276
ing heavily with Buford’s dismountedtroopers. Calef’s battery, engagingdouble the number of its own guns,was served with an efficiency worthyof its former reputation as “Dun-can’s battery” in the Mexican war,and so enabled the cavalry to holdtheir long line for two hours. WhenBuford’s report of the enemy’s advancereached Reynolds, the latter, orderingDoubleday and Howard to follow, has-tened toward Gettysburg with Wads-worth’s small division (two brigades,Meredith’s and Cutler’s) and Hall’s 2dMaine battery. As he approached heheard the sound of battle, and direct-ing the troops to cross the fields to-ward the firing, galloped himself tothe seminary, met Buford there, andboth rode to the front, where the cav-alry, dismounted, were gallantly hold-ing their ground against heavy odds-After viewing the field, he sent back 1°hasten up Howard, and as the enemy’ 8main line was now advancing to theattack, directed Doubleday, who hadarrived in advance of his division, tolook to the Fairfield road, sent Cutlerwith three of his five regiments north of the railroad cut, posted the othertwo under Colonel Fowler, of the 14th New York , south of the pike, andreplaced Calef’s battery by Hall’s, thus relieving the cavalry. Cutler’s lh ie
JI have seen it stated in an account of Burns,that he was an old regular soldier who had servedin the Florida war.— H. J. H.
Sergeant George Eustice, of Company F, 7th Wis-consin Volunteers, in a letter from Gilroy, SantaClara County, California , gives this account of JohnBurns’s action in the ranks of that regiment:
“It must have been about noon when I saw a littleold man coming up in the rear of Company F. In regardto the peculiarities of his dress, I remember he worea swallow-tailed coat with smooth brass buttons. liehad a rifle on his shoulder. We boys began to poke funat him as soon as he came amongst us, as we thoughtno civilian in his senses would show himself in such aplace. Finding that lie had really come to tight I wantedto put a cartridge-box on him to make him look like asoldier, telling him he could not fight without one.
Slapping his pantaloons-poeket, he replied, ‘I can getmy hands in here quicker than in a box. I’m not usedto them new-fangled things.’ In answer to the questionwliat possessed him to come out there at such a time, hereplied that the rebels had either driven away or milkedhis cows, and that he was going to be even with them.
About this time the enemy began to advance. Bul-
lets were flying thicker and faster, and we hugged tground about as close as we could. Burns got behindtree and surprised us all by not taking a double-quickthe rear. He was as calm and collected as any vote*on the ground. We soon had oi’ders to get up and 1110about a hundred yards to the right, when wo were cgaged in one of the most stubborn contests I everpcrlcnccd. Foot by foot we were driven back to a V® ^near the seminary, where we made a stand, but ^ * jfinally driven through the town to Cemetery Kidg®. ^never saw John Burns after our movement to the TiS lwhen we left him behind liis tree, and only know* ^he was true blue and grit to the backbono, and funtil he was three times wounded.”
In liis official report, General Doubleday sa-y s *
“My thanks aro specially duo to a citizen ofburg named John Burns, who, although over seve ^years of age, shouldered his musket and offered 6 erfl .ices to Colonel Wistcr, 150th Pennsylvania VolunteColonel Winter advised him to fight in the woods,there, was more shelter there; but lie preferred toour lino of skirmishers in the open fields. Whentroops retired, lie fought with the Iron Brigade ™ditli’s]. lie was wounded in three places.”—EDITOR*- ■
JOHN L. BURNS, “T11E OLD HERO OF GETTYSBURG.” JFROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN SOON AFTERTHE BATTLE.
Jifl-'lft} 1 , *'
• -»jj
:i'|i
I