July 3, 1863

July 3, 1863

11:18 pm

I finally found time to set down an’ write in my little journal.  It’s been a long day of blood, battles, an’ loss.  I may be a Yankee, but I sure do not understand what them rebels thought they were goin’ to do.  We were entrenched really good on Cemetery Ridge.  Lots of protection from the Rebs sharpshooters and cannons.  The Rebs were across this field up on Seminary Ridge.  We set there watching them try to get lined up a lot of the morning.  My fellow Vermonters and I just scratched our heads and wondered when the Rebs were goin’ to finally start shooting.  

We did hear a battle going on over on Culp’s Hill… after awhile it seemed to Peter out and the word came through that we had defeated the Rebs there.  We all give a huge cheer and went back to keeping an eye on the Rebs, making’ sure they didn’t get their sharpshooters closer.  

Then about 1:00 pm the cannons started firing.  The Rebs couldn’t seem to get their cannons to hit nothin’!  They was way short or way long.  My captain sent me and Ollie down to t’ Pennsylvania line to see if we had new orders, but we was told to stay put and “hold t’ line”.  

Funny thing about the cannons, we overshot the Rebs batteries too!  But when we missed the cannons, we hit their infantry!  Talk about getting rid of the Rebs!  Finally, the barrage stopped. It was hot as hell by then.  Ya couldn’t see anything due to the smoke!  Some of the men got scared we’d lost all our cannons; others just set back, drank a little water, covered their noses with bandanas to rid the smoke, and made sure their rifles and pistols were loaded.  I checked my rifle, made sure my bayonet was attached, checked my Bowie knife and tomahawk were ready and found a nice tree to slither up and wait in. 

Then the Rebs did the dumbest thing they could have done.  They started marching, in formation across the field!  A field that was about 2 miles from us!  Yeah, they looked like they went on forever!  It looked like the whole South was there!  They was just a marchin’ along.  Still we waited.  The Rebs were gettin’ close when suddenly our cannons opened up on them !  Little Colonel Freeman McGilvery’s  artillery opened fire on the Rebs from where they had been hidden just north of Little Round Top!  They raked the Rebs right flank with their accuracy!  Then our cannons on Cemetery Hill opened up hittin’ the Rebs left flank!  That marchin’ line didn’t look so good as holes began appearin’!  The holes would fill up only to be blown open again and less and less Rebs were fillin’ in .  The Rebs started chargin’ when they was about 400 yards away!  But they didn’t know about the Ohioans riflemen!  When the Ohioans opened fire, the Rebs didn’t know what hit them!  They turned around and hightailed it back to Seminary Ridge and beyond.  They even got some other Reb divisions to hightail back to the South with them!  I reckon they didn’t stop runnin’ until they got back to Virginia! The Ohioans turned their attention to the new left Reb flank and soon had them hightailing it as well!  

Meanwhile, we was shootin’ as well!  The Rebs broke a hole through,  but they weren’t there long,  most were on the ground dead or dyin’!  

More of our artillery opened up and Reb body parts were raining own all over that field.  It was a huge win for us in the Union!  

Funny thing about the battle, it didn’t even last an hour; yet, the Rebs lost a lot of men. Over 1,123 dead; 4,019 wounded; 3,750 captured…. We lost a lot as well , but not nearly as many as the Rebs.  We had 1,500 men dead or wounded.  My buddy, Ollie, was one of those wounded… looks like he will be sent back home..

As fer me, I’ve been going through the field with the other medics.  Pickin’ through the piles of bodies, parts, and wounded, we’ve gotten the Union men to the hospital tents.  We’re waiting fer the Rebs to come get their wounded.  When we saw they was in full retreat, we brought their wounded to our doctors.  We worked on naming the dead in both.  We tagged them and put them in an order of states .  One Reb division had no one left, so we riffled through their personal belongings hoping to find who they were…. Some were just goin’ to unknown.  I couldn’t help but think about the families they left behind never knowing what happened to their son, father, uncle.  

Now I’m hoping to go to sleep, but the moanin’ and groanin of the wounded is heard throughout.  The Reb who was with me searchin the dead was a drummer boy, looking for his 2 brothers.  The boy was only 10, his brothers were 15 and 17.  We found them, laying next to one another.  One dead, one severely wounded.  One wearing grey, the other blue.  I made the the boy change into a blue uniform we found on a dead soldier.  It was big, but I made sure he and his Union brother stayed together.  I made arrangements for their other brother to be buried with the Reb dead.  A 15 year old boy, shouldn’t be being buried all because some rich Rebel man didn’t want to fight and hired this boy to take his place!  All for the sum of 15$ confederate.  I gotta stop thinkin.  I’ve lived through another battle and I gotta get ready for tomorrow….