I bring to you all today, an unpublished account of the 29th PA on Culps Hill Gettysburg which I was able to (with great patience and eye-strain) convert to text from the original diary Entries of Co. G Soldier Private David Mouat. It was available in an archive and entitled Three Years in the Twenty-Ninth Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-1864. My ancestor Benjamin Franklin Sandy fought in A company of the 29th at Culps Hill and survived the war, mustering out after 3 years service in July 1864. The following is a seemingly endless cascade of events on Culps Hill for this tough regiment. July 1st 1863 Remained at Fur? Taverns until we were mustered and inspected. Here General Kane joined us and took command of the brigade, although compelled to ride in an ambulance. We soon moved out on the road to Gettysburg, the Baltimore Pike it was called and our brigade detailed to guard the ammunition train protecting right flank of army. After marching about 6 miles halted for the night about 2 miles from Gettysburg and laid on our arms. Heard of the fighting of the 1st and 11th corps and the death of General Reynolds. I was on guard all night and I could see the flash of the artillery and the bursting of shells over towards Gettysburg. The rest of our division and corps went over towards Round Top and took position. July 2nd 1863 Early in the Morning General Meade passed where we were laying and as I wanted to see him, I went to the roadside, I heard him ask General Geary “What Regiment is that?” Geary replied “That is one of my Brigade.” Meade said “It is a very small one, but order them up, we shall want every man today”. We soon received orders to fall in and we moved up the pike towards Gettysburg and went into position to the right in a woods on Culp’s Hill. A detail was made to build breastworks, and our regiment being in column of company massed, held in readiness to meet any attack from the Johnnies. Towards evening, Geary came riding up and said “follow me” and he and our Col. Had some words, our Col. Demanding that any orders to move his regiment should come through him. Geary acknowledged the error and our Col. Soon had us deployed and we moved towards our right while crossing rock creek and the marsh, about there the Rebs commenced to shell us very heavy, Charlie Lefford, our Sergeant Major, was killed and several of our men wounded. Heard we were ordered to the left of the army as the 3rd corps had been repulsed and drove back. when we reached the Baltimore Pike, we met some of the 3rd Corps wounded going to the rear, among them, I met an old school mate belonging to the 114th Pennsylvania Collins Zouaves named George Dorris? He had been wounded in the foot, I gave him what water I had in my canteen and said “I guess it was hot in there?” he replied “you can bet it was” I asked him if he had seen anything of my brother, they being in the same brigade-But he had not seen him and could only say all lads had caught hell. We soon received word to halt and then orders came to return to our position as the rebs on our left had been repulsed. As we moved off the road into the woods orders were passed to Hurrah so as to let our men know we were returning, the 3rd brigade of our Division having remained behind to hold our line. It had become rather dark and we could not see very far into the woods. We gave a hurrah and were met with a heavy volley of musketry killing lieut. Harvey and several men of Company K and wounding a member of it. Appears the 3rd brigade could not be deployed far enough to cover our line of works and the Rebs had advanced while we were away and had taken possession of our breastworks- we fell back a short distance after the volley and laid down, Captain Johnson of Company B with a detail of 5 men was ordered out as Skirmishers to locate the Rebs. He and several men were taken prisoners but the Captain soon afterwards escaped at South mountain and rejoined Regiment. We moved further to our left orders being given in a whisper and passed from man to man, orders soon came not to make any noise but to lay down until daylight and be ready for an attack at any moment. During the night I heard someone in our front moving and carrying a lot of canteens, the picket in front challenged and receiving no answer he fired, someone called out “did you get him” the picket replied You bet I did there he lays. The next morning we saw a johnnie laying dead with a bunch of canteens strung around him . He must have been detailed to take his comrades canteens and was hunting for spangler’s spring to fill them.
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 07:30:13 +0000
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