Fellow Sharpshooters;

While a largely overlooked footnote to the Battle of Gettysburg, I’ve enjoyed a personal relationship with this patch of ground for nearly 30 years. In 1996, my friend, Steve Partlow and his wife, were visiting the park the week Superintendent Latcher announced the ‘adopt a battlefield monument’ project. Faced with chronic shortfalls to the park’s operating budget, Latcher launched an initiative where public citizens and groups could “adopt a monument”.

Steve and his wife were one of the first visitors to arrive at the old, (Ziegler Grove) museum. Spotting the announcement beside the guest register, Steve asked the Ranger about the new program. Volunteers were responsible for removing trash, brush, fallen limbs/leaves and reporting any damage to the park management. Steve received authorization to ‘manage’ the Michigan Sharp Shooter monument on Little Round Top. Steve hesitated and then asked the if he could adopt a second monument. The Ranger smiled; “What one do you want?” Both of us were friends with the reenactors of Company B 1st USSS, that hailed from Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island and environs; and Steve worried a non-Sharpshooter might poach the New York obelisk. That evening Steve called me to say we were “new owners” of the Michigan and New York USSS monuments at Gettysburg.

Our first visit was a surprise, the flinty ground around the monument was littered with crushed beer cans and shards of glass. The Ranger told Steve that Pitzers was a popular party venue for high school and college students. From the looks of the debris field, one, or possibly two, graduation classes had partied there. Mounds of decaying oak leaves clogged Berdan Avenue and the lawn in front of the Company F pedestal.

Every spring, Remembrance Day and National reenactment trip always included a visit to Pitzers and LRT. Eventually, Steve asked the Park transfer the New York monuments care to the Co. B boys. My last visit, as a NPS volunteer, was the 150 anniversary weekend. At noon, on July 2nd, I stood in the quiet glen and sounded “Taps” on my bugle in memory of the Sharpshooters who paid with their blood or lives “so that Nation might live”.

Dr. Timothy Orr blog; Tales from the Army of the Potomac, describes the fate of four Sharpshooters to fall in the encounter between Col. Hiram Berdan’s USSS battalion and Gen. Cadmus Wilcox’s Alabama/Florida brigade at Pitzers Wood.

Four Casualties at Pitzer’s Woods, Part 1: Smith Haight: http://talesfromaop.blogspot.com/2014/01/four-casualties-at-pitzers-woods-part-1.html?m=

Four Casualties at Pitzer’s Woods, Part 2: George W. Sheldon

http://talesfromaop.blogspot.com/2014/01/four-casualties-at-pitzers-woods-part-2.html?m=1

Four Casualties at Pitzer’s Woods, Part 3: Charles McLean

http://talesfromaop.blogspot.com/2014/01/four-casualties-at-pitzers-woods-part-3.html?m=1

Four Casualties at Pitzer’s Woods, Part 4: Lewis Girichton

http://talesfromaop.blogspot.com/2014/02/four-casualties-at-pitzers-woods-part-4.html?m=1

Providing the reserve/reinforcements to the Sharp Shooters was the 3rd Maine infantry. In his blog, Maine Roads to Gettysburg, author Tom Huntington describes the harrowing experiences of the survivors:

https://maineroadstogettysburg.com/2018/05/06/into-pitzers-woods/

The ‘butcher bill’ for the 25 minute skirmish cost the 3rd Maine 48 casualties, mostly captured, (the Sharpshooters suffered 49 men killed, wounded or captured). For the shaken Maine survivors, July 2nd wasn’t finished with them. Their destination? The Peach Orchard.

The S.G. Elliot Burial Map of Gettysburg shows a cluster of 4 graves marked “2d Me”, more likely they are 3d Maine men. There is a vertical stack of crosses indicating 6 Federal graves east of Pitzer’s Wood. Contemporary Sharpshooter accounts report they carried their mortally wounded comrades with them during the withdrawal. Dr. Orr subtlety questioned if this was true, or possibly to comfort grieving families?

With the departure of the ANV the night of July 4th, the Sharpshooters cautiously advanced into Pitzer’s Wood the next morning and buried their dead comrades on July 5.

Do the crosses represent the USSS/Pitzers Wood dead?

https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3824g.cw0332000/?r=0.206,0.956,0.085,0.12,0

Bill Skillman
Michigan Companies
Berdan Sharpshooter Survivors Association

Footnote: Lt. Col. Caspar Trepp’s inventory of “Ordnance Expended” after the reconnaissance found the four companies fired 95 rounds per man (when dangerous work was anticipated, the USSS were issued 100 Sharps cartridges).

This suggests each Sharpshooter fired an average of 5 rounds per minute. However, I estimate their rate of fire as a series of “saw teeth”; the most intense (aimed) firing at first contact and breaking contact (‘get outta Dodge’ firing), intended to keep the Alabama troops at bay until the Sharpshooters could withdraw to safety.