The Killing Fields of Chickamauga

After leaving the Cousins Reunion in Athens, we three generations - 8 yr old Isabella, 40-something mom Jennifer, and the ageless Ouma - headed north to the Tennessee border to Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain with a plan to trace Sherman's 1864 March through Georgia. This was a week I'd planned to do by myself since tracking Civil War history is not exactly appealing to most people, but Jennifer always figures where her mom goes there must be adventure. With the pot sweetened by the beautiful state of Georgia, some peaches and lakes and lofts thrown in, it was a pretty good deal for everyone. Even some history was learned.

No sweetening is enticing enough to endure the blistering hot one hundred degree battle field of Chickamauga just outside Chattanooga, but walking these places is what I set out to do. I was alone on this one. With the two youngsters ensconced at the Thomas Kincaidish Chanticleer Inn on Lookout Mountain, I set off for what I knew would be a sobering day.

Chickamauga was one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, more than 30,000 casualties. In a nutshell, the Union Army of the Cumberland with 60,000 men went against 65,000 men in the Confederate Army. The prize - for the North geographic access into Georgia and control of the rail lines, for the South protecting the Homeland that hadn’t seen action in its interior. On September 19-20, 1863, 125,000 men and countless cannons, rifles, infantry and cavalry went at each other, often hand to hand, stretching over a battle line of more than 4 miles. At times the fields were so littered, they could be crossed only by walking on fallen soldiers.


The battle site covering a huge area of fields and forests has been a national park since 1895. Even with the scorching heat and no water bottle, I set out to walk the areas I could, and drive the sections in between. The battle field holds 1400 monuments and markers, 600 put up for the various brigades and regiments for where they saw action. I was determined to check out as many as I could, and to walk those areas of action I knew about, like Longtreet's break through the Union line.

Some stand in the beauty of an open field,


others line the woods where soldiers did their best to put up some type of defense,




and the tallest of all for the state of Georgia.


A cannonball pyramid is erected wherever a commander fell, the higher up the officer the bigger his pyramid.


I climbed Wilder's monument honoring his legendary Lightening Brigade with their repeating Spencer rifles.


The view over the battlefield from Wilder's tower would have been bucolically beautiful if not for my mind's eye seeing the tens of thousands of young men killed and wounded across the landscape.


Overwhelmed by the heat and reality of the battle field, I finally found Snodgrass Hill where General George H. Thomas, the "Rock of Chickamauga", held off the Confederates while the Union Army retreated back to Chattanooga for a good siege. Yes, kids, the North lost this one.


In October of 1861, three brothers from Pendleton County enlisted in Kentucky 23rd Infantry, all in Company D. They were farmers, second generation German stock, two come from Pennsylvania with their mother and the third born in Kentucky. George Caseman at 33 years was old for a soldier, by now married with two young children but with Kentucky threatened by incursions from the Confederate Army, he enlisted in the Union Army. His 4 years younger brother, Jacob, was newly married with a young son, working on a farm. The youngest, Foster, was just 18 when the war broke out and he was the first to sign up with the 23rd. Who knows what Lydia felt when her three boys went off to war, all with the 23rd, Company D, the boys from Pendleton County, but I doubt it was much different from other mothers over the history of mankind's making war on each other.

The three young men fought with the 23rd into Chattanooga and from there to Chickamauga. Foster, age 20, was killed in action the first day of Chickamauga, on September 19, and is buried at the Chattanooga National Cemetery.

Jacob was wounded two weeks after the Battle at Chickamauga. The Union Army had retreated to Chattanooga and Jacob was accidentally shot by a drunken guard in the barracks, requiring amputation of his arm at the elbow.

He returned home to his family and farm and died ten years later at the age of 43.

Only George remained with the Kentucky 23rd whose boys endured the starving siege of Chattanooga and under General Grant made the ferocious charge up Missionary Hill, and followed Sherman on the march through Georgia to take Atlanta. He mustered out of the 23rd and returned home in early 1865. He had another six children and lived to an old age of 85.

