STORMING THE WHEATFIELD: John Caldwell's Union Division in the Gettysburg Campaign

1-222000

This gripping narrative is an in-depth study of the valiant men of General John Caldwell's Union Division during the Gettysburg Campaign. Caldwell's Division made a desperate stand against a tough and determined Confederate force in farmer George Rose's nearly 20-acre Wheatfield. Ready for harvest, the infamous Wheatfield would change hands nearly six times in the span of two hours of fighting on July 2, becoming a trampled, bloody, no-man's land for thousands of wounded soldiers. Includes 62 illustrations.

Smith examines the lives of the Union soldiers in the ranks -- as well as leaders Cross, Kelly, Zook, Brooke, and Caldwell himself. From Colonel Edward Cross's black bandana, to the famed Irish Brigade's charge on Stoney Hill, to a lone young man from Washington County whose grave is marked in stone nearby. Smith painstakingly contacted nearly one hundred descendants of Caldwell's soldiers as part of his research.