GREAT BATTLE OF FIRST DAY - WHIRLWIND OF DEATH
The enemy having completely drawn two battle-lines in front and on the flanks of the First and Eleventh Corps, the onset of baffle was again sounded. They approached in two splendid lines of battle after forming in the woods beyond the open field. Their serpentine lengths of grey soon appeared, their right overlapping the Federal left by a quarter of a mile. General Meredith of the Iron Brigade was soon wounded and left the field.
Some historians have assigned Colonel Morrow to the command of the Iron Brigade for the rest of the fight, but in a private letter from Colonel Henry A. Morrow to the author, in 1890, he disclaimed any command on that day of the Iron Brigade, saying that Colonel Robinson of the 7th Wisconsin took Meredith's place after the latter was wounded. Certain it is that Colonel Morrow retained immediate command of his own regiment until he was wounded himself. Soon after, Brockenbrough and Pettigrew's brigades attacked the 24th Michigan and 19th Indiana, in front and left flank, as if to crush them. Other troops came down upon the 7th and 2nd Wisconsin as if to drive them in.
Colonel Morrow directed his men to withhold their fire until the enemy should come within easy range, and they approached within eighty paces, so close that the commands of their officers could be heard. Soon the whirlwind of battle began. As the enemy approached, just in the rear of their line rode a Colonel on a mule repeating "Give 'em hell boys," when a bullet knocked his cap off. Catching it in his hand, he continued to urge on their line.
From the nature of the ground but little injury was inflicted on the enemy at this time, as their advance was not checked, and on they came, yelling like demons. The 19th Indiana fought valiantly, but overpowered by flanking numbers, with a disadvantage of position, they were forced hack after severe loss and formed on a new line. This exposed tile 24th Michigan to a terrible crossfire, the men falling like grass before the scythe.
Captain William J. Speed, as Acting-Major (Major Wight was acting now as Lt. Col.) attempted to swing back two companies on the left so as to face the enemy on the flank. but while executing the movement, a Confederate bullet pierced his heart! Lieutenant Gilbert A. Dickey and the second color bearer had been killed, several officers wounded, and many of the men lay dead or wounded on this line, a superior force compelling them to take a new position.
The enemy had now approached a little within the first line of battle of the 24th Michigan, where they were held for some time, the work of death going on without ceasing. They were the 26th North Carolina and expected to meet militia only, and have an easy victory. But their dead and wounded lay quite as numerous as our own among the trees. The Iron Brigade wearing a different hat gear from the rest of our army (stiff, broad brimmed, tall, black hats), this unique feature made them recognized by their old antagonists who now were heard by our own wounded to exclaim: "Here are those damned black hat fellows again! This is no militia." They had met this Iron Brigade before, and well knew when they did that business was meant.
The Second Line of Battle
The second line of the 24th Michigan was speedily formed. Meanwhile, a desperate resistance was made against Scales' Confederate brigade on our right, which the rest of the Iron Brigade, chiefly the 7th and 2nd Wisconsin, aided by Battery B, Fourth U.S. Artillery from another section of the field, almost annihilated. Our fraternal Second Brigade of Wadsworth's Division was also doing its whole duty further to the right. Fresh regiment after regiment was dashed against the Iron Brigade to break the Federal left. The ranks of the Twenty-fourth had again become thinned, a windrow of killed and wounded indicating the position of this line. Overwhelmed again, it was forced to take another new position beyond a small ravine.
On this Third Line of Battle its third color-bearer was killed, and Major Edwin B. Wight (acting as Lt. Col.) lost an eye. He was thrown completely down and supposed by the men to be killed, but recovering himself he was forced to leave the field. Scarcely a fourth of the regiment taken into action could now he rallied. Lieutenants Safford, Shattuck, and Wallace were killed, and twelve officers had received wounds more or less severe. For over two hours had the terrible conflict lasted. The Eleventh Corps was going to pieces, forced back by superior odds. The valiant little First Corps, which had borne the brunt of the battle since early morning, had been forced back on its right.
Long had Wadsworth held its line. "The fire was such as veterans never saw before," says the historian Abbott. The nervy Iron Brigade still held out against the crushing blows of greatly preponderating forces, doubled even, to dash it in pieces or capture it, and yet no orders came for it to retreat.
We can say but little of the other regiments of the Iron Brigade at this time, or until the conflict ended. No general seems to have been giving orders to them or to the brigade. Each regiment was fighting by itself, and none seem to know what the others were doing except to be hotly engaged like themselves. The Twenty-fourth regiment had now retired from the woods into the open field towards the Seminary.
