End of the Second Day - Gettysburg, PA
N 39° 48.112 W 077° 14.368
18S E 308279 N 4408165
This handsome marker narrates the events of July 2, 1863 at the conclusion of the second day during the Battle of Gettysburg.
Waymark Code: WMHB47
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 06/18/2013
Views: 5
These interpretives dot the battlefield landscape. They are horizontal, held in a thick, black, metal frame, about four feet off of the ground and tilted upward for easy viewing. Representatives of the series can be found at every possible civil war site that "saw action" during the Great Battle. The marker is on the right or south side of United States Avenue if traveling east along the road and .28 miles west of the Hancock Avenue/Sedgwick Avenue intersection. Parking is available in front of the interpretive. I visited the marker on Thursday, July 5, 2012 @ 5:07 PM, EDT & @ an altitude of 537 feet, ASL. I used a Canon PowerShot 14.1 Megapixel, SX210 IS digital camera for the photos.
During the Second Day of the Battle of Gettysburg (July 2, 1863) Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee attempted to capitalize on his first day's success. He launched the Army of Northern Virginia in multiple attacks on the flanks of the Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade.
After a lengthy delay to assemble his forces and avoid detection in his approach march, Confederate Lt. Gen. James Longstreet attacked with his First Corps against the Union left flank. His division under Maj. Gen. John Bell Hood attacked Little Round Top and Devil's Den. To Hood's left, Maj. Gen. Lafayette McLaws attacked the Wheatfield and the Peach Orchard. Although neither prevailed, the Union III Corps was effectively destroyed as a combat organization as it attempted to defend a salient over too wide a front. Gen. Meade rushed as many as 20,000 reinforcements from elsewhere in his line to resist these fierce assaults. The attacks in this sector concluded with an unsuccessful assault by the Third Corps division of Maj. Gen. Richard H. Anderson against the Union center on Cemetery Ridge.
That evening, Confederate Second Corps commander Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell turned demonstrations against the Union right flank into full-scale assaults on Culp's Hill and East Cemetery Hill, but both were repulsed. The Union army had occupied strong defensive positions, and Meade handled his forces well, resulting in heavy losses for both sides but leaving the disposition of forces on both sides essentially unchanged. Lee's hope of crushing the Army of the Potomac on Northern territory was dashed, but undaunted, he began to plan for the third day of fighting. SOURCE
The interpretive reads:
"The great Rebel assault, the greatest ever made upon this continent, had been made and signally repulsed...."
1st Lt. Frank A. Haskell, U.S.A.
Aide to Brig. Gen. John Gibbon.
When the Union position at the Peach Orchard (1/2 mile to your right) collapsed on the afternoon of July 2, a Confederate victory seemed imminent. The Union left was giving way. Wounded and retreating Federals streamed eastward (to your left) to seek field hospitals or lost regiments.
General Meade, the Union commander, rushed reinforcements to this area, hoping to prevent a rout. Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock directed the fresh Union troops to critical positions. Lt. Col. Freeman McGilvery assembled artillery batteries along the ridge to your left and right to impede the attackers. Near here Union marksmen shot down Confederate Brig. Gen. William Barksdale, the hard-driving Mississippian. The Confederate attack lost momentum.
The immediate crisis over, General Meade reassured his men, "...it is all right now." That night the Union army strengthened its line from the Round Tops north to Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill. The day's fighting had reaped a harvest of nearly 20,000 dead, wounded, and missing. The following day General Lee would attack once more.
(Key to Panorama in the Upper Center and Right):
You are now standing on United States Avenue looking south down the Plum Run Valley.
(1) Little Round Top
On the afternoon of July 2 Union troops reached this strategic high ground just in time to defend it from Longstreet's attacking Confederates.
(2) Big Round Top
On the afternoon of July 2 Confederates of Hood's Division occupied the summit, but were driven off that night by Union infantry. Big Round Top became the southern anchor of the Union line.
(3) Plum Run Valley
Also called "Valley of Death." On the night of July 2 Union troops occupied the high ground on the left side of the valley, opposed by Confederate skirmishers on the right sided. In the "no man's land" between the armies, the wounded cried for help in the dark.
In the upper center and right is a panoramic view, looking south, of the valley. In the lower center is a painting depicting some of the action near the close of the Second Day. Brig. Gen. Samuel W. Crawford leads the Pennsylvania Reserves against attacking Confederates in the Plum Run Valley on the afternoon of July 2. Painting by Dale Gallon.
On the right is a portrait of Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock, commander of the Union Second Corps, helped stabilize the Union position here after the fall of the Peach Orchard line on July 2. On July 3, as his men repulsed Pickett's Charge, he was severely wounded. After the war, in 1880, he was nearly elected President of the United States losing the election to James A. Garfield.