the opposite line. Between 10 and 11 a. m., everything looking favorable at Culp’s Hill, I crossed overdo Cemetery Ridge, to see what might be going on at other points. Here a magnificent display greeted my eyes. Our whole front for two miles was covered by batteries already
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The artillery was almost intact. Stuart had arrived with his cavalry, excepting the brigades of Jones and Robertson, guarding the communications; and Imboden had also come up. General Lee, therefore, directed the renewal of operations both on the right and left. Ewell had been ordered to attack at daylight on July 3d, and during the night reinforced Johnson with Smith’s, Daniel’s, and O’Neal’s brigades. Johnson had made his preparations, and was about moving, when at dawn Williams’s artillery opened upon him, preparatory to an assault by Geary and Buger for the recovery of their works. The suspension of this fire was followed by an immediate advance by both sides. A conflict ensued which lasted with varying success until near 11 o’clock, during which the Confederates were driven out of the Union intrenehments by Geary and Buger, aided by Shaler’s brigade of the Sixth Corps. They made one or two attempts to regain possession, but were unsuccessful, and a demonstration to turn Johnson’s left caused him to withdraw his command to Rock Creek. At the close of the war the scene of this conflict was covered by a forest of dead trees, leaden bullets proving as fatal to them, as to the soldiers whose bodies were thickly strewn beneath them.
Longstreet’s arrangements had been made to attack Round Top, and his orders issued with a view to turning it, when General Lee decided that the assault should be made on Cemetei’y Ridge by Pickett’s and Pettigrew’s divisions, with part of Trimble’s. Longstreet formed these in two lines—• Pickett on the right, supported by Wilcox ; Pettigrew on the left, with Lane’s and Scales’s brigades under Trimble in the second line. Hill was ordered to hold his line with the remainder of his corps,— six brigades,— give Longstreet assistance if required, and avail himself of any success that might begained. Finally apowerful artillery force, about one hundred and fifty guns,was ordered to prepare the way for the assault by cannonade. The necessary arrangements caused delay, and before notice of this could be received by Ewell, Johnson, as we
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