Section #1 - Three Days At Gettysburg
Chapter 16: Day One: 10:30 AM–12:00 PM – Confederate Right
(Map by Hal Jespersen, www.posix.com/CW)
At about the same time that Reynolds falls, Heth decides to launch a full out assault by sending his men across Willoughby Run toward a wooden fence that blocks their ascent up the hill to McPherson’s Ridge. Archer is on the right and Davis on the left.
Instead of the easy advance expected, Archer runs into new firepower, led by the Iron Brigade. This results in the capture of some 75 Confederates including Archer himself.
Meanwhile, the left flank under Davis makes good progress, sweeping over McPherson’s Ridge only to find themselves trapped in an unfinished railroad cut. Once there, Doubleday’s troops, led by Generals Henry Baxter and John Robinson, finish the rebels off “like fish in a barrel.” Some 250 men surrender and a wounded Davis retreats back across the Ridge.
But this Union success is short-lived after the arrival of General Pettigrew’s North Carolinians. They crash into the right flank of the Iron Brigade and wipe out nearly half of the Black Hats. General Solomon Meredith suffers a skull fracture after being struck by a shell fragment. Lysander Cutler has two horses shot from under him before escaping to town. Colonel Junius Fairchild of the 2nd Wisconsin is hit in the left arm, which is amputated by CSA doctors before he is subsequently released.
