My heart and prayers go out to everyone
affected by this current pandemic. I would like to write something deep and
important, however I am not adequate to the task. That would take someone far
smarter than I. Therefore, I decided to share some thoughts I have about the
Confederate occupation of the Railroad Cut at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863.
This exercise began while working on my
account of the Railroad Cut in my new Gettysburg manuscript. After the cut had
been secured and the 6th Wisconsin was mopping up, Private John
Killmartin (Company G, 6th Wisconsin) joined a few other men in
pursuit of Mississippians and North Carolinians trying to escape north, out of
the eastern side of the cut. The Wisconsiners caught up with them and while
bagging about 10 the Confederates, their lieutenant fired his pistol at them.
John Killmartin shot him dead.[1]
Here is where I started tracing the line
from this historical spiderweb. I found that only two Confederate lieutenants
died in the track bed – 1st Lt. John C. Lauderdale (Company B, 2nd
Mississippi) and 2nd Lt. Mordecai Lee (Company G, 55th
North Carolina). I had to find out, if at all possible where the two of them
would have been in the regimental lines. I therefore turned to Hardees Tactics.
According to the Tactics,
regimental companies were to fall in from right to left, facing south (the bottom
of this page), because the regiment went into action. facing east, then south
as follows:
1 6 4 9 3 [c] 8 5 10 7 2
1 6 4 9 3 [c] 8 5 10 7 2
A F
D I C [c] H E K G B
The 2nd Mississippi had an
additional company – L which in this article I arbitrarily placed on the right
of the line. L A F D I C [c] H E K G B. I did this based upon the fact that
Company B’s casualties include the following: 1 killed (Lieutenant Lauderdale),
1 wounded and 1 mortally wounded and captured. Green McCarley was the only
mortally wounded man in Company B who was not captured days after the battle.
Therefore, he had to have been captured by the skirmish line from the 6th
Wisconsin which went out before noon. Corporals Kelly and Charles O. Jones
(Company I, 6th Wisconsin) found the reb whom they shot down as he
bolted from the grass north of the cut and east of Sheads Woods where the
regiment was reforming. Kelly noted he was shot through the leg. Ten were
captured outright attempting to escape.[2]
Adding the mortally wounded and captured
to the captured results in 11 captured. The regiment reported 95 captured. Removing
those 11 from the 2nd Mississippi’s captured at the cut leave 84
prisoners of war. I deducted those 84 from the 6th Wisconsin’s 232
captured and got 148 other POWs.[3] The 55th North
Carolina had exactly 148 officers and men captured in the cut. The 1 missing in
action more than likely should be added either to the killed or the wounded and
captured.
By using Hardee’s formation, I concluded
that Company B was on the left flank of the 2nd Mississippi. Since
their captured numbers are apparently not in Dawes’s numbers, they had to have
occurred after the fighting was over and the 6th Wisconsin was
mopping up, which agrees with Kelly’s remembrance of the situation. Lieutenant Lauderdale
would have been with Company B and therefore had to have been the officer
Killmartin shot down.
Company L, more than likely, was on the
right of Company A. The regiment went into action with about 522 officers and
men. Deducting 45 line officers and an estimated 22 sergeants serving as file
closers that would have left 455 rank and file on line.[4] In parade ground
formation, the regiment would have covered about 455 feet.[5]
I had to estimate how many men the two regiments
lost while going into action. I started with the casualties I believed I could
confirm. The one thing I noticed is that the Buseys identified when and where
the mortally wounded/captured and the wounded/captured were captured. I took
the individuals who were captured 1 – 13 days after the battle and included
them in the regiments’ wounded in action because that is how they would have
appeared at that time on the rosters. I also concluded that the reason they
ended up in field hospitals and in the ranks during the retreat is because they
would have had to have been rescued from the areas of the field in Confederate
control before the railroad cut incident. I also did not pay attention to any
men where they could not substantiate when they became casualties, which
removes about 12 or less men from this study.
