Headquarters of Brigadier-General Alexander S. Webb. It devolved upon the
man pictured here (booted and in full uniform, before his headquarters
tent to the left of the picture) to meet the shock of Pickett's great
charge. With four Pennsylvania regiments (the Sixty-Ninth, Seventy-First,
Seventy-Second, and One Hundred and Sixth) of Hancock's Second Corps, Webb
was equal to the emergency. Stirred to great deeds by the example of a
patriotic ancestry, he felt that upon his holding his position depended
the outcome of the day. His front had been the focus of the Confederate
artillery fire. Batteries to right and left of his line were practically
silenced. Young Lieutenant Cushing, mortally wounded, fired the last
serviceable gun and fell dead as Pickett's men came on. Cowan's First New
York Battery on the left of Cushing's used canister on the assailants at
less than ten yards. Webb at the head of the Seventy-Second Pennsylvania
fought back the on-rush, posting a line of slightly wounded in his rear.
Webb himself fell wounded but his command checked the assault till Hall's
brilliant charge turned the tide at this point.
[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER WITH GENERAL
PLEASONTON