George's first child, Mary Jane, born before he went off to war, is our great grandmother. George is our second great grandfather, and Jacob and Foster our uncles.

Every soldier on the field has a story, and a life, as rich as those of George and Jacob and Foster. That is the magnitude of it all.

The Caseman Family: George W. Caseman (1828-1913)

*Grace was born to an unmarried Mary Jane and took on the last name of her stepfather, William Martin.

*Since this blog was posted, further research has uncovered George's ancestry. See posts on Frederick Kaseman and Jacob Caseman.

Tracing the Caseman family beyond Mary Jane becomes more difficult as we go back into the 1700’s and early 1800’s.  Records become scarcer, lost in floods, fires, or never recorded in the frontier and backwoods of Kentucky and western Pennsylvania.  Maybe someone from the family got into town to record a birth or death at the court house and often they didn’t; or perhaps there was no nearby court house.  The dead might be buried on the farm with just a stone or wooden cross marker, or the headstone has been destroyed.

George’s Civil War background has been described in The Killing Fields of Chickamauga and They Stood As If Every Man was a Hero although George’s capture by Confederates outside Atlanta during Sherman’s march was not detailed.

Our mother - who would have been George’s great-granddaughter - always insisted Mary Jane’s side of the family was German.  Since George’s wife, Meriah, was likely Scottish descent the German side had to come from the Casemans.

Suggestions have been made that George's father Jacob descended from William Caseman in Frederick County, Virginia and later Greene County, Pennsylvania, and that William’s original name was Wilhelm Kaeseman.  Wilhelm was born in Nesselrode, Germany and was a Hessian mercenary fighting for the British when captured at Yorktown.  While being marched around as POW’s, the prisoners had opportunity to “get lost”, i.e., escape, and that Wilhelm stayed and settled in this country as a young man.  Again, this is myth until we are able to make documented connection between our Jacob and Wilhelm.

Venango County, Pennsylvania

Franklin, Pennsylvania, lies at the confluence of French Creek and the Allegheny River in Venango County.  Franklin was the site of first a French fort and later a British fort in the 1700’s, The British were massacred and Fort Venango burned  by Indians in 1763, followed by construction of Fort Franklin by the Americans.  A frontier community was established in the late 1700’s in the Fort Franklin area by Virginians, many claiming land for their services in the Revolution.  Travel through the early 1800’s was difficult due to poor condition of any roads and trails, leaving inhabitants heavily dependent on creeks and rivers.  Boats easily brought passengers and goods upstream from Pittsburgh via the Allegheny and this is likely the path by which the Caseman’s arrived.

The family’s presence in Venango County, Pennsylvania, in 1828 is established by the fortuitous finding of George’s birthplace on his Civil War enlistment and later his marriage certificate with Eliza.   His parents are established as Jacob Caseman and Lydia by records in Pendleton County.  Later census records establish Lydia’s birth as about 1798 in Pennsylvania, but Jacob’s birth, age, and their marriage have not yet been found.

There are no Casemans or families with similar spellings in the 1820 Venango County census so it is relatively safe to say at least John Jacob arrived between 1820 and George’s birth in 1828.  Did they arrive as a family, or did John Jacob migrate on his own and marry a local girl?

The 1830 census shows a John J Caseman family with man and woman in the appropriate age range and  and four children living in French Creek near the fork with the Allegheny River, the only Casemans in Venango County in that census year so we can be relatively certain this is our family.

We do know with some certainty that young Lydia, George’s older sister born in 1821, and the older Lydia, John Jacob’s wife, were both born in Pennsylvania but their birth places lack county documentation and we do not know the older Lydia’s maiden name.  There is a 7 year gap between sister Lydia and George’s births which could be accounted for by a number of possibilities.  That John Jacob and Lydia electively decided not to have children until they migrated from elsewhere in Pennsylvania would have been highly unusual for the times.  Another thought is that young Lydia was born from a previous marriage, her mother since died, and older Lydia was Jacob’s second wife, starting a second family with George in 1828.  However,  the most plausible explanation is that several children between young Lydia and George were born but died in childhood.  The support for this option is that young and old Lydias share a common name, a frequent practice at the time and a bane to genealogy researchers.

