After the skirmish line faltered, and the rest of the 3rd Corps retreated towards the rest of the original Union line, the officers of the third Michigan counted up their wounded and dead. Due to the loss of the soldiers at Gettysburg, they slowly merged with the fifth Michigan by the end of the war. However, let’s explore the soldiers that didn’t survive this battle.
The soldiers that passed away due to their fight at the Peach Orchard are the following:
- Silas E. Thurston, Company G – Killed on July 2nd
- Charles B. Burgess, Company A – Mortally wounded on July 2nd, died on July 3rd
- James O’Neil, Company H – Mortally wounded on July 2nd, died on July 5th
- Hiram Blood, Company I – Mortally wounded and died on July 2nd
- Robert Sligh, Company K – Killed on July 2nd
- Corporal Oliver N. Culver, Company K – Killed on July 2nd
- Orin D. Wade, Company D – Mortally wounded on July 2nd, and died on July 3rd
For many of the Michigan regiments, it seems that they were very photogenetic during the Civil War. There are many pictures of soldiers within the 24th, 16th, and 3rd Michigan.
This photograph above is the Byron Root Pierce, who was a soldier that began in Company K in June of 1861. He was promoted several times and would become Colonel prior to Fredericksburg in December 1862. At Gettysburg, he was shot and wounded below the knee, but would survive. His brother, Lt. Colonel Edwin Sheldon Pierce would take temporary command of the regiment. Bryon was the last Michigan officer to survive, and he died on July 10, 1924.
Some of those will be posted within the “Photographs” section of this page.