" At this time our gallant Fowler, who, during the vigorous shelling which preceded our advance, had jokingly cried, "Dodge the big ones, boys..."

Sergeant Major C. Frederick Betts

Contents

Introduction

Official Report - Part One

Official Report - Part Two

Casualty List

Manton's Account of Gettysburg

Related Pages:

Gettysburg Reunion

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Warren History

Part 15 - 17

Return Home

For most of the veterans of the Seventeenth Connecticut, Gettysburg would be the battle they would remember best. Many of the soldiers of the regiment were stung by the criticism leveled towards the XI Corps after Gettysburg, and most wanted a chance to prove their critics wrong.

On July 1st they got their chance, only to watch as the events of Chancellorsville seem to repeat themselves. Once again the regiment was split, 4 companies being detached and sent over Rock Creek to the right. Once again the men of the Seventeenth found themselves outnumbered and outflanked, and once again they saw a beloved Lt. Colonel killed early in the action.

Retreating and re-grouping on Cemetery Hill with the survivors of the I and XI Corps, they moved to East Cemetery Hill. There, on the evening of July 2nd, they held their ground against the Louisiana Tigers in a nasty little fight in the dusk. It was here that Company E's commanding officer, Captain Henry Burr---recently exchanged after being captured at Chancellorsville---"got hunk" by capturing a Confederate soldier near the stone wall at the base of East Cemetery Hill.

The regiment withstood the Confederate bombardment of July 3rd, spending much of the day trading shots with sharpshooters in town. On July 4th, a small detachment of the Seventeenth moved into town, and discovered the Confederates had retreated from Gettysburg.

Many additions are forthcoming to the Gettysburg portion of the site, including other first hand accounts and newspaper accounts.

For more information, read Connecticut Yankees at Gettysburg by Charles Hamblin [Ed. by Walter L. Powell]. Kent, OH: Kent State UP, 1993.

For more about the Seventeenth at East Cemetery Hill, read The Hour Was One of Horror - East Cemetery Hill at Gettysburg by John M. Archer. Gettysburg, PA: Thomas Publications, 1997.

Thanks to Brian Donovan for sending me pictures of the 1st and 2nd day monuments better than the ones I took!