Union Firepower

Steep terrain on both flanks of the Union line funneled Confederate attackers into the face of twenty-nine Union cannon lining this ridge. Six twelve-pounder Napoleon guns of Company A, Fifth U.S. Artillery, fired from near this spot. During the afternoon of July 1, this battery fired 1,392 rounds of shell and canister. Most devastating was the canister, shotgun-like blasts of iron balls fired at short range. The Confederate infantry lines melted away under the barrage, and no Southerners reached the guns.

Virginia · United States