USA > Maine > First Maine bugle, 1890 (history of 1st Maine Cavalry) > Part 20
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The objects had in view by the Confederate authorities when, after the battle of Chancellorsville, the invasion of the North was projected, in the spring of the year 1863, are well known. To transfer the seat of war, permanently if possible, or at any rate temporarily, to the country north of the Potomac, thus giving to those who remained at home a chance of securing the harvest from the fields of Virginia, and at the same time making probable the recognition of the Confederate cause by the hesitating powers of Europe, was a bold game to play. No time was lost in setting about it. In the early days of June, the Army of Northern Virginia began to show signs of activity. The cavalry of the Army of the Potomac had returned worn out and jaded from Stoneman's raid, but after a short rest was again put in motion, and was kept actively engaged in watch- ing the movements of the Confederate army. On the 9th of June the cavalry battle of Brandy Station was fought, and the intended invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania was discov- ered through Confederate dispatches captured upon that occa- sion. Reconnoissances-in-force and scouting in all directions daily followed that brilliant passage-at-arms. The equally well-fought cavalry battles of Aldie, Middleburg and Upperville ensued. Hard work and starvation told heavily upon both men and horses, and when Buford's and Gregg's Divisions, covering the rear of the army, crossed the Potomac at Edwards Ferry during the afternoon of the 27th of June, their physical condi- tion was far short of what could have been desired. After crossing the river Gregg's Division, consisting of the brigades of Colonel MeIntosh ( First), General Kilpatrick (Second), and Colonel Irvin Gregg (Third), started on the march about dusk, and. keeping it up steadily all night long, reached Fred- erick. Md., early on the morning of the 28th.
During a short halt at that place. General Kilpatrick was ordered to take command of Stahel's Division of Cavalry, which, as the Third Division, was assigned to duty with the
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Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac, and General- Farnsworth and Custer were appointed to command the two brigades of which it was composed.
In the movements of the Army of the Potomac after cross- ing into Maryland, the Cavalry Corps, with its three divisions. operated in its front and on its flanks. General Buford with the First Division took the left flank, General Kilpatrick with the Third Division the centre, and General Gregg with the Second Division the right flank. On June 30th, Kilpatrick. having taken the direct and shorter road from Frederick. struck the cavalry of the Army of Northern Virginia at Hanover, and intercepted its line of march to join Lee's army. Being thus headed off it was compelled to move over to the right, with Kilpatrick in close pursuit.
In the concentration upon Gettysburg, Gregg, with the First and Third Brigades of his division, left Hanover at day- break on the 2d of July, and about noon, after a tedious and exhausting march, took position on the Hanover (or Bonaugh- town) Road near its intersection with the Low Dutch Road, about three and a half miles east of the town - McIntosh's Brigade on the right and Irvin Gregg's on the left.
These two brigades were constituted as follows : -
The First Brigade, commanded by Colonel John B. MeIntosh of the Third Pennsylvania Cavalry, consisted of his own regi- ment under Lieutenant-Colonel Edward S. Jones, the First New Jersey Cavalry under Major Myron H. Beaumont, and the First Maryland Cavalry under Lieutenant-Colonel James M. Deems, with Captain A. M. Randol's Horse-battery E-G. First United States Artillery, of four three-inch rifled guns. It was temporarily deprived of much of its strength by the loss of the First Pennsylvania and First Massachusetts Cavalry regi- ments, which had been detached for special service with the Re- serve Artillery and the Sixth Corps respectively. A section of a mounted battery (II) belonging to the Third Pennsylvania Artillery, under command of Captain William D. Rank, and the Purnell Troop of Maryland Cavalry, under Captain Robert E. Duvall, were also serving temporarily with the First Brigade.
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GREGG'S FIGHT AT GETTYSBURG.
having, on the evening of June 28th, while proceeding from Frederick to Baltimore, been cut off by the Confederate cavalry, and, narrowly escaping capture, having fallen in with the brigade. The Third Brigade, commanded by Colonel J. Irvin Gregg of the Sixteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, consisted of his own regiment under Lieutenant-Colonel John K. Robison, the Fourth Pennsylvania Cavalry under Lieutenant-Colonel Wil- liam E. Doster, the First Maine Cavalry under Lieutenant- Colonel Charles H. Smith, and the Tenth New York Cavalry under Major M. Henry Avery. The Second Brigade of the division under Colonel Huey had, on July 1st, been sent back from Hanover Junction for the purpose of guarding the rear of the army, and protecting the trains which were to assemble at Westminster.
