The Battle of the Wheatfield :: Caldwell Counters

Cross deployed his brigade with the 5th New Hampshire on the left, with the 148th Pennsylvania next, and then the 81st Pennsylvania, and 61st New York. The 5th and part of the 148th were in the woods; the rest of the brigade was advancing through the wheat. The brigade advanced through the waist high wheat, capturing some of the enemy in the process. Cross was behind the right wing at first, but he soon moved to the left behind his old regiment, the 5th New Hampshire. Cross walked into the woods behind the 5th, and a rifle cracked.

A Confederate bullet punched through Cross's body near his navel. Sgt. Charles Phelps of the 5th brought down the sniper who had been hiding behind a large clefted rock. Command of the brigade passed to Col. Henry Boyd McKeen.

Anderson's brigade waited behind the Seventeenth Maine's stonewall. Cross's men drove the Georgians back, the Confederates falling back towards the Devil's Den and back through the woods hemming the Wheat-Field. The special assignment from Sickles to Zook meant that even though the Irish Brigade was second in line, Zook's brigade was next of Caldwell's brigades into battle. They formed for the attack in Trostle's Woods under fire amongst pandemonium and confusion.

The men of Zook's brigades stepped over the prone bodies of the Fifth Corps soldiers. Sometime before the brigade advanced into the Wheat-Field, the skipper of the 140th Pennsylvania, Colonel Roberts, made a patriotic speech, reminding his men that they were fighting on the ground of old Pennsylvania. The regiment cheered it's widower colonel, the man who had caught up with the regiment after a sick leave and worried about his small daughter. At Zook's command, the brigade advanced into the Wheatfield. Zook's men advanced to replace Barnes's men who had vacated the Stony Hill. Zook's formed his men in a double line. The 66th and 52nd New York and the 140th Pennsylvania formed the first line, from left to right. Behind them, the 57th New York was in support.

As the brigade moved across the Wheat-Field Road, General Zook was shot. He reeled in the saddle from a bullet wound to his abdomen that a surgeon remembered exposed each of his heart beats to view. Command should have passed to Colonel Morris of the 66th New York but he could not be found, having made for the rear with a wound of his own in his chest. In effect, the fall of Zook left the brigade virtually without a leader. Most likely Colonel John Brooke, commander of the Fourth Brigade, took over command of Zook's regiments.

The Irish Brigade, about the size of a large Gettysburg regiment, advanced between the gap between Cross's brigade and the Stony Hill and Zook. It crossed the trodden golden wheat, it's distinctive emerald flags next to the stars and stripes. Seeing the advance of Zook and Kelly, Kershaw called upon Paul Semmes's brigade to come to his aid. Paul J. Semmes commanded a brigade of made up of Georgians: Semmes the 10th, 50th, 51st, and 53rd regiments. Semmes brigade would fill in the gap between Anderson's and Kershaw's brigade.

Zook's men advanced with spirit and with speed towards the Carolinians. The brigade pushed towards the rock studded woods, the northern half of the Stony Hill. The flanks of the Irish Brigade and Zook's brigades overlapped, and to try and remedy the situation the 140th was shifted to the right. In the sharp fight, Colonel Roberts of the 140th fell and his young daughter became an orphan, as did Captain David Ascheson a prominent young promising soldier. Lt. Col. John Fraser took command of the 140th Pennsylvania. As Zook's men wrestled for control of the Northern end of the Stony Hill, the Irish Brigades small regiments advanced against the southern half. The scene in the woods was confusion and chaos. Kershaw's brigade fell back across Plum Run towards the Rose Farm.

As Kershaw's brigade withdrew, Wofford's brigade was arriving. William T. Wofford commanded a brigade of made up of Georgians: the 16th, 18th, 24th, Cobb's Legion, and Phillips Legion. Wofford's brigade advanced down the Wheatfield Road, moving against Stony Hill and the Trostle Woods. They were bearing down on Zook's line.

Brooke's brigade had been Caldwell's support and reserves and had followed the Irish Brigade across the Wheat-Field. Now it's turn in the Gettysburg drama had come. The youthful --he was but 25-- Brooke gave his men a brief speech and led them forward. Caldwell ordered them to replace Cross's brigade on the left. They advanced past Cross's men, and in the advance Col. Hiram Brown of the 145th Pennsylvania fell wounded and Lt. Col. Henry C. Merwin of the 27th Connecticut was killed. Brooke's brigade fixed bayonets and then advanced against Anderson in the north half of Rose Woods. The Confederates were pushed back across Plum Run. But the gallant advance faltered somewhat as they approached the western end of the Rose Woods. For the moment, the Wheat-Field was again in Union hands.

Semmes brigade had come to the aid of Anderson. He, however, soon fell with a mortal wound in his thigh. Brooke directed his troops from a top a big boulder near the center of his line. To meet an advance on his flank, he refused the line of the Second Deleware. The fighting was savage and brutal. Brooke's brigade was getting a cross fire from the direction of Devil's Den. Brooke was wounded in the ankle. His men were running very low on ammunition. He called on Caldwell, who himself was looking for help, for assistance for his small brigade. By this time, the fighting on Little Round Top was drawing to a bloody conclusion and Barksdale had began his advance towards the Peach Orchard and the Emmitsburg Road.

Caldwell had found help in the form of Ayres division --a division of three brigades, two regular and one volunteer-- from the Fifth Corps. Despite Ayres promise of help for Caldwell's division, it would arrive too late to be of much help to hold the ground that Caldwell's division had won from the hard fighting brigades of Hood's and McLaw's division. Brooke's brigade withdrew slowly, firing as it went, through the woods. Zook's brigade and Kelly's were still fighting with Semmes and Kershaw. Approaching from the Peach Orchard vicinity was Wofford's brigade. Brooke continued to fall back; Kelly and Zook fell back as well in at least some confusion.