“Smith’s Battery has not received in history full credit for the heroic and valuable work done by its members at Gettysburg. I was at that time 1st sergeant of Company ” H,” I24th New York. I saw the Battery come down Rock Run Glen. The guns Were unlimbered at the foot of Rock Ridge and hauled up the steep acclivity into position amid the rocks on its crest, and the Battery was soon engaged in a hot duel with the rebel batteries on the heights beyond the ” peach orchard.” Under cover of the Confederate fire, Longstreet’s Corps, massed in battle lines eight or ten deep, moved in confident, rapid attack on our position. The Battery changed from shell to canister, and, working as I never saw gunners work before or since, tore gap after gap through the ranks of the advancing foe. All this time the men were exposed to the direct fire of Longstreet’s Sharpshooters, and his front line. Every round of ammunition had to be carried from the foot of the ridge, the Battery keeping up a well-directed fire until the enemy was at the base of the heights and the guns could no longer be depressed to reach him. Then knowing that greatly superior force would overwhelm us and capture the guns unless checked, Colonel Ellis of the 124th, after a few rapid words with Major Cromwell, ordered a charge. It was immediately responded to and as quickly repulsed. It was again made in the face of a withering fire that ‘left killed and wounded two-fifths of the regiment. Flanked at the Devil’s Den by the turning of our line at that point, we were swept from the position, and the crest and guns were for a brief time in possession of the enemy. Meanwhile Captain Smith had removed horses, caissons and ammunition, rendering the guns useless to the enemy, whose hold on the position was so short that he could not remove them. * * * Longstreet’s determined charge, now so famous in history, was so dauntlessly met by our single line of battle on the crest of Rock Ridge, his force so terribly broken by the merciless fire of Smith’s canister and the fierce grapple amid the rocks of Devil’s Den. * * * The foregoing account is my recollection of Gettysburg, July 2, 1863. It may be faulty; it was more than twenty-two years ago, and I was but nineteen years of age then. The business cares and thoughts of an active life have come in between. I was seriously wounded in the second charge and my memories of the last part of the contest are confused with the agony of wounds, of being trampled under foot, carried and placed helplessly beside a rock on the other slope between both fires, hoping as I lay there that I might live long enough to see our side win, which I did, thank God ! I recovered and returned to duty. During the last of my service I was a major and aide-de-camp on the staff of the Third Division, Second Corps. This Division was formed by the remnant of the old Third Corps left alive after Gettysburg. I managed to get ‘ plugged ‘ a couple of times after that and yet see and take part in some pretty active fighting, but I never saw such a gallant rush ‘into the jaws of Hell’ as was made by our little regiment that July day, or a Battery worked and fought with such coolness and skill, such tireless devotion, and with such terrible havoc to the enemy. * * * Without that charge and the work of Smith’s Battery, our left would have been more seriously turned; but now, in the light of after experience, as I think of it, what a mad act it was. Our regiment—a mere handful, at that—with no order back- of its Colonel, charging from its base in line of battle to lock arms with Longstreet. This good it did, it gave pluck and steadiness to the men at our left, who were needing it and who fought like heroes, as the slaughterhouse in the Den abundantly attested.”

Bio Link Source: BRADLEY, Thomas Wilson, a Representative from New York; born in Yorkshire, England, April 6, 1844; immigrated to the United States in 1846 with his parents, who settled in Walden, Orange County, N.Y.; attended school until nine years of age; during the Civil War entered the Union Army as a private; promoted to captain in the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry; was aide-de-camp to Major General Mott, Third Division, Second Army Corps; awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor “for gallantry at Chancellorsville”; was brevetted major of United States Volunteers; member of the State house of assembly in 1876; delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1892, 1896, and 1900; elected as a Republican to the Fifty-eighth and to the four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1903-March 3, 1913); was not a candidate for renomination in 1912; engaged in banking; president and treasurer of the New York Knife Co.; died in Walden, N.Y., May 30, 1920; interment in Wallkill Valley Cemetery.

I have been gathering letters and diaries from this regiment and it has been a struggle, but I have found this one which is a nice description of their participation during the Battle of Gettysburg.

