Parsons wheeled his column south, away from the 4th Alabama, then halted the companies in the shelter of a wooded hill and re-formed ranks. His rear squadron, however, had become separated, and it retreated across the meadow to Bushman’s woods. As he waited to regroup, Parsons saw William Wells’ battalion cross the tracks of his command and sweep ‘in a great circle to the right.’

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Wells’ companies had charged to the right, or east, of Parsons’ battalion. Wells’ men knifed through the skirmish line of the 47th Alabama on the left of the Texans, entered the meadow of the Slyder farm and then followed a low stone wall east to a spur of Big Round Top. It was then that Parsons watched them pass.

Farnsworth had accompanied Wells. When the column reached the spur, the brigadier led it north through the woods in the rear of the Alabama regiments posted at the foot of Big Round Top. Many Confederates, however, saw the Union horsemen; they faced about and opened fire. ‘It was a swift, resistless charge,’ wrote Parsons of the advance of his comrades, ‘over rocks, through timber, under close enfilading fire.’

Wells’ horsemen cleared the treeline into fields west of Devil’s Den and Houck’s Ridge. They did not, however, clear the Rebel threat lurking to their right on Houck’s Ridge–Brig. Gen. Henry L. Benning’s bri-gade of Georgians turned toward the Federals, lashing them with musketry. A section of a Confederate battery on Emmitsburg Road burst shells above the Vermonters. Farnsworth’s horse was killed, and a corporal gave his mount to the general. Caught in a circle of hellfire, the battalion splintered into three groups.

While one contingent hurried south and then east, returning to their lines, a second group angled toward the Bushman house and down its lane. The Vermonters passed through a gantlet of rifle fire as the 9th, 11th and 59th Georgia raked the column. Most of the Yankees were spared, and they even bagged several Texans as prisoners before reaching Bushman’s woods.

The final group, led by Farnsworth and Wells, retraced their route toward the spur of Big Round Top. The woods swarmed with Rebels, and gunfire sang through the column. The 15th Alabama came rushing into line as the Federals re-emerged into a field. On the left of the 15th, the skirmishers of the 47th Alabama took aim. By that time, Preston’s battalion had joined Parsons’, and squadrons from their commands raced to the aid of Wells’ men. But time had run its course for the bloodied Vermonters.

A scissors of musketry cut into the ranks of Wells’ column. Farnsworth reeled in the saddle and fell to the ground, struck in the chest, abdomen and leg by five bullets. Postwar accounts by Confederates alleging that he had committed suicide are bogus. In his report, Kilpatrick wrote of the fallen brigadier, ‘We can say of him, in the language of another, `Good soldier, faithful friend, great heart, hail and farewell.”

The surviving Vermonters slashed their way through the ring of Confederates with their sabers. Wells led one party to safety and would earn the Medal of Honor for his actions. Other splinters of cavalrymen, including the troopers from Parsons’ and Preston’s battalions, escaped in other directions. It had been a senseless slaughter of good men. The attack accomplished nothing and reportedly cost the 1st Vermont Cavalry 13 killed, 25 wounded and 27 missing or captured.

As Farnsworth and other officers in the brigade believed, the order should never have been issued. Primary responsibility, which Farnsworth had demanded of Kilpatrick, rested with the division commander. Although he had orders from Pleasonton to attack the Confederate flank, Kilpatrick could see for himself the difficulties of a mounted charge across that ground defended by veteran Confederate infantrymen and artillerists. Only he seemed to believe that the enemy was retreating. His aggressiveness and misjudgment had led the Vermonters into a bloody trap.

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