A TIMELINE OF THE 71st PENNSYLVANIA IN THE GETTYSBURG CAMPAIGN

JUNE 15

• Under the command of 27-year-old Colonel R. Penn Smith, the 71st departed camp in Virginia and began the long and grueling march north to chase the Army of Northern Virginia
• 71st had minimal stragglers, at least as the march began

JUNE 28

• Popular brigade commander Joshua T. Owen, founding colonel of the 69th,  was arrested and sacked by division commander John Gibbon (likely due to personal animosity) and replaced by 28-year-old Alexander S. Webb
  • Webb was promoted to brigadier general the previous week
  • Webb served as an artillery section commander at First Bull Run, then was aide de camp and assistant inspector general to the chief of artillery of the Army of the Potomac until April 1862
  • Chief of staff of Fifth Corps at Antietam and Chancellorsville
  • Received ringing endorsements from every commander he served under
• The men of the Philadelphia Brigade were initially hesitant to accept this well-dressed staff  officer as their commander

JUNE 29

• In the vicinity of Frederick, Maryland, the Philadelphia Brigade’s orders to begin marching are lost and the brigade ends up lagging behind the rest of the corps
• Webb tries a shortcut, including an extended march at the double quick, to try and get back into position
  • But the “shortcut” accomplished nothing but tiring out the men, and the brigade remained at the back of the corps
• When the corps halted near Liberty, Maryland, Webb forced the brigade to continue to march to ensure it ended the day in the proper position
  • The Philadelphia Brigade marched over thirty miles that day, more than any other brigade in the corps

JUNE 30

• While the corps takes a much-needed rest, General Webb holds an officers’ call for the entire brigade
  • Webb he expresses his displeasure that most of the officers have taken to not wearing their rank insignia to avoid becoming targets
  • Webb ordered the officers to replace their insignia, and they reluctantly complied

JULY 1

• Webb, claiming that the brigade had too many stragglers after the long march, ordered that any stragglers be arrested and brought to him personally to be shot
  • Webb didn’t end up shooting anyone, but the straggling decreased
• 5pm: After weeks of hard marching, the 71st entered Pennsylvania
• After dark the regiment is halted for the night near the Round Tops
  • Men were prohibited from building fires due to the closeness of enemy

JULY 2

• 3am: 71st wakes up, with 246 men and 15 officers present for duty
• 6:30am: Brigade marched to the area of the Angle on Cemetery Ridge
  • Ultimately deployed in a column of regiments facing west
    • 69th along the wall, the rest behind
  • Skirmishing along the Emmitsburg Road throughout the day
• 7:30pm: Wright’s Georgia brigade, the last gasp of the echelon attack on the federal right, advanced towards the Philadelphia Brigade
  • Brown’s Rhode Island battery took up position about 150 yards in front of the wall, forced to retreat and abandon 2 guns as the Rebels advance
  • 71st placed into line to the right of the 69th and opens fire
  • 106th charged the open left flank of the 48th Georgia, 71st quickly followed and advanced to the Emmitsburg Road as the Rebels withdraw
  • No 71st soldiers killed, a few wounded (at least one mortally)
  • Regiment returned to its original position, taking the numerous abandoned arms lying about the field and piling them up along the wall
• After dark, 71st detached from the brigade and ordered to support the 11th Corps on Culp’s Hill
  • Right flank of the Union army was held by General George Greene’s 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, 11th Corps, which had been left to guard the flank alone after most of the corps was marched off to support the Union left
  • 71st placed in position to the right of the 137th New York, the regiment on the right of Greene’s line, which was in danger of being flanked by the 10th Virginia of Steuart’s brigade
    • The 71st was now the right flank regiment of the entire federal army
  • 71st formed line and sent out skirmishers, then came under fire from their right and rear and was engaged for no more than half an hour
    • Some disagreement from the sources on how intense the firefight was – 71st veterans say it was intense, Greene’s adjutant said it was minimal
• Colonel Smith, uneasy with receiving flanking fire and not knowing what was going on in the confusion of the dark, withdrew from Culp’s Hill without orders
  • The withdrawal of the 71st left Greene’s flank in the air – the 137th New York was pushed back and had to be reinforced by the 14th Brooklyn (84th New York) and the 6th Wisconsin from Wadsworth’s 1st Division of 1st Corps
  • 71st arrived back at its original position on Cemetery Ridge late in the evening
  • 71st lost 3 officers and 11 men captured in the Culp’s Hill engagement
• There was some controversy after the fact about Smith’s decision to leave without orders
  • After the battle, Smith was criticized by Greene and his men but stood by his decision
  • The official reports of Greene and his division commander state that Smith told them he was ordered to withdraw by Webb – did Smith make up an excuse to Greene when he withdrew?
  • Smith’s report acknowledges that he left Culp’s Hill “against orders” after receiving fire from the front, right, and rear
  • Webb’s report mentions that the 71st returned without orders, but implicitly supports Smith by saying Smith’s report on the action “is important”
  • Hancock’s report acknowledged that the 71st left Culp’s Hill without orders without comment, Gibbon merely states that the 71st was sent to Culp’s Hill and doesn’t mention anything else
• A sergeant in the 71st called the Culp’s Hill action “a blunder on the part of our officers…came near to costing us dear.”