Hamilton County, Ohio

A History of Venango County relates one of the first settlers in Franklin was George Power who helped build the fort, stayed a bit longer, then moved on to Fort Washington which is now Cincinnati.  He returned to Franklin in 1790 and lived on the bank of French Creek until his death in 1845.  Did John Jacob hear about Ohio from this neighbor, or other neighbors?  Franklin was becoming more hospitable by the time John Jacob decided to move on with his family.  By the early 1800’s roads were being laid out, and by 1823 the town had a hotel, a lumber yard, brick maker, justice of the peace and two story houses.  An influx of settlers grew the county from 4000 in 1820 to 9000 by 1830.  Was it becoming too crowded and land too expensive?  If John Jacob had established his homestead on the banks of French Creek, were they prompted to leave due to frequent severe flooding?

In any event, several years after the birth of Lydia the couple had three more children in quick succession, George in 1828, Jacob in 1831, and Mary Anne in 1833.  By time of the 1840 census, the family and four children had migrated down the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers to Anderson, Hamilton County, Ohio.  A fifth and last child, Foster, was born in Hamilton County in 1842.

Older sister, Lydia, came of age in Hamilton County and married Robert Hay in 1842, subsequently remaining in the Covington area.  By 1870, Lydia was twice widowed and living in Falmouth, Pendleton County, Kentucky.  Her 70 year old mother, the older Lydia, is in the home.

Pendleton County, Kentucky

Our Jacob, Sr., and Lydia came to Pendleton County sometime between 1842 when Foster was born in Hamilton County and 1847 when there is documentation Jacob Sr. bought a mill from Alexander Rouse in Pendleton County (Pendleton Circuit Court, p. 229).  Jacob, Sr. likely died in the next 2-3 years as he is not listed in the 1850 census.  Proceedings in 1853 show the Jacob, Sr. was “much embarrassed” financially at the time of his death, and the mill was foreclosed leaving his heirs to pay his debts.

In 1850 widowed Lydia is living with 22 year old head of household George W. who is now supporting his mother, his three younger siblings, Jacob now 19, Mary Anne, 15, Foster 8, and a one year old Edward.  A circuit court document in 1855 issued a summons for George to appear before the judge to show cause why he should not be bound out in the death of the infant son of Jacob; this may be Edward as he does not show up in later censuses.  

Our 24 yr old George married 20 year old Meriah Johnson, daughter of farmer and mill owner William Johnson, in 1852.  George is farming in Flower Creek, indeed just a designated post office with no associated town.  The closest village is Butler.

The mother, 55 tear old Lydia, remarried  in 1855 to a neighboring farmer, 79 year old John Clinkenbeard, and left the family home.

Jacob, Jr., 26, married 15 year old Sarah Mains from a nearby farm in 1857. 

In 1860, twenty year old Foster is working as a farm hand in Campbell County, Kentucky, which is Sarah’s home county.

George and Meriah had their first child, Lydia, (another Lydia!) in November 1852 followed by another 3 children over the next 8 years.  Of these, only our great grandmother, Mary Jane, survived childhood.  Tragedy struck the family when 5 year old Lydia and 1 year old Jacob L (another Jacob!) died with infant flux within days of each other.  Young William, born in 1858 is on the census in 1860, but not ten years later in 1870 when he would have been only 12, and he must have died sometime in the interim.  Their fifth child, Emily, was born in 1861 months before George left for war.

In October 1861, 33 year old George and his two brothers, 30 year old Jacob and 19 year old Foster, enlisted in the Union Army, Kentucky 23rd Regiment, Company D, and trained a Camp King near Covington, Kentucky.  George is described as tall at 6’ 3/4”, hazel eyes, black hair, and a scar over his right temple.  Foster is described as 5’8”, dark complexion, brown eyes, black hair.

