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The 147th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry saw its most significant action at Gettysburg on the morning of July 3, 1863.  At approximately 5 a.m., Lt. Col. Ario Pardee Jr. led the 147th in a determined charge against a stone wall occupied by Confederate troops (part of efforts to reclaim lost positions on the lower slopes of Culp’s Hill after some works had been briefly taken the previous evening).  The Pennsylvanians carried the position “in handsome style,” delivering effective fire that inflicted heavy losses and helped force the Confederates to abandon the line. This action took place in the area now known as Pardee Field.  

The fighting on Culp’s Hill that morning was among the most sustained of the entire battle.  ​As Pfantz recounts, “The musketry of Steuart’s charge and repulse had just died when the soldiers of the 147th Pennsylvania Regiment viewed a tragedy that symbolized the sad event.  In the sloping field, littered with wounded and dead Confederate soldiers, they saw a Maryland soldier who seemed to have a wound in his abdomen and was laying on his back.  The wounded man struggled wearily to load his rifle.  They watched him; some men who were wary of his intentions even covered him with their own loaded guns, but Maj. John Craig told them to hold their fire.  They watched fascinated as he finished loading.  He removed the ramrod laboriously, cocked the hammer, drew the muzzle of the piece beneath his chin, and with the ramrod pushed the trigger.”  (Gettysburg – Culp’s Hill & Cemetery Hill, Pfantz, pg. 321)