Even though the charge has historically borne the name of Major General George E. Pickett, the Virginian who led one of the Confederate divisions, research shows that the two women more than likely stepped off Seminary Ridge 155 years ago today with the division of Brigadier General James J. Pettigrew. Following a massive artillery barrage, the Southern soldiers steadily made their way across an open field towards the blue line that awaited them behind a stone wall at Cemetery Ridge across Emmitsburg Road. Onward they came in the face of withering fire until they just could go no further. What was left was a mass of writhing, dying, expanse of agony. One soldier, Pvt. Deacon of the 12th New Jersey Infantry, recalled, "I never so [saw] so meny ded men in one place at one time."
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| Pvt. Garrett Deacon 12th NJ |
On Christmas Day, 1860, he married Martha Ann Brooks in Philadelphia. Tragedy soon followed. Garrett's mother died just six months after his wedding and then Martha Ann died nine months after that while giving birth to their son, Thomas, on March 22nd, 1862. That August, Garrett left his new baby in the care of family members and enlisted in Company C of the 12th New Jersey Infantry. His older brother, Allen, was already in the service - that of the Confederacy. He had moved with his wife to Virginia prior to the outbreak of the war and enlisted in the 55th Virginia Infantry on May 21st, 1861, serving with the Quartermaster Department as a boatman on the York River. The following year, Allen Deacon was assigned to the engineers and served in that capacity until 1864 when he was reassigned back to the 55th Virginia. He remained with Company A for the rest of the war.
And while his Confederate brother was serving with the engineers that July day in 1863, Garrett went on picket duty along the Emmitsburg Road following the ill-fated Southern charge on the third day's fighting at Gettysburg. "The wonded wos hollern all a round mee," he wrote. One particular soldier right next to Deacon was screaming in agony all night, "the ofel I ever hurd in mi life." This Confederate, Garrett claimed, was a woman.
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| View from the position of the 12th New Jersey at the stone wall at Cemetery Ridge with the Emmitsburg Road in the distance where Deacon stood picket duty. At least two women advanced across this field and met their fate. Photo by Mark Hidlebaugh |
Unfortunately, he did not mention her again or what ultimately happened to her. I can't imagine that she survived. One of her sister soldiers definitely did not. Not only did Deacon mention a woman who was severely wounded, he also wrote about a slain Confederate female fighter. The Jerseyman wrote that before she was buried, she was examined. "The docters said She was a woman," he stated. She was more than likely the one documented by Brigadier General William Hays in a burial report he submitted after the battle. Hays had briefly taken over the Union II Corps, of which Deacon's 12th New Jersey was a part, after Major General Winfield Scott Hancock fell wounded.
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| Hays Burial Report in the Official Records |
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| Brigadier General William Hays |
What I have circled in red is all that Hays said about the woman. Though he does not record which day the woman's body was discovered or what part of the battlefield she fell, Deacon's letter supports the theory that she was killed during Pickett's charge.
Sixty-five years after Gettysburg, people were trying to learn the identity of the woman documented in Hays' report, just as we are still attempting to do 155 years after the battle. The following excerpt was from an article printed in newspapers all over the country, including one in my state: The Greenwood Commonwealth, July 10th, 1928.
I have made a little progress in learning more about her account. My new research reveals that she was killed and initially buried somewhere in the general vicinity of Arnold's Battery.
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| View from Emmitsburg Road looking towards Cemetery Ridge The Brian barn is to the extreme left of the picture. Arnold's Battery is located near the second large tree to the left Two Confederate women fell as casualties in this field. Photo by Mark Hidlebaugh |
I have seen accounts of her serving with a husband. She may very well have, but there's no way to know that with the scant information currently available to us at this time. There were also dramatic and romantic narratives about her falling as a color bearer and that she was a Virginian. These stories are mere fiction, more than likely inspired by the actual woman denoted in Hays' burial report. The odds are she wasn't a Virginian, by the way. Nor was the one who was wounded.
You can read more about these women in my book, Behind the Rifle, or Issue #62 (January 2020) of Gettysburg Magazine.
These two women of Pickett's charge were not the only ones who suffered wounds during the Battle of Gettysburg. There were others, but it is unknown which part of the battle they received their injuries. According to Pvt. Thomas Read of the 5th Michigan Infantry, there was a Confederate woman discovered by surgeons who amputated her leg at a hospital in Chester, Pennsylvania.
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| Hospital near Chester, Pennsylvania where a Confederate woman had her leg amputated. http://uplandboro.org/history/uplands-crozer-theological-seminary/ |
Additionally, a female Union drummer claimed to have been injured there. After being discovered, military officials "turned her out in a quiet way," but she reenlisted - only to be discovered again. And then there was a woman who claimed to have been wounded in the foot while serving with the 6th Louisiana Infantry at Gettysburg. Beyond these female fighters, there were approximately nine other women on both sides - including Rebecca "Georgianna" Peterman of the 7th Wisconsin and perhaps Jane Perkins in the Confederate artillery - who somehow made it through the battle unscathed.
The day after Pickett's charge, Lt. General John C. Pemberton surrendered Confederate forces at Vicksburg. There were approximately seven women who were there, including a Southern female fighter who endured the 47-day siege and left as a prisoner with her male comrades when the "Gibraltar of the Confederacy" capitulated.
Along with the Confederate loss of Vicksburg, the failed invasion of Pennsylvania has been referred to by historians as the turning point of the war. Pickett's charge had been the pinnacle of the battle of Gettysburg, and research has shown so far that at least two women fell during the ill-fated assault. One was severely wounded and may have succumbed to her injuries later. The other did indeed sacrifice her life for the Confederate cause. Like so many of them, we will probably never know who they were.
As for Pvt. Garrett Deacon, he went on to fight at the Wilderness with the 12th New Jersey. Then, on May 12th, 1864, he was shot in the stomach at Spottsylvania Courthouse and died the following day, leaving his two-year-old son, Thomas, an orphan. The child was raised by Garrett's father, for whom he named his son. Eventually, Garrett's sister, Elizabeth, took the boy in. Garrett Deacon is buried in Fredericksburg National Cemetery, grave 1974.
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| Photo by Mark Hidlebaugh |
Garrett's Confederate brother, Allen Deacon lived until age 74. He is buried in Virginia. Click [HERE] to visit his page on Find a Grave. (His rank appears as a captain on that page, but his service records indicate that he never rose above the rank of private.)
Until next formation......rest.
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