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

896 SEVENTY-FOURTH REGIMENT. 1863
by greatly superior numbers, we were again compelled to fall still further back,
the artillery again retreating and breaking through our ranks. The troops on
our right also withdrew, and being left nearly alone again, the Seventy-fourth
could do nothing else but retreat, which it did, to a point near General Hooker's
headquarters, where with the whole corps it was again rallied. The loss of the
regiment, during the engagement, was sixty-oneinkilled, wounded, and missing~ "
A week after the battle of Chancellorsville the regiment moved to its old
camp at Stafford Court House, where it remained until the 12th of June. It
then started with the Corps northward, and arrived at Gettysburg on the afternoon of the 1st day of July, the First Corps having been heavily engaged
during the greater part of the day, and already hard pressed by vastly superior
numbers. Moving rapidly forward by the Emmittsburg Pike, the brigade
passed through the town, and took position on the left of the corps, to the right
of the Mummasburg Road, the Seventy-fourth on the extreme left reaching out
towards, but not connecting with the right of the First Corps. It was so much
reduced in numbers, and the distance to be covered so great, that it formed
but little more than a skirmish line, which rested along a by-road connecting
the Carlisle with the Mummasburg Road, and in front of Dilger's Ohio Battery.
The enemy was already in front, and the ir fierce fighting opened immediately.
Colonel Von Hartlung, himself in command of the skirmish line, was severely
wounded, and Lieutenant Colonel Von Mitzel, who had but just escaped from
imprisonment, succeeded him. Unable to preserve its disjointed lines against
the overwhelming forces of the enemy pressing down upon all sides, the corps
was forced back through the town to Cemetery Hill. Lieutenant Colonel Von
Mitzel was again taken prisoner, and the command devolved on Major G.
Schleiter. Of the fourteen officers and one hundred and twenty men who advanced to the ground of the first day's battle, one officer and six men were
killed, four officers and forty men wounded, and fifty-two missing, a total of
one hundred and twelve, leaving but four officers and eighteen men to bear,
and defend the flag.
Upon its arrival in the new position, it was posted in front of the batteries
in the Cemetery. Here it was joined by the men who had been sent on picket
on the previous night, and to this position it clung through the terrible storm
the brigade battery, commanded by Captain Dilger on the left, which checked the heavy
column of the enemy pouring into us from the front, and from both flanks; and that the first
line of your division, in connection with Colonel Buschbeck's Brigade of General Steinwehr's
Division, formed behind two of my regiments-the Eighty-second Illinois, Colonel Hecker,
and the One Hundred and Fifty-seventh New York, Colonel Brown-and occupied the riflepits, Barlow's Brigade having been detached from the corps, at this critical moment, by
command of Major General Hooker. Your two brigades, and that of Colonel Buschbeck,
together comprising not quite four thousand muskets, alone received the entire shock of the
battle, and held the enemy in check for at least an hour. * * * The three brigades above
named, although both their flanks were turned, stood their ground until a sufficient time had
elapsed for the corps behind them to come to ther assistance, and take a position in their rear.
Your command did every thing that could have been expected under the circumstances. For
the surprise on the flanks and the rear, in broad daylight, by a force outnumbering us four to
one, the responsibility falls not on the Third Division, holding the centre, but upon the First
Division, which held the right wing, and upon those whose duty it was to anticipate such a
contingency, and to prepare for it. General, I am an old soldier. Up to this hour I have been
proud of commanding the brave men of this brigade; but I am convinced that if the infamous
lies uttered about us are not retracted, and satisfaction given, their good will and soldierly
spirit will be broken, and I shall no longer see myself at the head ofthe same brave men
whom I have heretofore had the honor to lead. —Moore's Rebellion Record, Vol. VI; page 589.