| | My Gettysburg Battle Experiences |  | Author: George Hillyer
Creators: Curtis J. Musselman, Gregory A. Coco
Publisher: Thomas Pubns
Category: Book
List Price: $7.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 1377799
Media: Paperback
Pages: 64
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.3
ISBN: 1577471180
Dewey Decimal Number: 920
EAN: 9781577471189
ASIN: 1577471180
Publication Date: October 30, 2005
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| Customer Reviews:
"The 9th [Georgia] regiment...is one of the best and steadiest on the continent..." * May 4, 2008
George Hillyer was a 28-year old captain when his regiment, the 9th Georgia Infantry of Anderson's Brigade (Hood's Division, Longstreet's Corps), stumped into Gettysburg on the second day of the battle. By the end of the day, he would be the senior line officer in his regiment still on his feet, and would find himself the acting commander of the 9th.
The men in the Georgia 9th had first "seen the elephant" at the Siege of Yorktown, and since then had been in some dozen battles. But their afternoon's work in Gettysburg would be the unit's bloodiest single battle. Charging forward across the Emmitsburg Road in the space between the Peace Orchard to their left and Devil's Den toward their right, the 9th was caught up in the chaotic fighting near the Wheatfield. The casualties were staggering, not least because the 9th Georgia was on the extreme left of the advance, and was hit hard by cannister and grape shot from the Peach Orchard (for some reason, McLaws' Division, which was supposed to protect the left flank, was late in getting started).
At the end of the day, the Confederates had advanced to a stone wall overlooking the Valley of Death and the by then unassailable artillery on Little Round Top. But the line was exhausted and decimated. No unit in Pickett's Charge lost a greater percentage of men than the 8th and 9th Georgia. The 9th alone lost 244 out of 310 men (p. 40).
On the third day of battle, the 9th helped repel the ill-fated Farnsworth Charge, Kilpatrick's rash attempt to turn the Confederate right flank.
James Coco's edition of Hillyer's account of his experiences on the second and third days of battle includes the short memoir itself, a letter Hillyer wrote to his father shortly after the battle, his official report as acting regimental commander, a brief biography, a quite helpful walking tour of the area over which the 9th Georgia fought, equally helpful maps drawn by Curtis Musselman, and generous footnotes. As a student of the Farnsworth Charge, I wanted to read Hillyer's memoirs for what light they might shed on that episode. But Hillyer's style is so engaging that I found myself being pulled into his story of the fighting on the second day as well. Highly recommended.
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* From George Hillyer's July 11, 1863 letter to his father (p. 41).
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