JULY 3

• 71st was deployed with its right flank on the inner angle of the stone wall, with Cushing’s Battery A, 4th U.S. Artillery in front
• Much skirmishing along the Emmitsburg Road during the morning
  • Webb sent forward several companies of skirmishers from the entire brigade to the fields beyond the Emmitsburg Road, including a number of men from the 71st
  • Some minor artillery fire back and forth during the morning caused minor damage, including blowing up several of Cushing’s caissons at around 8am
• 11am: The field became relatively quiet, the men cooked food and had a relatively relaxing midday
• 1pm: The Confederate bombardment begins
  • Cushing’s battery comes under heavy fire, Cushing himself is wounded and one severely wounded artilleryman even shoots himself
  • Cushing asked Webb for volunteers to help man his depleted guns, between 15 and 50 men from the 71st answer the call
    • These volunteers included Sergeant Albert Bunn, who when told that an overloaded gun might burst and kill him, said “if it does it will burst some of them,” was ultimately killed while working the artillery
    • Also included Captain Bernard McMahon of Company C, who was under arrest and awaiting execution for murdering a captain in the 69th
  • A number of 71st men were wounded or killed while manning Cushing’s guns
  • Although the artillery barrage was largely ineffective against the Federal infantry, it still caused some casualties in the 71st, including Captain John Steffan of Company A and 1st Lieutenant John Rogers of Company B
• 3pm: Rebel bombardment slackens as the Confederate infantry begin their march from Seminary Ridge
  • Webb orders the 71st to advance past Cushing’s now-depleted guns to take position on the 69th’s flank along the forward wall
  • When placed in that position, approximately two companies of the 71st couldn’t take cover behind the wall, so Smith had those two companies take position at the rear wall, leaving the regiment divided between the forward and rear walls
    • Lt. Colonel Charles Kochersperger was placed in command of the men along the front wall, while Smith was with the colors along the rear wall
  • Smith apparently ordered Kochersperger to hold fire until the enemy reached the Emmitsburg Road, then load and fire as fast as possible until the enemy was too close to do so then fall back on the right wing of the regiment
    • The plan was not to hold to the last man along the wall, but to draw the Rebels into a position where they could be enfiladed by the right wing
    • If those were indeed Smith’s orders (the only historical source for those orders appears to be Smith’s own writings), he never informed Webb or any of the other regimental commanders of his plan
  • When posted along the wall, the men collected any and all weapons they could find – some had as many as a dozen muskets
  • The Rebel infantry is hit with artillery as they cross the open field, while the Philadelphia Brigade’s skirmishers fall back to the main line
  • As the Rebels reach the Emmitsburg Road, the left wing of the 71st opens fire, while one of Cushing’s guns that was overloaded by 71st men with literally anything they could find (rocks, broken shells, even a bayonet) cuts a swath through the enemy ranks
  • The Confederates keep marching forward, and a few men in the 71st left wing break for the rear while the rest continue firing along the wall
• The Rebels, despite taking horrendous casualties, reach the stone wall and engage the left wing of the 71st in close-range and hand-to-hand combat
  • The 56th Virginia (Garnett’s brigade) hits the gap between the left flank of the 71st left wing and the right flank of the 69th
