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Civil War

9th MA Artillery Battery Bigelow(w) / Milton

Cumberland Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania

Marker Inscription

2nd position 6 p.m. July 2, 1863. Ninth Mass. Battery Capt. Bigelow “By prolongue retired firing” from the crossroads 400 yds. distant without infantry support before Barksdale’s Confed. Brigade. Final stand made across this road.

The Story

This monument marks a position of the 9th Massachusetts Battery under Captain John Bigelow on July 2, 1863, during the Battle of Gettysburg. Ordered to slow the Confederate advance of Barksdale's Brigade, the battery famously fought "by prolonge" — dragging its guns rearward while continuing to fire, without infantry to protect it — before making a desperate final stand near the Trostle farm. It commemorates one of the most celebrated artillery actions of the entire battle.

Why it matters

The battery's sacrifice bought precious minutes that helped the Union army hold its line on the second day at Gettysburg, a stand that echoes through the larger story of how the battle — and the war — was decided.

The story behind this marker

AI context

The era

The second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 2, 1863, brought some of the most furious fighting of the entire Civil War. Across the Pennsylvania farmland south of town, Confederate assaults slammed into the Union line through the late afternoon and evening, and the outcome of the battle — and much of the war in the East — hung in the balance.

It was in this crisis that artillery earned its reputation as the long arm of the army. As Confederate infantry pressed forward, Union commanders scrambled to find guns and men to plug the gaps and slow the advance until fresh troops could arrive.

This monument stands where one battery fought during those desperate evening hours. To understand it, you have to picture the pressure of the moment: a Confederate brigade advancing, few friendly infantry at hand, and a single battery of guns ordered to do the near-impossible — buy time, at almost any cost.

People & events

The 9th Massachusetts Battery, commanded by Captain John Bigelow, found itself in exactly that position around six o'clock on the evening of July 2. Ordered to hold back the advancing Confederate brigade of William Barksdale, the battery had no infantry alongside it to shield the gunners — a dangerous, exposed situation for artillery.

Rather than simply limber up and flee, the battery performed one of the most celebrated maneuvers of the battle. The inscription's phrase — "by prolonge retired firing" — describes it exactly: using a rope called a prolonge, the crews dragged their guns rearward while continuing to load and fire, giving ground grudgingly and making the enemy pay for every yard.

The marker records that the battery fell back this way from a crossroads some four hundred yards distant before making its final stand across this road. That last stand — fought at close range, without infantry support, against a determined Confederate assault — cost the battery dearly and became one of the legendary artillery actions of Gettysburg.

Its place in the American story

The larger meaning of this small patch of ground lies in the currency of battle: time. On the second day at Gettysburg, the Union army needed minutes to rush reinforcements and reset its line as Confederate attacks threatened to break through. Batteries like Bigelow's, fighting and dying to slow the enemy, purchased those minutes.

That is the hard arithmetic of the stand this monument commemorates. By refusing to break and run, by dragging their guns backward while still firing, the men of the 9th Massachusetts helped blunt and delay an assault at a critical spot — a sacrifice that fed directly into the Union's ability to hold its position through the evening.

Gettysburg was the turning point of the Civil War, and it turned on countless local actions like this one. The story of the battle, and of the war's outcome, is built from moments when small groups of men held on longer than seemed possible. This marker preserves one of the most storied of them.

If you visit

This monument sits near the Trostle farm, in the sweep of ground where the second day's fighting reached its fury. Standing here, try to read the landscape the way the gunners did: the crossroads some four hundred yards off where they began, and the road where they made their final, desperate stand.

The inscription rewards a close reading. Phrases like "by prolonge retired firing" are the actual vocabulary of Civil War artillery, and pausing over them turns the marker from a plaque into a window on exactly what these men did, minute by minute, as the enemy closed in.

Gettysburg's battlefield is best explored slowly, and this spot is one of its most dramatic. It pairs naturally with the nearby second-day sites, and together they let you follow how the Union line bent but did not break. Stand on this ground at day's end, when the light goes long across the fields, and it's easy to imagine the weight of that July evening.

Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.

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Related people

  • · Captain John Bigelow
  • · William Barksdale

Related events

  • · Battle of Gettysburg

Themes & tags

Civil WarMonument

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