by Rod Gragg
When Lee’s army advanced into Pennsylvania, Stuart took the army’s cavalry on a raid around the vanguard of the Federal army, leaving Lee without reliable reconnaissance.
Battles and Leaders of the Civil War
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“The Bugle Sounded; We Got into the Saddle Again”
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We bivouacked by the roadside under some pines that night. . . . The bugle sounded; we got into the saddle again; the columns moved; and that evening we had passed around Manassas, where Hooker’s rear force still lingered, and were approaching Fairfax Station through the great deserted camps near Wolf Run Shoals. The advance pushed on through the wild and desolate locality, swarming with abandoned cabins and army débris; and soon we had reached the station, which is not far from the [Fairfax] Court-House.... It was impossible to forbear from laughing at the spectacle which the cavalry column presented. Every man had on a white straw hat, and a pair of snowy cotton gloves. Every trooper carried before him upon the pommel of his saddle a bale of smoking tobacco, or a drum of figs; every hand grasped a pile of ginger-cakes....
With an Adams revolver tucked in his belt and a sword at the ready, farmboy David Thatcher, nineteen, projects a formidable image as a private in the 1st Virginia Cavalry—which went to Gettysburg with J. E. B. Stuart.
Library of Congress
Soon the column was again moving steadily towards the Potomac.... We reached at nightfall an elevation not far from the Great Falls. . . . The broad river glittered in the moon, and on the bright surface was seen the long, wavering line of dark figures, moving “in single file;” the water washing to and fro across the backs of the horses, which kept their feet with difficulty. The hardest portion of the task was crossing the cannon of the horse-artillery. It seemed impossible to get the limbers and caissons over without wetting, and so destroying the ammunition; but the ready brain of Stuart found an expedient. The boxes were quickly unpacked; every cavalry-man took charge of a shell, case, or solid shot with the fixed cartridge; and thus held well aloft, the precious freight was carried over dry.... The river was crossed; also the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, by a narrow bridge; and the cavalry halted for brief rest....
The column moved at dawn toward the “undiscovered land” of Star-and-Stripe-dom, in a northern direction toward Rockville, [Maryland]. It was not long before we came on the blue people. “Bang! bang! bang!” indicated that the advance guard was charging a picket; the shots ended; we pushed on, passing some dead or wounded forms, bleeding by the grassy roadside; and the town of Rockville came in sight. The present writer pushed on after the advance guard, which had galloped through, and riding solus along a handsome street, came suddenly upon a spectacle which was truly pleasing. This was a seminary for young ladies, with open windows, open doors—and doors and windows were full and running over with the fairest specimens of the gentler sex that eye ever beheld. It was Sunday, and the beautiful girls in their fresh gaily colored dresses, low necks, bare arms, and wildernesses of braids and curls, were “off duty” for the moment, and burning with enthusiasm to welcome the Southerner....
Stuart did not tarry. In war there is little time for gallant words, and news had just reached us from the front which moved the column on like the sound of the bugle. This news was that while we approached Rockville from the south, a mighty train of nearly two hundred [Federal] wagons—new, fresh-painted, drawn each by six sleek mules, as became the “Reserve Forage Train” of the Department at Washington—had in like manner approached from the east, intent on collecting forage. Stuart’s face flushed at the thought of capturing this splendid prize; and shouting to a squadron to follow him and the main column to push on, he went at a swift gallop on the track of the fleeing wagons.... The immense train was seen covering the road for miles. Every team in full gallop, every wagon whirling onward, rebounding from rocks, and darting into the air,—one crashing against another “with the noise of thunder”....
