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381 Series I Volume XXVII-I Serial 43 - Gettysburg Campaign Part I

Page 381 Chapter XXXIX. THE GETTYSBURG CAMPAIGN.

too much can scarcely be said. His services on this as will as many other fields have fairly earned him promotion. Colonel Brown and Baily are deserving of high praise, The members of my staff rendered most efficient service. I would mention as worthy of particular commendation Lieutenants [Daniel K.] Cross and [William P.] Wilson and Majors [George W.] Scott and [John] Hancock. I have before had occasion to mention the bravery and good conduct of my orderly, Corpl. Uriah N. Parmelle, Company D, Sixth New York Cavalry. On this occasion he not only behaved with great bravery, but was of great assistance to mi in checking fugitives. I respectfully recommend his promotion. The lists of killed. wounded, and missing have already been forwarded. *

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN C. CALDWELL,

Brigadier-General, Commanding Division.

Lieutenant Colonel FRANCIS A. WALKER,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Second Corps.


Numbers 78. Report of Colonel H. Boyd Mc Keen, Eighty-first Pennsylvania Infantry, commanding first Brigade.

CAMP ON THE FIELD,

August 11, 1863.

MAJOR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the First Brigade in the action at Gettysburg, Pa., July 2 and 3: Early int he morning of the 2d, the brigade was massed in the woods to the left and rear of the position occupied by the corps when in line. At 10 a. m. the brigade massed in column of regiments on the left of the division and the left center of the general line of battle. Here we remained until 4 p. m., when the division was detached from the corps and marched to the left of the line, to check the advance of the enemy. The brigade moved by the left flank from the position on the left of the center, until it reached the foot of Sugar Loaf Hill, and then formed lint of battle in rear of a stone wall, over which we advanced and engaged the enemy. At this time I was in command of the One hundred and forty-eighth Pennsylvania Volunteers. The brigade was formed in the following order: The Sixty-first New York Volunteers, and Fifth New Hampshire Volunteers, Eighty-first and One hundred and forty-eighth Pennsylvania Volunteers, and Fifth New Hampshire Volunteers, and the Sixty-first and Eighty-first and a portion of the One hundred and forty-eighth advanced in a wheat-field; the remainder of the One hundred and forty-eighth and Fifth New Hampshire Volunteers in a thick woods. The brigade steadily drove the enemy back to the far end of the wheat-field, a distance of over 400 yards. So quickly was this done that prisoners were taken by the brigade before the enemy had time to spring from their hiding-places to retreat. A brigade of the Fifth Corps relieved the Sixty-first, Eighty-first, and a potion of the One hundred and forty-eighth, Perceiving that if the balance of the brigade should retire it would expose the left flank of this bri-

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*Embodied in revised statement, p. 175.

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Page 381 Chapter XXXIX. THE GETTYSBURG CAMPAIGN.