The regiment went by foot to Lexington, then to Louisville where they boarded a steamer and were transported to Nashville.  They wintered 1862-63 at Nashville and saw little action through the spring and summer.  Through this period, George was promoted through the ranks to Corporal before even leaving Lexington, then to Sergeant by July 1862.  All three boys left the unit in August 1862, “left behind on the march,” a week before the units first severe fight at Round Mountain in Tennessee and remained AWOL until March 30, 1863.  Very likely they went home to help with fall harvest, possibly tobacco; with some re-organization of Rosecrans’ army an amnesty was offered allowing the boys to return without penalty other than George was demoted back to private status.

The 23rd remained in Tennessee through the summer until moved to Chattanooga in September 1863.  They did reconnaissance up Lookout Mountain looking for Confederates and subsequently engaged in the horrific fight at Chickamauga.  On the first day of battle, September 19, Lt. Colonel Foy, commander of the 23rd, describes arriving at Lee and Gordon’s Mills about daylight, having some marching and flanking action and entering the fight at about 11 AM,

“…the battery to our rear was pouring in destructive fire into their (Confederate) ranks and the Twenty -third Kentucky poured in volley after volley.  After we had been in this position about one-half to three-quarters of an hour, I noticed that the enemy were renewing the attack with redoubled vigor.  The Second Kentucky retired step by step and inch by inch until they arrived on a line with us.  At this instant I noticed the 24th Ohio giving slowly back.  I immediately sent an officer to see what was the matter.  He brought the word back “all right” and that they intended to hold their ground.  We now fought, I suppose for about an hour longer, but right in the midst of the fighting, finding out that the artillery to our rear was wounding some of the men in the right companies we moved to the left … we renewed our ammunition, marked to pass lines to the rear, which was done in good order… we had scarcely fallen back when the enemy redoubled their attack with great fury…they stood as every man a hero…side by side and shoulder to shoulder did the 24th Ohio and 23rd Kentucky stand up and successively repulse the enemy in all his attacks…the fire now was very hot.  It appeared to me as though every third man in the regiment was struck… finally, seeing we were outnumbered at least five to one, I very reluctantly gave the command to retire.  I found my loss to be 1 officer killed, 3 officers wounded, and 42 enlisted men wounded and 9 killed.”

Among the 9 enlisted killed was young Foster, twenty one years old.  The Union had 16,170 casualties (killed in action, wounded, captured, missing) and Confederates 18,454 in those two days of battle.  Foster is buried at Chattanooga National Cemetery.

Foster Caseman, 1842-1864, killed in action at Chickamauga

Having lost a brother at their side, George and Jacob, nevertheless, would have to fight the following day which was just as horrendous until retreat of the Union Army into Chattanooga.

The 23rd remained in Chattanooga surrounded and under siege by the Confederate Army until General Grant opened a supply line across the river to the starving men.  A week after Chickamauga, Jacob was accidentally shot by a drunken guard in his barracks, requiring amputation at the elbow and ending his soldier career.

George, alone without his brothers, and the 23rd moved out and participated in the great charge up Missionary Ridge on November 25 to break the siege, “there was never such a bold and daring charge made or witnessed by the Army of the Cumberland,” according to the commander of the 23rd.

With their three year enlistment up in January 1864, George and most of regiment re-enlisted and continued on with Sherman’s march through Georgia. George fought through the battles at Rocky Face, Resaca, New Hope Church, Pine Top, and was finally captured at Kennesaw just outside Atlanta on September 24.  He was a prisoner of war, perhaps at the horrific prison at Andersonville as his release occurred in Savannah on November 21, 1864.  He reported back to the Union Army on November 25 and rejoined the fight chasing Hood’s army back into Tennessee and Alabama where he mustered out in January 1865.

After the war

Age 37, George returned to farming at Flower Creek, to Meriah and two young children, Mary Jane and Emily who was just months old when George enlisted. Over the previous 9 years, he had lost one brother killed in action at his side, one disabled with an arm amputation, the sudden deaths of two young children, an infant nephew in his home, and possibly a third child, William.  He and Meriah had another five children in rapid succession between 1866 and 1874.  Sometime before the1880 census Meriah died.  No record of her death or burial site has been found.