Stuart burst into laughter, and turning round, exclaimed: “Did you ever see anything like that in all your life!” ... Soon they were all stopped, captured, and driven to the rear by the aforesaid cursing drivers, now sullen, or laughing like the captors. All but those overturned. These were set on fire, and soon there rose for miles along the road the red glare of flames, and the dense smoke of the burning vehicles. They had been pursued within sight of Washington, and I saw, I believe, the dome of the capitol. That spectacle was exciting—and General Stuart thought of pushing on to make a demonstration against the defences. This, however, was given up; and between the flames of the burning wagons we pushed back to Rockville, through which the long line of captured vehicles, with their sleek, rosetted mules, six to each, had already defiled, amid the shouts of the inhabitants. Those thus “saved” were about one hundred in number.
The column moved, and about ten that night reached Brookville, where the atmosphere seemed Southern, like that of Rockville, for a bevy of beautiful girls thronged forth with baskets of cakes, and bread and meat, and huge pitchers of ice-water.... At Brookville some hundreds of prisoners—the greater part captured by General Wickham in a boat at the Potomac—were paroled and started for Washington, as an act of humanity.... Moving steadily on, the column approached Westminster, and here Fitz Lee, who was in advance, found the enemy drawn up in the street. A charge quickly followed, carbines banged, and the enemy gave way.... The net results of the capture of the place were—one old dismounted gun of the “Quaker” order on a hill near the cavalry camp aforesaid, and a United States flag taken from the vault of the Court-House....
We left the town that night, bivouacked in the rain by the roadside, pushed on at dawn, and were soon in Pennsylvania.... We were enemies here, but woman, the angelic, still succoured us; woman, without shoes or stockings often, and speaking Dutch, but no less hospitable. One of them presented me with coffee, bread spread with “apple-butter”—and smiles.... The horses were appropriated; but beyond that nothing—the very necks of the chickens went unwrung.... As we approached Hanovertown, we stirred up the hornets.... The enemy, who were drawn up in the outskirts of the town.... A heavy line was seen advancing, and soon this line pushed on with cheers to charge the artillery on the heights.... Breathed’s fire, however, repulsed the charge; and as night drew on, Stuart set his column in motion....
We rode, rode, rode—the long train of wagons strung out to infinity, it seemed.... At daylight we reached the straggling little village of Dover, where more prisoners were paroled; thence proceeded through a fine country ... and at night reached [the Federal army post at] Carlisle, which General Stuart immediately summoned to surrender by flag of truce. The reply to this was a flat refusal from General Smith; and soon a Whitworth gun in the town opened, and the Southern guns replied. This continued for an hour or two, when the U. S. barracks were fired, and the light fell magnificently upon the spires of the city, presenting an exquisite spectacle....
Any further assault upon Carlisle was stopped by a very simple circumstance. General Lee sent for the cavalry. He had recalled Early from York; moved with his main column east of the South Mountain, toward the village of Gettysburg; and Stuart was wanted.2
“Into the Jaws of the Enemy”
A Confrontation Develops at Gettysburg
On Monday morning, June 30, General Lee issued new orders from his headquarters in Chambersburg. Now aware of the Federal army’s general location, Lee revised his strategy. No longer did he plan to move on Harrisburg, fight a battle somewhere nearby, or move against Washington or Philadelphia. His new strategy involved positioning his army on General Meade’s route of march and forcing a confrontation shortly thereafter—to fight the major battle on Northern soil that he sought. He dispatched couriers to recall Ewell’s corps from Harrisburg and the Susquehanna River back to the Chambersburg-Cashtown area. Without cavalry reconnaissance, Lee was unsure exactly where the opposing armies would collide, but he believed the battle would be fought near York, or, more likely, to the east of Ca
shtown near the crossroads town of Gettysburg. “To-morrow, gentlemen,” he told his staff officers on Monday, “we will not move to Harrisburg as we expected, but will go over to Gettysburg and see what General Meade is after.”
Meanwhile, Brigadier General James J. Pettigrew, a brigade commander in General A. P. Hill’s Third Corps, set out on a reconnaissance-in-force from Cashtown to Gettysburg under orders from his division commander, Major General Henry Heth—who had directed him to “search the town for army supplies (shoes especially).” Composed of several infantry regiments, a battery of field artillery, and a small train of wagons, Pettigrew’s troops advanced on Gettysburg from the west, along the Chambersburg Turnpike—until they sighted Federal cavalry just outside of town.
