Gettysburg
On the afternoon of July 2, the 13th responded to a request by General Winfield S. Hancock to assist Lieutenant Gulian V. Weir, Battery C, 5th U.S. Artillery, whose battery was in danger of being captured by a regiment of Brigadier General Ambrose R. Wright's brigade. The battery was saved and moved back to the rear. The 13th moved forward to Emmittsburg road and captured two rebel guns. Receiving fire from Rodgers' house, Captain John Lonergan, Company A, surrounded the building and took 81 prisoners from an Alabama regiment, returning to the main lines on Cemetery Ridge. He subsequently received the Medal of Honor for his actions.
The 13th, 14th and 16th Vermont Regiments played a pivotal role in the Union repulse of Pickett's Charge on the afternoon of July 3. The 13th and 16th flanked James L. Kemper's brigade as it approached the copse of trees on Cemetery Ridge, then the 16th wheeled about, and joined by the 14th, stopped the advance of Cadmus M. Wilcox's brigade, capturing hundreds of Virginians. Lieutenant George Benedict, an aide to Brigadier General George J. Stannard, related General Abner Doubleday's reaction, saying he "waved his hat and shouted: 'Glory to God, glory to God! See the Vermonters go it!'"
During the forced march from Virginia to Gettysburg, 2nd Lieutenant Stephen F. Brown, Company K, had disobeyed orders, and left the regiment to get water for his men. He was placed in arrest and had his sword and sidearm taken from him. When the regiment arrived on the battlefield at Gettysburg, he was released from arrest, but his weapons were back in the regiment's supply train. Taking a camp hatchet, he went into battle, captured a rebel officer and relieved him of his sword and sidearm. Lieutenant Brown, who subsequently served in the 17th Vermont Infantry, kept the sword and eventually donated it to the Vermont Historical Society.
After the battle, the 13th Regiment participated in the pursuit of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia across the Catoctin mountains on July 7, to Middletown, Maryland on July 8, when it was ordered home. The regiment marched to Monocacy Junction, where it took a train to Baltimore. Departing Baltimore on July 11, the regiment was met by the 12th Vermont Infantry in Brattleboro on July 13. After a few days furlough, the regiment was mustered out on July 21.
Like the other regiments in the 2nd Vermont Brigade, dozens of newly discharged members from the 13th Regiment enlisted again, predominantly in the regiments of the 1st Vermont Brigade, and the 17th Vermont Infantry.
Read more about this topic: 13th Vermont Infantry
Famous quotes containing the word gettysburg:
“The Gettysburg speech is at once the shortest and the most famous oration in American history. Put beside it, all the whoopings of the Websters, Sumners and Everetts seem gaudy and silly. It is eloquence brought to a pellucid and almost gem-like perfection—the highest emotion reduced to a few poetical phrases.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)