Harry W. Pfanz - Gettysburg: The First Day

GettysburgThe First Day

CIVIL WAR AMERICA

Gary W. Gallagher, editor

2001 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Set in New Baskerville and Clarendon types
by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence
and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for
Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pfanz, Harry W. (Harry Willcox), 1921
Gettysburg, the first day / by Harry W. Pfanz.
p. cm. (Civil War America)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-8078-2624-3 (cloth: alk. paper)
1. Gettysburg (Pa.), Battle of, 1863. I. Title. II. Series.
E475.53.P479 2001
973.7'349dc21 00-048927
05 04 03 02 01 5 4 3 2 1

For
Sarah, John, and Matthew Pfanz
and
Elizabeth and Katherine Ake

2.1 Gettysburg Campaign, 30 June1 July

5.1 Gettysburg Area

7.1 Davis Attacks Cutler

8.1 McPherson Woods, Morning

9.1 Action at the Railroad Cut, Morning

12.1 Oak Hill and Oak Ridge, Early Afternoon

13.1 Rodes's Division Attacks

14.1 Rodes Smashes Robinson's Salient

15.1 Daniel's First Attack

15.2 Daniel's Second Attack

15.3 Daniel's Third Attack

17.1 Early Attacks the Eleventh Corps's Right

19.1 The Brickyard Fight

20.1 Heth's Afternoon Attack

21.1 Pender's Division Attacks

24.1 Artillery Positions, Cemetery Hill

Gen. Robert E. Lee

Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell

Maj. Gen. George G. Meade

Brig. Gen. John Buford and staff

Col. William Gamble and staff

Memorial, 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry

Maj. Gen. John F. Reynolds

Lt. John H. Calef

Chambersburg Pike (postbattle), McPherson Ridge to Herr Ridge

Brig. Gen. Joseph R. Davis

Brig. Gen. Lysander Cutler

Alfred R. Waud, Death of Reynolds, Gettysburg

Brig. Gen. James S. Wadsworth

McPherson farm buildings from the east (postbattle)

Brig. Gen. James J. Archer

McPherson Woods, site of Reynolds's death

Lt. Col. Rufus R. Dawes

Center railroad cut from the east in 2000

Lt. Gen. Ambrose P. Hill

Brig. Gen. James J. Pettigrew

Maj. Gen. Abner Doubleday

Col. Roy Stone

Maj. Gen. Oliver Otis Howard

Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early

Maj. Gen. Robert Rodes

Brig. Gen. George Doles

Brig. Gen. Henry Baxter

Brig. Gen. Junius Daniel

Brig. Gen. John C. Robinson

Brig. Gen. Stephen D. Ramseur

Color Sgt. Samuel L. Peiffer

The 143d Pennsylvania's memorial, Sgt. Benjamin H. Crippen defies the Rebel foe

Maj. Gen. Carl Schurz

Brig. Gen. Alexander Schimmelfennig

Brig. Gen. Francis Barlow

Brig. Gen. Adelbert Ames

Lt. Col. Douglas Fowler

Lieutenant Bayard Wilkeson holding his battery... to its work on Blocher's Knoll

Col. Wladimir Krzyzanowski

Brig. Gen. John B. Gordon

Pvt. Reuben Ruch

Col. Francis Mahler

Col. Charles R. Coster

Pvt. Charles Comes, 8th Louisiana Infantry, killed 1 July

Maj. Gen. Henry Heth

Col. Henry K. Burgwyn Jr.

Capt. Romulus M. Tuttle

Maj. Gen. William D. Pender

The Lutheran seminary

Col. Abner Perrin

Cemetery gatehouse and Stewart's battery's lunettes

Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock

Color Sgt. Henry G. Brehm

This is an account of the battle of 1 July 1863 at Gettysburg and of certain relevant events and decisions immediately preceding it. The battle was a meeting engagement; neither Gen. Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, nor Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, commander of the Federal Army of the Potomac, planned to give battle at Gettysburg. Events and subordinate commanders took measures that made Gettysburg the battle site. They included Lt. Gen. Ambrose Powell Hill, commander of Lee's Third Army Corps; Maj. Gen. Henry Heth, one of Hill's division commanders; Brig. Gen. John Buford, commander of the First Division of the Army of the Potomac's Cavalry Corps; and Maj. Gen. John F. Reynolds, the commander of that army's temporary left wing.

The battle commenced about 8:00 A.M. approximately three miles west of the town when Union cavalry videttes opened fire on a Confederate column advancing on Gettysburg. There was skirmishing as the horsemen fell back toward Gettysburg and their support. Close to 10:00 A.M., as cavalry units formed on the low ridges west of the town, infantry of the Union First Corps reached the field. There was a sharp but brief fight between two Confederate and two Union infantry brigades, and the Confederates fell back.

There followed a lull of some three hours punctuated by the crack of skirmishers rifles and occasional cannon shots, as strong reinforcements reached the area. The Union First and Eleventh Corps took defensive positions west and north of Gettysburg, and arriving Confederates from Hill's and Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell's corps formed opposite them. Full-scale fighting resumed about midafternoon as the Confederates attacked first from the north and then from the west. There was a short but violent fight, and soon after 4:00 P.M. the two Union corps retreated through the town south to Cemetery Hill. There they rallied, and the Confederates did not continue their attack. The remainder of both armies reached the Gettysburg area that night and on the following day, setting the stage for the battles of 2 and 3 July.

The battle has spawned a number of suppositions. One is that a battle at Gettysburg was inevitable because of the concentration of roads there. Another proposition holds that Union cavalrymen, by hard fighting, delayed the Confederates arrival at Gettysburg until Union infantry was at hand. Many people believe that a Confederate sharpshooter shot General Reynolds. One of the greatest clichs is that Union forces were defeated on 1 July because of the poor performance of the Eleventh Corps. In addition, it has been accepted by many that only Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell's vacillation and his failure to press an attack against the Union forces rallying on Cemetery Hill prevented the Confederates from achieving a complete victory. I address these and other matters in the following text.

Information on battles is usually spotty and less than we would like. This is true of the battle of 1 July. Although the outlines of the day are plain enough, some details escape us. For instance, we do not know where on Oak Hill O'Neal's and Ramseur's brigades formed for their attacks and the exact locations there of the positions of the batteries that supported Rodes's division. On the Union side our knowledge of locations of the regiments of Schurz's division and the positions of Dilger's and Wheeler's batteries are equally vague. We may well wonder, too, how so many of the regiments of Baxter's brigade fitted into the limited front on Oak Ridge at the time of Iverson's assault, and just where Cutler's and Baxter's brigades were on Oak Ridge before they retreated into the town. The lack of such information makes for difficult plotting of the battle on maps.

Here it may be well for me to note that we cannot be certain about some terrain features on the field. For instance, was the orchard on Oak Hill by the Mummasburg Road there during the battle and, if so, were its trees large enough to affect the posting of batteries on the hill? If so, how much? None of the men who fought there mentioned it. Some of the prominent terrain features such as Sheads's Woods or the Springs Hotel Woods did not have names known to the combatants or to us today. In such cases I have identified these features by using names that were obviously applied after the battle or might not have been in common use at all. The name Herbst Woods, applied now because a John Herbst owned it at the time of the battle, was commonly called McPherson Woods by soldiers and veterans. Because of this, I have opted not to use the present-day Herbst designation.