GETTYSBURG: REMEMBERING PICKETT’S CHARGE - August 1998 Civil War Times Feature

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GETTYSBURG: REMEMBERING PICKETT'S CHARGE

Gettysburg: Remembering Pickett’s Charge

BY JOSEPH GRAHAM, EDITED BY MAX R. WILLIAMS

Although literature on the three-day Battle of Gettysburg is abundant, this letter by Confederate Captain Joseph Graham offers a different perspective on the fight, particularly its final hours. An eyewitness, Graham notes “too feeble determination” as a reason for the failure of “Pickett’s Charge,” a famous, desperate rush against the center of the Union lines on July 3, 1863, the last day of the battle.

This letter to his father, William A. Graham, a former Whig governor and conservative Confederate senator-elect, is characteristically thoughtful and literate. However, in his enthusiasm for Confederate arms Captain Graham errs when he concludes that Confederate artillery had silenced the Union’s guns just before the awesome charge. To the contrary, Federal artillery was concentrated and effective, as Major General George E. Pickett’s Southerners discovered.

Joseph Graham (1837-1907) graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1857 and from the University of North Carolina in 1859. When war came, he abandoned his nascent medical practice to join the “Charlotte Artillery.” This unit entered state service as Company C, 10th North Carolina (later the 1st North Carolina Artillery). At Gettysburg, armed with three 3-inch rifled cannon, one 12-pounder howitzer, and two bronze 6-pounder smoothbore guns, “Graham’s Battery” was assigned to Lieutenant General A.P. Hill’s Corps. Young Graham had four brothers who were Confederate officers, and was cousin-in-law to general officers Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, Daniel Harvey Hill, and Rufus Barringer.

Graham’s original letter is in the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. It was published in The Papers of William A. Graham.

Joseph Graham to
William A. Graham
Culpepper [Culpeper] County,
July 30th., 1863.

Since I left Kinston, I have travelled between seven and Eight Hundred miles, and have been engaged in one of the bloodiest conflicts of the War. We met the Enemy about two miles from Gettysburg, Pa., on the 1st. day of this month, and drove him, after a sharp contest, lasting all day, to Cemetery Hill, beyond town, distant about half a mile. During the next morning, nothing more than skirmishing occurred, until about two and a half P.M. When Longstreet’s Corps arrived upon the Enemy’s left, and commenced engaging him in his fortified position on the “Hill.” In about half an hour, the fight became general, along our right, and right centre, (the right half of our Corps.) Our men advanced and fell back, in succession, until about six o’clock, when a desperate charge dislodged the Enemy from his position, but unfortunately our reserve was not near enough to support the brave, but decimated ranks of the assailants. Just at this time, the sun being nearly down, our Battalion was ordered up at a gallop, under the thickest fire I ever experienced to support our men, who had been overpowered by the enemy’s reinforcements, and compelled to fall back with great loss. Darkness soon put an end to the operations, and the night passed off very quietly. This night and the night previous, the Enemy spent in fortifying his positions, already very strong from the nature of the ground. it was equal, if not superior to his situation at Malvern Hill. And that I think, naturally, the finest position for defence I ever saw.

We slept upon the field, and no sound was audible, except continuous din of the enemy’s tools, and the awful groans of the wounded and dying. The next sun brought the fatal 3rd. day of July. Everything remained quiet ’till about 12 1/2 P.M. (by the watch I saw) when we began shelling their positions. On both sides I think there must have been between 350 and 400 guns in action. And after the heaviest Artillery duel of the war, (and said to have been heavier than the cannonade at Balaklava) and lasting about one hour and ten minutes, we silenced all their guns. They report that we killed and disabled nearly all their cannoneers, and they were compelled to get detachments from their Infantry to man their pieces. My men behaved very handsomely indeed, and shells from my guns blew up two of their Caissons loaded with Ammunition. The firing was terrific, and I never expect to hear anything to compare with it. We whipped them fairly in the Artillery, and they were in an elevated and fortified position, and we have no works at all. The distance was about 1 1/4 miles, over an open and gradual slope. The Infantry were to have charged through the dense smoke immediately upon the cessation of our fire, but by some mismanagement, there was quite a delay, until everything became settled, and the Enemy had time to prepare for the charge.

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