On June 30, 1863, General Henry Heth sent Confederate troops through the village of Cashtown toward Gettysburg, looking for shoes and Federal troops. They encountered none of the former, but plenty of the latter.
Library of Congress
Pettigrew called in his skirmishers and fell back to Cashtown, where he reported the presence of enemy troops in Gettysburg. General Heth forwarded the report to General Hill, but both officers dismissed Pettigrew’s account. They concluded that the blue-uniformed force of troops seen by Pettigrew was a local home guard unit or just a wandering cavalry patrol—but was not the advance guard of the Army of the Potomac. As part of the concentration of Lee’s army, General Hill’s corps was scheduled to march to Gettysburg the following day, so Hill ordered Heth and his division to lead the way. Heth, in turn, issued orders for Brigadier General James J. Archer and his brigade to head up the march to Gettysburg the next day—July 1, 1863.
First Lieutenant Louis G. Young, an aide to General Pettigrew, had accompanied the reconnaissance to Gettysburg and was alarmed at the apparent “spirit of disbelief” that led Generals Heth and Hill to disregard Pettigrew’s warning. The Northern cavalry sighted at Gettysburg was the spearhead of the Army of the Potomac, Young believed, and he feared that the “blindness” of his superiors would cause Lee’s army to stumble unprepared into “the jaws of the enemy.” Young later transcribed an account of the day’s events.
Hill’s Corps had arrived at Cashtown, about eight miles west of Gettysburg, on 29 June. On the following morning General Pettigrew was ordered by General Heth, his division commander, to go to Gettysburg with three of his four regiments present, three field pieces of the Donaldsonville Artillery, of Louisiana, and a number of wagons, for the purpose of collecting commissary and quartermaster stores for the use of the army. General Early had levied on Carlisle, Chambersburg and Shippensburg, and had found no difficulty in having his requisitions filled. It was supposed that it would be the same at Gettysburg. It was told to General Pettigrew that he might find the town in possession of a home guard, which he would have no difficulty in driving away; but if, contrary to expectations, he should find any organized troops capable of making resistance, or any portion of the Army of the Potomac, he should not attack it. The orders to him were peremptory, not to precipitate a fight. General Lee with his columns scattered, and lacking the information of his adversary, which he should have had from his cavalry, was not ready for battle—hence the orders.
On the march to Gettysburg we were passed by General Longstreet’s spy who quickly returned and informed General Pettigrew that [Brigadier General John] Buford’s Division of [Federal] cavalry—estimated at three thousand strong—had arrived that day and were holding the town. This report was confirmed by a Knight of the Golden Circle who came out for the purpose of giving us warning. Buford’s presence made it evident that the Army of the Potomac, or at least a portion of it, was not far off, and General Pettigrew sent immediately to General Heth, a report of what he had learned and asked for further instructions. The message received in reply, was simply a repetition of the orders previously given coupled with an expression of disbelief as to the presence of any portion of the Army of the Potomac.
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“Blindness in Part Seemed to Have Come over Our Commanders”
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As the presence of Buford’s Cavalry was certain, and it would not be possible for him to enter Gettysburg without a fight, which he was forbidden to make, General Pettigrew withdrew from before Gettysburg. This he did, not as was reported to General Lee, “because he was not willing to hazard an attack with the single brigade,” (he had only three regiments of his brigade) ... General Pettigrew was willing to make the attack had not his orders forbidden it. Buford’s Cavalry followed us at some distance, and Lieutenant Walter H. Robertson and I, of Pettigrew’s staff, remained in the rear to watch it. This we easily did, for the country is rolling, and from behind the ridges we could see without being seen and we had a perfect view of the movements of the approaching column. Whenever it would come within three or four hundred yards of us we would make our appearance, mounted, and the column would halt until we retired. This was repeated several times. It was purely an affair of observation on both sides and the cavalry made no effort to molest us....
