The Second and Third Bucktails at the Battle of Gettysburg

At the battle of Gettysburg, three regiments wore buck tails and called themselves “bucktails”. The 149th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment took on the nickname, “Second Bucktails,” while the ^150th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment adopted, “Third Bucktails,” all to the chagrin of the grumpy veterans in the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves. Some hardliners felt that the 13th was the only regiment that had a right to wear the buck tail. Well, the 149th and 150th would earn the right to wear and call themselves “Bucktails” at their baptism of fire during the battle of Gettysburg, Wednesday, July 1, 1863.[1]

Colonel Roy Stone, now a brigade commander, double-quicked his green troops into line near the McPherson’s farm around 11:30 am, July 1. His brigade consisted of the 149th, 150th, and 143rd Pennsylvania infantry regiments – roughly 1,312 soldiers. Upon reaching McPherson’s Ridge the men collapsed and rested. Stone’s regiments got a one-and-a-half hour respite before the boom of artillery guns woke the sleepy Pennsylvanians.

All hell then broke loose at 1:00 p.m. as the first shells exploded with deadly precision among the 149th. A round burst killing 3 and wounding 5. Another cut a captain in two. It was surreal. Blood and bowels soaked the ground; the stench was indescribable. The cries of wounded and dying friends resounded above the artillery fire.[2]

Lines of Confederate infantry appeared through the smoke like pale ghosts. Stone directed the 149th to the railroad cut. It was a precarious tactical position.[3] The Bucktails waited for the North Carolina brigade and then let them have it at 50 yards. Captain Jones of the 149th recalled the action.

“Three [more] lines came into view and close enough for our fire to cut all three ranks down at one firing . . . But still other lines came on and by the time [we] had fired a few rounds, the foe were pressing us very hard.”[4]

The Bucktails withdrew. The men made a mad dash up the other side of the railroad cut; many wounded couldn’t make the climb and were captured. Others skedaddled back to the Chambersburg Pike line near McPherson’s Ridge.

Colonel Langhorne Wister and his 150th regiment fired, covering the 149th’s withdrawal.[5] The North Carolinians reeled, recovered, and then returned a volley. Artillery rounds exploded all around. It was at this time that Stone fell wounded in the hip and arm. He had gone too far forward reconnoitering and paid the price. He made his way to McPherson’s barn.[6] It was quickly becoming a makeshift field hospital.

“Chaos reigned back at the pike. The Pennsylvanians still slugged it out with their adversaries. Finally, the Bucktails repulsed the North Carolina brigade. The Keystoners looked and saw two Confederate divisions approaching from the west.[7] Stone’s men regrouped into small battalions.

The 149th’s color guard got into an outright melee’ with some Mississippi boys. A desperate hand-to-hand fight ensued for the prized flags. Private Henry Spayd shot and brained Confederates while defending Corp. Franklin Lehman, the state color bearer. The two tried to escape, but the Rebs shot Spayd and Lehman through the legs; both went down, but survived. Color Sergeant Henry Brehm, carrying the National colors, fell mortally wounded by an artillery shell somewhere near McPherson’s farm.[8]

There wasn’t much left of Stone’s brigade. Some joined the Iron Brigade while others fired a few volleys before slowly retreating. The historian of the 150th recounted:

“At one point where a halt was made to support some guns which had not yet been retired, a number of 150^th men were killed or wounded, among the former First Sergeant Weidensaul, of Company D, whose commission as second lieutenant had arrived only the previous day. Adjutant Ashhurst, seeing him bend over and press his hand to his body, as if in pain, called to him, ‘Are you wounded?’ ‘No,’ he replied, ‘killed!’ and, half turning, fell dead.[9]”

This event occurred several times during the withdrawal, with Union troops stopping to assist their artillery. That is until the Confederates got closer. “Many hair breadth escapes were made by leaping fences, traversing gardens, or passing through shops and dwellings, in order to reach streets to which the pursuit had not yet penetrated.”[10]

Stone’s regiments had fought roughly three-to-four hours and sustained heavy casualties. The 149th lost 336 men (killed, wounded, or missing in action) of the 450 men, 74.7 percent. The 150th counted 264 out of 397 casualties, 66.5 percent. The 143rd lost 241 of 465 men, 51.8 percent.[11]

The Pennsylvanians’ bravery and sacrifice were memorialized by their officers. Division commander Abner Doubleday, praised the men in his official report.

“I relied greatly on Stone’s brigade to hold the post assigned them . . . My confidence in this noble body of men was not misplaced . . . They repulsed the repeated attacks of vastly superior numbers, at close quarters, and maintained their position until the final retreat of the whole line.”[12]

Colonel Stone, in his report, described his brigade’s performance. “They fought as though each man felt that upon his own arm hung the fate of the day and the nation.”[13] There should be no doubt that these marksmen earned the title of “Bucktails” outside of Gettysburg that afternoon on July 1, 1863.

[1] Special thank you to Brad Gottfried for allowing me to use several of his maps and his (and my) publisher, Ted Savas. You can find these maps in his book, The Maps of Gettysburg: An Atlas of the Gettysburg Campaign, June 3-July 13, 1863. Savas & Beatie. June 2010. Please note the published maps in the Atlas are better quality.

https://www.savasbeatie.com/the-maps-of-gettysburg-an-atlas-of-the-gettysburg-campaign-june-3-july-13-1863/

[2] Richard E. Matthews, The 149^th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Unit in the Civil War (McFarland, 1^st ed., 1994), 82-4.

[3] You don’t have to be a Napoleonic tactician to know that this was a bad position. The railroad cut is steep. It’s precarious to climb up and down. The cut trapped the men. Both sides got caught in this trap. There is debate about whether Stone ordered the 149^th “to” the railroad cut or “across” the railroad cut. The 149^th’s colonel heard “across”. Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Chamberlin, History of the One-Hundred and Fiftieth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, Second Regiment, Bucktail Brigade (1905), 124.

[4] Matthews, 88. The 149^th fought Junius Daniel’s North Carolina brigade.

[5] The famous Gettysburg citizen, John Burns, volunteered to fight with the 150^th Pennsylvania. Colonel Wister accepted his help, but sent Burns into the woods closer to the Iron Brigade so he would have more tree cover.

[6] Chamberlin, 124

[7] These were Henry Heth’s and Dorsey Pender’s divisions.

[8] Kristopher D. White, Gettysburg Off the Beaten Path: The Colors of the 149th Pennsylvania, Emerging Civil War, July 2015.

[9] Chamberlin, 133.

[10] Ibid., 136.

[11] Not exact numbers. https://gettysburg.stonesentinels.com/battle-of-gettysburg-facts/strength-casualties-usa/

[12] Ibid., 155.

[13] Ibid., 156. For further research, see https://www.gettysburgdaily.com/licensed-battlefield-guide-rich-kohr-the-bucktails-on-mcphersons-ridge-part-5/