A Fourth Line of Battle was next attempted. The last of the color-guard planted the flag around which to rally the men. He was shot in the breast and left on the field. The entire color-guard now being gone, Colonel Morrow took the flag to rally the remnant of his devoted band of Wayne County boys and men, when a private took the colors from his hands and was instantly killed by the Colonel's side. Lieutenant Humphreyville was killed on this line, and Colonel Morrow again seized the colors.
A Fifth Line of Battle was attempted where he planted the colors. On this new line, while waving his sword over his head to rally the men, Captain O'Donnell was instantly killed, and Lt. Grace received two wounds, both of which were mortal. Gradually contesting every foot of ground, step by step, frequently almost surrounded, through and out of the woods and over the open field, what was now left of the Twenty-fourth had been forced back to the friendly rail fence barricade just west of the Seminary.
Its Sixth Line of Battle was attempted to be formed at this place. It fought for a time, during which Colonel Morrow, holding aloft the bullet-riddled flag, received a wound in his head and was forced to leave the field, first turning the command of the regiment over to Captain A.M. Edwards, the senior officer now present.
Captain Edwards took the flag and waving it, the men who were left gallantly rallied to it as well as some of the rest of the Iron Brigade. This was the last stand made by the Union troops on that part of the field. The position was held amid a murderous fire from front and flank, until orders came from General Doubleday (commanding the First Corps since Reynolds' death in the morning) to fall back, the first order of the kind received during the struggle. Captain Edwards, still carrying the flag, led the way through the town to the Cemetary, followed by only twenty-six of the 24th Michigan, in comparative good order. What were left of the Iron Brigade were soon after moved to Culp's Hill and a new line formed with the 24th Michigan on the left. It reached from the top of the elevation to the foot of the hill facing the town. A sorrowful band, indeed, that night! Of the Twenty-fourth Michigan only ninety-nine men and three officers could be rallied to the flag, out of 496 who followed it into action that morning.
Devotion To The Flag
The conduct of the 24th Michigan in this first day's battle, from Colonel to private, was a series of the most heroic and brilliant acts of supporting and rallying on the flag, amid showers of leaden hail, ever known to the annals of war, and conferred immortal honor on that Spartan band as lasting as the blue sky that looks down upon that field of carnage and glory. When its flag was presented to the regiment in Detroit, a solemn vow was taken, never to allow it to trail before the enemy or fall into his hands. That flag, pierced by 23 fresh bullets from the enemy's guns, aside from those that splintered its staff in this engagement, spoke more forcibly than any words could, with what sacredness the vow was kept.
The noble and stalwart Color-Sergeant, Abel G. Peck, in whose keeping the colors were placed on the Campus Martius, yielded up his life in their defense early in the morning fight, being the first man of the regiment killed in this battle. Before they touched th ground, as Peck fell, Color-Corporal Charles Bellore of [Company] E sprang forward and seizing the colors, bore them aloft as the troops advanced to the capture of Archer's Brigade. Bellore, too, was killed in McPherson's woods near the second line of battle.
Private August Earnest of K now took the colors from the ground and carried them until the third line of battle was formed, when he, also, shared the fate of his comrades. When Earnest dropped dead, the flag fell with him at the feet of 1st Sergeant Everard B. Welton of H, who reached forward and picked it up, holding it till Colonel Morrow ran to him and took the thrice prostrated flag from his hands. He gave it to Color.Corporal Andrew Wagner of F, who boldly waved it in the face of the advancing foe, and under a terrific fire, took a new position indicated to him by Colonel Morrow. Wagner in turn, the last of the Color Guard, was shot and fell with the colors.
Colonel Morrow took them from under Wagner and, assuring him that his wound was not mortal, himself bore them until Private William Kelly of E came up and took them, saying: "The Colonel of the 24th Michigan shall not carry the colors while I am alive." In an instant after, his lifeless body lay at the feet of the Colonel!
After the death of the brave Kelly, the flag was carried for a time by Private Lilburn Spaulding of K, when Colonel Morrow again took it and made another effort to rally his more than thrice decimated ranks. He carried it aloft until he himself was wounded near the Seminary.
Somewhere between the first line of battle in McPherson s woods and the rail fence barricade near the Seminary, Corporal William Ziegler of A, Corporal Thomas Suggett of G, and Private Thomas Ballou of C were mortally wounded, each while acting as color guard.
What became of the colors or who took them after Colonel Morrow was wounded, will ever remain a mystery known only to the God of Heaven and the brave spirit of him in whose possession they were found. Soon after assuming command, Captain Edwards saw the flag lying on the ground in the hand of a dead or dying soldier boy, who was reclining on his right side, his gun being near him. Captain Edwards took the flag from the young soldier's hands which were grasping it with a deathlike grip, and after rallying the men to it amid a shower of bullets, bore it through the town to the Cemetary, where he planted it near a battery, and sat down on a gravestone while the remnant of the regiment rallied about its bullet-riddled folds.
