174 The American Civil Warformations together and soon everyone
else pitched in.
The battle of 1 July 1863, considered
alone, must be adjudged one of the Army of
Northern Virginia's greatest victories. Fighting
opened that morning west of Gettysburg, a
farming community of about 2,400 souls.
Confederate skirmishers ran into Northern
cavalry commanded by salty, unflappable
General John Buford. A brigade of Southern
infantry under President Jefferson Davis's
nephew, General Joseph Davis, drove forward
with marked success, but then the green
brigadier clumsily allowed his men to be