Civil War - 6th Wisconsin Infantry, Meredith's Brigade, faces Davis's Mississippian Brigade. Five colorbearers of the 6th Wisconsin flag were killed or wounded during the charge that overwhelmed Davis's Mississippians. The 6th's colonel, Rufus Dawes, kept his command together, shouting, "Close up on that color."

In 1861 Sergeant James P. Sullivan, an Irish immigrant working as a farm laborer, joined the 6th Wisconsin, a regiment of the acclaimed Iron Brigade. In a series of articles written for a Milwaukee newspaper, he recalled his unit's charge across the Chambersburg Pike toward the railroad cut that sheltered Davis's Mississippians.

"In the road our fellows straightened up their lines and waited for all hands to get over the fence and opened fire on the Johnnies, and then I found my gun would not go off... We climbed over the fence and I tried my gun again, and finding it had two loads in it I went to our Adjutant who was just in rear of our company and said: "Brooks, my gun won't go off." "Here, take this," he said, and handed me one he had picked up, and telling him not to lose mine I went back into place in the line and fired it off, but when I loaded up and tried again it would not go, and then I knew my caps were bad. I went to Ticknor and told him my caps were bad. He said, "Take Crawford's," pointing to a corporal of our company who had just dropped dead, and we rolled him over and I took the cartridge box and buckled it on myself. As I turned around I saw Capt. Ticknor start for the rear in a spread out, staggering sort of way a few feet, he fell....

We were then within a few feet of the railroad cut and were ordered to fix bayonets and charge, which we did. Some of the Johnnies threw down their guns and surrendered. Some would fire and then thrown down their guns and cry, "I surrender," and some of them broke for the rear. I jumped into the railroad cut and a rebel officer handed me his sword and passed through the cut with the intention of stopping the Johnnies, who were limbering to the rear. Just as I climbed up the side of the cut a big rebel broke and ran for the rear and I called on him to halt, to which he paid no attention, and I flung the rebel sword at him with all my might, but I never knew whether it hit or not, for just as I turned to throw the sword, a bullet hit me on the left shoulder and knocked me down as quick as if I had been hit with a sledge hammer. The first thought I had was that some rebel had hit me with the butt of his gun, for I felt numb and stunned, but I was not long in finding out what was the matter...

After a while I began to feel better, and like a true Irishman I spoke to myself to see if I was dead or only speechless, and finding it was only the latter, I picked up my gun and tried to shoulder it, but I found that my left arm was powerless and so I went around to the other side of the cut where our fellows had a heavy line of prisoners, and a very thin skirmish line of themselves, and took my place outside the rebs, intending to help guard them, but I felt sick and faint and the blood was running down inside my clothes and dropping from my pants leg and my shoe was full and running over."

"Voices of the Civil War, Gettysburg," Time-Life Books