  • The 1st and 7th Tennessee (Archer’s brigade) move around to the left wing’s right and come over the wall at the point of the outer angle, flanking the left wing
  • Some 71st men surrender as the left wing is caught in a Rebel pincer
  • Whether by orders or by instinct, the 71st left wing falls back, opening a gap in the Union line into which Armistead leads 100 to 150 Rebels over the wall
    • The official reports of Webb, Gibbon, and Hancock all refer to the men on the wall as being pushed back as opposed to a designed retreat
    • This withdrawal comes as a shock to the 69th, which is forced to refuse its right flank as the Rebels stream over the wall
    • Some of the 71st men are pinned against the wall and captured
  • With the left wing out of the way, the right wing of the 71st begins pouring deadly enfilade fire into the Confederates that come over the wall
  • The left wing reforms on the right wing, while the 72nd and 2 companies of the 106th move in to cover the gap between the left wing and the 69th
    • The reports of Hancock, Gibbon, and Webb all mention that most if not all of the men that retreated from the wall reformed and continuing to fight
  • Many of the Confederates in the killbox created by the brigade fall back and take cover behind the far side of the wall, the rest keep pushing forward but falter when Armistead is hit
  • The 19th and 20th Massachusetts and 42nd New York from Hall’s brigade, to the left and rear of the 69th, move to support the 69th and charge into the wavering Rebels, just as Webb rallies the Philadelphia Brigade to charge
  • A disorganized mass of Union troops from 7 different regiments charges into the Angle, killing or capturing those Rebels that remained on the Union side of the wall
    • The 71st’s Sergeant Major William Stockton and a few other men with him, who had been captured along the wall, happen to make a run back towards the Union ranks right as the charge begins – once they meet the Union advance, they turn around and join the charge despite not having any weapons
    • Private John Clopp of the 71st Company F won the Medal of Honor for capturing the colors of the 9th Virginia (Armistead’s brigade), literally beating the colors out of the Rebel colorbearer’s hands
    • At many as 10 Rebel colors that had been abandoned in the fighting were taken by the Federal troops, and 71st men may have recovered the flags of the 17th and 53rd Virginia, also from Armistead’s brigade
  • Several men of Company K helped carry the wounded Armistead to the rear
• After the fighting ended, the field was thick with dead and wounded men, discarded equipment, and the wreckage of battle
  • One couldn’t walk around the area of the Angle without stepping on the dead or dying
  • When the sun went down, some 71st men were detailed to search the field for wounded soldiers by candlelight
  • There was a thunderstorm in the evening and it rained all night
• Smith was praised by his brigade, division, and corps commanders in their official reports after the battle
  • Webb reported that Smith’s decision to split the 71st and use the rear companies to enfilade the enemy “showed true military intelligence on the field”
  • Gibbon refers to the men that withdrew from the wall were rallied by “their brave commander, Colonel Smith”
  • Smith was one of the officers commended by Hancock for “distinguished services leading their men forward at a critical period in the contest”
• At Gettysburg, the 71st suffered 21 killed, 58 wounded, and 19 missing – total casualties of 98
  • Almost 40% of the unit’s strength prior to entering combat at Gettysburg on July 2