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roosterarts · 1 year ago

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Battle of Gettysburg - Day 3

July 3

1:30 PM

The Largest Artillery Bombardment in the American Continent

All around them shot tore through the ground and shells exploded, sending shrapel flying. But the General did not flinch and instead calmly made their way through the line, encouraging the troops and ordering the artillery to return fire against the enemy guns.

Early on July 3, General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, wanted to renew the attacks on the Union left and right flanks. The fighting during the previous day was close and Confederate forces were on the verge of victory. One more push on those flanks might make the Union line crack.

However, earlry in the morning, the Union XII Corps, at the Union right flank, bombarded Confederate positions near their front. Then, in an intense attack, they managed to drive back the brigades of Confederate Second Corps from the hard fought bridgehead they captured. This prevented Lee from exploiting any gains they had made yesterday.

Because of this early setback on the Union right, and because of the bad terrain at the Union left, Lee decided to aim for a different portion of the enemy's line.

Eventually, Lee had decided to strike the Union center at Cemetery Ridge. There was no other choice and he believed that it was the most vulnerable part of the Union line. Yesterday's fighting had concentrated on the Union's left and right flank. Although Confederate forces were unsuccessful at dislodging their enemy, they did managed to force the Union to divert crucial reserves to those vulnerable areas. This mean that the center was deprived of such reserves.

Studying the Union positions at Cemetery Ridge, Lee must have remembered an incident he saw the previous day. As his First Corps was attacking the Union positions on the left flank, a stray brigade from his Third Corps, which was attempting to distract Union forces away from the fighting on the left, managed to advance towards the crest of the ridge and temporarily capture some Union guns, before being forced to withdraw due to lack of support. If one brigade could reach that ridge without problems, then surely a corps sized attack could do the same?

With that in mind, he planned out his assault. In overall command of the attack would by First Corps commander, and trusted officer, Lieutenant General James Longstreet. Under his command would be Pickett's Division, which was a part of First Corps, but had arrived late at Gettysburg and was thus still fresh. Also to be under Longstreet's command were brigades from Heth's Division, temporarily under the command of Brigadier General Pettigrew, and two briages under Major General Trimble. from Pender's Division. All in all, the assaulting force would number around 10,500 troops.

However, Longstreet was not happy with the plan. In fact, he was no happy at the very idea of assaulting the enemy center.

Since the first day of the battle, Longstreet opposed the idea of the Confederates attacking the enemy. He wanted it to be the other way around. He had initially suggested that the army should retire to a position where it would be the Union attacking them. But Lee could not a agree to that. At the time, the Confederate cavalry was still missing and so a retreat before the enemy would be dangerous without the cavalry to cover them. When the cavalry did return, it was far too late to withdraw, as they were alraedy heavily engaged. Because of that, Lee continued to be on the offensive, while Longstreet, ever the good soldier, obeyed orders, despite his protests.

Now, Longstreet protested again. He pointed out that there was a mile long piece of open ground that separated the Confederate line and the Union center at Cemetery Ridge. He feared that any attacking force marching across that field would be vulnerable from Union artillery fire not only from Cemetery Ridge, but also from Union positions elsewheere, such as Little Round Top, where Union rifled canons could bombard them. They would endure heavy casualties crossing that field and the troops that do make it would then have to fight against prepared Union positions on the high ground and behind a stone wall. It would be disasterous.

In his own words, Longstreet told Lee: "General Lee, I have been a soldier all my life. I have been with soldiers engaged in fights by couples, by squads, companies, regiments, divisions, and armies, and should know as well as anyone what soldiers can do. It is my opinion that no fifteen thousand men ever arrayed for battle can take that position.” (Longstreet mentions 15,000, because at the time he said that the units designated for the attack had not been chosen yet. Under the belief that it would be a 3 Division attack, and not 2 Divisions as it would be, he thus said 15,000)

Desspite Longstreet's insistance, Lee went though with the plan. Longstreet had always been a worrier and Lee understood his officer's concerns. But Lee aws sure that a strike on the Union's weak center would break the enemy. Thus, he made the same mistake as Napoleon at Waterloo.

In order to support the innfantry assault, Lee and Longstreet planned a massive artillery bombardment to take out both the Union infantry and guns on Cemetery Ridge. The task of positioning the guns and executing the bombardment was placed on Lieutenant Colonel Edward Alexander, the First Corps Artillery Chief. At his disposal would be between 143 to 163 artillery pieces, of various types and sizes, from smoothhbores and even a couple of rifled guns.

Once the artillery was in postition, and once the infantry was deployed behind them, laying down in order to conceal their presence to enemy observers, the order was given to begin the bombardment.