A letter published in the National Tribune December 23, 1885, from J. Harvey Hanford, Unionville, Orange County, New York, formerly of the 124th New York:

To the Editor :

In a late issue of the National Tribune you invite a minute description of an active private soldier’s experience on the battlefield of Gettysburg. I will try to give you a part of mine. I was 2d sergeant of Company “B” 124th N. Y. Vols., and together with the rest of the regiment and others reached the vicinity of Gettysburg at 8.30 P. M., July 1, 1863. We lay down in an open field, with orders to sleep on our arms, and not take off an article of clothing or any of our accouterments. This was hard sauce after such a march as we had had; but soldier-like, we had to take it out in grumbling. Early in the morning of the 2d we got our breakfast, and were then formed in line of battle behind a stone wall—an excellent position we thought. Not long after the order ‘ Forward, march!’ was given, and after crossing one or two fields we came to the famous wheat-field—and, by the way, it was the finest I ever saw, the wheat breast-high and ready to cut—but we marched through and over it in line of battle, and on looking back not a stock could be found, for it was -all trodden out of sight. When nearly through the wheat-field the order was given, ‘ By the left flank, march !’ and when halt was sounded, I being the extreme left man in the regiment, I found myself on the rocks at Devil’s Den. A battery of guns, commanded by Captain Smith, was soon in our midst. On this spot we lounged for some time, taking it easy. Our signal corps was a little to the left and rear of us, on Little Round Top. Presently a shell came shrieking and bursting near us; we needed no order or invitation to get behind the rocks, but did so at once. Then followed the usual cannonading until the infantry of the Confederates got so close as to pick off all our gunners. Then shone out the bravery of Captain Smith. When he had not men enough left to man the guns, he would come to us and ask and beg of us to help him fire them. Then he would run back to the guns and do what he could, and then back to us, and, with tears in his eyes would say: ‘ For God’s sake, men, don’t let them take my guns away from me!’ (Twenty-two years ago, yet I can see his looks and hear his voice.) O, how I would like to see him and thank him for what he then did, and if this meets his eye I would like to have him write to me. We were ordered to charge, and charge we did, driving the enemy back to the foot of the hill. We made four charges that afternoon, and held our ground until out of ammunition.

A little incident happened after our last charge. As I was kneeling behind a rock and loading my gun, Lieutenant Dennison, of the next company, had picked up a gun, and, there being a rock to my left hand, he jumped over my arms and caught his toe in my ramrod, bending it so I could not use it. I scolded him for it, but looking around I picked up another one. The Lieutenant squatted behind the rock, and was in the act of firing his gun when he was struck by a bullet in the leg. With a cry, ‘ I’ve got it, I’ve got it,’ he started for the rear, but before getting far another one struck him, so he had to be carried off the field. While I was behind the rock I was struck four times, but not seriously. My attention was all the time on an open space, apparently like a pair of bars, in the stone wall at the foot of the hill, behind which the enemy had taken cover. Into this I did most of my firing, as it was all the time crowded full of men. After using all my ammunition I went back to and over the brow of the hill, and there saw we were about to be relieved by other troops. What there was left of us passed through the ranks of the fresh troops, and we made our way to the rear. Our regiment, which was raised in Orange County, N. Y., and was by its Colonel (Ellis) called fhe ‘ Orange Blossoms,’ with the aid of citizens of the county, have erected a nice monument on the ground where we fought. This was all the fighting we were in at this battle, as we were so badly cut up as to be hardly a show of a regiment.

I saw in a paper some time ago that our twin regiment, the 86th New York, which was on our right, were going to erect a monument on the ground, and I hope they will. I think when the battle commenced on the second day I was the last man on the extreme left of the army. I know that at one time the enemy had passed our left flank and were enfilading us; but it was only for a minute or two. Our regiment holds a reunion each year, this year in Middletown, Orange County, N. Y., September 23, 1885. I wish we could see a good number of the 86th New York with us.

“J. Harvey Hanford, ” 2d Serfft. Co. ‘B,’ 124th N. Y., “Unionville, Orange Co., N. Y.”