A Most Desperate Hour: 6:45 p.m.-7:45 p.m. July 2, 1863: The Federal Counterattack along the Emmitsburg Road

Gettysburg Magazine, no. 52 Wright’s Georgians fi nished the formation farther to the north. A tenuous Federal line, stretching from the George Weikert orchard to the Copse of Trees, prepared for the onslaught. Maj. Freeman McGilvery formed an artillery line on the ridge immediately north of George Weikert’s orchard, its left fl ank anchored on the woods west of the house. Th e badly mauled Battery B, First New Jersey, had the left , with the Sixth Maine and the battered Battery E, Fift h Massachusetts, continuing it to the right. Th e 262man First Minnesota was lying down to the right of the Fift h Massachusetts with Battery C, Fourth U.S., on its right. A large gap of about three hundred yards separated the battery’s right from the Nineteenth Maine. Another 350 yards separated the New Englanders from the left of Col. Norman J. Hall’s brigade near the Copse of Trees. Th e SixtyNinth Pennsylvania (Brig. Gen. Alexander Webb’s brigade) fi nished the infantry’s front. Batteries A from the Fourth U.S. and the First Rhode Island secured the right of the Second Corps line. Battery B, First Rhode Island Artillery, was deployed in the fi eld about one hundred yards to the front of the SixtyNinth Pennsylvania when Wright’s brigade overran the Codori buildings. Th e narrative begins from here.