Research Arsenal (The American Civil War Database) - The Battle Gettysburg in Primary Records

The Battle Gettysburg in Primary Records

*Please note that the photograph in this article is staged.

July marks the 161st anniversary of one of the most significant and well known battles of the Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg. Fought from July 1st through the 3rd, the battle was a decisive Union victory and forced the Confederate forces under General Robert E. Lee to withdraw. The scale and importance of the battle in the war has made it the subject of numerous books and films and it is usually the first battle people think of when they’re asked about the Civil War. Because of the size and number of people involved, there is a wealth of primary records about and relating to Gettysburg that help fill in even the most minute details of the battle. These records can help you paint a vivid picture of the battle and its human cost.

Photographs

After the battle of Gettysburg, numerous photographs were taken showing the battlefield and the many casualties on the field. Some of the photographs, such as the one of Devil’s Den shown above, were “staged” with Union soldiers lying on the ground and playing dead. Others showed real bodies, but moved them for dramatic effect, and still others photographed the field more or less how it was after the battle.

Regardless of the staged nature of some of the photographs, the landscape itself is clearly visible in the photographs and they provide a good illustration of the various positions Union and Confederate forces took in the battle.

During the 1860s, photography took too long to capture battle scenes, as even in clear outdoor lighting it still required people to stay still to be captured without blurring. Because of this, and the inherent danger of battle, there are no photographs showing the actual fighting, although there are illustrations by reporters who saw the fighting and made sketches to share with newspapers and magazines.

While sketches and illustrations are the best visual resource for how the fighting looked, Photographs show the human cost of the war. While difficult to look at, these photographs remind us all that the war took many lives and was far more bloody and gruesome than could ever be captured through illustrations.

Letters

While photographs give you a glimpse of the battlefield, letters offer firsthand accounts of the fighting and each soldier’s role in it. Soldiers writing home to their loved ones described their own participation in the battle in varying degrees of detail. Some would send short letters simply assuring the family they were alive, while others wrote in particular about their part in the battle and everything they observed. This contrast can be seen through a comparison of two letters from two different soldiers who both fought at Gettysburg.

Sylvester Rounds served as a private in Company “D” of the 17th Connecticut Infantry. He was wounded on July 1st, 1863 during the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg. In a letter home to his sister penned a little over a week after the battle, Sylvester Rounds wrote (https://app.researcharsenal.com/imageSingleView/84432) about it very simply:

“You will think, “Why didn’t you write sooner?” Well when we were at Gettysburg, the Rebs had me and as soon as we got away, we started for here. You probably [have] seen my name down as wounded. Yes, they gave me a little poke in the shoulder but nothing very bad, We [sic] since we came here, I have been sick with the measles. Was taken sick just as we left Gettysburg but did not know what the matter was until I came here.”

The “little poke in the shoulder” that Rounds referred to was in fact a rifle ball that went through his left shoulder. 

Corporal Leavitt Wilson Cushing of Company “G” 53rd Pennsylvania Infantry was also wounded at the battle of Gettysburg, and had rather more to say about it than Sylvester Rounds. His full account to his family written on July 1st and July 2nd is too long to be shared in its entirety in this article but is viewable at the Research Arsenal (https://app.researcharsenal.com/imageSingleView/106831) along with numerous other letters and diaries written by Leavitt Wilson Cushing and his brother Benjamin Jay Cushing who served alongside him in the same regiment.

“…then as our men were nearly all out of sight except a few stragglers like myself I started and ran to the top of the knoll on the side, when a ball struck me in the calf of my leg: but I kept on till I got over the hill and back out of the way of the balls, which had been striking all around me for a quar[ter] of a mile. I then stopped and tied up my wound with my handkerchief and then hobbled on till I got back to the Ambulances my wound had got so sore it did not seem as though I could have went a rod farther; it was now nearly dark, and the Ambula[nce] being full started back to the rear. I lost sight of Jay just after we had crossed the creek. He passed me as I was loading and did not see him after. I was very anxious to know whether he had escaped or not, but heard nothing from him till the next day, when I heard he was unhurt.”

