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well ladies and gentlemen i'd like to welcomeyou to gettysburg national military park, and specifically to this afternoon's battlewalk. i'm john hoptak i've been with the park servicefor nine years, three of the seasons here at gettysburg. i think today quite possibly is the hottestday of 2014, would you agree with that?

wood branding iron michigan, at least here in gettysburg pennsylvania. so we've already adjusted our height, normallywe begin at the base of the tower where the sun just beats down, so we just moved a fewyards south and we're going to begin here, just near the shade of these trees beforewe embark on our little walk.

it's not so much to walk this afternoon, we'reonly going to be covering about a mile of ground total, in just a few minutes we'llbe leaving here and making our way north towards the peace light monument up on oak hill. we'll spend quite a few minutes there discussingthe developing battle action, we'll make our way back along oak ridge and as we go throughoutthis program my focus is going to be on the 2500 soldiers of john cleveland robinson'sdivision of the first army corps. for those of you unfamiliar with army structure,both armies here at gettysburg, both union and confederate, were broken down into corps. robert e lee had three corps, about twentythousand men apiece, george meade of the union

army had seven corps, about ten to fifteenthousand men apiece. now for our purposes today we're going tobe looking specifically at the first army corps, and underneath the corps would havebeen divisions. the first army corps had three divisions,commanded respectively by james wadsworth, john robinson, and abner doubleday. today our focus will be on the second of thosedivisions, john cleveland robinson. so as we go throughout our discussion, everytime we mention a brigade or regiment i'm going to try to put a number with it, justso we know how many troops we're dealing with. alright; now one of those 2500 men who foughthere on oak ridge, was a lieutenant from the

16th main infantry, and you might find mefocusing especially on the 16th main this afternoon, that was one of the regiments inrobinson's division. his name was abner small. abner small, those of you who have been onmy programs before know that i like to quote extensively from abner small. he wrote one of the best first person accounts,i think, of the entire civil war. in his history of the 16th main, in his introduction,he wrote the following; he said that "any member of a regiment, and officer or a private,can have but little knowledge of the movements outside of his immediate command.

and the idea that a soldier whose simple dutyis to remain in the ranks and move in geometrical lines has an opportunity to view the battleof gettysburg as he would view a panorama is simply absurd, because after the firstvolley of musketry he is a rare man who can theorize or speculate on the action of a comradeor of his regiment, or on that of the commanding general three miles distant. the inequalities of the ground, the woodedslopes and deep ravines, the fog, the dense smoke, and the apparent and often real confusionof troops moving in different directions under different orders utterly precludes the possibilityof a correct, detailed observation of battle." and that is the sentence i want to focus inon.

"utterly precludes the possibility of a correctand detailed observation of a battle." the fighting at gettysburg, as was true onall battlefields of this war, was chaos, was confusion, was full of thick smoke. the fighting on oak ridge was especially confusingbecause on this narrow shelf of land called oak ridge, there would be elements of twodifferent brigades moving back and forth and switching positions; they were attack by variousconfederate brigades from the north, from the south, west, east, and from the northeastas well. attacks coming in at different times, fromdifferent directions as well. so we're going to do our best to make senseof this fighting that wednesday afternoon

july first on 1863. alright, well we know, because we study thebattle, that on that wednesday the armies will collide here to the north and west ofthe town of gettysburg. looking behind you, you might see the outskirtsof town, the northern outskirts of gettysburg. oftentimes you'll hear that it was a small,sleepy little village, which isn't exactly true. gettysburg was the seat of government foradams county, seven churches, a number of newspapers, two institutions of higher learning,were in that town. 2400 people called gettysburg their home.

well on that wednesday, july first, confederatetroops under a.p hill and richard yule, would be drawing in towards the town of gettysburgrespectively from the west and from the north. robert e lee had embarked upon his campaignof invasion one month previously, back in june. he had come north hoping to draw the unionarmy out of virginia and bring it to battle somewhere in the north. but when he discovered that the union armywas actually much closer than he had thought, he'll issue orders for his various commandersto converge, but he gave those commanders very specific instructions.

until the army has fully reunited, until histhree corps and his division of cavalry are all back together, he wanted to avoid a battle. so he told his corps commanders, includinga.p hill and richard yule, "if you spot the enemy, do not bring on a general battle." well that's what happened that wednesday. in your younger days, did you ever do somethingyou were told not to do? yeah? well, this is largely why the battle of gettysburgresulted; because several of lee's subordinates did what they were expressly told not to do.

it happened first that morning when confederatetroops approached from the west, and it would continue that afternoon when confederate troopsarrived from the north. those are the confederate troops i wantedto focus in on, and we will now be making our way up toward their position on the peacelight monument on oak hill, but before we move away i want you to know that this ridgeline where we're standing, oak ridge, has witnessed substantial changes over the yearssince the time of the battle. if the soldiers could come back today in 2014,they might not be able to place where they were exactly on this ridge. oak ridge is the northernmost extension ofseminary ridge, in fact if we were to turn

around and walk this way, we would make ourway south through a tree lot and sometimes you'll hear that tree lot referred to as sheed'swoods. other times you'll hear it referred to aswill's woods, and today i'm going to refer to it as will's woods. if we make our way through that woodlot, we'llsoon be crossing the line of the unfinished railroad cut, then crossing the chambersburgpike as we continue to make our way south past the seminary building and all the waydown to the virginia monument. so we are on that same ridge line that runsnorth to south, just to the west of the town of gettysburg.

