The 75th Ohio had been placed at the stone wall south of the hill, the 17th Connecticut on its left. Near the beginning of the attack, the 17th was ordered to the extreme right of the line, probably in response to the fighting on Culp’s Hill. Only a few soldiers of the 25th Ohio Volunteers held the line vacated by the 17th. Avery’s men, perfectly furious at having taken Federal fire in the assault, struck the 1st Division’s defensive perimeter, found the area vacated by the 17th, and poured through quickly, overrunning the men of the 25th Ohio. The Federals quickly began to skedaddle. Organized resistance collapsed altogether, a frightening recreation of the events the day before and two months earlier at Chancellorville. Forevermore, the 1st Division would be referred to with the insulting sobriquet Flying Dutchmen. So great was the fear and the panic that seized these men, many of whom were recent German immigrants, that their flight to presumed safety took them directly into the fire lanes of Union artillery.

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Meanwhile, Avery had mounted his white charger in order to take his command forward in the tradition of the Old South. Near the stone wall he was struck by a ball at the base of his neck. The wound that would take his life 30 hours later allowed sufficient time for the colonel to render a last gallant message: Major, tell my father I fell with my face to the enemy.

Captain Michael Wiedrich ordered the guns of his Battery I, 1st New York Light Artillery, fully depressed, loaded with a double-shotted rounds of canister and fired as quickly as his gunners could manage. He didn’t consider at the time that his command was killing his own fleeing infantry as well. He was more concerned with the prospect of keeping the Rebels away from his guns.

All too soon, Wiedrich’s worst fears came to pass as Confederate infantry fell on his guns with a ferocity reserved for cannoneers. The killing took on a frenzy that intensified when Weidrich’s artillerymen, mostly German immigrants, stood well to their guns and fought bayonets and clubbed muskets with fence rails, ramrods and pistols. No quarter was asked and none given.

At Wiedrich’s battery, some 75 Rebel soldiers, mostly from the 6th North Carolina Volunteer Infantry, planted their battle flags and prepared to continue the advance. Their next objective was Captain R. Bruce Rickett’s Batteries F and G, 1st Pennsylvania Light Artillery. The results were the same, but the confederate assault was now petering out, the attackers widely dispersed, fighting individual battles in small groups along the front. Colonel Tate, commanding the 6th North Carolina, called for support, but Early never ordered Gordon forward and Rodes never got out of Gettysburg in time.

Hancock had heard the fighting over on Cemetery Ridge and, without hesitating, ordered Colonel Samuel Carrol’s 1st Brigade, minus the 8th Ohio, over to Cemetery Hill. By the luck that is often associated with hard fighters, the three regiments (4th Ohio, 14th Indiana, and the 7th West Virginia) came in on the right of Rickett’s batteries. Guided by the musket flashes of Tate’s Rebels, who now held the batteries, Carroll ordered his regiments forward.

The 14th Indiana formed in two lines and led the assault, supported by the 4th Ohio. The 7th West Virginia was forced to change fronts in order to strike the salient’s flank, all accomplished in the dark and under severe fire. The 80 or so Confederates under Tate’s command were no match for the three excellent Federal regiments, and Tate ordered a withdrawal as soon as the Yankees struck. The Confederates found a stone wall near Wiedrich’s battery and made a stand. Firing by volley into the dense mass of union infantry, Tate and his men were able to throw back the attacking Federals.

Hays’ brigade faced the same situation as Avery’s had on the left. After breaking three lines of Union infantry posted behind stone walls and enduring the Union artillery fire, Hays’ assault petered out near the summit of Cemetery Hill in the face of stiffening Federal resistance.

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