I concluded the men listed as captured or
wounded/captured, and mortally wounded/captured on July 1 had to have been
captured in the railroad cut or just north of the cut between the cut and Sheads
Woods. Those were the areas occupied for a few hours or so by Federal troops
after the attack against the cut. They were hauled in during the mop up
operations.
This resulted in a chart where I could
divide the number of casualties taken after the battle to the total number of
wounded during the entire day. I then constructed a table of the regimental
lines in in order from the right flank to the left flank of each regiment and
calculated the percentage of men wounded/mortally wounded and captured against
the total number wounded, the results of which are listed as follows:
2nd Mississippi:
L: 1/7 (14%); A: 9/19 (47%); F: 1/9 (11%);
D: 0; I:1/12 (8%); C: 2/13 (15%) - Right Wing
H: 5/15 (33%); E: 0; K: 7/12 (58%); G 6/14
(43%); B: 9/10 (90%) – Left Wing
55th North Carolina: excluding
B which was in skirmish and not at the cut.
A: 3/10 (30%); F: 3/7 (43%); D: 3/15
(20%); I: 7/12 (58%); C: 5/10 (50%) – Right Wing
H: 3/6 (50%): E: 3/12 (25%); K: 8/9 (89%);
G: 9/14 (64%) – Left Wing
To estimate the number of casualties in
the assaults against the 147th New York, 76th New York,
and 56th Pennsylvania I applied those individual percentages to the
total number of killed and wounded, and known wounded which produced the tables
shown below.
Morning
|
Co.
|
KIA
|
WIA
|
MW
|
T
|
2
MS 47%
|
A
|
1
|
9
|
1
|
11
|
90%
|
B
|
3
|
10
|
1
|
14
|
15%
|
C
|
1
|
2
|
0
|
3
|
D
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
|
E
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
|
11%
|
F
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
43%
|
G
|
1
|
6
|
0
|
7
|
33%
|
H
|
1
|
5
|
0
|
6
|
8%
|
I
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
58%
|
K
|
1
|
7
|
0
|
8
|
14%
|
L
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
Total
|
8
|
42
|
2
|
52
|
In battle line, by wings, it looks like
this:
L:1; A: 11; F: 1; D: 0; I: 1; C: 3 = 17
casualties. H: 6; E: 0; K: 8; G: 7; B: 14
= 35 casualties.
This makes perfect sense. Because the
right wing of the 2nd hit the 2 right companies of the 147th
New York from the north. The left wing encountered the 56th
Pennsylvania.
55th
NC
|
%/T
|
Co.
|
KIA
|
WIA
|
T
|
Jy1, 1863
|
30%
|
A
|
1
|
3
|
4
|
Morning
|
50%
|
C
|
1
|
5
|
6
|
Casualties
|
20%
|
D
|
0
|
3
|
3
|
25%
|
E
|
0
|
3
|
3
|
|
43%
|
F
|
2
|
3
|
5
|
|
64%
|
G
|
3
|
9
|
12
|
|
50%
|
H
|
1
|
3
|
4
|
|
58%
|
I
|
0
|
7
|
7
|
|
89%
|
K
|
2
|
8
|
10
|
|
Total
|
10
|
44
|
54
|
A: 4; F: 5; D: 3; I: 7; C: 6 = 25
casualties. H: 4; E: 3; K: 10; G: 12 =
29 casualties.
This also seems very close. The right wing
assaulted the left wing of the 76th New York while the left wing
assaulted the New Yorkers’ right flank and forced the regiment to refuse that
flank.
Taking those losses into account, the 2nd
Mississippi, not counting field and staff, lost around 50 feet of frontage. This
reduced the frontage to about 400 feet. Again, this is an estimate, it being
impossible to get the exact frontage once the fighting started. Taking that
into account the 55th North Carolina, which started out, deducting
20 file closers, and at least 50 feet because Company B was on skirmish, the
front shrunk about 70 feet. Of the original 617 in line, it now had around 550
or a 550 foot front between 9 companies. These numbers matter when trying to
place the approximate flanks of the two regiments in the railroad cut.
