On the morning of July 2, 1863, 350 men of the 111th New York Infantry ate a meager breakfast of crackers, bacon, and coffee before continuing toward Gettysburg. Waiting in the fields south of town, they were eager to join the battle and restore honor lost the previous year at the controversial surrender at Harper’s Ferry. Ordered to move south along Cemetery Ridge to fill a critical gap in the Union line, they charged with fixed bayonets and shouts of “Remember Harper’s Ferry,” striking Barksdale’s Mississippi Brigade and then firing into the flank of Wilcox’s Alabama Brigade, helping drive both Confederate brigades from the field. Historian Lewis H. Clark wrote that they advanced with firmness, with the remembrance of Harper’s Ferry tingling in their nerves, and met the enemy with a sublime courage that made the One Hundred and Eleventh irresistible. The regiment suffered heavily, and that evening only 185 of the 350 men who had begun the day were ready for duty. In 1886, Regimental Chaplain J.N. Brown recalled that during the first charge on July 2, the first color guard fell wounded and called for the second to take the flag, who was instantly killed; the third grasped it and fell mortally wounded; and the fourth seized the falling standard and bore it onward to victory. The color bearers who died that day were Sergeant Judson Hicks of Company A and Corporal Payson Derby of Company G, while Corporal Edward Riley of Company K lost his right leg and was later discharged. The service of these brave and selfless men from Wayne and Cayuga counties formed part of the War of the Rebellion.