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The 147th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment was organized at Oswego, NY, and mustered into service on September 22 and 23, 1862.  Seeing only light action previously at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, the “Oswego plowboys” displayed their bravery in the opening moments of the Battle of Gettysburg.  As the 147th approached a wheat field outside the southern Pennsylvania village of Gettysburg on the morning of July 1st, “Men began to fall on all sides before we fired a shot,” remembered J. Volnay Pierce of Company G.

 

The 147th, along with the 56th Pennsylvania and the 76th New York, collided with the 42nd Mississippi Regiment and 2nd Mississippi and 55th North Carolina Regiments after crossing a railroad cut and lining up in a wheat field.  The men of the 147th were within 30-40 rods from the enemy and were ordered to lie down in the wheat field to avoid the blistering firing power of the opposing Confederate troops.  As Francis Pease, F Company, wrote to his parents:  “For fifteen or twenty minutes we fought hard, when the rebels flanked us on the right and began advancing upon us in large numbers.  The firing from both sides was very rapid.  Finally we got the order to retreat and we lost no time in obeying, leaving an awful sight of dead and wounded upon the field.”

 

The reason the 147th held its ground so long under withering fire was that the order to withdraw had not reached them.  Lt. Col. Francis C. Miller, who received the order from General Lysander Cutler’s aide, was shot in the head before he could pass it along.  His horse bolted and took him off the field, leaving Major George Harney in command.  

 

The 56th and the 76th were in retreat as Lieutenant J. Volney Pierce described what he saw next:  “We were now nearly surrounded and the fight very hot – We stubbornly held that line.  No order to fall back had been received.  Col. Miller was wounded, early in the action and left the field.  Maj. Harney was close up on the line with us.  I saw an officer [Lt. Homer Chisman] of Gen. Cutler’s staff ride down towards us and wave his sword as a signal for us to fall back.  In the meantime a brigade of Rebs crossed the fence on our right and rear, and we then broke for the rear ourselves.”