The map below shows the regimental fronts
at the cut at the time of its capture. Company K, 55th North
Carolina had no one captured, suggesting that it left the cut before the 6th
Wisconsin charged it, which left Company G stranded. The frontage represents
the approximate length of the lines, despite the fact that the two Confederate
regiments actually got jumbled together in the charge. The 6th
Wisconsin lost about 50% of its men in the attack from the Chambersburg Road to
the cut.
Despite their assertions to taking heavy
casualties, the 14th Brooklyn and the 95th New York have
no records by way of a nominal list to substantiate they lost heavily in the
attack. They had been on the right of the Iron Brigade line at Herbst Woods on
the crest of McPherson’s Ridge, west of the barn where they engaged the 5th
Alabama Battalion, which was acting as skirmishers for Brig. Gen. James
Archer’s brigade. The suffered probably a handful of casualties there before
being sent to the 6th Wisconsin’s assistance. I can only account for
5 casualties in that attack. One was killed with three of the 4 men evacuating
him from the field after the action, and the other died from losing his leg.[6] The accounts from the 6th
Wisconsin show the 95th New York on the left of the line and the 14th
Brooklyn overlapping the rear of the 6th Wisconsin and not on the
left of the 95th as usually shown.[7] Therefore, to represent
their frontage somewhat accurately, I reduced their numbers to 200 men (95th
New York) and 300 (14th Brooklyn).
With that all in mind, I constructed two
charts, one of the 2nd Mississippi and the other for the 55th
North Carolina, reflecting their casualties in the cut which includes all of
the captured in the fighting.
RR
Cut
|
Co.
|
KIA
|
WIA
|
MW
|
MW/CIA
|
WIA/CIA
|
CIA
|
MIA
|
T
|
2
Miss
|
A
|
1
|
10
|
1
|
0
|
2
|
5
|
0
|
19
|
B
|
1
|
3
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
10
|
0
|
15
|
|
C
|
4
|
11
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
12
|
0
|
27
|
|
D
|
2
|
5
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
5
|
0
|
12
|
|
E
|
2
|
9
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
22
|
0
|
33
|
|
F
|
2
|
8
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
7
|
0
|
19
|
|
G
|
1
|
8
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
0
|
12
|
|
H
|
2
|
10
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
8
|
0
|
20
|
|
I
|
3
|
11
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
10
|
0
|
27
|
|
K
|
0
|
5
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
6
|
0
|
11
|
|
L
|
1
|
6
|
1
|
3
|
0
|
7
|
0
|
18
|
|
Total
|
19
|
84
|
6
|
5
|
2
|
95
|
0
|
223
|
55th
NC
|
Co.
|
KIA
|
WIA
|
MW
|
MW/CIA
|
WIA/CIA
|
CIA
|
MIA
|
T
|
Jy1, 1863
|
A
|
2
|
7
|
0
|
0
|
6
|
22
|
0
|
37
|
RR
Cut
|
B
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
Casualties
|
C
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
3
|
23
|
0
|
30
|
D
|
4
|
12
|
0
|
4
|
5
|
10
|
0
|
35
|
|
E
|
1
|
9
|
0
|
2
|
7
|
26
|
0
|
45
|
|
F
|
2
|
4
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
19
|
0
|
26
|
|
G
|
2
|
5
|
0
|
2
|
3
|
19
|
0
|
31
|
|
H
|
2
|
3
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
14
|
1
|
23
|
|
I
|
0
|
5
|
0
|
0
|
5
|
15
|
0
|
25
|
|
K
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
5
|
0
|
0
|
7
|
|
Total
|
15
|
46
|
0
|
12
|
37
|
148
|
1
|
259
|
Using that data, I constructed two battle line charts to compare the casualties in cut in the probable order in which they occurred.
