History of the Fifty-Seventh Regiment, Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteer Infantry / First Brigade, First Division, Third Corps and Second Brigade, Third Division, Second Corps, Army of the Potomac

by Various

General Graham was wounded and taken prisoner in the peach orchard. General Sickles lost a leg near the Trostle house about 6 p. m. General Birney then assumed command of the corps. Col. A. H. Tippon, of the 68th Pennsylvania, succeeded General Graham in command of the brigade.

Early in the morning of the 3d our division was ordered to the front, which was now considerably in rear of the position we occupied the day before. The enemy occupied the Emmitsburg road and the peach orchard, and fields to the south. On the left near the Roundtops their line was farther back than the position they gained the evening before. From the position of our regiment we could plainly see the Sherfy house, which was about three-fourths of a mile to our front and left.

When General Geary, with part of his division, on the 2d left his position on the right of the Union line at Culp's hill to reenforce the 3d corps, he left behind him to hold his works the brigade of General Greene. The enemy in the evening in strong force attacked this position and succeeded in capturing a part of the line of works, but they were recaptured by General Geary early next morning.

In front of the 57th everything was quiet and the men were enjoying a much needed rest under the trees in the little grove in which they were stationed. Rations were distributed and we also received a good ration of commissary whiskey, which at that time was duly appreciated. It was quiet during the forenoon and many of our men, pillowed on their knapsacks, were asleep when the tremendous artillery fire began which was the prelude to the charge of Pickett's division on Hancock's position on Cemetery hill. Their fire was soon responded to by our artillery and for about two hours the earth fairly shook with the thunder of these guns and the bursting of shells. All this noise was going on about a mile to the right of us and as we were "not in it" we were anxiously wondering what the result would be.

After this cannonading had been going on for some time we were ordered to fall in quickly. About eighty of the 57th were left to respond to the call. These were soon in line and with the rest of the brigade we moved rapidly to the right in the direction of the firing. Moving in double quick for about a mile we were halted and took a position a few rods in rear of several batteries which were heavily engaged. They had just repulsed a charge of Wilcox's rebel brigade, which was supporting Pickett on his right, and whose retreat was being covered by the rebel artillery. We did not become engaged while here, but were exposed to the enemy's fire, which, however, did us no harm. After the firing ceased and the smoke had lifted, we learned of the repulse of Pickett's men and that our army had for once gained an important victory.

That night the regiment was sent on picket duty about half a mile to our front on ground that had been fought over on the afternoon of the 2d, and as the bodies of dead men and horses strewed the ground, the hot sun had decomposed them, causing an odor that was extremely disagreeable.

At daylight we moved back and rejoined the brigade. It was the 4th of July, the eighty-seventh anniversary of American Independence, and here we were on a field strewn with the bodies of our comrades, who had died for the great principles which our fathers had maintained in 1776. With the exception of a little picket firing there was no fighting on the 4th, and that night the enemy began their retreat back to Virginia.

General Sickles has been blamed in some quarters for taking the advanced position he did at Gettysburg on July 2d, but he is also sustained by many prominent military men, among them Gen. U. S. Grant, who visited the battlefield after the war.

The enemy having retreated, the 6th corps and cavalry were sent in pursuit. Our corps did not leave until the 7th. On the afternoon of the 6th the writer took a stroll out to the Sherfy house to look at the ground there. At the house the brick walls on the south and west sides were scarred by the enemy's bullets and the roof had a number of holes made by fragments of shell. The bursting of shells had set fire to the large barn and destroyed it, burning at the same time a number of wounded soldiers who had sought refuge in it. The dead had all been buried, but where our batteries had stood were heaps of dead horses. It was then I discovered the cannon ball in the cherry tree, mentioned above, by which I had been standing during the fight on the 2d. The ball was from our own guns, and no doubt struck the tree during the fighting of July 3d, or on the afternoon of the 2d after our men had abandoned the house.

While visiting the battlefields in 1888 Mrs. Sherfy informed me that nothing worth mentioning had been taken from the house or destroyed. An eight-day clock, which had been wound up before the family left the house when a battle was imminent, was still ticking away when they returned after the fight was over. She also stated that a limber chest containing a lot of ammunition was found in the field opposite the house. The men of the family were afraid to handle the ammunition, so to dispose of it, they dug a hole beside the chest, and tumbled it in, contents and all, and covered it up, and it had not been disturbed since. The chest no doubt belonged to Randolph's battery, as a section of it was in action at the point indicated by Mrs. Sherfy.