there was of course no tour road at the timeof the battle, there was no parking lot, there was no observation deck. when they built these tour roads they wouldalter the landscape. there was a grove of trees where we're standing,and most likely this little grove of trees extended all the way out towards mummasburgroad. there were also a number of fences that criss-crossedalong this ridge. there was a stone fence that ran on top ofthe ridge line, now today there are stone walls there, but at the time most likely thatstone wall would have come in at an angle from the mummasburg road as it followed alongthe crest of the ridge toward will's woods.

there was a post and rail fence on the southside of this grove, there was a post and rail fence along the mummasburg road, there wasa rider fence further to the south. so it's oftentimes tricky when we try to makesense of the fighting up here when you read accounts from soldiers saying "we lined upbehind a stone fence." which one, you know? there were so many. so keep that in mind, and now let's make ourway north towards oak hill. we're standing here on a pretty dominatingpiece of terrain called oak hill, this is actually the dominating military positionon the first day's battlefield.

in order to truly appreciate or understandthe stand that robinson's division made just to our south along the oak ridge, just a brieflittle recap of what led the armies here. robert e lee led his army north into pennsylvania,they advanced on the western side of the south mountain range, which we can see rising upto our south, amid the haze and the humidity of this hot summer afternoon. lee's army crossed into pennsylvania on thedistant side of those mountains and when he got into pennsylvania, well it was like openingup an umbrella. lee's army spread out across southern pennsylvania;elements of lee's army made it 35 miles to york, towards the east, harrisburg, 35 milesto the north, carlisle to the north, and chambersburg.

it was in chambersburg, 30 miles to the westof gettysburg where lee discovered that the union army was closing in fast, or at leastfaster than he had expected. so he gave the orders to do what? to close that umbrella, to bring all of thevarious elements back together, and looking at a map there's little question as to whyhe selected gettysburg. gettysburg, with its vast road network, 10different roads leading into and out of this town. he told his men again, to avoid contact withany enemy force. now on june 30th, the advance of the confederatearmy was closing in in a place called cashtown

8 miles to the west of gettysburg commandedby a.p hill, the third army corps, a total of about 8000 troops. as they closed in from the west another elementof lee's army under richard yule were coming in from the north, and specifically i wantto focus in on two of those divisions. 8000 men commanded by robert emmet rhodes,and another 5500 men commanded by jubal early. now richard yule is their commander, he isbrand new to corps command, he is trying to fill the shoes left vacant from stonewalljackson who had falled at chancellorsville, and on june the 29th apparently richard yulewas having a tough time making sense of lee's instructions, because on that day he receiveda note from lee saying that "we are to converge,

we are to make our way either toward cashtownor gettysburg as circumstances might dictate." and if we are to believe a confederate generalnamed isaac trimble, richard yule was scratching his head wondering what in the world lee meantby that, "as circumstances might dictate." so on june 30th, yule met with rhodes andhe met with early, two of his divisional commanders, and they agreed that on july first, the followingday, they are gonna march toward cashtown, so they began to make their way from eastto west, closing in on cashtown where a.p hill's men were stacking up. but on the morning of july first richard yulereceived another note, this one from a.p hill, that morning a.p hill has decided that with15000 men he is gonna move in from cashtown

and approach gettysburg along that chambersburgpike. he notified yule of this, he sent one of hiscouriers galloping up to find yule, and at that moment yule was at a place called middletown,today it's known as biglerville, a small town a few miles north of gettysburg. when richard yule discovered that a.p hillwas moving in on gettysburg, well the circumstances dictated that he also go there. so what he's gonna do is take his two divisionsand turn them to the left, and they began to advance on gettysburg, this time from thenorth. so moving in first would be the 8000 men ofrhodes' division; 5 brigades.

there was another division in lee's army thathad 5 brigades; george pickett's division. two of those brigades had been left behindat richmond at the outset of the campaign. so rhodes would lead his 8000 men south alongwhat is today route 34. at the time it was the carlisle road. advancing further to the east of rhodes wouldbe early's men, jubal early's 5500 men making their way towards gettysburg along the harrisburgroad, today business route 15. so we begin to see the closing of that umbrella,as the confederate troops are making their way towards this place called gettysburg. on june 30th the advance of the union armyhad arrived in gettysburg, the 2800 horsemen

belonging to john buford's command. buford was screening the advance of the leftwing of the army of the potomac. the left wing was composed of the 1st, 3rd,and 11th army corps, and they were under the overall command of john fulton reynolds. well on june 30th the left wing of the unionarmy began to approach the mason-dixon line, arriving at a place called emmetsburg andlater called marsh creek, just a few miles south of gettysburg. screening their advance would be buford'smen, and as buford galloped north along that emmetsburg road he could not help but noticethe ground south of gettysburg.

