The Battle of the Wheatfield :: Kershaw Attacks

Now there was a lull. However, it did not last long. Onto the scene was coming Joseph Kershaw's brigade. Attacking to the left of Anderson would be a brigade of South Carolinians --regiments numbered 2nd, 3rd, 3rd Battalion, 7th, 8th, and 15th, commanded by Brig. Gen. Joseph B. Kershaw. The forty-one year old Kershaw was known for his coolness and judiciousness of action under fire. The South Carolinians had met sharp fire from artillery crossing the Rose Farm as well.

Kershaw's and Anderson's brigades began their advance. Awaiting them was De Trobriand's brigade and the two brigades from the Fifth Corps in place on Stony Hill. Kershaw's brigade approached Tilton's men. The Federals opened fire. Colonel Ira C. Abbott of the First Michigan fell wounded and Lt. Col. William A. Throop took over command of the regiment. The fire was hot and bullets zipped all around. Anderson's brigade continued it's advance, moving against portions of Sweitzer's and De Trobriand's brigades. The attack was spirited and so was the defense. Swietzer had the 62nd change fronts, forming a column with the Fourth Michigan and the 62nd Pennsylvania behind the 32nd Massachusetts.

Barnes had sent word that when Sweitzer's brigade fell back it should do so through the woods. The Seventeenth Maine of De Trobriand's brigade supported still by Winslow, held on tightly to the stonewall. However, the numbers and ammunition in the regiment were running out. Looking for help, De Trobriand discovered that Sweitzer's brigade was slowly melting back under the pressure from Kershaw's men.

Sweitzer's and Tilton's brigades held the Stony Hill and seemed to be in an advantageous position. Barnes, however, with no orders and seemingly for no reason, withdrew his brigades back to the Trostle Woods, creating an even larger gap between De Trobriand's brigade and Bigelow's battery posted on the Wheatfield Road. Needless to say this withdrawal would later be sharply criticized. The withdrawal of the Fifth Corps troops had been orderly and they remained on the field. Barnes was still with them despite having been wounded in the thigh.

De Trobriand's brigade remained in position despite heavy casualties. Ward's brigade at the Devil's Den had been driven back. The brave men of De Trobriand's brigade gave ground. The Fifth and 110th fell back through the woods of Stony Hill. The Seventeenth also fell back and the brigade united somewhere near the Wheatfield Road. Winslow's battery that had been posted in the Wheat-Field was now of course in trouble. The 115th Pennsylvania charged the Confederate line twice before leaving the field for the safety of Trostle Woods, having run out of ammunition. Winslow's battery was driven back.

With the withdrawal of Winslow's Napoleons, the Georgians stepped over the stonewall that had been so gallantly hung onto by the Seventeenth Maine into the Wheat-Field. Ward's brigade had been driven from Devil's Den, De Trobriand, Sweitzer, and Tilton from the Wheat-Field and Stony Hill. The entire left of Sickles line was in serious jeopardy. The position in the Wheat-Field would have to be restored or Sickles Emmitsburg Road line would be smashed. Caldwell's division of the Second Corps and Ayres's division of the Fifth had been detached to provide help, but it was necessary to buy some time.

John C. Caldwell's division was the only one in the Army made up of four brigades. Brig. Gen. John Caldwell was a mediocre division commander lost later in the reorganization of the Army of the Potomac in 1864.

The first brigade, and the brigade that led the division to the Wheat-Field was commanded by Colonel Edward E. Cross and was made up of four regiments, the 5th New Hampshire commanded by Lt. Col. Charles Hapgood, the 61st New York commanded by Lt. Col. K. Oscar Broady, the 81st Pennsylvania under the command of Col. Henry Boyd McKeen, destined to die at Cold Harbor, and the 148th Pennsylvania under the command of Lt. Col. Robert McFarlane. Caldwell's division had been Hancock's. It's fighters were amongst the very best in the Army of the Potomac.

As Cross led his brigade past General Hancock, Hancock called out to Cross, "Colonel Cross, this day will bring you a star." Cross had been battling melancholy thoughts of death during the whole march to Gettysburg. The red bearded commander customarily wore a red bandanna around his head --a trait he had picked up at Antietam when he was wounded in the scalp-- but today the handkerchief was a somber black. To Hancock's greeting, Cross's laconic reply was, "No, General, this is my last battle."

Next in line was Colonel Patrick Kelly's, later killed at Petersburg, brigade, the famed Irish Brigade. It numbered just over 500 men, a shattered fragment of a once proud unit. The five regiments making up the brigade was the 28th Massachusetts under the command of Col. Richard Byrnes later mortally wounded at Cold Harbor, the 63rd, 69th, and 88th New York regiments under the commands of Lt. Col. Richard Bentley and Capts. Richard Moroney and Dennis F. Burke respectively, and the 116th Pennsylvania under the command of Maj. St. Clair Mullholand. Before entering the fray, the mainly Catholic brigade had Absolution performed on it by Father William Corby, a scene witnessed by Hancock and other high officers.

Following behind Kelly's brigade was the brigade of Brig. Gen. Samuel K. Zook. A native of Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, Zook had, like Cross, premonitions of death. Zook's brigade was made up of three regiments from New York --the 52nd under Lieut. Col. Charles G. Freudenberg, the 57th under Lieut. Col. Alford B. Chapman, and the 66th under Col. Orlando H. Morris who would later be killed at Cold Harbor-- and one, the 140th commanded by Col. Richard Roberts, from Pennsylvania. Zook's brigade was called on for assistance by the Third Corps and hence marched into Trostle Woods. Here, it deployed in two lines and advanced. The fourth brigade, commanded by Colonel John Brooke, followed that of Kelly. Brooke's brigade was made up of the 27th Connecticut under Lt. Col. Henry Merwin, the 2nd Deleware under Col. William P. Bailey, the 64th New York under the command of Col. Daniel G. Bingham, and two Pennsylvania regiments, the 53rd commanded by Lt. Col. Richard McMichael and Col. Hiram Brown's 145th regiment.