previous next

[63] could occupy in case the enemy should turn their attention to that portion of the line, I remained at this point until night, when I returned to the position which I occupied in the morning. On Friday, the 3d, I was ordered to report with my command to Major-General Johnson, commanding the extreme left of our line.

Having done so, I was ordered to reconnoitre the positions on our left, and if any could be found, from which I might attract the enemy's fire from our infantry, to occupy them.

Having reconnoitered the positions along this portion of our line, and finding none suitable for the purpose mentioned above, I kept my batteries concealed during the day behind the hills immediately in rear of the battlefield.

About 12 o'clock, M., I was ordered to draw the attention of the enemy's batteries from our infantry in connection with Captain Graham, commanding Rockbridge artillery, and fired about twenty or twenty-five rounds from a point to the left, and somewhat in advance of Captain Graham's position. On Friday night I encamped about one-half of a mile in rear of my position of that day, and about midnight received orders to move my command with General Johnson's division to the point which I occupied on Thursday morning.

On Saturday morning, July 4th, I was ordered to take position on the heights west of the town, and about one-fourth of a mile to the left of the Cashtown road, supported by a brigade of General Johnson's division; here we remained until night, awaiting an attack of the enemy. On Saturday night we fell back from Gettysburg, in the direc-of Hagerstown, which we reached on Tuesday, the 7th. Here we remained until Friday, the 9th, when I was ordered to send one Napoleon gun and one rifle piece to report to Brigadier-General Daniel near the Antietam Creek.

The rifle piece was engaged for a short time. I then received orders to move my command, in connection with General Johnson's division, to a point about equi-distant from the National road and the Williamsport and Hagerstown turnpike, and one mile and a-half from the town.

On Saturday, the 10th, I was ordered to post my batteries, two on the left of Williamsport road and one immediately to the left of the Frankstown and Williamsport road, supported by a portion of General Johnson's division. We remained in position until Monday evening, awaiting an attack of the enemy, when we fell back in the direction of Williamsport. Arriving at that place, we were ordered to move to Falling Waters and cross the river on a pontoon bridge, which we did,


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide People (automatically extracted)
Sort people alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a person to search for him/her in this document.
Bradley T. Johnson (5)
Graham (2)
Napoleon (1)
John W. Daniel (1)
hide Dates (automatically extracted)
Sort dates alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a date to search for it in this document.
July 4th (1)
10th (1)
9th (1)
3rd (1)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: