The Railroad Cut Reconsidered

The Railroad Cut Reconsidered ing just to their north and began to turn to face the oncoming southerners. In the meantime, another of Wadsworth’s brigades had come onto the fi eld and entered McPherson’s woods south of the pike. Th ey were the Black Hats, Brig. Gen. “Long Sol” Meredith’s famous Iron Brigade of the West. Four of these regiments quickly clashed in mortal struggle with Archer’s men. Th e Iron Brigade’s other regiment, the Sixth Wisconsin, augmented by the Iron Brigade Guard of some one hundred men, was at fi rst held in reserve but now doubletimed north to head off the oncoming attack of Davis. Th e Wisconsin boys deployed along the Cashtown Pike and began fi ring at the Rebel charge. Two of Davis’s regiments, feeling the threat on their southern fl ank, quickly swung into line along the railroad rightofway that ran parallel to, and 150 yards to the north of, the Cashtown Pike. Th e FortySecond Mississippi, which was advancing between the pike and rail line, saw the oncoming New York regiments and ducked into the west end of the steepsided cut that carried the rail line on a level path through McPherson’s Ridge. Th e two opposing forces faced each other briefl y, and then the Union troops charged across the intervening fi eld and routed the three Confederate regiments. Many were killed and wounded on both sides. Th ough most of the Rebels fl ed to the north and west, 232 of them surrendered and were marched off to captivity. Th e victorious Federals regrouped and prepared to meet a further Confederate attack that was gathering to the west. Th at was not long in coming, and the strength of the Southern assault overwhelmed Wadsworth’s division and drove them back into the town of Gettysburg. Th e story of the battle in the railroad cut northwest of Gettysburg has been told from several perspectives. Th e events of the half hour or so at midday, July 1, 1863, have received so much detailed analysis that another article on the subject may seem redundant, but there are several matters that could still be open to reconsideration. Th e Battle of Gettysburg began when Maj. Gen. Henry Heth dispatched two Confederate brigades toward the town of Gettysburg from his base at Cashtown to probe the Union positions. Led by Brig. Gen. James J. Archer south of the Cashtown Pike and Brig. Gen. Joseph Davis north of the pike, the two brigades fi rst encountered dismounted Union cavalry units under Brig. Gen. John Buford. Th e embattled cavalryman sent word for infantry reinforcements. Th e fi rst units of the Army of the Potomac approaching from the south belonged to Maj. Gen. John Reynolds’s First Corps, led by the division under Maj. Gen. James Wadsworth. Wadsworth’s front brigade, commanded by Brig. Gen. Lysander Cutler, rushed north along the west edge of the town and crossed the pike. Before Cutler’s troops were well in place, Davis’s brigade (from left to right, the Fift yFift h North Carolina, the Second Mississippi, and the FortySecond Mississippi regiments) wheeled across a long sloping fi eld and swooped down on them. Davis’s men chased Cutler’s two northernmost regiments off the fi eld into a nearby wood and nearly annihilated his center regiment, the 147th New York. Cutler’s two regiments south of the Cashtown Pike, the NinetyFift h New York and the EightyFourth New York (also called the Fourteenth Brooklyn), became aware of the disaster developThe Railroad Cut Reconsidered