Hazlett's Battery

Hazlett's Battery. Gettysburg National Military Park. , Battery D, 5th United States Artillery, commanded by Lt. Charles E. Hazlett, held the position just to your right and rear on the afternoon of July 2. The cannons and tablet, placed by the War Department in 1905, mark the approximate position occupied by his six rifled guns during the bloody battle for control of the hill., Hazlett's gunners climbed up the rocky slope behind you. No roads then existed here, and the guns, caissons, and limbers had to be dragged by hand over rocks, around trees, and up the muddy slopes. On the summit they realized their barrels couldn't be lowered enough to fire upon Confederate troops assaulting the hill., General Warren remarked this was "no place for efficient artillery fire." "Nevermind that," Hazlett responded, "The sound of my guns will be encouraging to our troops and disheartening to the others...." Over the next two hours, they helped save Little Round Top for the Union army. It cost Battery D nine men killed and five wounded., (captions) , Lt. Charles E. Hazlett graduated from West Point in the May class of 1861. At age 24, he was shot in the head and killed near this spot. General G. K. Warren would recall, "No nobler man fought or fell that day than he." Hazlett is buried in his hometown of Zanesville, Ohio., This illustration by Edwin Forbes depicts Hazlett's Battery in action on the afternoon of July 2, 1863. The wooded slopes of Big Round Top appear to the left, as Union and Confederate forces battle for control of Devil's Den and the Valley of Death below., A Fragment of the Past , This rusted piece of iron is an original artillery shell fragment from the American Civil War. Filled with black powder and with a timed fuse ignited by the discharge, artillery shells were designed to explode into such fragments that could kill or maim the enemy.