636 
ACHIEVEMENTS OE FIELD ARTILLERY. 
irig from an artillery point of view. He describes how he noted the 
great line, two miles long, of Confederate batteries getting into position 
in the morning, foresaw their purpose, and instructed his Battery 
Commanders to reserve their ammunition, as to the sufficiency of which 
he felt some anxiety, for the infantry assault. Then he goes on to say, 
“ the Confederate approach was magnificent, and excited our admira¬ 
tion, but the story of the charge is so well known that I need not 
dwell on it further than concerns my own command. The steady fire 
from McGilvery and Rittenhouse on their right caused Pickett’s men 
to f drift ’ in the opposite direction, so that the weight of the assault 
fell on Hazard’s batteries. I had counted on an artillery cross fire that 
would stop it before it reached our lines, but except a few shots here 
and there Hazard’s batteries were silent until the enemy came within 
canister range. They had unfortunately exhausted their long range 
projectiles during the cannonade, under the orders of their Corps 
Commander, and it was too late to replace them. Had my instructions 
been followed here, as they were by McGilvery, I do not believe that 
Pickett’s division would have reached our line. We lost not only one- 
third of the fire of our guns, but the resulting cross fire which would 
have doubled its value. The prime fault was in the obscurity of our 
Army regulations as to the artillery, and the absence of all regulations 
as to the proper relations of the different arms of the service to one 
another.Soon after Pickett’s repulse, Wilcox’s, Wright’s, 
and Perry’s brigades (Confederate) were moved forward, but under 
the fire of the fresh batteries in Gibbon’s front, of McGilvery’s and 
Rittenhouse’s guns, and the advance of two regiments of Stannard’s 
Vermont brigade, they soon fell back. The losses in the batteries of 
the 2nd Corps were very heavy. Of the five Battery Commanders and 
their successors on the field, Rorty, Cushing, and Woodruff were 
killed, and Milne was mortally, and Sheldon severely wounded at their 
guns. So great was the destruction of men and horses that Cushing’s 
and Woodruff’s (United States), and Brown’s and Arnold’s (Rhode 
Island) batteries were consolidated to form two serviceable ones.” 1 
With this episode we may close our account of what artillery did in 
the American War. We have not by any means completely exhausted 
that rich repository of brilliant deeds, and many bright examples on a 
small scale are reluctantly omitted. Enough, however, has perhaps 
been said to show that the arm can scarcely be with justice reproached 
for lack of enterprise during the great struggle. Some even may 
think with us that, as regards the conduct of officers and men in action, 
efficient service of guns, and judicious handling on the part of its more 
prominent leaders, artillery showed itself in no degree unworthy of the 
great traditions handed down to it from the previous era, and may 
point with satisfaction to what it accomplished. 
i “ The Third Day of Gettysburg,” by Major-General H. T. Hunt, from “ Battles and Sieges of 
the Civil War.” 
(To be Continued). 
