July 14th, 2011
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/14/2011
War-date Union Document Signed W.D. Eddy Lt. and AAA Genl., 1-1/4pp. quarto, December 16, 1864, being an official copy of “Special Orders No. 203” issued December 5, 1864, and reads “Captain R. Bruce Ricketts 1st Penna. Artillery is announced as Acting Major and assigned to the command of the batteries of this Bridgade in position on the line of the 9th corps...Major Ricketts will forward the reports and returns of battery commanders to these Head Quarters, but will be under the control of the Comdg Officer Artillery Brigade 9th Corps...” Fine condition. Robert Bruce Ricketts’ battery arrived in Gettysburg on the Taneytown Road on the morning of July 2, 1863 and replaced Capt James H. Cooper's Battery B, First Pennsylvania Light Artillery, on East Cemetery Hill about 4:00 PM. It was exposed to enfilade fire from Benner’s Hill and Seminary Ridge. Around nightfall, two Confederate brigades from the division of Major General Jubal Early attacked the hill. It broke the thin Union front line at the foot of the hill in two places. In other places they were repelled. Some Confederates reached the top of the hill, and one group attacked the left of Ricketts’ battery, trying to spike the guns. The fight for the guns became hand to hand, but the Confederates were unable to capture the whole battery. Eventually Union reinforcements from the II Corps brigade of Col Samuel S. Carroll drove the Confederates down hill. A monument to the battery stands in the general location of their fight.
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