By Guy Page

Two Vermont born-and-raised in command at key battles of the Civil War and the Spanish American War are credited with quick thinking and action that brought victory on July 3.

Like today, July 3, 1863, the third and climactic day of the Battle of Gettysburg, was hot and humid. According to an account on History.net, the battlefield, littered with thousands of dead and dying, bore grim testimony to the fierce fighting of the previous two days. The smell of decomposing corpses and gunpowder lingered in the air as the heaviest artillery bombardment of the Civil War ended. Led by General George Pickett, 10,500 Confederates marched in three lines of battle across the battlefield and surged up the gentle slope of Cemetery Ridge toward the waiting Federal troops.

On the left of the Federal line on the ridge, Brig. Gen. George Jerrison Stannard – the first Vermonter to enlist to fight in the Civil War – and three weary regiments of his inexperienced 2nd Vermont Brigade anxiously awaited the Confederate assault. The Rebels struck farther up the line, directly to the right of the Vermonters. Stannard, seeing this, wheeled two of his regiments around the Confederates’ exposed flank. From their forward position, the nearly 1,500 men of the 13th and 16th Vermont regiments poured devastating point-blank fire into the enemy ranks. Inflicting terrible casualties and ravaging the Confederate flank, the Vermonters helped turn the tide of the battle and of the war itself. 

Many of the 13th Vermont soldiers were from Colchester and Milton. Drive up Rte 7 to the Spanked Puppy or Claussens Greenhouse, look left just before the Rt 2 intersection and you’ll see a big brick house. That was the home of William Munson, the Executive officer of the 13th Vermont. In his memoirs he recalled the aftermath of the failed charge and his feelings of sadness and horror at all the death in front of him.

Captain Clark at Santiago Bay – But Stannard’s wasn’t the only military feat of enduring significance accomplished by a Vermonter on this day. The Spanish American war won the freedom of Cuba and the Philippines from the colonial tyranny of Spain. On July 3, 1898, as Bradford born and educated Captain Charles Clark, in command of the battleship Oregon, was dressing to go out on deck, alarms sounded, indicating that the Spanish Fleet was attempting to make its escape from Santiago harbor. Immediately, the Oregon’s crew ran to their battle stations. The Battle of Santiago had begun.

The Oregon, at Clark’s command having boilers and engines ready, was able to move quickly to pursue the enemy. The Oregon and another ship attacked virtually the entire Spanish squadron, a key point in the successful naval battle that, along with fellow Vermonter Admiral George Dewey’s victory in Manila Bay, ended the Spanish rule. 

And speaking of the Oregon – Vermont fans of Clive Cussler’s popular series about a high-tech ship also of that name will be interested to know that seven of those novels were co-authored by Jack DuBrul, born in 1968 in Burlington and raised in the Green Mountain State. He now lives and works in Virginia.  The adventures of quick-thinking captain Juan Cabrillo have brought him to Montpelier – home of Clark (for a while) and Dewey.