2nd Mississippi
Casualties L A F D I C H E K G B
KIA 1 1 2
2 3 4 2
2 0 1 1
WIA 6 10 8
5 11 11 10 9
5 8 3
MW 1 1
1 0 3
0 0
0 0 0 0
MW/CIA 3 0
1 0 0
0 0 0
0 0 1
WIA/CIA 0 2
0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0
CIA 7 5
7 5 10 12
T: 46 8
22 6 3 10 T: 39 + 46 = 85
Total 18 19 19
12 27 27 T: 122
20 33 11 12 15 T: 76 + 15 = 198
and 15
The red numbers represent the 11 men in
Company B who got flushed out of the cut after the fighting was over and the
one man wounded in the leg and left on the field. Note that the captured in
black total the number of men wounded in 10 of the 11 companies. Company B had
10 men captured after the fight and one who was reported wounded but ended up
being left on the field and captured by the federal skirmish line. He would not have been counted among the
captured at the cut because he was taken later. Either way, Dawes could have
miscounted his prisoners also and erred by one.
55th North Carolina
Casualties A F D I C H E K G
WIA 7 4 12 5 0
3 9 1 5
MW/CIA 0 0
4 0 2
1 2 1 2
WIA/CIA 6 1
5 5 3 2 7 5 3
MIA 0 0
0 0 0 1 0
0 0
Total 37
26 35 25 30 23 45
7 31
What do the casualty numbers tell me about
what happened at the cut?
55th North Carolina: Frontage
549 feet
A
F D I
C : 305 feet H E K G
: 244 feet
CIA 22
19 10 15 23 T: 89
14 26 0 19 T: 59 59+89=148
2nd Mississippi: Frontage 395
feet
L A F D I C: 216 feet H E K G B: 180 feet
The 55th North Carolina overlapped
the rear of the 2nd Mississippi by 152 feet. Company K and Company G
occupied around 120 feet of that ground until Company K quit the field, leaving
a gap in the line and Company G with 2nd Lt. Mordecai Lee to get
flanked by 20 men from the right of the 6th Wisconsin. Those men
killed, mortally wounded, or wounded 22 of the Carolinians and captured another
19.
The entire front of the 6th
Wisconsin did not overlap all of Company B, 2nd Mississippi. The 20 men, who overpowered Company G, 55th Mississippi, more
than likely missed part of Company B. As the Yankees began rousting out
prisoners, Lieutenant Lauderdale, at his assigned post to the left rear of the
company, apparently saw an opportunity to escape when Kelly and some of the men in the flanking party spotted them
and gave chase. That is when the lieutenant got himself killed.
This blog has really spun into quite a
cobweb from the single thread with which I started. I think I am right. Judge
the maps, the numbers, and the logic for yourself. I am quite satisfied that
I have brought those two men to light and have explained where and how they
passed into the next life.
[1] Isaiah F. Kelly to Rufus R. Dawes,
August 2, 1892 as cited in Lance J. Herdegen and William J. K. Beaudot, In
the Bloody Railroad Cut at Gettysburg, El Dorado Hills, CA, 2015, 208, fn74; John W. Busey and Travis W.
Busey, Confederate Casualties at Gettysburg:
A Comprehensive Record, 4 vols., (vol. 2), Jefferson, NC: 2017, 645.
[2] Isaiah F. Kelly to Rufus R. Dawes,
August 2, 1892 as cited Herdegen and Beaudot, In the
Bloody Railroad Cut at Gettysburg, 209, fn74; Busey and Busey,
Confederate Casualties at Gettysburg, vol. 2, 643, 644, 645. Herdegen
identifies Jones as Enoch Jones of Company G, 6th Wisconsin. The
roster shows he did not enlist until 1864.
[3] Rufus R. Dawes, Service With the
Sixth Wisconsin Volunteers, Marietta, OH, 1890, 169.
[4] John W. Busey and David G. Martin, Regimental
Strengths and Losses at Gettysburg, 4th Edition, Highttown, NJ,
2005, 224.
[5] Jack Coggins, Arms and Equipment of the Civil War, Garden City, NY, 1962, 21.
[6] Frank Callenda, The 14th
Brooklyn Regiment in the Civil War, Jefferson, NC, 2013, 145; D. R.
Marquis, and C. V. Tevis, History of the Fighting Fourteenth, Brooklyn,
NY, 1911, 83, 84.
[7] Herdegen and Beaudot, In the
Bloody Railroad Cut at Gettysburg,287-299. Appendix 2 is devoted to this
controversy.