Blindness in part seemed to have come over our commanders, who, slow to believe in the presence of an organized army of the enemy, thought there must be a mistake in the report taken back by General Pettigrew, but General Heth asked for and obtained permission to take his division to Gettysburg on the following day, for the purpose of reconnoitering, and of making the levy which had been the object of the expedition on the day before. Neither General Heth nor General Hill believed in the presence of the enemy in force, and they expressed their doubts so positively to General Pettigrew that I was called up to tell General Hill what I had seen while reconnoitering the movements of the force which had followed us from Gettysburg. As a staff officer with General Pender, I had served under General Hill in the seven days fights around Richmond and at Cedar Run, and because I was well known to General Hill, General Pettigrew supposed that my report might have some weight with him.
The Chambersburg Turnpike approached Gettysburg from the west over a series of ridges. Here, on this side of town, the battle of Gettysburg would be ignited when advance elements of the opposing armies clashed with each other.
National Archives
Yet, when in answer to his inquiry as to the character of the column I had watched I said their movements were undoubtedly those of well-trained troops and not those of a home guard, he replied that he still could not believe that any portion of the Army of the Potomac was up; and in emphatic words, expressed the hope that it was, as this was the place he wanted it to be. This spirit of unbelief had taken such hold, that I doubt if any of the commanders of brigades, except General Pettigrew, believed that we were marching to battle, a weakness on their part which rendered them unprepared for what was about to happen.
General Archer with his Tennessee Brigade, was to lead, and General Pettigrew described to him minutely the topography of the country between Cashtown and Gettysburg, and suggested that he look out for a road that ran at right angles to the one we were on, and which might be used by the enemy to break into his line of march. And, as he had carefully observed the configuration of the ground in the vicinity of the town, told General Archer of a ridge some distance out of Gettysburg on which he would probably find the enemy, as this position was favorable for defense.
General Archer listened, but believed not, marched on unprepared, and was taken by surprise.... For want of faith in what had been told, and a consequent lack of caution, the two leading brigades of Heth’s Division marched into the jaws of the enemy, met with disaster, and, contrary to General Lee’s wish, brought on an engagement with the Army of the Potomac before we were ready, and precipitated one of the greatest battles of modern times.3
“Union Cavalry Began to Arrive in the Town”
Gettysburg Attracts the Opposing Armies like a Magnet
General George Meade and much of the Federal army were still on the march in Maryland on June 30. Meade had hoped to establish a defensive position along Pipe Creek near the Ma
ryland village of Taneytown, and to draw Lee into battle there. Instead, like Lee, his strategy changed. Now, on the last day of June, he planned to advance the Army of the Potomac into Pennsylvania, searching for the Confederate army while moving toward Harrisburg. He had put the left wing of the army under the command of Major General John Reynolds, with orders to advance toward Gettysburg and its network of roads. Reynolds led his three corps into Pennsylvania on the thirtieth.
Commanded by Brigadier General John Buford, the army’s 1st Cavalry Division, scouting in advance of Reynolds’s force, reached Gettysburg on the afternoon of June 30. Several days before, General Early’s Confederates had passed through the town on their journey eastward—stopping long enough to empty many shelves in the town’s stores—and now Gettysburg’s residents feared the arrival of more Southern troops. Seeing scores of blue-uniformed horsemen on their streets brought welcome relief to most of Gettys burg’s residents, who cheered the passing columns. One who watched the procession with excitement was a fifteen-year-old girl named Tillie Pierce Alleman, who would never forget the day the Northern army arrived in her town.
Federal cavalry stir up dust on a Pennsylvania road. On June 30, the Army of the Potomac’s 1st Cavalry Division reached Gettysburg. Battles and Leaders
of the Civil War
A little before noon on Tuesday, June 30th, a great number of Union cavalry began to arrive in the town. They passed northwardly along Washington Street, turned toward the west on reaching Chambersburg Street, and passed out in the direction of the Theological Seminary.
