12. The second day of Gettysburg
On the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg Confederate slaves found themselves under fire in numerous incidents, as Union artillery in elevated positions pounded the lines. A surgeon from Virginia, tending wounded in the field, was wounded himself by Union artillery fire. He reported a slave known only as Jim came to his aid, helping him to limp off the field of battle to the surgeons in the rear. After reaching the hospital, Jim vanished to perform other duties. The young surgeon survived the battle. What happened to Jim is lost to history.
At the end of the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Confederate slaves again flooded the field, aiding the wounded, and seeking out their masters. Several senior Confederate officers recorded in their diaries and letters home the “loyalty” of their slaves. Colonel Edward Porter Alexander, the artillerist and engineer from Georgia, reported his personal slave appearing late in the day as the firing died down, bringing food and drink to his owner. Alexander wrote of the evening of July 2, “…servants hunting for their masters were a feature of the landscape that night.” As most of the Confederate troops rested for the next day’s combat, slaves prowled the battlefield, delivering necessities to the front and providing aid and care for the wounded.