from this vantage point, if you look to thesouth behind us, we have a better view of the town; gettysburg. and just on the south end of town you cansee a rise that is known as cemetery hill. if you see the large brick steeple to theright of that, some of you might see a blue watertower. is that blue water tower visible to everybody? that is on the east side of cemetery hill. and cemetery hill, the ground will descendalong cemetery ridge, and if you look just immediately to your right, along this road,following this suv as it makes its way towards

gettysburg, just about right now that suvis in front of the tall obelisk monument with the eagle on top, can you all see that monument? if you look in the distance behind that monumentyou might see trees, and you might notice as those trees climb, that is actually thenorthern end of big round top towards the south. so the ground south of gettysburg was verygood, defensive terrain. with the roundtops, with cemetery ridge, withcemetery hill, and john buford was very good at what he did, and he knew the confederatearmy was closing in quick towards gettysburg. he knew the union army was only a few milessouth, so he'll make a decision to try to

block the confederate approach long enoughto give the supporting infantry time to get here. buford's men will arrange themselves alongthe roads that led from the west and from the north, along mcphearson ridge, along herrridge further to the west, and on july 1st a.p hill's men will make contact with theadvanced skirmish line under buford. buford's men are pushed back, they almostreach their breaking point, when the first army corps arrived. john fulton reynolds in command of the firstcorps will lead wadsworth's division into the fight, deploying cutler's brigade andthe iron brigade along mcpherson ridge and

in the distant tree lot that we can see risingup to our south. the iron brigade will drive back james archer'smen, the iron brigade along with other regiments from cutler's brigade will drive back joedavis's confederates, and after a sharp fight round one went to the union. but during that engagement, john reynoldswas killed. and when the commander of the first corpswent down, abner doubleday will take his place. doubleday was the ranking officer of the firstcorps, but doubleday doesn't really know what reynolds was intending to do, only that reynoldswould have wanted the soldiers to defend the ridge lines to the west of gettysburg.

so if we were to stand here and look to oursouth, in the distance you can see vehicles traveling along a busy road; that is route30. at the time it would have been the cashtownor chambersburg pike. you'll see a large barn flanked by white woodon either side of it, that's the edward mcpherson barn. on either side of the barn are the variousarms of mcpherson ridge. in the trees south of that barn is where doubledaywould have placed the iron brigade. further to the south would have went regimentsof catman bittle's brigade. colonel royce stone's brigade is drawn upin position just to the right of that barn,

and cutler's brigade is going to redeployon the fields to the north of an unfinished railroad cut. now just on our side of route 30, about 100yards to the north of it runs that unfinished railroad cut, and cutler's men would be deployedin the fields north of that, their right flank extending towards us. so the soldiers of the first corps were arrangedall looking to the west, okay, they're on either side of the chambersburg pike becausethat was the direction that a.p hill's men were advancing. harry heathe, at the forefront of a.p hill'sattack, had gone ahead and violated lee's

orders not to bring on a battle by doing exactlythat that morning. just after 11am harry heathe was reforminghis vision at a place called herr ridge, about 3/4 of a mile to the west of mcpherson ridge. there he rallied the elements of archer'sand davis's brigade, and there he will be when robert e lee showed up a few hours later,demanding to know what had happened. but harry heathe would not be the only oneto violate lee's orders that day, because not only were confederates coming in fromthe west, they were coming in from the north also. so let's go back to richard yule.

on the morning of july 1st when he found outthat a.p hill was headed into gettysburg, richard yule decided that he was going todo the same thing. he turned his two divisions to the south andnow they're approaching gettysburg from this direction. he also thought it best to notify robert e.lee of this change in plans. so he would send his step-son, campbell brown,to go find robert e. lee, and brown will find lee at cashtown. lee looked at him and the first thing he askedwas whether or not richard yule had heard anything from jeb stewart, the cavalry commanderwho was absent.

because the union troops, the enemy, werehere, and stewart wasn't, so lee doesn't have a good understanding or idea of exactly whowas to his front. campbell brown said no, yule had not heardfrom stewart but he wanted lee to know that he is going to be moving towards gettysburg,"very well, go back and remind richard yule not to bring on an engagement"; he does notwant a battle. so just after 12 o'clock noon, campbell brown,the staff officer, is gonna come galloping back and he will locate richard yule righthere on oak hill. when yule arrived on oak hill with the advanceof robert rhodes 8000 man division, well they have arrived at the most important militaryposition on the first day's battlefield, oak

hill. and imagine you were with them, you were onhorseback, and you're among that small cavalcade of staff officers. when you galloped up to oak hill and lookedto the south, what do you see? you see the exposed right flank of the firstarmy corps just extending towards you, what an inviting opportunity; to move south andyou could roll up the first corps as you did so. but not only that; there are more union troopsarriving on the scene. just about 11am, soldiers of the 11th armycorps will begin to make their way through

the town of gettysburg. their commander was oliver howard, 33 yearold hard fighting officer from maine. when oliver howard arrived in the town hemade his way to the top of a building on baltimore street, where he watched the action unfolding,and he was on that rooftop when an officer galloped up, looked up, and asked "are youhoward?" "yes" "well guess what, you are now in commandof the field because reynolds is dead". so oliver howard will make his way back throughthe streets of town and back towards cemetery he turned to one of his officers up there,and he looked at him and said "this seems to be a good position".

general howard, this is the only position. cemetery hill is the key ground. so oliver howard is gonna designate one ofhis divisions to hold cemetery hill just in case. oliver howard is going to designate one ofhis three divisions as a reserve, as a fall back force on cemetery hill. his other two divisions will make their waythrough the streets of town being cheered on by the people of gettysburg, they haveturned out by the hundreds offering water and baked goods and cheering on these troopsfor the union.

