Charles Wainwright and the Capture of Gun No. 1 at Gettysburg
Carte de visite by an unidentified photographer Charles Sheils Wainwright (1826-1907) is pictured here in August 1861 before becoming major of the 1st New York Light Artillery. He is best remembered as colonel and chief of artillery of the 1st and 5th Corps of the Army of the Potomac.
During the first day's fight at the Battle of Gettysburg, one of his field pieces, a durable and reliable 3" Ordnance Rifle, fell into Confederate hands. This particular cannon was unique, as it was serial No. 1. Today this gun is part of the collection of the Lomas Center and Museum in Gettysburg.
Wainwright recounts the loss of the gun in his diary. This excerpt begins after he saw the body of Gen. John F. Reynolds being carried away and as Union forces fell back to the streets of town:
"I then at once ordered all to limber up and move at a walk towards the town. I would not allow them to trot for fear of creating a panic among the infantry with which the road was now crowded. But I had very little hope of getting them all off, for the rebs were close upon us; so near that a big fellow had planted the colours of his regiment on a pile of rails within 50 yards of the muzzles of Cooper's guns at the moment he received his order to limber up. As I sat on the hill watching my pieces file past, and cautioning each one not to trot, there was not a doubt in my mind but that I should go to Richmond. Each minute I expected to hear the order to surrender for our infantry had all gone from around me, and there was nothing to stop the advancing line."
"Just as the last of Stewart's caissons was coming into the road (fortunately the other batteries did not have their caissons with them), a number of the enemy's skirmishers, sweeping around the south side of the college buildings, opened fire across the road at about fifty yards distance. Our infantry did not return the fire, so there seemed no chance but what they would kill all my horses. Perhaps, though, it was as well for me that our infantry instead of making fight took at once and in a body to the left, over the railroad which here makes an embankment. This cleared the road, and I shouted "Trot! Gallop!" as loud as I could. It did not take long for the whole eighteen pieces and six caissons to be in full gallop down the road, which being wide allowed them to go three abreast. As I saw the carriages already at the turn of the road just before entering town, I felt now that all were safe. And my next duty being to look out a new position for them I galloped to the front. In order to get by the batteries I was obliged to climb over the railroad and enter the town by another street."
"I had hurrahed a little before I was out of the woods. The rebs pulled off the skirt of my coat; that is, after I left the road that got some pieces on the crest we had just left, and fired into the tail of our column, smashing up three of Stewart's caissons. The rascals south of the road, too, killed the off-wheeler of Lieutenant Wilbur's last piece; and when he had just got him cut out, and was starting again, they shot down three more horses, his own horse, and one of the drivers. So the gun was abandoned. I was terribly grieved when I heard of it, for I had begun to look upon our getting off from that place as quite a feat, and wished that it could have been without the loss of a gun. The more I think of it, the more I wonder that we got off at all. Our front fire must have shaken the rebel lines badly or they would have been upon us. The gun lost was No. 1, the first three-inch gun accepted by the ordnance department."
Wainwright and his artillerists played a key role in the fighting on July 2, as he commanded all the guns on the eastern side of Cemetery Hill when his batteries repulsed an attacked by the Louisiana Tigers. Wainwright's artillerists dueled with their Confederate counterparts on the third day before Pickett's Charge.
Wainwright went on to become chief of artillery of the V Corps and receive his brigadier general's star in August 1864. He commanded his batteries in numerous actions against the Army of Northern Virginia, notably the Battle of North Anna, where his guns broke up a Confederate attack.
Wainwright survived the war and died in 1907
And what of Gun No. 1? Union forces recaptured it during the intense fighting at the mule shoe salient during the Battle of Spotsylvania on May 12, 1864. According to the 2005 book Silent Sentinels: A Reference Guide to the Artillery at Gettysburg, author George Newton notes that which Confederate battery operated the gun is not exactly known. But he narrowed it down to one of three units:
Captain William A. Tanner's Courtney Artillery of Virginia
Captain Charles William Fry's Orange Artillery of Virginia
Captain William J. Reese's Jeff Davis Artillery Battery of Alabama
I encourage you to use this image for educational purposes only. However, please ask for permission.