Jacob returned to Sarah Ann and the two children born before he went to war.  He worked the farm, bought a sawmill, and obtained an artificial arm.  He and Sarah had three more children, the last one born a month after Jacob’s death in 1874 at the age of 37.

Our great grandmother, Mary Jane was 10 when her father George returned home from the war and 4 years later, at age 15 in November 1869, Mary Jane married and left the home. She lived briefly in the Pendleton County area in Falmouth but within 3-4 years she and her husband, Frank Shumate, moved away to Illinois then to Lewis County, Kentucky, where Frank was killed by a horse, leaving her widowed with two young children.

Lewis County, Kentucky

The 1880 census finds widower George with six children near Vanceburg on a farm next to newly widowed Mary Jane and her two young children.  What drew the family to the Clarksburg area some distance from Flower Creek and who moved here first is unknown.  Mary Jane is supporting herself as a seamstress, likely living on the same farm in Valley where her husband was killed in 1879, and George is farming.

George and Eliza's marriage certificate

The same year, 1880, no doubt needing help with raising his young children, George took another wife, - a young Eliza Moore who was the same age as his daughter Mary Jane.  George had another four children with Eliza over the next 16 years, for a total of 14 children in all.  There was 32 years difference in age between Mary Jane and George’s last child. born when George was 68 years old.

George and Eliza remained in Valley on the farm next to Mary Jane and finished raising his children.

George and second wife Eliza Ellen

By 1910, George had moved into Vanceburg, living on Third Street, and Mary Jane has finished raising her children, soon if not already living on Dry Run close to Grace.

George died December 30, 1913 at his home at age 85.  He is buried in an unmarked grave in Clarksburg Cemetery.

George Studley and the 19th Maine at Gettysburg

The 19th Maine Infantry was known for its coolness under fire from its first skirmishes,  perhaps even when they got their nickname as the “Frying Pan Regiment” after an incident in which they tried to cook bacon in a frying pan supported over the fire with live artillery rounds.

Our story picks up in mid-June 1863 when the regiment finally broke camp from Falmouth where they had spent a miserable winter and in which they were based for the battles at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, losing men mostly to sickness.    They were headed for Gettysburg.   After his success at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, General Lee was taking the war to the North with the invasion of Pennsylvania, and the Union Army, including the 19th Maine, was in pursuit.   

The 19th Maine was commanded by Colonel Francis Heath.  General William Harrow had taken over command of the First Brigade and Major-General Hancock command of the Second Corps. While on the march, the North changed command of the Army of the Potomac from General Hooker to General Meade.

Their march took them through the Bull Run battle field where human skeletons were still sticking up through the ground, the 19th bringing up the rear of the Army.  Jeb Stuart’s Cavalry raided the rear at Haymarket and the 19th lost its first casualty to war.  The Army covered 200 miles between June 13 and arrival at Gettysburg on July 1st.  Lee’s 72,000 man army was well into Pennsylvania when they turned back to meet the 83,900 man Union Army, both sides racing to get the most favorable ground at Gettysburg.  Each side had about 10,000 cavalry.

The 19th was often covering 20 miles/day.  On June 29th they marched thirty two miles to reach Uniontown with a forced march on June 30 to arrive at the battlefield on the evening of July 1.  Here they took up position left of Taneytown Road, near the southeastern base of Round Top.  Fighting had been going on west of town during the day while Major General John Buford was trying to delay Confederate troops and to allow Meade’s army to arrive and settle into strategic positions. The Sixteenth Maine who had been fighting the first day returned to camp with the 19th Maine - about 25 men, all that was left of the 16th who were nearly annihilated the first day - and they recounted their story to the 19th.

George’s brigade moved to the battlefield in the morning of July 2nd, the second day of battle, and was stationed in reserve behind Webb’s Brigade and Hall’s Brigade on the left flank of the Union “fish hook”.  They were about 300 yards behind the Codori House and barn.

