As the survivors of the Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble attack dribbled back toward Seminary Ridge, two Confederate brigades under Brig. Gen. Cadmus Wilcox and Col. David Lang moved out toward Cemetery Ridge. Both belonged to Maj. Gen. Richard Anderson’s Third Corps division. Wilcox’s Alabama soldiers, about 1,000 strong, held the right side of the column while Lang’s Floridians, whittled down to only 400 men, held the left.
These brigades should have moved forward earlier to exploit any success and to protect Pickett’s right flank against exactly what had befallen it: a flank attack of the variety delivered by Stannard’s Vermont brigade. For some reason the two brigades did not step off until the Virginians were fighting for their lives near the stone wall. By then it was much too late. “Wilcox’s brigade passed by us, moving to Pickett’s support,” recalled Colonel Alexander. By that time, noted the gunner, “There was no longer anything to support, and with the keenest pity at the useless waste of life, I saw them advance. The men, as they passed us, looked bewildered, as if they wondered what they were expected to do, or why they were there.”34
Wilcox’s Alabama regiments formed from left to right as follows: 14th Alabama – 8th Alabama – 11th Alabama – 10th Alabama – 9th Alabama. Lang’s troops advanced from left to right as follows: 2nd Florida – 8th Florida – 5th Florida. The fifty-nine pieces of Federal artillery in front of this forlorn hope opened fire as the two brigades walked into view. “All of the enemy’s terrible artillery that could bear on them was concentrated upon them from both flanks and directly in front, and more than on the evening previous,” reported Wilcox. Casualties quickly mounted as case shot and shell, followed by rounds of canister (and then double canister) smashed through their ranks.35
When the Southern infantry reached the thickets surrounding Plum Run, Lang’s men on the left side of the line dispersed to find shelter from the Federal guns. One of those keenly watching the new advance of the enemy was General Stannard. He ordered the 16th Vermont to “double quick back to our original position and get in front of this new line,” recalled its colonel, Wheelock Veazey. Four companies of the 14th Vermont moved forward to assist the 16th. The 13th Vermont held its position. The green troops rushed ahead without firing a shot and approached the 2nd Florida on the left of Lang’s line. Colonel Veazey’s order to charge the Floridians’ flank inflicted heavy casualties and widespread confusion in the Confederate ranks. Colonel Lang had been trying desperately to move his brigade to safety, but the “noise of artillery and small-arms was so deafening that it was impossible to make the voice heard above the din, and the men were by this time so badly scattered in the bushes and among the rocks that it was impossible to make any movement to meet or check the enemy’s advance.” Lang also acknowledged that his orders were “not in time to save a large number of the Second Florida Infantry, together with their colors, from being cut off and captured by the flanking force on the left.” His men did not go down easily, firing from behind rocks and trees until they were overwhelmed. Some of the Floridians were so stunned they willingly wandered east into the Union rear without guards.36
General Wilcox, meanwhile, rode back to the First Corps batteries along Emmitsburg Road to ask them to open fire on the Vermont troops. His request was impossible to fulfill because the guns were out of ammunition. “Not getting any artillery to fire upon the enemy’s infantry that were on my left flank, and seeing none of the troops that I was ordered to support, and knowing that my small force could do nothing save to make a useless sacrifice of themselves, I ordered them back,” he wrote. Although the Alabama troops had only faced artillery fire before retreating, Wilcox left more than 200 men on the field. Lang’s losses were also heavy, particularly among the 2nd Florida. Two of his three regiments lost their battle flags.37
The repulse of Wilcox and Lang ended the last significant infantry fighting at the battle at Gettysburg.