Gettysburg Live 150 – 9:30am – Union Infantry Arrives

For 4 hours, Buford’s men have fought a drawn-out holding action against skirmishers from Archer’s infantry brigade. The Confederates didn’t expect much resistance, so they had not fully deployed in a battle formation. Doing so would take a lot of time.

General Heth started to realize that this was not (as he had assumed) a group of militia men that he could just brush aside. He ordered Brig. General Archer to deploy his whole brigade, and just a little later, ordered Brig. General Davis to bring his men into line as well. That should be enough to dislodge the Federals, he thought.

Little did he know that more Union troops were on the way, and 150 years ago right now, the first of those men began to arrive on McPherson’s Ridge west of Gettysburg. A brigade of Union infantry and some artillery under the command of Brig. General Lysander Cutler fell in next to Buford’s men and prepared to repulse the advancing Confederates.