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Civil War

US HQ 3-1-2nd Brigade Hobart Ward(w) / Berdan

Cumberland Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania

Marker Inscription

Army of the Potomac Third Corps First Division Second Brigade Brig. Gen. J. H. Hobart Ward Col. Hiram Berdan 20th Indiana 3d 4th Maine 86th 124th New York 99th Penna. Infantry 1st 2d (8 Cos.) U. S. Sharpshooters

The Story

This tablet marks the headquarters of the Second Brigade, First Division, Third Corps at Gettysburg, commanded by Brigadier General J. H. Hobart Ward with Colonel Hiram Berdan of the famed U.S. Sharpshooters. Its regiments — drawn from Indiana, Maine, New York, and Pennsylvania — fought in the punishing action across the Wheatfield and Devil's Den on July 2, 1863. The sharpshooters listed here were among the war's most specialized marksmen.

Why it matters

The marker preserves the memory of a hard-pressed sector of the second day's fight and of Berdan's Sharpshooters, an early experiment in elite light-infantry tactics.

The story behind this marker

AI context

The era

By the summer of 1863, the Civil War had ground on for two brutal years, and the Confederate army had crossed north into Pennsylvania farm country. The rolling fields and rocky ridges around this small college town were about to become the setting for the largest battle ever fought in North America.

The men whose command post this tablet marks belonged to the Army of the Potomac, the principal Union army in the East. They had marched hard through the June heat to intercept the invasion, and on the first days of July they found themselves fighting over ground that most had never seen before — wheatfields, orchards, and a jumble of enormous boulders on the army's southern flank.

This was a war in which ordinary volunteers from a handful of Northern states — Indiana, Maine, New York, Pennsylvania — were thrown together into brigades and asked to hold a line against determined attack. The tablet you're standing near preserves the memory of one such hard-pressed sector.

People & events

The brigade honored here was led by Brigadier General J. H. Hobart Ward, with Colonel Hiram Berdan among its officers — a name that carried real weight in the army. Berdan had organized and trained the United States Sharpshooters, listed on this tablet as the 1st and 2nd regiments of that specialized corps.

Alongside the sharpshooters stood volunteer infantry regiments drawn from across the North: the 20th Indiana, the 3rd and 4th Maine, the 86th and 124th New York, and the 99th Pennsylvania. On July 2, 1863, this part of the Union line held the army's left, in the rugged, boulder-strewn ground and the open fields nearby, where the fighting was as close and desperate as anywhere on the field.

Berdan's men were not ordinary infantry. To join, a recruit had to prove himself with a rifle, passing a demanding marksmanship test. They carried fine breech-loading Sharps rifles and often wore green rather than the usual blue, the better to blend into brush and tree line. Used as skirmishers and scouts, they probed ahead of the main line, and their forward reconnaissance on the second day helped reveal the enemy's movements before the storm broke.

Its place in the American story

The regiments named on this tablet came from four different states, and that is part of what makes the marker matter. It is a small illustration of how the Union army was assembled — local volunteer regiments, each with its own hometown pride, welded into brigades and corps that fought as one.

Berdan's Sharpshooters represent something larger still: an early American experiment in elite light infantry. The idea that carefully selected marksmen, armed with the best rifles and trained to fight independently, could shape a battle was ahead of its time. In many ways these men anticipated the specialized, precision-focused soldiers of later wars.

The ground this brigade defended was one hinge of a battle that turned back the Confederate invasion of the North. What happened across these fields helped decide that the war would not be won on Pennsylvania soil, and the outcome rippled through the rest of the conflict.

If you visit

Stand here and read the roll of regiments slowly. These bronze and granite tablets are scattered across the battlefield precisely where units stood, so the marker is not just a memorial but a map — it tells you that command and men were once gathered on this very spot.

Look toward the rocky, broken ground to the south and imagine skirmishers in green slipping between the boulders, rifles ready. The landscape here still does much of the storytelling: the terrain that gave defenders cover and made every advance costly is largely intact.

This is a good place to slow down on a battlefield tour. Pair it with a walk across the nearby fields and rocks, and you'll begin to feel how a handful of regiments, each from a different corner of the North, were asked to hold a line that mattered far beyond their numbers.

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

  • · J. H. Hobart Ward
  • · Hiram Berdan

Related events

  • · Battle of Gettysburg

Themes & tags

Civil WarMonument

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