Review - " “The Bullets Flew Like Hail”: Cutler’s Brigade at Gettysburg, from McPherson’s Ridge to Culp’s Hill " by James McLean

[“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). Hardcover, 26 maps, photos, footnotes, appendix section, bibliography, index. Pages main/total:xix,160/239. ISBN:978-1-61121-667-7. $32.95]

As we all know by now, ultimate Union victory at Gettysburg was heavily contingent upon the ability of their advance forces on July 1, 1863 to delay Confederate advances north and west of town and secure the high ground south of it as a defensive linchpin and gathering point for the Army of the Potomac. A good deal responsible for that success, Brig. Gen. John Buford's cavalry division and Brig. Gen. Solomon Meredith's Iron Brigade have been repeatedly singled out for their actions west of Gettysburg on that day. However, the second-to-none battlefield heroics of the other infantry brigade in the First Division of First Corps are equally deserving of recognition.

The first infantry of the Army of the Potomac to arrive at the firing line on the morning of July 1, Brig. Gen. Lysander Cutler's brigade (76th, 95th, and 147th NY, 14th NYSM/Brooklyn, 56th PA, and 7th IN regiments, the last pulling train guard duty) promptly relieved Buford's hard-pressed troopers and instantly stabilized the fighting front for a brief but critical period. In maintaining ridge-top defensive positions west of Gettysburg and partnering with the Iron Brigade there and at the famous "Railroad Cut," Cutler's men badly battered their Confederate opponents while suffering frightful losses of their own. Eventually forced to yield on all fronts, Union forces funneled through the streets of Gettysburg and hurriedly carved out new defensive positions on and around Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill. Reduced to mere shadows of their former strength, the regiments of Cutler's brigade might have expected to be placed in reserve for the rest of the battle. Instead, they were pressed into more heavy combat over the succeeding two days during which they again distinguished themselves in pivotal front line action. The key contributions of Cutler and his men to Union victory in the war's most iconic battle are meticulously recounted in James McLean's “The Bullets Flew Like Hail”: Cutler’s Brigade at Gettysburg, from McPherson’s Ridge to Culp’s Hill.

The core narrative of McLean's brigade study has a long history. Initially released in a tiny press run through the author's own company, Butternut & Blue, in 1987, a revised second printing was released in 1994. With more professional presentation and cartography, along with a bibliography the author estimates as 70% larger in size (the majority of the additions being primary sources), the second B&B edition was a major leap forward in style, content, and value. Inevitably, that edition also fell out of print, the combination of scarcity and sought-after status leading it to command stiff prices on the secondary market. Now, thanks to the author and publisher Savas Beatie, upgraders and new readers alike now have ready access to a fresh edition. It is too often the case that revised and/or expanded edition claimants are coy when it comes to fully informing prospective readers about the scale of the enhancements, but McLean, through his prefaces to the various editions (all reproduced in this latest volume), is very upfront about the matter, entering into a number of specifics. According to the author, the SB edition fixes printing mistakes, realigns the footnotes with the publisher's style, corrects errors, updates interpretations, and adds new material. The maps accompanying this brigade study have also evolved between editions, from McLean's own hand-drawn efforts, to Blake Magner's professional replacements, to Mike Priest's newest versions. Busy in the best of ways, Priest's tactical maps exhibit all of the terrain and regimental-level unit details that today's readers expect to find in books of this type.

While the opening sections of the book briefly explore the backgrounds of Cutler's regiments and of the general himself, the volume's central purpose is to provide a small-unit, tactical-scale description and analysis of the brigade's entire Gettysburg experience. Richly enhanced through eyewitness and participant accounts, McLean's brigade narrative traces the activities of Cutler's regiments during the march to Gettysburg, the fighting west of the town, the retreat to Cemetery Hill, and the July 2-3 defense of Culp's Hill. Multi-level leadership decisions along with unit movements and positions are all expertly presented and skillfully integrated into a smooth-flowing account that's very easy to follow. As referenced earlier, invaluable assistance is provided by the book's more than two-dozen excellent maps.

Gains of recent decades, which include a multitude of modern-style, micro-tactical histories of each day's fighting on every sector of the Gettysburg battlefield along with a grand host of impressively researched and designed board and computer simulations, have elevated our understanding (including that of the role played by Cutler's brigade) far beyond what was commonly known back in 1987 when McLean self-published the first edition of this study. The beneficiaries of those gains, today's well-read individuals will likely encounter this new edition already possessing a detailed and fairly strong appreciation of the contributions of Cutler's regiments, but McLean's tireless work continues to reshape awareness. Even now, McLean insists that popular misconceptions remain.

In addition to reclarifying which infantry units were first in the fight at Gettysburg, McLean's ongoing study has also built up over time a strong case that elements of both brigades (Cutler's and Meredith's) of Wadworth's division deserve credit for initiating and carrying out the movement that so dramatically turned the tables on the Confederates at the Railroad Cut on July 1. In reference to the fighting at Culp's Hill, the achievements of Brig. Gen. George Sears Greene's brigade remain first in the minds of every Gettysburg enthusiast, but McLean effectively argues that Cutler's brigade was indispensable in helping Greene hold that key position on the Union right against determined enemy assaults. In the midst of writing a multi-volume history of the 14th Brooklyn, McLean points with particular interest to places where he feels Gettysburg scholars continue to underappreciate the battlefield leadership and heroics of that regiment.

Part of a small club of which membership was not necessarily coveted, Lysander Cutler's brigade was involved in bitterly fought and heavily consequential actions at Gettysburg on all three days and was one of only a handful of Union and Confederate brigades that suffered more than a thousand casualties. McLean's study represents the preeminent chronicling of the achievements and sacrifices that produced that sublime yet devastating result, and McLean himself, through his ongoing research and writing, remains the individual most responsible for securing the Gettysburg legacy of Cutler and his men.