A Journal of the American Civil War: V1-3 by Theodore P. Savas David A. Woodbury

Author:Theodore P. Savas, David A. Woodbury [Theodore P. Savas, David A. Woodbury]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781954547216
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Savas Publishing
Published: 2021-12-31T00:00:00+00:00

The undersized 22nd Battalion had fought well and paid a high price. According to Tayloe’s report, the 22nd only carried 102 bayonets into the battle and lost 45 men killed, wounded and captured, a casualty rate of 44 percent. The rest of Brockenbrough’s regiments suffered as well. The 40th Virginia reported 87 casualties, the 47th Virginia 52, and the 55th Virginia 110. Besides heavy losses, the 22nd Battalion suffered the humiliation of losing its battleflag in the fighting on May 3. The color-bearer, while falling back with the balance of the battalion, had stopped to assist a wounded man and was captured.34

There seemed scarcely time enough to bury the dead and reorganize command hierarchies before the Army of Northern Virginia was on the march again, this time to carry the war north of the Potomac. On June 14, 1863, the men of the 22nd Battalion, now part of the Third Corps under A.P. Hill, fell in and headed north. Contemporary evidence indicates that Brockenbrough carried 1,031 men in his ranks when he crossed into Pennsylvania on June 26, 1863, although he later wrote that there were “only 800 muskets.” The 22nd Battalion counted, somewhat surprisingly after the slaughter of Chancellorsville, 237 men as of June 30, 1863, and was led into Pennsylvania by Major John S. Bowles, known to his men by the nickname “Johnsam.”35

The 1st of July dawned calm and clear, but the fog of war was about to settle upon the quiesent landscape. During the initial fighting for McPherson’s Ridge by Heth’s Division, Brockenbrough’s regiments were held in reserve. After the severe repulse of the brigades of Archer and Davis, Brockenbrough’s regiments were moved to the front, his left resting on the Chambersburg Pike, with Pettigrew’s Brigade to its right, and the remnants of Archer’s men on the extreme right flank protecting against Union cavalry. The alignment of Brockenbrough’s regiments was as follows, right to left: 22nd Battalion, 40th -47th - 55th. They moved forward at approximately 2:30 p.m.36

The brigade splashed across Willoughby Run and immediately met a heavy fire of musketry from Colonel Roy Stone’s Pennsylvania skirmishers, posted well in advance of the main line. A small quarry midway between the pike and McPherson’s Woods forced Brockenbrough’s men to oblique to the right, where they were severely handled and repulsed by the men of the Iron Brigade, with assistance from Stone’s Brigade. Regrouping, the regiments again advanced, but made little progress against Meredith’s 2nd and 7th Wisconsin and Stone’s 150th Pennsylvania, the latter posted near McPherson’s bam. Successes to both the right and left of Brockenbrough, coupled with his steady pressure in front, finally forced a retreat of the decimated Iron Brigade. According to Heth’s report of the action, “Brockenbrough’s brigade behaved with its usual gallantry, capturing two stand of colors and a number of prisoners.”37

On July 2nd, as the action centered on both flanks of the armies, Heth’s Division (now under command of North Carolinian Johnston Pettigrew after Heth’s near-fatal head wound), were justly relegated to a reserve roll.

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