17th Maine at Gettysburg

The other day....a few days before Remembrance Day, I took a walk through the Wheatfield to get a good feel for the land where the 17th Maine fought. Being a few days before Remembrance Day and Dedication Day, there were very few people in the park. I was on those fields for 2 1/2 hours and never once saw a car or another person. This is a great time to be on the fields. You get them to yourselves and can really study the ground without bumping into tourists. I enjoy tourists, but sometimes you just want the field to yourself and this is the prime time for that.

As I walked down the road to where I wanted to be, I heard a loud noise in Rose's Woods. So I stopped to see what might have made the noise. It was so loud that I thought a bear was stalking me. But it wasn't a bear, it was the largest buck I've ever seen (not that I've seen many).....an 8-pointer. He caught my attention, and I, his. We stood for quite a few minutes just staring at each other until he decided that I wasn't a threat and he ran away. A few minutes later, I ran into him again. Again, we stared at each other. I never noticed how graceful these animals can be when they are bounding away. I say bounding because he wasn't really jumping and he wasn't really running...it was a combination of the two. I love the nature shows I see on the battlefield.

So off I went to the 17th Maine. I found the monument right near the stone wall. That stone wall played such a significant role in the battle in the Wheatfield. It was behind this wall that the Maine men laid to await the advance of the Confederate troops. This seemingly unobtrusive wall....a divider between the woods and the Wheatfield....was the dividing line between the two armies.

The regiment was led by Lt. Col. Charles B. Merrill. And they fought very tenaciously. Here is what the monument has to say about this regiment:

The 17th Maine fought here in the Wheatfield 2 1/2 hours, and at this position from 4:10 to 5:45 p.m., July 2, 1863. On July 3, at the time of the enemy's assault, it reinforced the centre and supported artillery. Loss 132. Killed or mortally wounded 3 officers, 37 men. Wounded, 5 officers, 87 men.

This regiment of volunteers from western Maine was mustered into U.S. Service at Portland August 18, 1862, for 3 years. It took part in the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Wapping Heights, Auburn, Kelly's Ford, Locust Grove, Mine Run, Wilderness, Po River, Spotsylvania, Fredericksburg Road, North Anna, Totopotomoy, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Jerusalem Road, Deep Bottom, Peeble's Farm, Fort Hell, Boydton Road, Siege of Petersburg, Hatcher's Run, Fall of Petersburg, Detonsville, Sayler's Creek, Farmville, Appomattox.

Aggregate actual strength in service 91 officers, 1475 men. Killed and died of wounds, 12 officers 195 men. Died of disease 4 officers, 128 men. Died in Confederate prisons, 31 men. Wounded not mortally, 33 officers, 519 men. Missing in action, fate unknown, 35 men. Total losses 357. Mustered out June 4, 1865.

Side A:
130 killed and wounded July 2, 1863. 17th Maine Infantry, 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, 3rd Corps

Side B:
350 engaged. Lt. Col. Chas. B. Merrill commanding. Wheat-field July 2, 1863. Pickett's Repulse. July 3, 1863.

I stood and looked over the placements of the flank markers. For those who may not know, the flank markers are generally placed where the ends of the lines for the regiments where located. The left flank would be the left end of the line and the right flank would be the right end of the line. I then sat down and just stared into the woods....pretending in my mind that I was one of these soldiers.

After I got up, I looked behind me to the high ground of the Wheatfield. There gleaming in the sunlight were the two cannons and a monument commemorating the Battery under the command of George Winslow. During the fighting on the 2nd of July, this battery was shooting at the Confederates which were advancing on the Wheatfield. In order to fire without hitting their own men, the 17th Maine had to stay low and the cannons shot solid shell high....high into the trees. By hitting the tops of these trees, they were doing as much damage as if they were firing into the men. The limbs and branches were falling onto the Confederates and causing broken bones, concussions, death. It was the ideal weapon of choice when you have your own men in front of you and it helped to slow the advance.

I sat and took this all in. The next time that I am able to head out on the field, I am taking my book by John Haley of the 17th Maine along. He only wrote 4 or 5 pages on the battle at Gettysburg, but to be able to read what he experienced, in the place where he experienced it, is going to help me to fully understand the attempt that these men made in this horrible fighting....at the Wheatfield.