All batteries were told that two cannon shots would mark the start of the bombardment. One gun fired, attracting the attention of Union troops resting on Cemetery Ridge, while also alerting the Confederate artillery troops to get read. The second canon was ordered to fire, but nothing happened. It was a misfire. Quickly, a third gun was orderd to fire and once it erupted, all hell broke loose.

One by one, Confederate artillery batteries came to life, firing shot and shell against one target, the Union center at Cemetery Ridge. Soon the gunners got into tempo, as they worked their pieces and fired. Eventually, the smoke of gunpoweder filled the air. The artillery fire was so intense that one gunner said that the earth shook from the constant fire.

Meanwhile, on the Union line, troops that had initially been resting quickly moved back towards their positions. Most of the regiments on Cemetery Ridge were placed behind a low stone wall. Although it wasn't high enough to cover someone who stood, it did provide good cover for those who laid down. Because of that the troops bunched up behind the wall, doing their best to protect themselvse from the on coming bombardment. All around them, shot landed and shells exploded, but those who remained behind the wall were spared from the worse effects of the artillery fire.

As shot and shell landed all over Cemetery Ridge, one commander stood tall and rode along the line in hopes of keeping his troops morale in check.

Major General Winfield Hancock, commander of the Union II Corps that defended the center, moved around, his corps-flag right behind him. He presented a tall target during the bombardment, but he continued to encourage his troops under the bombardment.

At one point an aide approached Hancock, begging him to get down and take cover. In reponse, Hancock said: "There are times when a corps commander’s life does not count."

However, it wasn't only Hancock that was calm and cool during that moment. Brigadier General John Gibbon, commander of II Corps' 2nd Division, was calmly walking along the line, while an unnamed soldier, who was bringing canteens to the front, was calmly walking up to the line and, after some shrapnel struck the strap of his knapsack, merely gave a beif puzzled look as to what happened, before calmly continuing on his way.

However, if the position at Cemetery Ridge was somewhat tolerable, the positions at the rear, east of the ridge, was pure chaos. Many Confederate shells overshot and fell on the rear lines, hitting the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac and the rear troops. Some shells even struck Culp's Hill. The bombardment at the rear turned out to be worse than the one the front was recieving. It got so bad that General Meade, commander of the Army of the Potomac, had to vacate the house he was using as his headquarters, while the infantry and artillery reserve had to pull back and away from Cemetery Ridge.

In reponse to the Confederate artillery fire, around 30 Union guns, from Cemetery Hill and the distant Little Round Top, opened fire. However, around 60 guns from Cemetery Ridge remained silent. Brigadier General Henry Hunt, Chief of Artillery of the Army of the Potomac, had ordered the guns at Cemetery Ridge to hold fire. Hunt did not want to get involve in an artillery duel and instead wanted to save ammunition to counter an infantry assault he felt was coming.

However, as Confederate artillery fire intensified, and as some shells blew up the artillery chest of Union batteries, Hancock decided to countermand Hunt's orders and ordered his corps artillery to open fire. He believed that the guns were being wasted if they remained silent. He also thought that it would help encourage the Union troops, who were wondering why their own artillery were remainig silent. Soon the guns on Cemetery Ridge began to conduct counter-battery fire. Their shot and shells soon struck the Confederate batteries, taking out a few guns.

The Union artillery fire was concerning for Alexander, as it meant that he was failing in eliminating the guns. With his own ammunition supply running low, and with Union guns still active, this could mean that the infantry assault may have to be cancelled.

However, after a while, the Union fire from Cemetery Ridge began to slacken and eventually cease. At that moment, Confederate commanders believed that he Union guns were finally eliminated and that the assault should now begin. Because of that, preparations were being made to launch the attack.

Little did the Confederates know, the Union guns were still active. Hunt, realizing that Meade wanted to encourage the enemy to attack, ordered the Union batteries on Cemetery Ridge to cease fire. That way, the enemy would think that the guns were out and, once they have fully committed to their attack, the guns would once again open fire and bobmard the enemy's attacking force.

Hunt had just lured the Confederates into a trap.

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Featuring @hoofclid @nox-lunarwing and @ama-artistic as members of the Union III Corps. Hoofclid has a white clover corps patch, with a smaller brighter white clover in it, indicating he is a part of the 2nd Division of the II Corps. Nox is portraying General Winfield Hancock, commander of II Corps. Meanwhile, Cyprus is holding the II Corps Headquarters flag.

#hoofclid #nox-lunarwing #ama-artistic #MLP #My Little Pony #Unicorn #Dragon #Earth Pony #History #Gettysburg #Battle of Gettysburg #Gettysburg 160 #Gettysburg 160th Anniversary

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