No Vice & No Virtue

All morning, General Heth has been trying to bring up more of his men, and form them into battle lines to overwhelm the Union position. By now (150 years ago, of course) he has 2 of his 4 brigades formed – Davis’ on the north side of the Chambersburg Pike, and Archer’s on the south side. Now, they begin their main assault.

Davis’ men make some progress against Cutler’s brigade near the railroad cut. Cutler is forced to withdraw most of his overwhelmed men to a position on Seminary Ridge. The gains are short-lived though, as the remaining part of Cutler’s men, along with help from the 6th Wisconsin Infantry of the “Iron Brigade” is able to flank Davis and force his men into an unfinished railroad cut that quickly becomes a trap many of them won’t escape from.

On the Confederate right, things are looking much better. Archer’s brigade is so large and well-positioned, that Archer realizes he can flank and completely envelope Cutler’s left. The Union troops will have no choice but to retreat in disarray. Archer swings his men to the south, and turns northeast to begin the maneuver, crossing over Willoughby Run and entering Herbst Woods.

And then, the unexpected happens.

On Archer’s right, charging down the hillside of McPherson’s Ridge in line of battle, is the bulk of the newly-arrived Union “Iron Brigade” (minus the 6th WI, of course). They slam into Archer’s right flank and completely de-rail his attack. Archer’s men will struggle in vain to maintain their momentum.

In the course of ordering the 2nd Wisconsin Infantry into position at the eastern edge of Herbst Woods, General Reynolds is shot in the back of the neck by a Confederate ball. He is killed instantly. Before the major fighting has even begun, Maj. General John Reynolds becomes the highest-ranking man to be killed at Gettysburg.

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.

150 years ago right now, on a ridge overlooking Marsh Creek, Lt. Marcellus Jones of the 8th Illinois Cavalry borrows a carbine from one of his men, rests it on a fence rail, and fires a shot at a column of approaching Confederates.

With that single act, the bloodiest battle ever fought in the western hemisphere had begun.

150 years ago right now, Union Brig. General John Buford’s 1st Cavalry Division arrives in Gettysburg.

The folks in town are very happy to see him. Only a few minutes before, a Confederate scouting force – a brigade of infantry under the command of Brig. General J. Johnston Pettigrew – came near the town in search of supplies. He is told that they moved to the west along the Chambersburg Pike, toward Cashtown – back the way they came. Buford decides to go have a look.

Pettigrew left in a hurry because he saw the Union cavalry coming. His orders were to scout, not to start a battle, so he decided to go back to headquarters to let his superiors, Maj. General Henry Heth and Lt. General A.P. Hill, know what was going on. The Union army was north of the Potomac, and closing in on the rebels.

Neither Heth nor Hill believed Pettigrew’s story. You see, Pettigrew was not a West Point-trained, professional soldier like they were; he was a college professor from North Carolina who had spent most of the war in coastal defense duties, not in battle. How could he know the difference between the Army of the Potomac and the inexperienced local militia that General Early’s men had brushed aside a few days before? These had to be those same troops back for more punishment. Heth, new to his division command and looking to gather glory to his name, asked for and received permission from A.P. Hill to take his full division to Gettysburg the next day to rough-up these home guards.

By mid-afternoon, General Buford had a feeling that Pettigrew’s “retreat” was not for real. Though his subordinates disagreed, Buford knew the rebels would be back in force. Gettysburg had a superb road network, and good high ground all around the town. If a battle was to be fought, this would be a good place to do it. Buford wanted to retain control of this excellent position, so he dug in for a defense. He sent word of his plan to General Reynolds, commanding the western sector of the advance, in the hope that he could bring the 3 corps of infantry that were with him down in Emmitsburg, up to Gettysburg by morning.

Brig. General Judson Kilpatrick led his division out of their camp at Littlestown toward Hanover. Their arrival in town brought great relief to the citizenry.

Just about 150 years ago right now, Maj. General J.E.B. Stuart’s Confederate Cavalry Division also arrived near Hanover. Stuart was behind schedule, and was desperately trying to find the rest of the Confederate army. He thought that Lt. General Richard Ewell’s Corps was in the York area, but he had to get there to find out for sure. Union cavalry was in the way.