June 2011.  I walked the fields of the Codori farm, not knowing that a century and a half earlier my second great grandfather had fought on this ground

The Brigade remained all day in cannon range of the enemy.  Over the course of the day’s battle, front line brigades were withdrawn or reassigned, eventually leaving the 19th Maine alone on the field.  An officer of the 19th later wrote of that day,

“The Confederates knew we were there, would strike in our midst, killing or wounding a number of men.  All we could do was to lie there and guess where the next one would strike or who the next victim would be... Sickles’ Right Division (Third Corps) under General Humphreys, extended along the Emmittsburg road toward the Codori house...We watched with intense interest the progress of the battle and soon saw that it was a losing fight on part of the Third Corps.  Through the smoke we could see the approach of the coming storm.  Humphreys’ Division was breaking up and coming toward us, yet stubbornly holding on and contesting every foot of ground.  At last being overpowered by weight of numbers, Humphreys’ line came back in confusion, -- a broken, disorganized mass.  Colonel Heath walked rapidly along in front of the Regiment, cautioning the men to lie still and permit the retreating men to pass over us.  Our right extended well up the ridge, but there was no infantry connection on our left except the First Minnesota, some sixty rods away... Two batteries joined us on the left...We lay upon our faces, hugging the ground.  Nearer and nearer came the retreating soldiers of Humphrey’s Division.  Some of them were wounded and some of the wounded were being brought back by their comrades.  They were all of them in a hurry.  These men were not particular where they stepped in walking over us, they only seemed intent upon getting to the rear and out of the reach of their relentless pursuers.  Yet there were many brave spirits among these routed troops.  Some called out to us, ‘Hang on, boys, and we will form in your rear’.  Others informed us that we were whipped and all was lost.”

About this time General Hancock rode up, placed a man from the Regiment where he wanted the 19th to stay, saying “Will you stay here?” to which the soldier replied “I’ll stay here, General, until hell freezes over”, the usual attitude of the 19th, and the Regiment prepared to face the enemy head on.

“The enemy was about thirty-five yards from our lines when Colonel Heath gave the order to rise and fire.  The Nineteenth had about 400 men in line of battle when the Regiment rose and delivered its deadly fire into the faces of the Confederates.  They were staggered and halted...The Battery which joined up upon our left commenced firing the moment the front was clear of the Third Corps...The First Minnesota was stationed sixty-five rods to our left.  This Regiment (1st Minnesota) charged across the ravine, checking and driving back the Rebel brigade... this renowned charge of the First Minnesota in its great loss has never been equaled in modern warfare.

While the 59th New York and the 7th Michigan repulsed the charge of the Confederates, these regiments did not attempt to follow them as they retreated across the Emmittsburg road...The First Minnesota and the Nineteenth Maine were the only regiments in our Division that undertook to follow the Confederates across the Emmittsburg road. The Minnesota boys charged as far as our Regiment did, but owing to the fact that the Emmittsburg road did not run parallel with out line of battle, they did not reach that road.

During the progress of the battle, Colonel Heath received word that the enemy had made its appearance on our right flank.  He ordered the Regiment to fall back, and it did so in perfect order.  The distance the Regiment fell back did not exceed two or three rods, when they faced the enemy again and, in perfect alignment, began firing again...We heard the ringing order of Colonel Health to fix bayonets.  Then the order to charge was given and the Regiment started forward and down across the plain, like a tornado let loose.  The Rebels fell back rapidly and our Regiment advanced nearly to the Emmittsburg Road, capturing many prisoners, two stands of colors, three pieces of artillery and four caissons (recaptured) ... We had no infantry connection immediately upon our right or left.  Just as we were ordered back, our attention was attracted by loud cheering in the rear... When the Regiment reached the place from which we had charged with the three guns and the four caissons coming from the direction of the enemy, the whole line went wild with cheers over the brilliant charge and capture by the Nineteenth Maine.”

