The sweeping Confederate attack of July 2 continued rolling northward en echelon, with brigades unleashed one by one similar to a falling row of dominos. The initial attack by Lt. Gen. James Longstreet’s First Corps was designed to defeat the enemy, capture important terrain, and siphon southward Federal reinforcements from other areas of the line. This, it was hoped, would weaken Cemetery Ridge and other points along the right side of the Federal line so that when those sectors were struck by subsequent assaults, they could be more easily broken and carried.
Longstreet’s attack captured Devil’s Den, the Wheatfield, the Peach Orchard, and a large section of the enemy front along Emmitsburg Road. However, Little Round Top and the southern end of Cemetery Ridge remained in Federal hands. With Longstreet’s First Corps fully committed, the en echelon attack rolled northward into A. P. Hill’s Third Corps sector. Major General Richard H. Anderson kicked off Hill’s attack by launching Cadmus Wilcox’s and David Lang’s brigades against Emmitsburg Road. They helped Barksdale drive A. A. Humphreys’ division from its position along the road, but could not capture Cemetery Ridge.
Anderson’s third brigade under Brig. Gen. Ambrose Wright stepped off Seminary Ridge between 6:15 and 6:30 p.m. to attack Cemetery Ridge. Wright’s line was aligned from left to right as follows: 48th Georgia – 3rd Georgia – 22nd Georgia. The 2nd Georgia Battalion, on the skirmish line behind a fence between Seminary Ridge and Emmitsburg Road, had orders to form on the left of the 48th Georgia as it swept by. Instead, the battalion lost its cohesion and dissolved into the rest of the advancing brigade.1
The brigade halted briefly to redress its lines when it reached the fence line held by the 2nd Georgia Battalion. When the attack was renewed, the Georgians came under fire from Lt. Fred Brown’s battery near the Codori House and Lt. Alonzo Cushing’s and Capt. William Arnold’s batteries on Cemetery Ridge. Undulations in the ground screened the Georgians at times, but they lost many men. Wright’s attack was so unexpected that Lieutenant Brown was only able to shift his left and center sections to meet the movement.2
Portions of three Federal brigades lay in front of Wright’s Brigade. About 600 men of the 15th Massachusetts and 82nd New York (Brig. Gen. William Harrow’s brigade, Brig. Gen. John Gibbon’s division, II Corps) had formed in line along Emmitsburg Road just north of the Codori house. Gibbon sent them to this vulnerable position directly in front of the main Federal line on Cemetery Ridge to support the embattled III Corps fighting on his left. Realizing the precariousness of their situation, the veterans threw up breastworks. Flimsy at best, most did not survive the enemy artillery fire that rained down on them. From their position just east of Emmitsburg Road, however, the Federal infantrymen could not see Wright’s Georgians approach because tall grass obstructed their view. The Federal artillery on Cemetery Ridge continued firing, but the gunners occasionally misjudged the range (particularly when the Confederates neared the road) and some of the rounds dropped among their own troops.3
Three Federal regiments crouched behind a low stone wall on the forward slope of Cemetery Ridge. The 69th Pennsylvania, part of Brig. Gen. Alexander Webb’s Philadelphia Brigade, held the right of the line in front of the Copse of Trees, with the 7th Michigan and 59th New York of Col. Norman Hall’s brigade on the 69th’s left. Webb’s other three regiments rested on the reverse slope of the ridge in column, aligned west to east as follows: 71st Pennsylvania – 72nd Pennsylvania – 106th Pennsylvania.4
Brigadier General Carnot Posey’s Brigade of Mississippians (Anderson’s Division) was next in line on Seminary Ridge to assault across the valley. The Mississippi regiments were arranged left to right as follows: 12th – 16th – 19th – 48th. The men captured the Bliss house and barn. The 19th Mississippi and a small part of the 48th Mississippi continued on “400 paces” beyond the farm buildings, where they opened fire on the gunners firing from Cemetery Ridge (probably Arnold’s battery), killing and wounding a number of them and driving the rest from their pieces.5