Booknotes: “The Bullets Flew Like Hail”

New Arrival:
• “The Bullets Flew Like Hail”: Cutler’s Brigade at Gettysburg, from McPherson’s Ridge to Culp’s Hill by James L. McLean, Jr. (Savas Beatie, 2023).

While the well-documented heroics of Buford's cavalry division and the Iron Brigade have together received a large proportion of the accolades and popular attention attached to the hard-fought Union defensive action west of Gettsyburg on July 1, 1863, the efforts of Brig. Gen. Lysander Cutler's brigade (76th, 95th, and 147th NY, 14th NYSM/Brooklyn, 56th PA, and 7th IN regiments) were just as significant. In relief of Buford's two brigades, "Cutler’s stubborn defense, together with the arrival of the famous Iron Brigade, stopped the Confederate advance long enough for other Union troops to reach the field. The desperate fighting that morning helped save the important high ground upon which the battle would be fought—and won—over the next two days."

Cutler's Brigade at Gettysburg, the first full treatment of this formation's contributions to Union victory during the battle, was initially released in 1987 by author James McLean's publishing company Butternut & Blue. Limited to 300 copies, that first edition eventually sold out and gave way to a second printing in 1994 that offered a variety of improvements. Out of print for over two decades now, the book has been revised and expanded yet again in a new Savas Beatie edition titled “The Bullets Flew Like Hail”: Cutler’s Brigade at Gettysburg, from McPherson’s Ridge to Culp’s Hill.

More from the description: "This completely revised and updated edition describes the brigade’s origins, its march to the field, and how it went into action, piecemeal and vulnerable. Two of Cutler’s regiments, the 14th Brooklyn and the 95th New York, along with the Iron Brigade’s 6th Wisconsin, participated in one of the most famous assaults of the war. The trio of regiments simultaneously charged across open ground, repulsed the attack of Brig. Gen. Joseph Davis’s Rebel brigade, and captured a large number of Mississippi and North Carolina troops in an unfinished railroad cut."

Of course, the costly fighting burden of Cutler's brigade at Gettysburg was far from over by the evening of July 1. "By the end of July 1, Cutler’s command had faced off against Confederate brigades led by James Archer, Joseph Davis, Alfred Iverson, Junius Daniels, and Alfred Scales. The brigade was one of the last to leave the field of battle and successfully reformed on Cemetery Hill. The brigade was sent to Culp’s Hill on July 2, where that evening and during the early morning hours of July 3, Cutler’s men assisted Brig. Gen. George Greene’s 12th Corps brigade in repulsing spirited Southern attacks against the Union right flank. In doing so, Cutler’s veterans held the distinction of being among the few Union troops who fought all three days of the battle. The performance of the brigade came at a great cost. Only five Union and Confederate brigades sustained 1,000 or more casualties at Gettysburg, and Cutler’s was one of them."

According to the author's preface, this latest version fixes printing mistakes, reformats the footnotes, corrects errors, updates interpretations, and adds new material (the last including a trio of fresh additions to the appendix section). The 2023 title has 26 maps, a lower number that's the result of some consolidation of the old map set. Owners of one or both of the earlier editions can refer to the new preface for a pretty detailed rundown of the book project's decades-long evolution and what's new to be found in this third version of McLean's Gettysburg history of Cutler's brigade. You'll have to decide for yourself, but it sounds like a worthwhile upgrade.