DK - The American Civil War

streets of Gettysburg, the

victorious Confederates hot

on their heels. Safety for the

bluecoats beckoned on the high

ground of Cemetery Hill, which

was occupied by reserves that

Howard had wisely left there.

Now those forces would

serve as protection

against the expected

Confederate assault as the

sun began to sink lower in

the sky. But that assault never came.

Lee knew that the rest of the Union

army was on its way and that now was

the time to strike the final blow. He

turned to Ewell and ordered him to

attack the heights “if practicable.” Ewell,

aware of his troops’ exhaustion and

worried by reports of Federals to his left,

did not find an attack practicable. Most

of the defeated Union Eleventh and First

Corps escaped to Cemetery Hill where,

shaken and hurt, they regrouped.

The second day begins

General George G. Meade, commander

of the Army of the Potomac, rode up

before midnight. Conferring with

Second Corps commander, Lieutenant

General Winfield S. Hancock, he

inspected the positions, and deemed

them secure. By the early morning of

July 2, three more Union corps had

joined their comrades on Cemetery Hill.

Frustrated by the hollow victory of

the previous day, Lee met his generals

to consider options. Rejecting a proposal

from Lieutenant General James

Longstreet to move around the enemy

and reposition between them and

Washington, Lee decided on a double

envelopment. Longstreet’s First Corps

would attack the Union southern (left)

flank with two divisions and a third

from Hill’s corps, while Ewell would try

to deceive the enemy with a show of

force against Cemetery and Culp’s hills.

Longstreet was slow in sending

forward his two divisions, commanded

by generals Lafayette McLaws and John

Bell Hood, both tired from a forced

march the night before. Federal signalers

on Little Round Top at the end of the

Northern line spotted their initial

movements. Longstreet’s infantry lost

valuable time as it doubled back to take

an unobserved route. By the time

McLaws and Hood charged forward

about 4 p.m., General Daniel Sickles’

Union Third Corps had advanced to the

Emmitsburg Road Ridge and blocked

their way. Had Sickles not been there,

Lee’s plan to roll up Meade’s left flank

might well have worked.

Fighting withdrawal

Through the rest of the afternoon and

into early evening, Longstreet’s troops

attacked Sickles’ corps. At the Peach

Orchard, Devil’s Den, and Wheatfield,

Sickles’ men, reinforced by brigades

from the Fifth and Sixth Corps, retreated

and counterattacked until finally forced

to yield their positions. The climax on

the southern end of the field occurred

at Little Round Top, as Hood’s tired

and thirsty Alabamans and Texans

assaulted—and almost captured—the

anchor to Meade’s position. Colonel

Joshua L. Chamberlain and his 20th

Maine would become famous for

their defense of the hill’s southern

slope. Moreover, it is likely that Meade

would have sent in the bulk of Sixth

Corps to retake it. Union numbers and

interior lines were starting to

make a difference.

THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG

his death and savage casualties
in the Iron Brigade, the
Union forces pushed the
Southerners back through
McPherson’s Woods and
were poised to hold the ridges
west of town.

Corps against corps
Word now arrived that gray-
clad troops were moving down
from the North. These were
General Ewell’s Second Corps,
and they were headed
precisely for the flank of the
Union First Corps. Before they
could get there, however, the
Union Eleventh Corps, under
Oliver O. Howard, had arrived dusty
and thirsty after a rapid march from
Emmitsburg and positioned itself to
support the First Corps’ right. Howard
deployed his brigades too far forward
and dangerously stretched an already
tenuous defensive line. When Ewell’s
divisions came on the field, General
Lee, riding forward from the west,
grasped the opportunity presented to

“I think this the strongest position

by nature upon which to fight a

battle that I ever saw.”

LIEUTENANT GENERAL WINFIELD S. HANCOCK, UNION ARMY, JULY 1, 1863

him. He ordered Ewell and General A.

P. Hill, in command of Third Corps, to

attack in force.

Four Confederate divisions swept

forward in a semicircle from the west

and north, driving in the Eleventh Corps,

then the First Corps. By late afternoon,

both corps were in retreat through the

Union drum

Drums were used for communication on

the battlefield. Each regiment had several

drummers who would beat out signals to the

troops on the commanding officer’s order.

UNION GENERAL (1815–72)

Born in Spain of American parents, Meade was a career

army officer who had worked as an engineer and seen

action against the Seminole Indians and in the War

with Mexico of 1846–48. He served in the Army

of the Potomac from the start of the Civil War.

With the temper and appearance of an

“old googly-eyed snapping turtle,” he

had the character and tactical skill to

beat Lee at Gettysburg, but he

was criticized for failing to follow

up Lee’s retreating army in the

aftermath. Meade stayed in

command of the Army of the

Potomac until the end of

the war, although in the final

campaigns he fought under the

close supervision of Ulysses S.

Grant, the Union general-in-chief.

GEORGE GORDON MEADE