History of Pennsylvania volunteers, 1861-5; prepared in compliance with acts of the legislature, by Samuel P. Bates.

1863 BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG. 675
one of our pioneers being wounded. Here we remained during the night. The
next day we were moved into various positions, covering the line of skirmishers,
in the operations against the enemy on the left. At evening we retired and
remained in position with the brigade. Before the men were fully prepared
the next morning, the enemy made a vigorous attack on our left and front, and
the position of my regiment was changed to the extreme right so as to more
fully cover the battery we were supporting, now firing rapidly. The onset,
however, was so rapid and determined, and the front lines having broken and
fallen back in some confusion, the regiment was forced to retire with the
brigade. After retiring the brigade was re-formed, and with it we quickly
moved again to the front in columns doubled on the centre. Deploying at the
edge of the wood, to the right of our first position, which the enemy now held,
we entered and soon engaged him in his rifle-pits, which were charged and
taken, after a sharp and severe contest. My regiment acted with the brigade
in this successful onset, capturing some thirty-five officers and men of the
Tenth Virginia Regiment, its colors, and color-guard. Being nearly out of ammunition, unsupported, and the enemy strongly pressing us on the right flank,
we retired with the brigade, closely pursued by the enemy back to our last
position."'At daylight on Sunday," says General Birney, "the Third Corps.
with my division bringing up the rear, commenced the movement ordered by
Major General Hooker, to take position on the heights, in rear of the right of
the Twelfth Corps, and to make dispositions to hold the plank road. In making the movement my rear was subjected to a severe musketry fire, but the
troops behaved admirably, and withdrew by successive formations. I at once
relieved, by Graham's Brigade, the brigade of the Twelfth Corps next to'the
plank road, sent Ward's Brigade to support Berry's Division on the right of
the plank road, and held Hayman's Brigade as a reserve. The artillery of the
corps was admirably placed, and I have never seen such terrible execution as it
effected upon the hostile masses. The attack upon us was furious and in masses,
but the Third Corps held its position until eleven o'clock A. M., when We were
ordered to retire and take position in a second line of battle formed like a flattened cone with flanks resting on the river. The position of my division in the
new formation was at the apex. My division, as well as the corps, had suffered
most severely, some forty-eight hundred killed and wounded; among the killed
were Major Generals Berry and Whipple; and among the wounded Brigadier
General Mott." The loss in the regiment was very severe. Captains James
Shields, and John D. Paulding were mortally wounded.
At the opening of the battle of Gettysburg on the 1st of July, the Third
Corps was at Emlmettsburg. Moving rapidly forward, and quickening his steps
as the sound of the terrible conflict became more distinct, Sickles reached the
field at evening, after the fighting of the day was over, and the discomfited
troops of the First and Eleventh Corps were coming into position to the south
of the town. As the column reached the field, it went into position along a
slight ridge extending diagonally across the open plain between the Seminary
and Cemetery ridges, connecting with Hancock on its right, with its left refused at the Peach Orchard, and stretching obliquely back through a wood to a
rocky ravine in front of Round Top. The position of the brigade, now coinmanded by General Graham, fell upon that part of the line, where, deflecting
from the Emmettsburg Pike, it stretches away to Round Top. The angle formed
by this departure was at the point where the road, leading from Little Round