Colonel Nash would later write,

The Nineteenth Maine was placed beside a battery, to support it, and to hold its portion of the line, as the Third Corps had been driven back across the field, and was retiring in haste.  The enemy was completely frantic with victory, and advanced impetuously....our fire was deadly; every shot had apparently done its duty.  And when, with bayonets fixed, the command “Forward” was given, onward dashed all that was left of the Nineteenth, while cheer upon cheer rose far above the din, the enemy hiding behind rocks and bushes to escape the fury of the charge”.

A Regimental monument to the 19th Maine stands at the place of this charge.

19th Maine Inf'y Reg't.
1st Brigade, 2d Division, 2d Corps

In the Evening of July 2d this Regiment at a position on the left of Batt'y C, 5th U.S. helped to repel the enemy that had driven in Humphreys' Division, taking one battle flag and re-capturing four guns.

On July 3, after engaging the enemy's advance from this position, it moved to the right to the support of the 2d Brigade and joined in the final charge and repulse of Pickett's Command.

Effective strength. July 2d. 405;
Killed & mortally wounded 65; Wounded not fatally, 137; Missing 4.

At roll call for the Regiment that night, however, “strong men sobbed as the heroic dead were named”.  The Regiment stayed the night on the same ground where they waited for battle most of the day, but slept little for the cries of the wounded men lying between the lines.

July 3, early morning.  Four companies of the Regiment were sent to a skirmish line, advancing some to the right toward the Union center, still near the Codori house on Emmittsburg Road.  They had not eaten for 24 hours and had no breakfast nor water on this hot day.  The remaining companies, including Company A with George, waited on the battle line, somewhat protected by ground works that had been constructed.  And wait they did, as all was quiet except for fighting over on Culp’s Hill.  By plan, about 1:00 PM the Confederates opened up with  “the most terrific cannonading ever witnessed on this continent”, 138 Confederate artillery guns turned on the Second Corps in Lee’s attempt to break through the Union line.  “The very earth seemed to tremble as if in the convulsions of a mighty earthquake.  It is impossible to describe the horror and suffering of this hour”.

About three o’clock, the guns silenced and 15,000 Confederates emerged from the tree line ahead to cover the three quarters mile to the Union line, a line of infantry about a mile long, Pickett’s Charge, “one of the most inspiring sights ever seen on a field of battle”, headed for the center of the Union line where our George and the 19th were waiting.  Given the distance and open terrain exposure to artillery fire, Confederates fell by the thousands but continued to advance, breaking the Union line at “The Angle”.  The 19th met Pickett’s Charge, and then moved on the double quick toward the captured angle of the wall, “massed, many deep, around the hapless Confederates who had penetrated our lines...the contending forces hopelessly mingled, fought with desperation”, brutally hand to hand and with rifle butts.

The Second Corps bore the brunt of casualties at Gettysburg, more than any of the other Corps.  Of the 405 officers and men of the 19th Maine, 65 died and 137 wounded, and 4 missing - 53% of the Regiment.

Only minor skirmishing occurred the following day, July 4th, as Lee’s Army withdrew and began their retreat south. 

On the 5th, the 19th Maine and other regiments began the gruesome task of burying the dead on the battlefield.  Five hundred were buried on the Codori farm.  Twenty foot long ditches were dug and Confederates soldiers dragged into mass graves, piled one on top of another.  Union soldiers were buried in separate graves and each grave marked, if known.

About five o’clock on July 5th, the 19th left the battlefield.  On July 29th, Captain Charles Nash  of the 19th Maine wrote,

“Eleven months ago the Nineteenth Maine was one thousand strong.  Today its ranks number 258.  Some who were then with us are reposing on the banks of the Rappahannock; others are asleep on the stained and ever memorable field at Gettysburg.  Only a few are left.”

Our George Studley, perhaps a sergeant by now, was one of the surviving two hundred fifty eight.  He has nearly two years of fighting yet to go.

Next installment: The next two years

Source: The History of the Nineteenth Regiment of Maine Volunteer Infantry, 1862-1865, John Day Smith.

Recommended film:  Gettysburg gives an excellent account of the battle at Gettysburg