page_title: 9th Massachusetts Battery
section_title: Battle of Gettysburg July 2–4, 1863
hierarchical_section_title: 9th Massachusetts Battery / Detailed service / Battle of Gettysburg July 2–4, 1863
context_page_description: The 9th Massachusetts Battery was an artillery battery that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
context_section_description: On the 2d of July it marched to Gettysburg and took part in its first battle, being placed in support of the Third Corps at the left of the Union lines. As that corps was forced back in the battle of the afternoon, it was among the last of the artillery to retire, and on reaching the angle of two stone walls was ordered to hold the position to the last moment to give time for the formation of a line in the rear. In effect, Captain Bigelow was ordered to sacrifice his battery to save the others, and nobly responded to the demand. The guns had been fired by prolonge till this point was reached, when a Confederate brigade having closed in on both flanks and 59 of the battery horses having been killed, four of the guns were necessarily abandoned, such of the artillerists as could do so extricating themselves from the enveloping lines of the foe. The guns were later regained under cover of the fire from the reformed batteries in the rear. The loss of the command was very severe. 11 having been killed or mortally wounded, including both first lieutenants; 16 were wounded, and two were taken prisoners. Lieutenant Erickson was killed on the spot, and Lieutenant Whitaker received wounds of which he died on the 20th. The battery was left with but one commissioned officer and one sergeant for duty: yet it was engaged the following day on Cemetery Hill, meeting a further loss of five horses.
  At the dedication of a monument in later years, Major Bigelow recalled: In three hours' fighting. You expended over three tons of shot and shell, including ninety-two rounds of canister. You lost, killed and disabled, eighty of eighty-eight horses taken into action. You lost three of your four commissioned officers present; two, Erickson and Whitaker, being killed. You lost six of the seven sergeants on the field
caption: "View around Abraham Trossel's house": The battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, photographed July 5 or July 6, 1863, by Timothy H. O'Sullivan
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