What followed was several hours of fighting (including newly-minted Brig. General George Custer’s first action as a brigade commander) with the Union forces holding the town, and the Confederates trying to flush them out. Nothing was to be gained. Eventually, Stuart disengaged to the east and continued his ride in search of the rest of his army.

While relatively light on casualties for both sides, and with no clear tactical winner, the drawn-out struggle was clearly a strategic loss for the Confederate cavalry. It put them one more day behind schedule, and forced Stuart to move ever farther away from where General Lee actually was.

A little-known cavalry action on the road to Gettysburg happened just about now, 150 years ago.

J.E.B. Stuart was way behind schedule, and rushing north to try and find where the main body of the Confederate Army was. He thought it was near York, so he was just passing through Westminster with no intention of hanging around. His plan was to get to Hanover the next day.

Because of the rail lines in Westminster, there was a small group of Union soldiers there – 2 companies from the 1st Delaware Cavalry. These were no match for an approaching Confederate division, so it wasn’t much of a skirmish – at least not from the Confederate point of view. The Delawareans took 67 casualties of the 108 men that were engaged.

The Confederate cavalry was left with a clear road to Hanover.

150 years ago today, the first elements of the Union Army of the Potomac, namely Buford’s and Kilpatrick’s cavalry divisions, enter Pennsylvania.

Buford, covering the west, ends up in the vicinity of Fairfield. Kilpatrick is near Littlestown, on his way to Hanover. Both are probing for the location of the main body of the Confederate army.

Soon enough, they’ll both find what they’re looking for.

In honor of the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, I’m going to be posting about some of the events “live”, that is to say: more-or-less in real-time, as they occurred, 150 years ago. Hopefully this will be a fun and informative series.

I’ve created a new “Live” category under the “Gettysburg” one on the blog. The posts will be automatically-timed, and will appear on my Facebook and Twitter feeds, too – so they should be easy to follow along with and find later on.

I’m also planning to be up in town on July 3rd to take part in some of the events the NPS is putting on. I’ll likely have pictures and thoughts to post about the experience. Though I’ve been to Gettysburg dozens of times, I’ve never been for an anniversary, so I’m pretty excited.

Also today, 150 years ago, a spy named Harrison that General Longstreet had hired returned to the Confederate camp near Chambersburg, PA with a story that was hard to believe.

Not only did he claim that the Union Army of the Potomac was on the move, but that it had already crossed the Potomac river with all 7 corps, and was rapidly heading their way. He also knew that Hooker had been replaced by Meade as the overall commander of the Union forces. In light of this, General Longstreet took Harrison to see General Lee immediately.

Lee found this information especially troubling. Why was a hired spy telling him this rather than his own cavalry? What was J.E.B. Stuart doing if he wasn’t providing intelligence? Though he didn’t like it, Lee had to act. He sent orders to all his commanders, currently spread all over south central Pennsylvania, to use the road network to concentrate the army in the vicinity of a town called Gettysburg (or maybe Cashtown).

150 years ago tonight, those moves started to happen. It would be a race – one that Lee felt he had to win – whoever could bring their army together first would have a decisive advantage in the coming conflict.

150 years ago this evening, the Confederates made their furthest advance into northern territory at a little town on the Susquehanna river called Wrightsville, PA.

One of Lee’s loose objectives was to threaten a major northern city, and Harrisburg was the closest one along his route out of Virginia. Being the capitol of Pennsylvania though, it was pretty well-defended. General Early, in command of the eastern-most vanguard of the Army of Northern Virginia, came up with another plan: he’d send the brigade of Brig. General John Gordon downriver to find another bridge to cross, and then take Harrisburg from the rear. Wrightsville (about 30 miles away) had such a bridge – the longest covered bridge in the world, in fact.

The militia stationed at Wrightsville had spent the last 2 days trying to construct defenses, but their commander, Colonel Jacob Frick, knew they couldn’t hold out against the brigade of veteran Confederate troops that showed up at about 5pm that night. After fighting for about an hour, he ordered his men to pull back, cross the bridge, and burn it so the Confederates couldn’t follow.

When an effort to put out the flames failed, the Confederates left town and regrouped to set up for a more direct attack against Harrisburg. They wouldn’t get to make that attempt though, because a new set of orders arrived from General Lee. The Army of Northern Virginia had to come together to meet the threat of the rapidly-advancing Union army.

More on that in the next post.