R . Bruce Ricketts Robert Bruce Ricketts ( April 29 , 1839 – November 13 , 1918 ) distinguished himself as an artillery officer in the American Civil War . He is best known for his battery ’ s defense against a Confederate attack on Cemetery Hill on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg . Early life . Elijah Ricketts was a merchant and farmer in Orangeville in Columbia County , Pennsylvania . He married Margaret Leigh Lockart ( 1810 – 1891 ) in 1830 . Robert Bruce Ricketts was the fifth of nine children of this union , and the fifth son , born on April 29 , 1839 . An older brother , William Wallace Ricketts ( b . 1837 ) , attended the United States Military Academy ; but he died in 1862 . Bruce Ricketts was educated at the Wyoming Seminary near Wilkes - Barre . When the war broke out , he was studying law and considering the possibility of a university education . Early Civil War . The First Pennsylvania Light Artillery ( otherwise known as the 43rd Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers ) was organized in 1861 . The regiment left for Washington , D . C . in August of that year . Battery F was formed under Capt Ezra W . Matthews . Bruce Ricketts joined the service on July 8 , as a private of that year , and he was commissioned as first lieutenant in that battery about a month later . The regiment was split , up with individual batteries serving with different divisions of the Army of the Potomac . Battery F first saw combat at the Battle of Dranesville on December 20 , 1861 . Ricketts ’ section had one gun disabled in that action . Later the section served in the defense of Hancock , Maryland against a foray by Stonewall Jackson . Battery F served in the Army of Virginia in the corps of Major General Irwin McDowell , joining it on March 21 , 1862 at Warrenton , Virginia . In that context it was involved , under Ricketts ’ leadership , in a reconnaissance expedition to Rappahannock Station , Virginia , that left on April 7 , of that year . This force advanced and then withdrew , having accomplished its information - gathering purpose . Thereafter the battery was involved in the campaign culminating in the Second Battle of Bull Run . Battery F was seriously engaged in the Battle of Cedar Mountain on August 8 , helping McDowell cover the retreat of the corps of Major General Nathaniel Banks . The battery helped defend Henry House Hill at Second Bull Run , and it was present at the Battle of Chantilly though not engaged . It also participated in the “ artillery hell ” of the Battle of Antietam . Lt Ricketts missed most of these actions while serving on recruiting duty . He returned to the Army of the Potomac on September 23 , 1862 . Ricketts commanded Battery F , First Pennsylvania Light Artillery from then on until the summer of 1864 . Capt Matthews went down ill and did not return to battery command . Lt Ricketts was engaged with his guns at the Battle of Fredericksburg , serving with second division I Corps under Major General John F . Reynolds . When Capt Matthews was promoted to the rank of major , Ricketts became a captain on March 14 , 1863 . At the Battle of Chancellorsville Capt Ricketts ’ battery was with Major General Abner Doubleday ’ s third division I Corps . Gettysburg . Ricketts ’ battery was - beginning on May 13 , 1863 - in the third volunteer brigade of the Reserve Artillery under Captain James F . Huntington . Battery G , First Pennsylvania Light Artillery , was attached to Ricketts ’ battery a few weeks before the Battle of Gettysburg , on June 1 , 1863 . This merger was resented until gunners from Battery G were permitted to form a section of the consolidated battery . This merger took place while the army was marching north in pursuit of the Army of Northern Virginia , beginning on May 15 . Ricketts ’ battery arrived in Gettysburg on the Taneytown Road on the morning of July 2 , 1863 and replaced Capt James H . Cooper ' s Battery B , First Pennsylvania Light Artillery , on East Cemetery Hill about 4 : 00 PM . It was exposed to enfilade fire from Benner ’ s Hill and Seminary Ridge . Around nightfall , two Confederate brigades from the division of Major General Jubal Early attacked the hill . It broke the thin Union front line at the foot of the hill in two places . In other places they were repelled . Some Confederates reached the top of the hill , and one group attacked the left of Ricketts ’ battery , trying to spike the guns . The fight for the guns became hand to hand , but the Confederates were unable to capture the whole battery . Eventually Union reinforcements from the II Corps brigade of Col Samuel S . Carroll drove the Confederates down hill . A monument to the battery stands in the general location of their fight . After the battle , Ricketts criticized Adelbert Ames ' division of XI Corps , although he probably could not see what was going on down there at the foot of the hill . He thought they fled unnecessarily . Ricketts ’ account of the action makes it look as if his battery stood alone for an extended time . However , a less colorful account by a modern historian shows that some of the XI Corps troops had rallied and stood fast atop Cemetery Hill even before reinforcements from Col Samuel S . Carroll ’ s