GDG- Wright's letter to his wife

[kgolf77 at hotmail.com]

Ho Tom

Isn't there a description in the letter prior to that about the ground they 
were on ?
I remember him talking about his trek to that point.

Also........in the book "Michigan in the War" there is a quote by an officer 
on the 7th MI said the following about Wrights Brigade on July 2nd as cited 
by John Archer in his Fury at the Bliss Farm article from America's Civil 
War.

“they succeeded in passing through the guns of the battery on our left, 
driving the gunners from their posts. The line on our left gave way, and our 
flank was almost turned.” A Gray color bearer planted his banner on one of 
the abandoned guns, and the jubilant Rebel line crested Cemetery Ridge"

Here...

"As the left regiments of Wright’s brigade claimed the prized Napoleons, the 
balance of the II Corps line atop the ridge raked their column with canister 
and small arms fire. Sweeping past the struggle on their left, the right 
wing of the Georgia brigade cleared the Codori buildings with less 
resistance, and advanced with their line relatively intact. Charging up the 
slope, “in line, in column, and in masses which are neither, with yells, and 
thick volleys,” the Georgia troops swarmed toward Gibbon’s thin line behind 
the wall atop the ridge--and the wide gap on Gibbon’s left.28
	Crossing the stone wall south of the copse of trees, “the head of [the 
Rebel] column,” Brigadier General Gibbon remembered, “came quite through a 
vacancy in our line to the left of my division.” There the Georgians again 
found Brown’s hapless battery, and as an officer of the 7th Michigan 
witnessed, “they succeeded in passing through the guns of the battery on our 
left, driving the gunners from their posts. The line on our left gave way, 
and our flank was almost turned.” A Gray color bearer planted his banner on 
one of the abandoned guns, and the jubilant Rebel line crested Cemetery 
Ridge.29"

http://www.historynet.com/magazines/american_civil_war/3760867.html


Here are the footnotes

28)	O.R., Part 1, pp. 417, 427; Pfanz, The Second Day,
p. 387; Paul A. Hutton, Editor, Gettysburg: Oates and Haskell, (New York: 
Bantam Books, 1992; Reprint of Frank A. Haskell’s “Battle of Gettysburg”), 
pp. 175-6
29)	O.R., Part 1, pp. 417,447; Jno. Robertson,
Michigan in the War, (Lansing, Michigan: W.S. George, Stage Printers, 1880), 
p. 105; Pfanz, The Second Day, p.420


It's pretty obvious that this is first hand evidence about the lacation of 
Wrights Brigade.

Does Real evidence matter anymore?
Chuck?

Thanks

Karl


Message: 5
Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2007 12:38:52 -0500
From: "Tom Ryan" <pennmardel at mchsi.com>
Subject: GDG- Wright's letter to his wife
To: "GDG" <gettysburg at arthes.com>
Message-ID: <FEEOKINCPINMNKHDCDCEKEMJCPAA.pennmardel at mchsi.com>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="iso-8859-1"

<<First, do you have the letter that Ambrose "Rans" Wright wrote to his wife
on July 7th as a part of your evidence?>>

	It is a long letter, but here is a portion that is particularly pertinent
to the discussion:

"My Brigade had now climbed up the side of the mountain nearly to the
enemy's guns...my brave men passed rapidly and steadily on, until we
approached within fifty or sixty yards of the enemy's batteries, when we
encountered a heavy body of infantry posted bhind a stone wall...we
stroveon, and reachng the stone fence, drove the Yankee infantry from behind
it [the last phrase is in italics for emphasis], and then taking cover from
the fence we soon shot all the gunners of the enemy's artiller [this phrase
also in italics], and rushing over the fence seized their guns.  We had now
accomplished our task.  We had stormed the enemy's strong position, had
driven off his infantry, had captured all his guns in our front, except a
few which he succeeded in carrying off, and had up to this minute suffered
buy comparatively little loss."

"Just after taking the enemy's batteries we perceived a heavy column of
Yankee Inantry on our right flank.  They had taken advantage of the gap left
in our line by the falling back of Perry's Brigade, and filed around a piece
of timber on our right, and had gotten into the gap left by Perry's Brigade
and were rapidly getting into our rear.  Posey had not advanced on our left
[last in italics], and a strong body of the enemy was advancing down the
sides of the mountain to gain our left flank and rear.  Thus we were
perfectly isolated from any portion of our Army a mile [mile in italics] in
its advance."

	The rest of the letter talks about how they had to cut their out of the box
they now found themselves in.

Tom Ryan

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