Slaughter at Spangler's Spring - Gettysburg, PA
N 39° 48.869 W 077° 13.016
18S E 310243 N 4409518
This beautiful interpretive sits on Colgrove Ave. & is part of a huge series found throughout the Park. This marker describes what happened when Union soldiers were ordered to charge & retake a Confederate position. This is a 3rd day marker.
Waymark Code: WMCB8K
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 08/18/2011
Views: 9
The sign sits horizontally in a thick. black, metal frame stuck in the ground. The marker is roadside and kind of beat up but still readable. The sign reads:
"It is murder, but it's the order. Up men, over the works. Forward double quick."
Lt. Col. Charles Mudge, U.S.A.
2nd Massachusetts Infantry
This glade surrounding Spangler's Spring had been a favorite picnic-ground. But on July 2 axes rang and stones rolled as soldiers of the Union Twelfth Corps built breastworks of logs, rocks, and earth extending from here 1/2 mile north to the top of Culp's Hill and beyond.
Late on the 2nd, the Federals here were ordered south to assist with the crisis near the Peach Orchard and Little Round Top. In their absence, Confederates of Ewell's Second Corps crossed Rock Creek and occupied a portion of their breastworks. About midnight the weary Union soldiers returned to find much of their trench line in enemy hands.
About 4:00 a.m. the battle along the breastworks began, and for the next several hours the foes struggled to dislodge each other. About 7:00 a.m., two Union regiments positioned across the meadow behind you - the 2nd Massachusetts and 27th Indiana - were ordered to take the breastworks on the wooded slopes in front of you. Obeying the suicidal order, they charged into the galling fire of well-concealed Confederate marksmen. Of the 655 Federals engaged 242 were killed or wounded.
Additionally:
In the upper center is a photo of Survivors of the 2nd Massachusetts Infantry with other state veterans, gather around their monument in 1883, twenty years after the battle. Forty-five of their comrades were killed here, and 90 wounded. Their regimental monument, located across the road behind you, was the first on the battlefield.
Below it is a portrait captioned: Before Gettysburg Lt. Col. Charles R. Mudge wrote of his commitment to the Union "I fully made up my mind to fight, and when I say fight, I mean win or die." Mudge was killed leading the 2nd Massachusetts through withering rifle fire here.
Beside it is another portrait, this one of Sgt. Daniel H. Sheetz of the 2nd Virginia Infantry was among the Confederates who caught the Federals here in a deadly crossfire. He was captured at Spotsylvania in 1864.
On the right is a map of the battlefield showing the Federal defenses and Confederate attacks. The "barb" of the fishhook shaped Union line of defense rested here at Spangler's Spring.