After crossing the Potomac the column had marched stead- ily day and night, and, having been for many days without food or forage, the two brigades arrived with wearied men and jaded horses upon the field of Gettysburg. The long march had been a terrible one. The intense heat had at times been almost unendurable, the dust almost impenetrable. Horses by the score had fallen from exhaustion along the road. Officers and men, begrimed past recognition, could have been seen tramping along on foot, leading their worn-out horses to save their strength, well knowing how much depended upon it. Those whose horses had fallen dead or dying had struggled along, some carrying their saddles and bridles, in hopes of being able to procure fresh mounts, others with nothing but their arms. All had been straining their energies in the one direc- tion where they knew the enemy was to be found.
As has been stated, Gregg's column closed up near the in- tersection of the Hanover and Low Dutch Roads about noon of July 2d. Two regiments of infantry belonging to the Eleventh Corps were found in the advance, deployed as skirmishers along Brinkerhoff's Ridge, which crosses the Hanover Road nearly at right angles, about two miles or more east of Gettysburg. In their front, there was a considerable force of Confederate infan- try. About three o'clock the Union infantry line was relieved
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by the Tenth New York Cavalry regiment of Irvin Gregg's Brigade, and Rank's two guns were unlimbered and loaded in the middle of the Hanover Road on a hill near the Reever house. The officers and men of the command sought what rest and shelter from the scorching heat they could, while from the hills they watched the conflict between the infantry and artil- lery of the opposing armies. Some of the men groomed their horses to freshen them up; some allowed theirs to nibble the rich clover; whilst others, thoroughly worn out, tried to obtain a little sleep.
During the afternoon there was some skirmish firing between the opposing lines, and about six o'clock Colonel Irvin Gregg ordered fifty men of the Tenth New York Cavalry to advance dismounted and clear the front. A regiment of Confederate infantry was at once sent out to meet them, and drove back the small party of cavalrymen. Suddenly a party of the enemy appeared on the top of Brinkerhoff's Ridge where it crosses the Hanover Road. In a second Rank's men were at their guns, and put two shells into the midst of the party, causing the Confederates to fall back instantly under cover of the ridge. " To horse !" sounded at once, and the Third Pennsylvania. advancing at a trot along the road toward Gettysburg, formed close column of squadrons in an orchard back of the Cress house. The first two squadrons were quickly dismounted to fight on foot, advanced at a run, and in a few minutes were deployed at close intervals as skirmishers on the summit of the eastern spur of Brinkerhoff's Ridge north of the road. The Purnell Troop and two battalions of the First New Jersey, under Major Janeway and Captain Boyd, followed, and deployed dismounted on the left of the road on the prolonga- tion of the same line, with the third battalion under Major Beaumont in reserve. A strong, well-built stone wall ran along the top of the ridge on the right of the road, with a field of tall wheat just ripe for cutting on the other side of the wall. This wall was the key of the position, as each of the contend- ing parties at onee perceived, and by the time our men reached it a line of Confederate infantry was seen making for it at full
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speed. The fire of Rank's guns had delayed the enemy's advance for a sufficient length of time to enable us to get there first, and give a withering reception with our breech-loading carbines to the infantrymen, who were not more than twenty feet off from the wall when we reached it.
After vainly attempting to drive our men back, the enemy retired to a more sheltered position, along the edge of a piece of woods some two hundred yards distant, where he remained until after dark, the opposing forces and Rank's two guns meanwhile keeping up a brisk firing. Later in the evening the Confederates, taking advantage of the darkness, turned our right unobserved, and dislodged a portion of our line, which, however, was re-established after some trouble. Our adversa- ries proved to be the Second Virginia Infantry, of General Walker's celebrated "Stonewall Brigade," which latter was supporting it, close at hand, acting as a flanking party of John- son's Division of Ewell's Corps, in its advance to the attack of Culp's Hill. The threatening position occupied by the cavalry- men, and their vigorous fight, compelled the Confederate bri- gade to remain on the ground until too late to participate in the assault of Culp's Hill" which came so near proving success- ful, and which, had it succeeded, would have rendered the heights south of Gettysburg untenable.
About ten o'clock in the evening the line was withdrawn, and the two brigades moved over to the Baltimore Turnpike, where it crosses White Run, near the position of the Reserve Artillery, and there went into bivouac, in accordance with orders from Cavalry Corps headquarters, to be available for whatever duty they might be called upon to perform on the morrow.