Few instances of such devotion to the flag can be found in the history of any war. During this first day's fight, the flag of the 24th Michigan was borne by no less than ten different persons, five of whom were killed and two wounded, ! while one other of the color guards was instantly killed and three other mortally wounded. Nine color bearers and guards of the 24th Michigan lost their lives or received mortal wounds in the defense of its flag this first day of the great battle, a bloody but most glorious record.
Results Of The First Day's Battle
For many years Pickett's charge on the third day was considered the chief feature of the battle of Gettysburg, and the fighting on the second and third days, when all of both armies were in line, had attracted most attention. But a closer study of the whole field shows that the first day's struggle was the greatest, the losses on this first day exceeding those of either of the next two days' fight. Fox, who has become the acknowledged authority, in his "Book of Regimental Losses, says:
Fox also says: "The First Corps entered the fight with 9403 men and lost 6024;" also, that "The Eleventh Corps had less than 9000 engaged and lost 3801", a total of 18,000 men engaged with over 25,000 of the enemy. Fox says further: "The Iron Brigade lost 1153 men out of 1883 there engaged, or sixty-one percent!" A public journal in war days said:
For three days the contending hosts fought and more than 40,000 men lay dead and wounded on this immortal field. Of the 400 Union regiments, all of which distinguished themselves for valor at Gettysburg, Detroit and Wayne County, Michigan, sent forth the one which suffered there the greatest number of casualties. Says Fox: "This melancholy honor belongs to the Twenty-fourth Michigan Infantry."
Terrible Battlefield Duel
A most notable incident of opposing valor occurred on the first day, between the Iron Brigade and Pettigrew's Confederate Brigade. These two brigades fought facing each other, frequently not over four or six rods apart. For two hours they shot each other down at such remarkably short range, in open field, and with an unflinching tenacity which is worthy of historical record for all time.
It is a coincidence that the Iron Brigade lost the heaviest of any brigade at Gettysburg and that Pettigrew s Brigade which fought against it, suffered next to the heaviest loss of any of the Confederate brigades engaged there, being exceeded only by a loss of eighty-six more men in Armistead's Confederate Brigade in Pickett's Charge.
It is another coincidence that the two opposing regiments which sustained the greatest loss at Gettysburg belonged, the one (Twenty-fourth Michigan) to the Iron Brigade and the other (Twenty-sixth North Carolina) to Pettigrew's Confederate Brigade.
A comparison of these two regiments on that day, which faced each other down to death, tells the pointed story of the terrible combat:
It is said that in two companies of the Twenty-sixth North Carolina, not a man ever reported for duty after this battle. Such valor deserves a distich in immortal verse. Mortal can never tell what would have been the loss figures, had these two regiments and brigades fought till dark. Each seemed determined to exterminate the other, and the faster the comrades fell, the cooler and harder the balance seemed to fight. It was undoubtedly the liveliest "shooting match" that ever occurred on a battlefield.
[Editor's Notes]: Once again, I chose to present an account of a Civil War engagement from a contemporary source. While I know that readers may now be tired of such articles, it was my opinion that this story reinforces the flavor of actual ACW combat that was carried in previous articles about another regiment, the 8th Vermont. By reading such accounts, garners will hopefully get a better feel for what the typical soldier tvent through and found important during pitched battle. The definite importance of the regimental colors to the soldiers of a unit is amply pictured for you. While generals fought for terrain and strategic objectives, the common soldier fought for his officers and to protect the honor of his regiment and brigade. Wargamers will be well served to keep this ideal in mind when playing out scenarios on the table. Sometimes the thrill is not in victory, but rather in simply surviving the day!
At right: Major William Hutchinson. At Gettysburg, he was Captain of Company G and wounded in the thigh and groin.
This Corps (1st) did some of the best fighting of the war. It fought that day with no other protection than the flannel blouses that covered their stout hearts.
"It was to the Iron Brigade more than any other that the nation owes its salvation at Gettysburg, and we say not more than history will verify, that of all the heroic regiments j which fought there, the Twenty-fourth Michigan stands preeminent for its devotion and valor. Against the overwhelming hordes of the enemy, it stood for hours, a wall of granite, which beat back, again and again, the resolute but baffled foe."
Aspect 24th Michigan 26th N. Carolina Entered battle with 496 men 800 men Killed and wounded 316 men 588 men Missing in action 81 men 120 men Remaining 99 men 92 men % of killed and wounded 64% 73.5% Percent of loss 80% 88.5%
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