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Assigned to the Army of the Potomac.
The corps flag is a blue swallowtail with the corps number in red. |
The monument to the 11th Corps is north of Gettysburg on Howard Avenue. (Howard Avenue West tour map) A headquarters marker is southeast of town on East Cemetery Hill. (East Cemetery Hill tour map)
Monument to the 11th Corps at Gettysburg
From the monument
Army of the Potomac
Eleventh Corps
Major General Oliver O. Howard
First Division Brigadier General Francis C. Barlow
Brigadier General Adelbert Ames
Second Division Brigadier General Adolph Von Steinwehr
Third Division Major General Carl Schurz
Artillery Brigade Major Thomas W. Osborn
July 1. Schurz’s Division in advance arrived at 10.30 A. M. was formed in line northwest of the town.Barlow’s Division formed on Schurz’s right. Steinwehr’s Division was placed on Cemetery Hill. The line in front was attacked by brigades of Rodes’s and Early’s Divisions. About 4 P. M. the Corps was forced back and retired through the town to Cemetery Hill and formed on each side of the Baltimore Pike.
July 2. The Corps remained in the same position until about 4 P.M. when the Confederate artillery opened fire from Benner’s Hill and Cemetery Ridge but was silenced by artillery under Colonel Wainwright and Major Osborn. At 8 P.M. Hays’s Louisiana and Hoke’s North Carolina Brigades attacked the position on East Cemetery Hill but were repulsed.
July 3. At 1 P. M. all the Confederate artillery within direct range opened fire on this position which was followed by an unsuccessful charge on the 2d. Corps position.
Casualties Killed 33 Officers 336 Men Wounded 120 Officers 1802 Men Captured or Missing 62 Officers 1448 Men Total 3801
Location of the monument
The monument is north of Gettysburg on the south side of Howard Avenue. It is about 180 feet west of Biglerville Road. (39°50’34.6″N 77°13’54.6″W)
Headquarters marker on Cemetery Hill
From the headquarters marker on Cemetery Hill
Army of the Potomac
11th Corps Headquarters
Major General Oliver O. Howard
July 1,2,3,4 1863
Major General Oliver O. Howard
Major General Oliver O. Howard commanded the 11th Corps at the Battle of Gettysburg. Howard (West Point Class of 1854), was a career Army officer from Maine. After spending a year in Florida fighting the Seminoles, Howard taught mathematics at West Point. When the Civil War broke out he became colonel of the 3rd Maine Infantry Regiment. Howard commanded a brigade at Bull Run as senior colonel, and was promoted to Brigadier General in September. He was badly wounded at Fair Oaks in June of 1862, losing his right arm. When he recovered he returned to the army to command a division at Antietam. Howard was promoted to major general in November of 1862, and was given command of the 11th Corps in April of 1863.
Oliver Howard was not well received by his new command. He was replacing Franz Siegel, who was liked and respected by the German immigrants that made up much of the 11th Corps. Howard in turn seemed to have little respect for his foreign-born subordinates. The result of the mistrust and lack of communication was the debacle at Chancellorsville, where the 11th Corps was crushed by Jackson’s flank attack. The collapse of the 11th Corps at Gettysburg seemed to confirm that Chancellorsville was not an isolated accident.
After Gettysburg
When two corps were sent west from the army that October, Meade could not have been too dismayed that Howard and his 11th Corps was one of them. Surprisingly Howard excelled in the Western Theater. He rose to commander of the Army of the Tennessee, commanding the right flank of Sherman’s March to the Sea. After the war Howard ran the Freedman’s Bureau, founded Howard University and served as its President, fought in the Nez Perce war, and was Superintendent at West Point. He retired from the army in 1894, and died in 1909.
Major General Oliver O. Howard’s equestrian statue is on East Cemetery Hill not far from the 11th Corps headquarters marker.
Union Major General Oliver O. Howard
Location of the headquarters marker
The headquarters marker is on the southeast side of Gettysburg, on East Cemetery Hill. It is 80 feet northeast of General Hancock’s monument.