Confederate soldier Tilman Jenkins served as a private in the 1st North Carolina Artillery and painted a grim picture of the battle to his parents in a letter (https://app.researcharsenal.com/imageSingleView/103610) written on July 3rd, 1863, the last day of the battle.

“I take pencil in hand to deliver to you both my sincerest affection and to let you know that I have yet survived this horrible place. We arrived July 1st about two miles from this place and engaged the enemy who seemed to be everywhere. Gen. Longstreet arrived near two and a half in the afternoon and engaged the enemy upon a hill along our right flank on the second day. Many good men left their lives on the bloody ground including young Jacob. The sight was as terrible as could be imagined and the anguish of both men and horses was liken to drive a sane man mad. Cousin John was brought from the field without his face or legs having felt the wrath of a Yankee shell that burst next to him. Oh the horror!

Blood coats the fields and flies are all over us like the demons of Hell. I do not know how men can do to one another what they did today and ever sleep again. Last night we slept upon the rocky ground, and got no rest from the moans of those who lay dying still yet on the fields before us. The guns of the devils has now awoke as the sun is approaching half past noon. The cannon are thundering all around liken to a great storm to approach.”

There are countless more accounts of the battle, but these three serve as an illustration of the immense costs to both sides from the battle and the grim horror of war. These personal stories also humanize the battle in a way that looking at facts and figures does not. Nevertheless, official sources also have their own place in telling the story of the battle.

Military Records

While photographs and letters are an amazing source for understanding the personal side of the war, military records can help you understand the more technical aspects of a battle and how it fits into the war at large. 

The National Archives contains hundreds of microfilm rolls meticulously documenting Union and Confederate records from the war. These records include Union ordnance return records which list the number and type of every weapon carried by a regiment and were updated quarterly. Studying these ordnance returns for regiments involved in the Battle of Gettysburg gives you firsthand insight into the material details of the battle. 

Another useful source from the National Archives is the Confederate States Army Casualties: Lists and Narrative Reports. These records take up seven rolls of microfilm and include detailed accounts and casualty lists from battles in every state the war was fought. The Battle of Gettysburg takes up 141 images on one of the rolls which demonstrates just how massive the battle was.

The casualty records contain numerous reports detailing a regiment or brigade’s actions during a battle and is followed by lists of the killed, wounded, and missing from the said battle. These reports were usually written somewhere between several days and several weeks after the battle took place. Unlike accounts written home in letters, the description of the battle is very orderly and precise, meant to give military commanders the most objective information possible about what occurred and how.

This excerpt from the report of Fraser’s Georgia Battery (https://app.researcharsenal.com/imageSingleView/96757) demonstrates the style of these narrative reports and the valuable information they contain.

“On the Second [of July] the Battery was placed in position on the right of the battalion behind a loose wire fence. The battery was in position a short time before the order was given to commence firing. At the command the battery opened fire from four guns. Two ten pds Parrotts and two howitzer rifled guns on some light batts. of the enemy which had taken a position on our left. The firing at first was rapid but soon became slow and cautious, the gunners firing slow, evidently [making] each shot tell with effect on the enemy batteries, in the mean time the enemy replied with spirit. Their fire being incessant, severe and well directed.”

With so many regiments writing reports in this style, it is easy to get a clear picture of the battle from multiple viewpoints, allowing you to reconstruct what happened with as much detail as possible. These reports emphasize presenting the information clearly and objectively, and combining them with photographs of the battlefield allows you to reconstruct everyone’s positions and actions.

Conclusion

Though fought over a century and a half ago, the Battle of Gettysburg continues to capture the imagination of people throughout the world. While you can read countless articles and summaries of the battle, it’s only through firsthand accounts that you can start to truly connect with what happened and get a full vivid picture of the events that transpired. Whether it’s through photographs of the battlefield, letters from the soldiers who fought, or official military accounts of the battle, primary records give you an unvarnished and detailed look at the battle and people’s immediate reaction to it. You can catch details that historians and summaries overlook and paint a fuller picture of one of the most decisive events in American history.

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