Charles Wainwright and the Capture of Gun No. 1 at Gettysburg
Carte de visite by an unidentified photographer Charles Sheils Wainwright (1826-1907) is pictured here in August 1861 before becoming major of the 1st New York Light Artillery. He is best remembered as colonel and chief of artillery of the 1st and 5th Corps of the Army of the Potomac.
During the first day's fight at the Battle of Gettysburg, one of his field pieces, a durable and reliable 3" Ordnance Rifle, fell into Confederate hands. This particular cannon was unique, as it was serial No. 1. Today this gun is part of the collection of the Lomas Center and Museum in Gettysburg.
Wainwright recounts the loss of the gun in his diary. This excerpt begins after he saw the body of Gen. John F. Reynolds being carried away and as Union forces fell back to the streets of town:
"I then at once ordered all to limber up and move at a walk towards the town. I would not allow them to trot for fear of creating a panic among the infantry with which the road was now crowded. But I had very little hope of getting them all off, for the rebs were close upon us; so near that a big fellow had planted the colours of his regiment on a pile of rails within 50 yards of the muzzles of Cooper's guns at the moment he received his order to limber up. As I sat on the hill watching my pieces file past, and cautioning each one not to trot, there was not a doubt in my mind but that I should go to Richmond. Each minute I expected to hear the order to surrender for our infantry had all gone from around me, and there was nothing to stop the advancing line."
"Just as the last of Stewart's caissons was coming into the road (fortunately the other batteries did not have their caissons with them), a number of the enemy's skirmishers, sweeping around the south side of the college buildings, opened fire across the road at about fifty yards distance. Our infantry did not return the fire, so there seemed no chance but what they would kill all my horses. Perhaps, though, it was as well for me that our infantry instead of making fight took at once and in a body to the left, over the railroad which here makes an embankment. This cleared the road, and I shouted "Trot! Gallop!" as loud as I could. It did not take long for the whole eighteen pieces and six caissons to be in full gallop down the road, which being wide allowed them to go three abreast. As I saw the carriages already at the turn of the road just before entering town, I felt now that all were safe. And my next duty being to look out a new position for them I galloped to the front. In order to get by the batteries I was obliged to climb over the railroad and enter the town by another street."
"I had hurrahed a little before I was out of the woods. The rebs pulled off the skirt of my coat; that is, after I left the road that got some pieces on the crest we had just left, and fired into the tail of our column, smashing up three of Stewart's caissons. The rascals south of the road, too, killed the off-wheeler of Lieutenant Wilbur's last piece; and when he had just got him cut out, and was starting again, they shot down three more horses, his own horse, and one of the drivers. So the gun was abandoned. I was terribly grieved when I heard of it, for I had begun to look upon our getting off from that place as quite a feat, and wished that it could have been without the loss of a gun. The more I think of it, the more I wonder that we got off at all. Our front fire must have shaken the rebel lines badly or they would have been upon us. The gun lost was No. 1, the first three-inch gun accepted by the ordnance department."
Wainwright and his artillerists played a key role in the fighting on July 2, as he commanded all the guns on the eastern side of Cemetery Hill when his batteries repulsed an attacked by the Louisiana Tigers. Wainwright's artillerists dueled with their Confederate counterparts on the third day before Pickett's Charge.
Wainwright went on to become chief of artillery of the V Corps and receive his brigadier general's star in August 1864. He commanded his batteries in numerous actions against the Army of Northern Virginia, notably the Battle of North Anna, where his guns broke up a Confederate attack.
Wainwright survived the war and died in 1907
And what of Gun No. 1? Union forces recaptured it during the intense fighting at the mule shoe salient during the Battle of Spotsylvania on May 12, 1864. According to the 2005 book Silent Sentinels: A Reference Guide to the Artillery at Gettysburg, author George Newton notes that which Confederate battery operated the gun is not exactly known. But he narrowed it down to one of three units:
Captain William A. Tanner's Courtney Artillery of Virginia
Captain Charles William Fry's Orange Artillery of Virginia
Captain William J. Reese's Jeff Davis Artillery Battery of Alabama
I encourage you to use this image for educational purposes only. However, please ask for permission.