On the morning of July 3d, General Gregg was directed to resume his position on the right of the infantry line, and make a demonstration against the enemy. Upon reaching the ground occupied by him on the previous day on the Hanover Road, he found it in possession of the Second Brigade of the Third Cay- alry Division.
*Generals Johnson's and Walker's Reports. Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Vol. XXVII. Part 11, Pages 504 and 518.
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This brigade, known as the " Michigan Brigade," of which Brigadier-General George A. Custer had taken command on June 29th, was composed of the First, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Michigan Cavalry regiments, commanded by Colonels Charles H. Town, Russell A. Alger, George Gray, and William D. Mann, respectively, and Horse-battery M, Second United States Artillery, under Lieutenant A. C. M. Pennington, with six three-inch rifled guns. On June 28th, the brigade had been assigned to duty with the Army of the Potomac; on the 30th it had been actively engaged with the Confederate cavalry at Hanover, and again at Hunterstown on July 2d. It was a splendid body of men ; its ranks were better filled than those of the other cavalry brigades, and the greater part of it was fresh from pastures green.
General Custer, after his fight with the Confederate cavalry at Hunterstown, had spent the latter part of the night of July 2d in bivouac with the rest of the Third Division at Two Tay- erns, a small village on the Baltimore Turnpike, about five miles southeast of Gettysburg. His earlier movements of the follow- ing day are best described in his own words : --
" At an early hour on the morning of the 3d," he states in his official report, " I received an order, through a staff officer of the brigadier-general commanding the division, to move my command at once and follow the First Brigade on the road leading from Two Taverns to Gettysburg. Agreeably to the above in- structions, my column was formed and moved out on the road designated, when a staff officer of Brigadier-General Gregg, commanding Second Division, ordered me to take my command and place it in position on the Pike leading from York* to Gettysburg, which position formed the extreme right of our line of battle on that day. Upon arriving at the point desig- nated, I immediately placed my command in position, facing toward Gettysburg. At the same time I caused reconnoissances to be made on my front, right and rear, but failed to discover any considerable force of the enemy. Everything remained
*General Custer In his report erroneously calls the Hanover Road the York Turnpike, and the Low Dutch Road the Oxford Road.
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quiet till 10 A.M.,* when the enemy appeared on my right flank and opened upon me with a battery of six guns. Leay- ing two guns and a regiment to hold my first position and cover the road leading to Gettysburg, I shifted the remaining portion of my command, forming a new line of battle at right angles to my former line. The enemy had obtained correct range of my new position, and were pouring solid shot and shell into my command with great accuracy. Placing two sections of Battery M, Second (regular) Artillery, in position, I ordered them to silence the enemy's battery, which order, notwithstand- ing the superiority of the enemy's position, was successfully accomplished in a very short space of time. My line, as it then existed, was shaped like the letter E., the shorter branch formed of one section of Battery M, supported by four squadrons of the Sixth Michigan Cavalry, faced toward Gettysburg, cover- ing the Gettysburg Pike; the long branch composed of the remaining two sections of Battery M, Second Artillery, sup- ported by a portion of the Sixth Michigan Cavalry on the left, and the First Michigan Cavalry on the right, with the Seventh Michigan Cavalry still further to the right and in advance, was held in readiness to repel any attack the enemy might make coming on the Orford Road. The Fifth Michigan Cavalry was dismounted and ordered to take position in front of my centre and left. The First Michigan Cavalry was held in column of squadrons to observe the movements of the enemy. . I ordered fifty men to be sent one mile and a half on the Orford Road, while a detachment of equal size was sent one mile and a half on the road leading from Gettysburg to York, both detach- ments being under the command of the gallant Major Webber, who from time to time kept me so well informed of the move- ments of the enemy that I was enabled to make my dispositions with complete success."
*As there was no fighting so early in the day as io o'clock in the morning, it has been suggested by General Kidd in his address recently delivered at the dedication of the monu- ment erected by the State of Michigan to the Michigan Cavalry Brigade (who in giving an account of the operations finds a difficulty in reconciling General Custer's statement to the facts) that General Custer originally wrote " 1 o'clock " and in the copying of the reports the "I" and the "o" were mistaken for "to." This seems to be the correct solution of the miatter. The report is not printed in the " Official Records of the War of the Rebellion " in- asmuch as the original is not on hle in the War Department, and it was found impossible to obtain a duly authenticated copy.
