Section #1 - Three Days At Gettysburg
Chapter 30: Day Two: 6:00–9:00 PM on the Confederate Left
Ewell has spent most of the day upset over Lee’s comment the prior evening about the failure “to pursue our advantage” by attacking Culp’s Hill. He is determined to atone for the implied criticism.
By 6:00 PM his forces encircle the barb of the Union’s fishhook defense, with Edward Johnson’s Division on the far left and Early’s Division on his right. He sees his mission as holding the Union in place while Longstreet delivers the main blow tomorrow. That is, unless he finds a chance to take the Hill and plow down into the Union center on Cemetery Ridge.
With no apparent threat on his right throughout the day, Meade has felt secure enough to shift John Newton’s VI Corps Division and most of Slocum’s XII Corps to defend against the tail end of Longstreet’s actions to the south. This means, however, that Ewell now outnumbers the defenders on Culp’s Hill, composed mainly of the remnants of Howard’s routed XI Corps and survivors of the decimated Iron Brigade.
(Map by Hal Jespersen, www.posix.com/CW, CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Ewell opens with an artillery barrage around 7:00PM by Major Joseph Latimer from nearby Benner’s Hill. General Johnson then unleashes his four brigades roughly a half hour before sunset.
His right flank, led by General Harry Hays, actually reaches the crest of the Hill until it is halted at the last second by a brigade under Samuel S. Carroll sent by Hancock. Meanwhile, on the far left, George Steuart’s men are met by 61 year old General George “Pap” Greene’s XII Corp troops, deeply dug in and able to hold their own.
The fighting lasts for almost two hours before sputtering out around 9:00PM.
With that Day Two is over at last.
The Confederates have lost another 9,000 men in total to go along with the 8,000 on Day One. The Union also loses 9,000 for the second day in a row.