brigade of II Corps came up behind Ricketts ’ position . After Gettysburg . After Gettysburg , Ricketts ’ battery F was transferred to the artillery brigade of II Corps in time for the Bristoe Campaign . At the Second Battle of Auburn on October 14 , 1863 , the battery helped first division II Corps cover the withdrawal of the corps under harassing fire from horse artillery of Major General J . E . B . Stuart ’ s command . At the Battle of Bristoe Station later that day , Ricketts ’ battery F came up at a gallop and unlimbered behind BG Alexander S . Webb ’ s second division II Corps . Their fire helped defeat Major General Henry Heth ’ s attack on the federal line . The battery was given the privilege of presenting captured Confederate guns to Major General George G . Meade , the commanding general . Ricketts ’ battery remained with the II Corps for the Overland Campaign . During the Battle of the Wilderness , a section of Ricketts ’ battery advanced on the Plank Road with Major General Winfield Scott Hancock ’ s attack on the Confederate lines on May 5 , 1864 at about 3 : 30 PM . The section accompanied BG George Getty ’ s division of VI Corps , serving with Hancock at that time . A Confederate counterattack captured the section , but Col Samuel S . Carroll ’ s brigade recaptured the guns by 6 : 00 PM . BG Getty praised Ricketts for his " great coolness and courage " in this action . Ricketts was engaged in support of Grant ' s offensive attacks on the Confederate positions in the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House on May 18 , 1864 , being moved up close to the captured Confederate works . He also supported Hancock ' s attack on Henagan ' s redoubt at the Battle of North Anna on May 23 . The battery remained with II Corps throughout the remainder of the campaign , except at the Battle of Cold Harbor , when it was detached to serve with XVIII Corps on June 3 . Ricketts ' battery crossed the James River with II Corps and participated in the Second Battle of Petersburg . Battery F fired some of the first federal shots into the beleaguered city . Ricketts ' guns were on the battle front for two weeks until they were relieved by a battery from V Corps . During the subsequent Siege of Petersburg , Capt Ricketts was promoted to higher ranks in the First Pennsylvania Light Artillery . When Major James H . Cooper reached the expiration of his term of service on August 8 , 1864 , Ricketts was named his successor . When , in 1865 , Colonel R . M . West was commissioned colonel of the Fifth Pennsylvania Cavalry , Major Ricketts was promoted to the rank of colonel in his place to date from March 15 . During the early stages of the siege , Ricketts continued in command of his battery with II Corps . This included a role supporting BG Gershom Mott ' s division in the Second Battle of Deep Bottom . After returning to the Petersburg front , the battery was assigned to positions near the Jerusalem Plank Road . During this period , Captain Ricketts presided over a court of inquiry into the loss of a gun at the Second Battle of Ream ' s Station . He also served on a board deciding which units could add the names of particular battles to their flags . In December 1864 , Cpt Ricketts , as " acting major , " commanded the II Corps batteries serving on the lines of IX Corps for a period of three weeks . In 1865 , Ricketts played a role in the Artillery Reserve ; and , by the spring of 1865 he was assistant chief of artillery of IX Corps . Whenever the chief of artillery , Colonel John C . Tidball , was absent , Ricketts took charge of the guns of IX Corps in his place . The report that a Confederate veteran looked at Ricketts , a slight man , and commented , " And did this little cuss command Battery Hell ! , " may be apocryphal . Post - war . After the war , Colonel Ricketts , with his father and an uncle , began buying timber land in Columbia , Luzerne and Sullivan counties . By 1873 , they had ca . . In 1872 Ricketts and partners opened a saw mill . He used his own lumber to build North Mountain House at Ganoga Lake in the area where he had his timber lands . The house took guests until 1903 , when it became his family ’ s summer home . Ricketts ’ interests suffered financial hardship in the years 1883 to 1885 , and he had to sell off much of his land . Col Ricketts married Elizabeth Reynolds in Wilkes - Barre , Pennsylvania on October 1 , 1868 . They had three children : William Reynolds ( 1869 – 1956 ) ; Jean Holberton ( 1873 – 1929 ) , and Frances Leigh ( 1881 – 1970 ) . Lakes Jean and Leigh are named for their two daughters . Ricketts belonged to the Grand Army of the Republic and the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States . The colonel was politically active too . He supported Major General Winfield Scott Hancock for president in 1880 . At his death on November 14 , 1918 , at Ganoga Lake , Ricketts still owned about around Red Rock Mountain in Columbia , Luzerne , and Sullivan Counties , including Ganoga Lake ( or Long Pond ) and Lake Jean . Col Ricketts was buried nearby . His heirs sold much of this timber land to the state of Pennsylvania via the Central Penn Lumber Company 1920 - 1924 . This land became the nucleus of Ricketts Glen State Park .