it was oliver howard's hope that he couldget through town and link up directly with the right flank of the first corps and securethis hilltop. but when his men began to advance throughthe streets of gettysburg they saw that confederates had already occupied the hill. rhodes division, along with richard yule. when rhodes and yule arrived on this highground, they ordered up their artillery, the 16 cannons belonging to thomas carter's battalion,they will ring the hillside and they began to fire south, and they began to fire towardsthe east towards the advancing troops. richard yule knows his instructions not tobring on a fight, but at that moment he is

going to misinterpret what he saw. not only did he see the 11th corps movingout, he believed he was going to come under attack at this very minute, looking to thesouth they saw two union regiments emerging from the trees, the will's woods. they saw the 12th pennsylvania and the 97thnew york infantry, a heavy skirmish force. those two regiments belonged to robinson'sdivision. robinson's division was the final divisionof the first corps to arrive here at gettysburg that morning. originally abner doubleday will assign themas the corps reserve.

so the 2500 men of robinson's division cameinto position around the lutheran seminary building, there robinson told one of his brigadesunder gabriel paul to begin building barricades. so they began digging into the earth, theybegan tearing down fence rails and building a defensive line on the west side of the seminarybuilding. one of those soldiers engaged in the buildingof the barricades was abner small. abner small noticed confederate artilleryfire coming from the north, and then he looked up into the copola of the seminary building,and all he saw were arms and fingers point up towards the north. union officers up in that copola wanted attentiondrawn to the fact that a new confederate threat

was heading towards oak hill. the 8000 troops under rhodes. so in response to that doubleday is goingto turn to robinson and say "get one of you brigades north to deal with that developingthreat, and if possible link up with the 11th corps that's arriving as well". so the 11th pennsylvania and the 97th newyork was the advance of robinson's division as they made their way from the seminary northalong the ridge line and they emerged from those trees. as soon as they step forward from the treesthey come under a pretty heavy musket fire

from confederate skirmishers that had beenadvanced towards the mummasburg road behind us. so the battle's beginning to escalate. on the plains beneath this hill, we can seethe large barn and home belonging to moses mcclean. one of rhodes's brigades is down in that flatarea, george dole's brigade. doles was directed to provide cover on theleft flank of rhodes's division, and in advance of doles' brigade would have been a sharpshooterbattalion commanded by eugene blackford. musket fire picks up down there as the 11tharmy corps deploys and begins making their

way towards oak hill. the 45th new york infantry gets engaged witha lively firefight with the skirmishers. so what do you do now if you're richard yule? what do you do now if you're robert rhodes? you've arrived on this hilltop, you look south,and you see the right flank of the first corps. you look to your left and you see the 11thcorps arriving, and then you see the union troops pushing their way towards you. well they believed that they were going tocome under attack, so instead of waiting to be assaulted they decided it was best to strikefirst.

so disregarding lee's orders not to bringon a fight, that's exactly what rhodes and yule decide to do. what robert rhodes wanted to do was alignthree of his brigades with edward o'neil's alabamian's on the left, alfred iverson'scarolinians in the middle, and junius daniel's north carolinians to the right rear of iverson. these three brigades will begin to advancesouth off of oak hill and rolling up the first corps as they went. robert rhodes was a good officer. 6'2, douglas southhall freeman called himthat "viking god", this wasn't one of his

best performances. in fact, his attack from oak hill will beill coordinated and ill led. his former brigade, the brigade that he ledat south mountain and in the sunken road at antietam, was in the command of edward o'neil. it seems as though rhodes had little faithin o'neil's ability. so rhodes is gonna make his way just on thisside of oak hill, and he will begin to interfere, if you will, with that brigade. he pulls the 5th alabama out of line, andhe will send them down towards the mcclean farm, he'll pull the 3rd alabama out and sendthem way over to judius daniels men, forming

up on the west side of oak hill. the other three regiments of o'neil's brigadebegan to step off and make their way along the eastern end of oak hill and on towardsoak ridge, and towards those two union regiments advancing from the trees. by the time they got there they would findmuch more than that. they would find an entire union brigade linedup and ready to meet their assault. so, everyone enjoying the shade, the wind? enjoy it a moment longer, because we're goingto make our way all the way back, okay? made our way back here toward oak ridge andwe're in the shade of this tower.

john robinson, you can see his monument justhere to our south, standing atop the pedestal looking over his sector of the field hereat oak ridge. and john robinson would have been on horsebackthat afternoon. born in 1817 in new york, he attended westpoint but in 1835 he was dismissed from the academy. it didn't stop him from pursuing a careerin the army, and in 1839 he reentered the army as a lieutenant, he served in mexico,he served throughout the 1850s on various frontier posts, he established himself asa hard fighting commander. a soldier whose troops respected and whosesuperiors respected as well.

he'll advance in rank from brigade to divisionalcommand, and here at gettysburg he turned in a fine performance in overseeing and organizingthe defense of this ridge line with his two undersized brigades, about 2500 men total. robinson is going to stay with the army duringits reorganization the following year, but at the battle of laurel hill in may of 1864his left kneecap was shattered by a musket ball, and that required amputation. his days of active field command would beover following that fight, but he stayed with the army, he stayed in various capacities,he served on friedman's bureau in north carolina after the war, he went back to new york, heserved as lieutenant governor, he was the

commander of the grand army of the republic. so he certainly put in a lot of service duringhis lifetime. maybe it was abner small who put it best aboutjohn robinson. his description was "in a much bearded army,he was the hairiest man i ever saw", and you see that beard in that monument as well. so robinson, if you recall, his men arrivedhere just as the fighting was ending between harry heathe and wadsworth's division. and even as doubleday was reforming a newline of defense on mcpherson ridge, he assigned robinson's men as a core reserve.

