110 HRES 529 IH: Commending Brigadier General George U.S. House of Representatives 2007-06-28 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

IV 110th CONGRESS 1st Session H. RES. 529 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES June 28, 2007 Mr. Welch of Vermont submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services RESOLUTION Commending Brigadier General George Stannard and the Second Vermont Brigade upon the 144th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.

Whereas in July 1863 the men of the Second Vermont Brigade, commanded by Brigadier General George Stannard, reached Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which was to become the greatest battlefield of the Civil War, having only days and hours remaining in their nine-month enlistments; Whereas when called upon to fight late on the second day of the battle, the Second Vermont Brigade helped stabilize the Union line on Cemetery Ridge, recaptured a battery of artillery, and captured 80 Confederate soldiers; Whereas on the morning of July 3 the 13th Vermont, 14th Vermont, and 16th Vermont Regiments of the Second Vermont Brigade were positioned in front of the Union line; Whereas while Confederate artillery shelled the Union positions for two hours in the early afternoon, the Vermonters held firm; Whereas when General Robert E. Lee launched his frontal assault, known ever after as Pickett’s Charge, the Vermonters responded by launching an attack; Whereas General Stannard ordered the 13th and 16th Regiments to “change front forward on first company” and swing out into a no-man’s land of shot and shell; Whereas the sudden onslaught broke the flank of Pickett’s Charge, the Confederates themselves saying it was the Vermonters’ fire that defeated them; Whereas the 16th Vermont launched a second flank attack that defeated a supporting Confederate assault; Whereas the 14th Vermont held firm its position throughout the charge; Whereas the 12th Vermont and 15th Vermont Regiments of General Stannard’s Second Vermont Brigade, having completed the long march to the battlefield, also stood ready to fight; Whereas a grand statue of General Stannard stands on Cemetery Ridge honoring all the Vermonters who fought at the Battle of Gettysburg; and Whereas Vermonters have long remembered the deeds of their sons on those shot-torn fields of Pennsylvania: Now, therefore, be it

That upon the occasion of the 144th anniversary of the Battle of the Gettysburg, the House of Representatives honors the heroic actions of the Second Vermont Brigade on the greatest battlefield of the Civil War, recalling its sacrifices in preserving the Union and in giving the United States of America a “new birth of freedom”.