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General Gregg placed his two brigades to the left of General Custer's line, taking position between the Baltimore Turnpike and the Hanover Road. The Sixteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry. of Irvin Gregg's Brigade, was dismounted and, deploying as skirmishers, moved through the woods in the direction of Get- tysburg. It had not proceeded far when a strong picket force of Confederate infantry was found. After driving in the out- posts for a short distance, the cavalrymen succeeded, in the face of a strong resistance, in establishing their line connecting with the infantry on the left near Wolf's Hill, and. extending to the right as far as the Hanover Road. This had scarce been done. when, about noon, a dispatch from General Howard, the com- mander of the Eleventh Corps, to General Meade, was placed in General Gregg's hands, notifying him that a large body of the enemy's cavalry had been seen from Cemetery Hill moving toward the right of our line. At the same time an order was received from General Pleasonton, who commanded the Cavalry Corps, directing Custer's Brigade to join its division (Kilpat- rick's) on the extreme left of the army. Accordingly, MeIntosh's Brigade was ordered to relieve Custer's and to occupy his posi- tion covering the intersection of the Hanover and Low Dutch Roads.
While these movements were going on upon our part, the Confederate cavalry, under Major-General J. E. B. Stuart. which for some time had been cut off from all communication with the main body of Lee's army, was hastening to join it. It is needless here to follow in detail Stuart's earlier movements, but on July 2d, after having encountered Kilpatrick at Hunters- town, he arrived in the vicinity of Gettysburg, and took posi- tion on the York and Harrisburg Roads. He, too, had been marching hard and long. Men and horses had, like ours, suf- fered severely, but. marching as he had been through an enemy's country, his losses from struggling had, of course, been less than those of the Union cavalry.
During the morning of July 3d, Stuart moved forward to the left and in advance of Ewell's Corps, for the purpose of occupying the elevated ground east of Gettysburg. from which,
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while protecting the left of Lee's army, he could command a view of the routes leading to the rear of the Army of the Poto- mac, and could, at the same time, be in position to move out at the proper moment, and there attack it, simultaneously with the grand assault which was to be made upon Cemetery Ridge from the other side by Pickett's Division of Longstreet's Corps, supported by Heth's and Pender's Divisions and Wilcox's Bri- gade of Hill's Corps. That this was his purpose he tells us almost in so many words.
To appreciate how well adapted was Stuart's position to such a move, one should stand on yonder hill back of Rummel's. The whole country for miles in front of him, clear up to Cem- etery Hill and the Round Tops, lay at his feet. In his rear a cross-country road branches off from the York Turnpike about two and a half miles from Gettysburg, and, crossing over the high ground mentioned by Stuart, runs in a south-easterly direc- tion toward the Low Dutch Road, which connects the York and Baltimore Turnpikes. This high ground is divided south of the cross-road by the upper valley of Cress' Run, forming two ridges, that west of the run being known as Brinkerhoff's Ridge, and that east of it as Cress' Ridge. A piece of woods crowns the easterly side of the ridge on the southerly side of the cross-road, affording protection and cover to the supports of the battery which was subsequently placed there. Sereened by this and another piece of woods on the opposite side of the cross- road is a large open space on the Stallsmith farm, where the Confederate leader was enabled to mass and manoeuvre his com- mand unobserved by his opponents.
The position occupied by the Union cavalry had none of the advantages claimed by Stuart for his own. As he himself states in his official report, the whole country for miles lay at his feet. On the other hand, the ground occupied by his opponents was less commanding, and more exposed to his view. The Low Dutch Road crosses the Hanover Road nearly. at right angles, about three and a half miles south-east of Gettysburg. at the Howard house, and, continuing on about two miles farther in a south-westerly direction, strikes the Bal-
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timore Turnpike about one mile and three-fourths south-east of Rock Creek and the rear of centre of our main line of battle. Another cross-country road, from half a mile to a mile nearer Gettysburg, runs nearly parallel with the Low Dutch Road from the Hanover Road at the Reever house along the valley of Cress' run, and strikes the Baltimore Turnpike by the bridge over White Run about a mile south-east of the bridge over Rock Creek, close to which, by Powers' Hill, the Reserve Artillery and the ammunition trains were stationed. This, being the shorter and more direct road, was used by our troops in operating between the Baltimore Turnpike and the Hanover Road. By these roads the rear of our main line of battle was directly accessible. About three-fourths of a mile north-east from the intersection of the Low Dutch and Hanover Roads the cross-country road first above mentioned branches off to the north-west toward the York Turnpike and the left centre of Stuart's position. This piece of woods near which we stand, and which since the battle has been somewhat reduced in extent, covered the intersection of the Low Dutch Road and the cross-road on the side toward the enemy's position, extend- ing about equi-distant on each road from near a lane leading down to John Rummel's house and farm-buildings on the north, to the Lott house on the south, a total distance of a half- mile or more. One side of this piece of woods faced the north- west and the enemy's position. Between the ridge on which the Howard house stands, and along which the Low Dutch Road runs, and that part of Cress' Ridge occupied by the right of Stuart's line, but close under the latter, is a small creek known as Little's run, starting from the spring-house at Rummel's. The Rummel farm-buildings eventually became the key-point of the field, which lies about three miles east of Gettysburg.