but once it was apparent that confederatetroops are arriving to the north on oak hill, he will turn to robinson to deal with thenew developing threat. so robinson initially is going to pull oneof his brigades under henry bagster, and bagster's men, he had 6 regiments, will leave the seminary,make their way north across the chambersburg pike, make their way across that railroadcut, and through the trees of will's woods. it was the hope not only to deal with thisdeveloping threat on oak hill, but also to link up with the 11th army core, which wasnow arriving on the plains of gettysburg here just to the north of town. now henry bagster, here's a photograph ofbagster, commanding half of robinson's division,

he was born in 1821 in new york, though hegrew up mostly in michigan. yes, 1821, so that probably made him the oldestlooking 42 year old you ever saw. just 42 years old. now i'm only 6 years away from 42 but i thinkthere's a reason. he served well, he entered the army as a captainin the 7th michigan, he was shot in the abdomen during the 7 days battles, he was shot throughthe lung at fresdricksburg, the following year at the wilderness he'll be shot againin the leg. so he certainly paid for his service in uniform,sustaining 3 wounds, and he'll pass away just 10 years after the war ended at 52, and ihave to think that the war had something to

do with that. bagster was a good brigade commander, andhe will lead his men north, but robinson will largely be the one directing the shots here. they'll begin to arrive, they'll push backrhodes skirmishers, but it wasn't long before robinson saw an attack coming towards thisposition. that was the first of rhodes's brigades underedward o'neil, and if you look off to your left just to the north of us, o'neil's menwould have been arranged mostly along the east slope of oak hill between the red barnand the tour road on the top. they'd have been advancing directly towardsus.

now there are some who think that the rightflank of o'neil would have extended up towards the mummasburg road as they made their waysouth, but either way only 3 of o'neil's 5 regiments participated in this attack, ando'neil was not with them, he remained in the rear. and as these men began to make their way souththey thought that their right flank would have been covered or protected by iverson'smen, but iverson's men, as we'll learn in just a few minutes, were not at that momentmoving forwards, and keeping up. so o'neil's men were advancing alone, andas they advanced from north to south, their left flank is open and vulnerable to union11th corps troops, especially the 45th new

york that was aligned in a heavy skirmishforce on the fields just at the base of the hill. two batteries of the 11th core under hubrickdilger and i believe william wheeler arrived, they began to throw shot and shell into theleft flank and even canister into the left flank of o'neil's attack. their left flank is sustaining heavy casualties,and soon they will come under a terrific volume of musketry on their front. baxter's brigade is going to deploy with itsleft on top of the ridge, and running down the side of the hill.

on the far right of his line would have beenthe 88th pennsylvania across the mummasburg road, perhaps just about where we see thesevehicles, and linking up with the 45th. so a very heavy firefight broke out on bothsides; neither left many accounts of this, it just seemed to be over and done with in10 or 15 minutes. most likely baxter's men would have been alongthe road itself, and behind the fences that lined the roadway, and again the trees wouldhave extended all the way out towards the road as well. so o'neil's 3 regiments are going to sustaina heavy rate of loss within just 10-15 minutes, and what was left of those 3 regiments willturn and make their way, disappearing in the

trees of oak hill in the distance. that first attack by rhodes had been repulsedquite easily by baxter's brigade, so far, so good for the union. that morning, wadsworth's men had turned backarcher's brigade and davinson's brigade. now robinson's division, with the help ofthe 11th corps, had turned back o'neil's brigade as well. but even as the fighting was beginning todwindle down on this side of oak ridge, there was a new threat. there was an entire brigade advancing towardsthis position, not from the north, but now

from the west. it's important for us to get out and see thebattlefield because you can't get this from a map. if you were to stand here along the slopeof the ridge and look to your left, you couldn't see a thing coming from that direction. but robinson spotted a brigade of 1200 orso north carolinians bearing down across the fields to the west of us. so he is gonna pull baxter's regiments andhe is gonna take them from facing north and turn them and wield them into a position oftop of the ridge extending south towards will's

woods. so we're gonna make our way along that newline, and if nothing else, let's try to get this finished before the thunder and raincomes. now as i mentioned at the very outset of theprogram, the terrain up here at oak ridge has witnessed some changes over the years,also to your front to the west of us looking in that direction, the john forney farm wouldhave stood just a few hundred yards away, in fact if you look at the opposite ridgeline where you see the monuments rising up for some of buford's regiments, that is calledthe forney ridge, and just on the other side of that ridge would have stood the forneyhouse and barn.

it was behind the house and barn in the treeswhere iverson's men were forming up for their attack. now the hope was that o'neil and iverson wasmove together in unison, together at the same time. but as it happened o'neil, for whatever reason,stepped forward first, or at least that is the most commonly accepted interpretationof the event. some believe that iverson went forward firstand then o'neil. like abner small said in the beginning, right? it's impossible for a completely 100% observationof the battle.

