McGilvery, Freeman, 1823-1864

McGilvery was born in Prospect, Maine. Born with a love for the sea, he was a sailor and then a ship master. He was in Brazil at Rio de Janeiro when the Civil War erupted. He soon returned home and raised the 6th Maine Battery, which first saw action at the battles of Cedar Mountain and Sulphur Springs in Western Virginia. At the Battle of Antietam, McGilvery's battery supported the attack of the XII Corps. On February 5, 1863, he was promoted to major and given command of the First Volunteer Brigade in the Artillery Reserve in the Union Army of the Potomac, which he commanded during the Chancellorsville Campaign.

During the Gettysburg Campaign, on June 23, 1863, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. On July 2, the second day of the battle of Gettysburg, McGilvery discovered a wide and undefended gap in the Union line along the southern end of Cemetery Ridge, north of Little Round Top. McGilvery patched together a line of artillery from various commands to fill the gap. Initially without infantry support, McGilvery's "Plum Run line" of fieldpieces was instrumental in halting the final Confederate advance toward the Union center. On July 3, the lengthy artillery line assisted in the repulse of Pickett's Charge, and in particular stopped the supporting attack of Confederate brigades under Cadmus Wilcox and David Lang.

...