"The Battle of Gettysburg", painted in 1884 by French artist Paul Dominic Philippoteaux. This spectacular scene from the Gettysburg Cyclorama, is the artist's impression of Armistead's attack into the Angle. The painting was first shown in Boston before it was moved to Gettysburg in 1913.
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Brig. General Webb
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Within the acre of ground surrounding the clump of trees was the famed "Philadelphia Brigade" composed of regiments raised in and around the city of Philadelphia, under the command of Brig. General Alexander Webb. A West Point graduate and former instructor at the school, Webb's primary war experience had been as a staff officer. He had been assigned to command the brigade after the former commander was placed under arrest while on the march north, and was still unfamiliar with many of its officers and men. These veteran Philadelphians had seen nothing to equal the mass of gray-clad humanity charging toward them from the Emmitsburg Road. From behind the low stone wall that still frames the Angle, Webb's men rose and delivered a blast of musketry into the faces of Pickett's men. Private Anthony McDermott of the 69th Pennsylvania saw, "Our first round was fired with deliberation and simultaneously, and threw their front line into confusion, from which they quickly rallied and opened their fire upon us." As if leaning into a windstorm, the Confederates forged ahead, driving toward the Angle. Hundreds more fell from the Union volleys while those in the rear ranks pushed forward. Southerners returned the fire, loading and aiming while they trotted up the slope toward the wall. Lt. Cushing's last two guns blasted canister into the solid mass until Cushing was killed and the guns abandoned. And somewhere in the crowd was General Garnett, still on horseback and encouraging his men forward.
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Officers of the 69th Pennsylvania Infantry, one of the regiments under General Webb that threw back Pickett's men. Propped against the tent behind the group are the flags of the regiment. Composed of Irish immigrants and American-born Irishmen from Philadelphia, the 69th bore a green regimental color as well as the United States flag in their precarious position just in front of the copse of trees.
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At the wall were two of Webb's larger regiments, the 69th Pennsylvania and eight companies of the 71st Pennsylvania. His last regiment, the 72nd Pennsylvania and two companies of the 106th Pennsylvania Infantry were on the reverse side of Cemetery Ridge. Webb sent orders for these to come forward as Pickett's Confederates swarmed to the Angle. "The enemy advanced steadily to the fence," Webb observed, "driving out a portion of the 71st Pennsylvania Volunteers." The 71st's soldiers raced back and headlong into the 72nd, just then arriving at the crest. The intermingled regiments opened a crash of rifle fire into the Angle, cutting down friend and foe alike in the dense smoke that began to obscure the battle positions. Webb ran to the front of the 72nd in an attempt to order them to charge, but no one could distinguish his commands above the perfect roar of musketry. Moments later, the southerners dashed over the wall. "General Armistead passed over the fence with probably over 100 of his command and several battle flags," Webb reported. "The 72nd Pennsylvania Volunteers were ordered up to hold the crest and advanced to within forty paces of the enemy's line. The 69th Pennsylvania and most of the 71st Pennsylvania, even after the enemy were in their rear, held their position."
View toward the Codori farm buildings from the Philadelphia Brigade Monument (at left) in the Angle. The monument to the 69th Pennsylvania Infantry stands in the middle distance at the stone wall they held during the battle.
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Congregating along the stone wall in front of the Union positions, the Virginians from Garnett's brigade mixed with soldiers from Pettigrew's column had been temporarily blocked by the storm of rifle fire from the Philadelphians. Regiments were hopelessly intermingled and all order was lost. Pushing his way through the crowd with sword and hat still held high, General Lewis Armistead reached the soldiers by the fence. Though everyone was loading and firing at Webb's men, no one had yet crossed over. "We cannot stay here," he roared. "Give them the cold steel, boys!" Armistead leapt the wall, followed by a handful of his soldiers. More followed. Racing through the dense smoke, Armistead placed a hand upon an abandoned cannon where he suddenly fell, pierced through one arm by a minie ball. More southerners braved the fire to crowded around the fallen general and the angle was filled with red battle flags defiantly waving above the abandoned Union guns. Approximately 200 or more Confederates moved into the copse of trees to fire into the back of Union regiments still holding the stone wall. Union troops rushed into the small woods, headlong into the Confederates. Soldiers fired weapons at close range, rifles were swung as clubs, and bayonets thrust at the mass of bodies swirling through the trees, smoke and dust. The crisis of the battle had arrived; it was the "High Water Mark".
"Pickett's Charge", drawn soon after the battle for a New York newspaper by Alfred Waud.
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The intermingled commands of southern troops were soon leaderless as more and more officers fell, killed or wounded. Crowded at the wall, many looked to the rear for the promised supports that never came. South of the Angle, two regiments from Vermont had swung out in front of the Union line and fired into the flank of the Confederates around the wall, shattering General Kemper's brigade and crowding the survivors into the rest of the division. Officers desperately tried to rally their men to make a stand, but there was no escape from the brutal fire. The southerners either ran or fell flat to the ground to hide from the deadly volleys. In twos and threes, men started back to the Emmitsburg Road through the hail of gunfire- some walking and others trotting, while a number of panic stricken men ran as fast as their legs could carry them. Sensing that the Confederates were about ready to break, the 72nd "Fire Zouaves" suddenly charged into the Angle to retake Cushing's guns. Confederates who could not escape threw down their weapons and raised their hands. Those who resisted were struck down with clubbed muskets and fists. The shooting died away as quickly as it had started. Pickett's Charge had failed. In the aftermath, Union soldiers rounded up both the living and dying in front the wall. Flags, swords, rifles and pistols were scooped up as prizes. The dead and wounded lay in heaps where canister had done its deadly work. In the Angle, Lt. Cushing's battery was a shambles of bullet ridden gun carriages and wrecked limbers, dead teams of horses still strapped into their harnesses. Dead and wounded men lay scattered about the trees and throughout the brush and grass.
All three of Pickett's generals were lost, as well as most of his colonels. Generals Gibbon and Webb were both seriously wounded as was General Hancock, shot while directing the Vermont troops in their attack on Pickett's flank. A bullet passed through the pommel of his saddle and into his groin, carrying a nail with it and ripping open an artery. Quick-thinking aides applied a tourniquet to the general's leg while he dictated a note to General Meade on the Confederate repulse, adding "they must be low on ammunition for I was shot with a 10-penny nail." Hancock would eventually recover from his wound, but it would bother him with re-occuring infections for the remainder of his life
The ferocity of those long minutes spent within the area known as the Angle is difficult to imagine today. Cannon sit on iron carriages to mark the location of Cushing's guns, while at the wall stands monuments to three of Webb's regiments that turned back Garnett's and Armistead's soldiers- mute testaments to the horrors that took place at this site that afternoon.
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