either way, o'neil most likely has been turnedback and bagster's regiments will go from facing north and align themselves atop oakridge behind you. so just looking to the east you can see thevery top of oak ridge, and look how deceptive this ridge line is, i mean some of our vehiclesare completely missing from view. we're only about maybe 80-90 yards in frontof oak ridge. so if we can't see our vehicles, guess what? a lot of these confederate soldiers had noidea that just along the top of that ridge and behind that stone wall would have beenan entire brigade of union troops, 6 regiments strong.

initially only the 11th pennsylvania and 97thnew york were deployed on the west side, or facing west along oak ridge. we can see their monuments, there's a redvehicle parked next to the 97th new york monument, and to the right of that is the 11th pennsylvania. so those 2 regiments were in position on topof the ridge, and they were facing to the west, but now here come the other 4 regimentsof baxter's brigade. on the far right of the line would have beenthe 90th pennsylvania, they would have formed up, actually their right flank was on theother side of the mummasburg road. this is not a straight line, it's almost runningon a diagonal if you will.

so the 90th pa is in position just about whereyou see the "do not enter" sign over here, and baxter's line would have continued tothe south along the ridge and towards the trees of will's woods. the 97th new york, one of the officers lefta pretty telling description of their position when he said that most of the men in the 97thnew york were on the reverse side of the slope of this ridge, and they had to stand on thetops of their feet just to see the confederates coming towards them. so they are very well protected and almosthidden from view behind that ridge line. iverson's men would have stepped forward tothe attack, and advanced straight across,

heading directly towards our position. the 20th, the 23rd, the 12th and the 5th northcarolina infantry advancing directly towards us would get into a little sway of grounddirectly below here when the union officers behind you gave the order to fire. it was a sudden, unexpected blast. hundreds of north carolinians fell with thatopening volley, falling backwards just as we stand. a fierce fire broke out from the front frombaxter's men, and soon the soldiers of gabriel paul's brigade arrived from robinson's division.

they will form up on either side of baxterand add the weight of their numbers to the destruction of iverson's brigade. iverson, like o'neil, did not advance withhis men. he was back behind the forney farm. but at least he was trying to get help forhis brigade. he was turning to juneas daniel's brigade,which at that moment was advancing behind him and moving towards the south. he was calling on him to give help and supportfor his brigade, which now was trapped out he was also calling upon rhodes and o'neilto lend their support to the attack as well.

for just a few bloody and savage minutes,the firefight would have been kept up before different officers from different regimentswould give the command for their men to charge forward. soldiers from the 88th pa would have chargeddirectly towards us, and towards the prone north carolinians, lying on the ground, almosthelpless. raising whatever they could; a shirt, theirboots, and surrendering. so the union troops would have come out andcaptured hundreds of north carolina soldiers. two of the flags, the 23rd and 24th northcarolina, were captured as well. as the men from robinson's division chargedforwards to take all of these prisoners, confederate

artillery fire began to ring out once againfrom oak hill, firing towards these union troops. o'neil's men are organized for another strikesouth, so even as the union troops had charged forwards and were now in the process of takingback these north carolina prisoners, there's a new threat emerging from oak hill towardstheir right flank. so soldiers of the 88th pa and 90th pa turnto face north, they'll charge across the mummasburg road and capture the flag of the 26th alabama,and some of the confederate bullets and artillery shells that were being fired were strikingdown the confederate prisoners who were being led to the rear.

so o'neil's brigade had gone forward and wasrepulsed, iverson's brigade had gone forward and was repulsed, but robert rhodes was notgiving up just yet. he would organize for yet another attack,and at this moment robert e lee was also organizing for an attack. now that morning lee thought he had made itclear when he told his subordinates not to bring on a battle; well that's what harryheathe did and if you look off to the west you might see the red roof of the herr tavern. now harry heathe's division was back there,and heathe and his men were watching as rhode's division was getting turned back brigade bybrigade, and harry heathe is gonna turn to

robert e lee and say "look, the first corpstroops to my front are turning to meet rhodes, if i go forwards they won't be able to dothat, let me attack". and robert e lee said "no, i'm not ready tobring on an engagement " longstreet isn't here, his first corps wasn't here, he stillhad not heard from stewart, his cavalry commander. so rhode's men are going about this ratheron their own hook. but just about 2:30 maybe 3 o'clock that afternoonrobert e lee, he learned that jubal early's division, remember early? he was advancing into gettysburg along thatharrisburg road, he would soon be arriving, and he would be arriving on the right flankof the 11th corps line.

so when we heard that early is moving souththat rhode's was eager to resume his fight, and heathe was ready to resume his attack,robert e lee would attempt to take control of the situation that had gotten out of hand,and he gave the orders for an all out assault. so even after iverson's men had been turnedback, rhodes is gonna organize for another that one would be led by steven ranjer's brigade,just about 1100 veteran north carolina troops. ranjer's men will organize for their attackeven as harry heathe was stepping off from herr ridge with his brigades, under pettigrewand brockenbrough. behind heathe would have been 7500 other confederatesfrom william dorsey penders division. so this was the moment where the floodgatesopened, and you have a line of confederates

advancing towards gettysburg stretching allthe way from south of the herr tavern all the way across to the other side of blocker'sknoll. so they just would have all descended upongettysburg like an avalanche, and in the way the outnumber soldiers of the 1st and 11thcorps. about 25,000 confederates would be movingdown upon about 16,000 union troops. not only are there union troops reaching theend of their limit, especially the first corps men, but a lot of them are out of ammunitionas well. behind you is the monument to the 12th massachusets,the cylinder monument with the flag draped across.

