I am familiar with all the references you have cited regarding the movements of the 5th Alabama at Gettysburg. As you well know, it is difficult to piece together the shreds of information we are left with. I find the Samuel Pickens diary very helpful with details, but of course he highlights mainly his own experiences. Many times these "highlights" are hours apart in the chronology of a battle, but they do not appear so when first read. At Gettysburg, in reading Pfanz, one realizes that there were many incidences that occurred due to something that had just transpired somewhere else on the field. This "sequence of events" takes time to unfold and so a better "picture" evolves.

For example, I feel quite sure that O'Neal's Brigade (6th, 12th, 26th Alabama only) started their advance at about 2:00 PM from a position well behind the McLean barn. According to Pfanz, the skirmishers of Union General Baxter were well across the Mummasburg Road into the trees at the base of Oak Hill. The Alabama Brigade was positioned in line with Iverson's Brigade (according to Rodes' report) at that time and Iverson was in the Forney Woods. This means O'Neal's Brigade started about 400 yards in the rear of McLean's barn and the 5th Alabama is known to have been to their rear and left under the command of General Rodes as a reserve at that point. Therefore, the starting point for the 5th Alabama is about 600 - 800 yards behind the McLean barn.

The Alabama Brigade moved forward to the attack and Baxter's skirmishers fell back. The Confederate line had to clear the woods, a distance of about 200 yards before fighting began in earnest. It was a short engagement that resulted in a repulse of the Confederates, but it seems at least 20 - 30 minutes would have transpired. It was then, with the repulse of the pressure on their right, that the Federals concentrated their fire on the advance of Iverson's Brigade and destroyed it. (10 - 15 minutes more?)

Sometime after that occurred, (10-15 minutes?) Rodes came rushing back to O'Neal's position to find him with the 5th Alabama which was still held in reserve. That is why I suggest that it was about 3:00 PM when the 5th Alabama first went forward with the rallied Alabama Brigade. So this is when Samuel Pickens would have entered the battle. It is this next phase of the battle that would include the information from the 45th New York. Much transpired in the next three hours with the ebb and flow of attack, counterattack, and reinforcement. Unfortunately, these details must be gleaned from the fragments of information that have been left us..... a tedious but rewarding task to be sure.

I appreciate your discussion and help in sorting through the experiences of the 5th Alabama at Gettysburg. It certainly has provided a better understanding of these events for me!