Lt Stephen Brown is arrested and his symbols of authority— his sword and pistol—were confiscated.
In July 1863, Lt Stephen Brown of the 13th Vermont (one of the regiments of the Stannard’s 2nd Vermont Brigade– 9 month enlistees who had never seen the “elephant” of battle) violated a “no straggling” order as the Vermonters raced toward Gettysburg. He disobeyed a security detail guarding a well and refilled the canteens of several soldiers in his company who were succumbing to the effects of the summer heat.
Brown was immediately placed under arrest and relieved of his sword and pistol, an officer’s symbols of authority. Given the circumstances unfolding as the armies rushing to Gettysburg, Brown was not detained and was allowed to keep marching with his men.
Once they arrived at Gettysburg late on July 2nd Brown determined to reclaim his honor by taking part in the fight. Although still under arrest, Brown armed himself with a hand axe from a woodpile near his regiment’s camp and led his men into the advancing Confederate regiments that were pursuing the collapse of Sickel’s Union Third Corps.
The men of Company K followed with a cheer.
During hand-to-hand combat, Brown compelled the surrender of a Confederate officer, whose sword and pistol Brown seized before making the Confederate a prisoner.
The Vermonters had been called upon to fill a major gap in the Union line and, with their determined charge, helped re-establish that part of the Union line. The 13th Vermont under Col Randall and Stephen Brown handily drove back a regiment of Confederates, saved the guns of the 5th U.S. Artillery and captured 80 Rebels.
During that day’s fight, Brown suffered head trauma from the concussion of an artillery shell which exploded near him as he rendered aid to a member of the regiment who had lost a leg during the fighting. Despite the hearing loss and other effects from the shell’s concussion, Brown refused to leave the field, telling the regimental surgeon that he would continue to fight unless the entire regiment was ordered to retreat.
The 13th Vermont’s role at Gettysburg was not done. During Pickett’s Charge the following day, along with other units of the Vermont Brigade under the commanded of George J. Stannard, the 13th marched out from the Union lines again, executed a left flank maneuver, and fired directly into the flank of Pickett’s men as they advanced. Still without his own sword and pistol and probably officially still under arrest, Brown carried his newly captured Confederate sword and pistol into that day’s fight.
The charges against him for violating the “no straggling” order were not pursued and Brown eventually got his own sword and pistol back.
Now he had two swords, two pistols . . . and an axe.
The statue (above) represents
Lieutenant Stephen F. Brown Co. K
who arrived on the field without
a sword but seizing a camp hatchet
carried it in the battle
until he captured a sword from
a Confederate officer
Persevering and determined like him
were all the men of this Regiment
of Green Mountain Boys
Brown continued to wear the captured sword and pistol until the end of his service.
Just a Thought:
When your sword and pistol are taken, are you picking up an axe?