at the base of that monument i want you totake a look at the empty cartridge box. it tells a lot about what these soldiers rememberedabout being up here. they fought until everyone one of their bulletswas gone. so john robinson, knowing that the confederatesare organizing for another attack, is hearing now that most of baxter's regiments are completelyout of bullets. so he is gonna have to hold onto that ridgeline with fewer men. we're gonna go finish our story back wherewe began at the robinson monument. alright folks because of the heat this afternooni did cut out a rather large part of my introduction so i didn't really get into the whole campaign,so we're gonna end just a little bit earlier

than usual for these battle walk programs,which is good because i have a feeling that these clouds are gonna open up any time now. john robinson had been called upon to defendthe right flank of the first corps here on oak ridge, and his leading brigade under henrybaxter had arrived, and it was baxter's men alone who turned back o'neil, and it was baxter'smen who largely turned back iverson as well. after keeping up a heavy and hot fire forthat amount of time, they were almost completely out of bullets, as that empty cartridge boxon the 12th massachusetts monument tells us. but as they were helping to turn back iverson,robinson's second brigade arrived, and that was commanded by gabriel paul.

this is a prewar image of gabriel paul, hewas born in st. louis missouri, and he came from a rather long and distinguished familyof french ancestry. some of his ancestors, and i believe his grandfatherhad served with napoleon; he was a west pointer, in fact he graduated in the year 1835, thesame year that robinson, his divisional commander, was expelled. gabriel paul served with the us army for 28years prior to gettysburg. he served in mexico where he would be brevitedfor his gallantry, at chipoltipec, where he captured a mexican army flag. he would serve in various frontier posts,and at the start of the war he was in charge

of the department of new mexico. he turned back some confederate forces innew mexico in early 1862, but he was hopeful of gaining a higher promotion. so in the spring of 1862 gabriel paul traveledeast, and he was assigned to the defenses of washington where he became an inspector. in the meantime his wife louise several timesvisited the white house, now these were the days when you could just go and call uponthe president with a request. but it wasn't gabriel paul who did it, itwas louise paul, and several times she went to visit abraham lincoln and in late augustabraham lincoln left a note to himself that

said "today, mrs. major paul arrived, sheis quite the saucy woman, and i'm afraid she'll keep bothering me until i make her husbanda general". unfortunately for gabriel paul, that is themost widely known anecdote about his career in the service. his almost 30 years in uniform, the thoughtbeing that it was because of the actions of his wife that made him a brigadier general. i like to think it was his long and distinguishedservice record more than anything else, but he did become a brigade commander, he servedat fredricksburg, he was in reserve at chancellorsville, and after the army was reshuffled and reorganizedafter chancellorsville gabriel paul was assigned

to one of robinson's brigades. so the men don't really know him, but theywould come to respect him, they would get to know his background, and here he wouldlead his brigade north from the seminary. when he saw baxter's men facing to the west,gabriel paul is gonna put two of his regiments, the 107th new york and the 16th maine, onthe left of baxter, and he's gonna put two of his regiments on the right of baxter, the104th pennsylvania and the 13th massachusetts. so he has divided his brigade to provide supporton either end of baxter's line. he would have been somewhere around here,where we're standing, helping to place the men of the 104th pa when he sustained a horrificwound.

on horseback, a bullet will tear into hishead; it entered about an inch behind his right eye and it will exit through his lefteye socket. in an instant he lost both of his eyes, hissense of smell and his sense of hearing were impaired, and when they saw him topple tothe ground with this gruesome head wound, the men believed that he had been killed inbattle. somehow paul survived, and he will live forthe next 23 years. of course, in darkness, and only with thehelp and support of his wife, louise. he died in 1886, and the final years of hislife were not happy ones. he suffered from migraines, he developed seizures,epileptic seizures, and at some points near

the end of his life gabriel paul sustainedup to 6 seizures a day. here's a postwar image of paul after his woundhere at gettysburg. he died in may of 1886 and the attending physiciansaid that he died because of his gettysburg wound. the question is, just how many did give theirlives during this 4 year war, and when do we stop counting? gabriel paul sustained a mortal wound hereon day one at gettysburg, it took 8300 days for that wound to finally claim his life,but either way when gabriel paul was removed from the field it was left to robinson tocontinue to direct the action here.

he pulled four of baxter's regiments completelyout of line because they were completely out of bullets. he will send them back into will's woods;they would continue to make their way south towards that railroad cut. essentially it was left to paul's 4 regimentsand the 2 other regiments from baxter's brigade to deal with this new oncoming tide. imagine what was going through their head,because here we have a good view of what's happening on the fields immediately to theeast of us, on those plains of gettysburg. we would have seen jubal early's men, stampedingdown the harrisburg road and crushing the

right flank of the 11th corps. the soldiers of the 11th corps are puttingup a tough fight, but early's men have struck them on the flank and they begin to roll uptowards the town of gettysburg. beneath us on these open fields, we wouldhave seen soldiers in blue running for their lives back towards the streets of town. behind us, well remember harry, he has driventhe iron brigade, and bittle's men, and stone's men from mcphearson ridge, and they have pushedthem all the way back towards seminary ridge, where the union troops of the first corpswill make one more stand. when dorsey pender's division arrived andmoved forward, pender's men will drive back