The force under Gregg numbered about five thousand men. though not more than three thousand were actually engaged in the fight about to be described. It consisted of the three regi- ments of MeIntosh's Brigade, Irvin Gregg's Brigade, and Cus- ter's Brigade, which. as will appear, remained on the field. On the other hand Stuart had under his command General Wade
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Hampton's Brigade, consisting of the First North Carolina and the First and Second South Carolina Cavalry regiments, and Cobb's Georgia, the Jeff Davis, and Phillips' Georgia Legions ; General Fitzhugh Lee's. Brigade, consisting of the First, Sec- ond, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Virginia Cavalry regiments ; and General W. H. F. Lee's Brigade, under Colonel John R. Chambliss, consisting of the Second North Carolina and the Ninth, Tenth, and Thirteenth Virginia Cavalry regiments. To this force was added, for the proposed movements of the day, Jenkins' Brigade of cavalry, under Colonel Milton J. Fer- guson, armed as mounted infantry with Enfield muskets, though short of ammunition, and consisting of the Fourteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Virginia Cavalry regiments, and the Thirty-fourth andThirty-sixth Virginia Battalions. The artil- lery with Stuart consisted of MeGregor's Virginia, Breathed's Virginia, Jackson's Virginia, and Griffin's Maryland horse- batteries. This entire force has been estimated by reliable Confederate authority at between six thousand and seven thousand men.
When McIntosh, shortly before one o'clock in the afternoon, came with his brigade upon the ground occupied by Custer for the purpose of relieving him, he made the necessary inquiries as to his picket line, and the position and force of the enemy. Everything was quiet at the time. Custer reported, however, that the eneiny was all around, and that an attack might be expected at any moment. The First New Jersey was at once ordered out, mounted, to relieve Custer's pickets, taking posi- tion in the piece of woods on the Low Dutch Road, facing to the north-west, and the Third Pennsylvania and First Mary- land were drawn up in columns of squadrons in a clover field west of the Lott house, awaiting developments. While in this position, and a few minutes after one o'clock, the tremendous artillery firing which preceded Pickett's attack began. Not being within range, however, the officers and men of the brigade, while allowing their horses to graze, looked with astonishment upon the magnificent spectacle.
As soon as the Michigan Brigade had begun to move off for
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FIRST MAINE BUGLE.
the purpose of joining Kilpatrick near Round Top, McIntosh, who had looked well over the ground, determined to ascertain what force was in his front without waiting to be attacked. Accordingly, about two o'clock, he ordered Major Beaumont to move the First New Jersey forward toward the wooded crest about five-eighths of a mile in front of him and a short distance beyond Rummel's, expecting there to find the enemy. This movement was a signal for the deployment of a skirmish line from Rummel's barn, where a strong picket force of the enemy had been concealed, and which at once occupied a line of fences a short distance in front. The First New Jersey was dismounted and took position behind a fence running parallel with that occupied by the enemy, the right of the line under Major Janeway and the left under Captain Boyd, and immediately became hotly engaged. Two squadrons of the Third Pen- sylvania, under Captains Rogers and Treichel, and the Pur- nell Troop, were deployed dismounted to the left in the open fields, and the three other squadrons of the Third Pennsyl- vania, under Captains Miller, Walsh and Hess, deployed mounted to the extreme right of the whole line in the woods covering the cross-road above mentioned running toward the enemy's position -- Miller on the left of the road and Walsh on the right. To meet this movement the Confederate skirmish line was strongly reinforced by dismounted men, and a battery was placed in position in front of the wooded crest back of the Rummel house.
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