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JULY 2, EVENING—EWELL ATTACKS CULP'S HILL
Ewell's demonstration against the Union right began at 4 P.M. at the
sound of Longstreet's guns. It opened with artillery fire from Ewell's
batteries near the seminary and on Benner's Hill 1,400 yards east of
Cemetery Hill. The Union batteries on Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill
outgunned the four Confederate batteries on Benner's Hill, commanded by
20-year-old Maj. Joseph W. Latimer, and soon silenced them. At about 7
P.M. as the Confederates assailed Cemetery Ridge from the west, Maj.
Gen. Edward Johnson's division, less the Stonewall Brigade which
remained along the Hanover Road to guard the Confederate left, attacked
Culp's Hill from the east.
Culp's Hill is bounded on the west by the Baltimore Pike and on the
east by Rock Creek. The hill mass has two peaks separated by a saddle. The
principal one rises 150 feet above the creek, the lower only 50 feet.
Both peaks were tree-covered, and the east slopes of both hills are
studded with large rocks. The lower hill had an open field of about five
acres (Pardee Field) on its northwest slope and was bounded on the south
by a meadow that contained a stream and Spangler's Spring. McAllister's
Woods bordered the south side of the meadow less than 300 feet away.
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THE EVERGREEN CEMETERY GATEHOUSE (CWL)
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LIEUTENANT GENERAL RICHARD S. EWELL (GNMP)
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Maj. Gen. Henry W. Slocum's Twelfth Corps had occupied Culp's Hill
south from its highest peak and had erected breastworks there. Just
before Johnson's attack, however, the hill seemed not to be threatened,
and Meade ordered the Twelfth Corps to leave it to buttress the
endangered line on Cemetery Ridge. In response, Slocum sent all but
Brig. Gen. George S. Greene's brigade from its works on the main hill.
(Ironically, only Brig. Gen. Alpheus Williams's division reached the
Union center and participated in its defense. Brig. Gen. John W. Geary's
division took a wrong turn and marched south on the Baltimore Pike away
from the action.) Greene stretched his line to the right and was able to
occupy all of the works on the upper hill and those on the north slope
of the lower one before the Confederates struck his line.
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"ADVANCE COLONEL, AND TAKE THOSE COLORS"
A SERGEANT'S VIEW OF THE 1ST MINNESOTA'S CHARGE
In an undated letter to his brother, Sergeant John W. Plummer, of
Company D, 1st Minnesota Infantry described the charge of his regiment,
in which 190 of 280 officers and men were killed or wounded:
We were marched up there about a quarter of a mile, and ordered to
lie down in front of the batteries very plainly. As I saw our men fall
back, rally, and fall back again, skedaddlers rushing to the rear in
squads, I never felt so bad in my life. I thought sure the day was gone
for us, and felt that I would prefer to die there, rather than live and
suffer the disgrace and humiliation a defeat of our army there would
entail on us; and if ever I offered a sincere prayer in my life, it was
then, that we might be saved from defeat. We all felt bad, but resolved
when our chance came to do our best to retreive the fortunes of the day,
hardly expecting to come out of the conflict unharmed. Our turn soon
came. We were ordered forward against the enemy, who were then within
musket range of us, and if any ever were willing and anxious to go
forward into what we all could see was a deadly place, our boys were. We
had two open fields to advance over, while the rebs were coming down
over another open field, and the third corps falling back before [them].
We went forward on a run, and with a yell, till about half way across
the second field, when we were ordered, for some unaccountable reason to
us, to halt, and the bullets were coming like hailstones, and whittling
our boys like grain before the sickle. "Why don't they let us charge?"
cried all of us. "Why do they stop us here to be murdered?" Everyone
seemed anxious to go forward, and some run way out ahead and beckoned
for us to come on. We have always believed that determined charge would
break any line, and that more would be accomplished and less life lost,
than by lying down and firing two or three hours. We felt that we could
check and force them to retreat, and we wanted to go against them with a
vengeance and get over the deadly ground as soon as possible. We were
halted against when across the second field, and though by this time few
were left, we were just as anxious to go forward. We were almost
together and the rebs had neatly flanked the right of the regiment. But
what surprised me most was to see some of the rebs, not fifty yards from
us, standing out openly and loading and firing as deliberately as though
they were in no danger whatever. Ah! There is no mistake but what some
of those rebs are just as brave as it is possible for human beings to
be. I expected they would turn and run when they see us coming so
determinedly, and I believe they would, had we went right on. We had not
fired but few shots before we were ordered to fall back. 'Twas sometime
before we could hear the order, and when we did, the right of the
regiment was half way back. We dreaded to go back for the danger of it,
more than staying there, and we felt though only obeying orders, that we
were being disgraced to fall back when we knew we could hold our own. We
fell back, and it was then I had the first feeling of fear during the
fight. I felt almost sure I would be hit, and I saw many wounded going
back. When we got back to the colors, where we rallied, scarce 25 men
were to be found. Most who went in were killed, wounded, or helping off
the wounded. The enemy advanced no farther, and soon some of our boys
who did not fall back when ordered, came in bringing in prisoners, and
they said when we fell back the rebs were making for the rear as fast as
possible. It was now about dark.
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MAJOR GENERAL EDWARD JOHNSON (CWL)
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Johnson's troops forded Rock Creek at dusk and struck Culp's Hill
with three brigades. Two hit Greene's thin line in the works on the main
hill; Brig. Gen. George Steuart's left regiments occupied the empty
breastworks on the lower hill and groped their way in the darkness
toward Greene's right flank. Greene's men waited behind their works,
watching as the flashes of the Confederate rifles drew near. They were
greatly outnumbered and frightened. "Moments passed which were years of
agony; ... nervous hands grasping loaded muskets, told how terrible were
those moments of suspense." Then they opened fire. "All was confusion
and disorder," remembered a Virginia captain as the Union line fired
down upon his regiment; the 3rd North Carolina Regiment "reeled and
staggered like a drunken man." The 1st North Carolina shot into the
Confederacy's 1st Maryland Battalion by mistake. A Confederate brigade
commander, Brig. Gen. John M. Jones, bled freely from a wound in his
thigh and had to leave the field.
(click on image for a PDF version)
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JULY 2, 1863. CULP'S HILL 8-10 P.M.
At 8 P.M. Ewell advanced Johnson's division against Culp's Hill. The
Union 12th Corps, who were the principal defenders of the hill, had been
withdrawn to reinforce the Union left, leaving behind only Greene's
brigade to man the breastworks on the eastern and southern slopes of the
hill. Although Johnson's men were able to seize the Union works on the
southern slope, they could not penetrate Greene's main line.
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Fortunately four Greene's men, reinforcements rushed to their aid in
the darkness from Wadsworth's division on the west slope of the hill,
from the Eleventh Corps on Cemetery Hill, and a regiment came even from
the Second Corps on Cemetery Ridge. In spite of attacks on both its
front and right flank, Greene's men held their position throughout one
of the epic struggles of the war. Because of Greene's heroic resistance
and the darkness, the Confederates did not perceive that for a brief
period there were no obstacles between Steuart's brigade and the Union
jugular, the Baltimore Pike. The 137th New York Regiment on the right of
Greene's line, fighting in the darkness, protected the Union right much
as the 20th Maine Regiment had guarded the Union left on Little Round
Top a short time before.
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MAJOR GENERAL HENRY W. SLOCUM (GNMP)
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