the first corps from seminary ridge. behind robinson, to the south, the first corpsis retreating. beneath robinson to the east, the 11th corpsis retreating. now his line, his l-shaped line on oak ridge,was the last stand of the union army on july first. two of his regiments are sloping downhillfiring to the north, the other four regiments are aligned to the top of the ridge firingto the west, as here comes a new grey tide. ramser's brigade, now steven ramser was oneof rhode's best brigade commanders; he'll organize his 1100 men for the fight, o'neil'salabama troops, many of them will join up

with this attack. to the right of ramser, junius daniel willcontinue to bear down toward will's woods, so the confederates are closing in like avise, and robinson's men are in the middle of it. firing to the west, firing to the north, asconfederates are getting closer and closer, coming in from both sides. at this moment, abner doubleday, in commandof the first corps, will send a staff officer up here to find robinson, "get your men out,there's a retreat, get them out along this ridge line".

head back towards the safety of cemetery hillon the south side of town. so robinson will begin to extract his menfrom oak ridge as they began to fall back towards the south and toward the streets oftown. to help cover his retreat, he is going toneed a regiment to sacrifice itself in order to buy some time. as it turned out, that regiment was the 16thmaine infantry, about 275 men strong when the day began. originally the 16th maine are in positionvery near the will's woods to our south, and robinson must have been around them when hegot doubleday's order to retreat.

he looked down at the colonel, as the 16thmaine began to fall back along the side of the ridge, he looked at the colonel and hepointed towards the ridge and he said "hold that ground at any cost", "general, we can'thold that position, you might as well send a corporal's guard to hold the line againstthese confederates" "never mind that, obey your orders and hold the ground at all costs". robinson will then gallop into the trees anddisappear from view as the colonel of the 16th maine, charles tilden, turned to hisofficers and he said "well, you know what those orders mean", and they all understoodwhat it meant. they were to be sacrificed to buy time forthe rest of robinson's men to evacuate.

even as the other 5 regiments of robinson'sdivision left and headed back toward town and the safety of cemetery hill, as they werefalling back the 16th maine charged forward. imagine what was going through their heads,as they looked behind them and all the other soldiers in blue are heading to the rear,and they look to their front and closing in from all sides, confederate soldiers. they took up a position just near the mummasbergroad, they planted the colors at an angle in the stone wall, and there for about 10minutes they held their ground, exchanging fire with ramser's men, and with the 3rd alabama. beneath them confederates from georgia aregetting on the mummasburg road and almost

behind them. after about 10 minutes tilden believed enoughtime had been bought, and he ordered his men to get out, so they fall back. some of the men in the regiment were veryproud to say it was an orderly retreat. they stopped every now and then to fire back,other members of the regiment said it was "every man for himself". racing their way back along the edge of theridge and back towards that railroad cut. as they arrived in the railroad cut, justbehind, today where the pizza hut is, perhaps a little bit to the west of there, they lookedacross the chambersberg pike, and they would

have seen confederates from pender's divisionsweeping toward town. just on their heels would have been men fromalabama and north carolina. they are being surrounded. soldiers from north carolina, from daniel'sbrigade begin to fire at them from along the cut, so the soldiers turn to colonel tildenwith orders. what do we do now? do we try to run for it, or do we make a stand? some of the regiment decided to take theirchances, and they fled heading back toward tilden was determined that he is not goingto go that route.

one of his officers came up to him and said"we can't let them capture our flags colonel". so they began to tear up the flags, the americanflag and the state of maine flag. the soldiers there would have taken bits andpieces of those shredded flags, kept them in their pockets, as the confederate armyclosed in around them. a soldier from alabama leveled his musketat tilden and demanded that he surrender; instead he put his sword in the ground andbroke it off at the hilt, instead of surrendering his sword. of those 275 men of the 16th maine, about38 of them made it back to cemetery hill. all the others were casualties that day, mostof them prisoners of war, being led to the

tilden was captured, he was taken to libbyprison, where he was confined until the winter of 64'. he then escaped from libby, along the famousrose tunnel. andy dufrain in shawshank redemption. he made his way out. he returned to the regiment, where they gavehim a brand new horse to replace the one that had been killed at gettysburg. in august of 64' he was captured again atweldon railroad near petersburg. as he was being led to the rear, guess whathe did, again?

he escaped. most of the men from maine who were capturedwould spend the duration of the war in prisoner of war camps. john robinson's division does not receiveenough attention on day one at gettysburg. oftentimes when we think about day one wethink about mcpherson ridge, we think of the iron brigade, and so on. his men are going to be able to hold oak ridgeagainst repeated attacks for about 3 and a half hours that wednesday afternoon. they would be the last union troops to abandonthe fields north and west of gettysburg.

when george meade filed his campaign reporton the battle of gettysburg, there was absolutely no mention whatsoever of robinson's division. not a single word was said about the actionsof the union's 2500 men. so imagine how robinson felt, and how themen felt when they read that report. they had been overlooked, they had been forgotten. so robinson sat down and he penned a responseto george meade, and he reminded george meade what his men did that wednesday, and he toldgeorge meade that no soldiers ever fought better. i want to thank you so much for your timethis afternoon, we have made it thought the

storm, please enjoy the rest of your day hereat gettysburg battlefield.