Gettysburg-Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill

by Pfanz, Harry W.

• ISBN13: 9780807821183
• ISBN10: 0807821187
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1994-01-01
• Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr

Summary

In this companion to his celebrated earlier book, Gettysburg--The Second Day, Harry Pfanz provides the first definitive account of the fighting between the Army of the Potomac and Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia at Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill--two of the most critical engagements fought at Gettysburg on 2 and 3 July 1863. Pfanz provides detailed tactical accounts of each stage of the contest and explores the interactions between--and decisions made by--generals on both sides. In particular, he illuminates Confederate lieutenant general Richard S. Ewell's controversial decision not to attack Cemetery Hill after the initial southern victory on 1 July. Pfanz also explores other salient features of the fighting, including the Confederate occupation of the town of Gettysburg, the skirmishing in the south end of town and in front of the hills, the use of breastworks on Culp's Hill, and the small but decisive fight between Union cavalry and the Stonewall Brigade.

Table of Contents

Preface	xv
Acknowledgments	xvii
Two Generals and Their Armies	1	(14)
The Only Position	15	(16)
Ewell and Howard Collide	31	(14)
Retreat to Cemetery Hill	45	(14)
The Rebels Take the Town	59	(12)
Ewell Hesitates	71	(17)
Slocum and Hancock Reach the Field	88	(18)
Getting Ready for the Fight	106	(23)
Skirmishers, Sharpshooters, and Civilians	129	(24)
Brinkerhoff's Ridge	153	(15)
The Artillery, 2 July	168	(22)
Blunder on the Right	190	(15)
Johnson Attacks!	205	(30)
Early Attacks Cemetery Hill	235	(28)
Cemetery Hill---The Repulse	263	(21)
Culp's Hill---Johnson's Assault, 3 July	284	(26)
The Last Attacks	310	(18)
Counterattacks near Spangler's Spring	328	(25)
3 July, Mostly Afternoon	353	(12)
Epilogue	365	(12)
Appendix A. Spangler's Spring	377	(2)
Appendix B. Two Controversies	379	(4)
Appendix C. Order of Battle: Army of the Potomac and Army of Northern Virginia, 1--3 July 1863	383	(24)
Notes	407	(64)
Bibliography	471	(18)
Index	489

Excerpts

Chapter One

Two Generals and Their Armies

                 Two generals -- corps commanders -- confronted one another at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, late on the afternoon of 1 July 1863. One, a Confederate lieutenant general, whose troops had just smashed the Union Eleventh Corps and driven it in retreat through the streets of Gettysburg, sought to determine if he should push on and try to seize the high ground just south of the town where Union troops were rallying. The other, a Union major general, was on that high ground, Cemetery Hill, and was attempting to organize his badly mauled forces to meet an attack that he believed would soon come.

    The generals were extraordinary fellows. Both were graduates of West Point but from classes fourteen years apart. Both were brave beyond doubt, and both had already lost limbs in battle--one a leg, the other an arm. Both were eccentric, and both had been affected by the recent battle of Chancellorsville but in very different ways. The Union general and his corps had been crushed and had suffered heavy casualties there, but worse, many people in and out of the Army of the Potomac blamed them for the Union defeat and vilified them. The Confederate general had not been at Chancellorsville himself, but his men had triumphed there, and now he commanded them in place of the mortally wounded Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson.

    The Confederate lieutenant general was Richard Stoddert Ewell. Ewell was a Virginian and the grandson of Benjamin Stoddert, the nation's first secretary of the navy. Although Ewell had prominent family connections, he had been reared in near poverty at "Stony Lonesome," a farm near Manassas, Virginia. Ewell managed to get an appointment to West Point's class of 1840, which included William T. Sherman and George H. Thomas. After graduating, he served on the frontier with the 1st Regiment of Dragoons. During the Mexican War Ewell and his company formed Gen. Winfield Scott's mounted escort, and he won a brevet. After the war, Ewell campaigned long and actively in the Southwest against the Apaches. He had performed well throughout his career and had developed an enviable reputation among his peers. Then came the Civil War.

    Ewell did not support secession and had much to lose by it. Nevertheless, he resigned his Old Army commission on 7 May 1861 and entered Virginia's service as a lieutenant colonel. He briefly commanded a cavalry camp of instruction at Ashland, Virginia, and on 17 June became a brigadier general. He commanded a brigade at First Manassas but saw no heavy fighting. In February 1862, now a major general, he received command of a division and led it in the Shenandoah Valley during Jackson's campaign there. He commanded his division in the Seven Days' battles, at Cedar Mountain, and at Groveton, where he was shot in the left knee. This wound led to the amputation of his left leg, and Ewell missed the battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville.

    Ewell proved to be a skillful and successful division commander, and unlike Ambrose P. Hill and others, he was able to get along with Stonewall Jackson. His bravery was legendary, and often he commanded his division as he had led his dragoon company--from the front.

    Ewell was no Adonis. He was five feet, eight inches tall, thin, and had gray eyes and a fringe of brown hair on a domed bald head. Richard Taylor, who had commanded the Louisiana brigade in his division in the Shenandoah Valley, described Ewell as having "bright prominent eyes, a bombshaped, bald head, and a nose like that of Francis of Valois [that] gave him striking resemblance to a woodcock." In addition, he had a lisp that gave an added dimension to his pungent comments and to the blistering profanity he used when irritated.

    Ewell had chronic health problems associated with malaria and with his digestive system, but these ailments did not adversely affect his military performance. He rivaled Stonewall Jackson in eccentricity, but when not irritated he was pleasant and affable. He seemed devoid of vanity and had little untoward ambition. In the postwar years, when all too many former Confederate leaders sought to buttress their reputations by imputing blame for Confederate misfortunes to others, Ewell, like Gen. Robert E. Lee, remained silent. After his death in 1872, his stepdaughter Harriet Stoddert Turner wrote, "I know how much he suffered from ignorant censure & unjust criticism."

    Ewell had been a romantic in his youth and was an ardent admirer of young ladies of quality, few of whom he met on the frontier. He had wooed his cousin Lizinka Campbell without success but had not seriously pursued other ladies he admired. Then, during the recuperation from the amputation of his left leg, he got the chance to woo Lizinka again. By then she was the wealthy widow of a Mississippi planter named Brown, and Ewell won the widow's heart and hand. The new Mrs. Ewell, who curbed the general's swearing, was the mother of Maj. G. Campbell Brown, who had been on Ewell's staff since early in the war and in some measure would become his Boswell.

    Ewell, at forty-six years of age and minus his left leg, returned to active duty after Chancellorsville to take command of Jackson's old corps, the Second Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia, with the grade of lieutenant general. His assignment met with wide approval. Jedediah Hotchkiss, the corps' topographical engineer, recalled that "no risk is run in asserting that the entire Second Corps desired him to be Jackson's successor, and his appointment gave general satisfaction to the officers and men of that grand body of fighters and victory winners."

    When Ewell accepted the corps command, he tactfully invited Jackson's staff to stay on with him. After meeting his new commander again, Maj. Alexander S. (Sandie) Pendleton, the corps adjutant, wrote: "General Ewell is in fine health and in fine spirits,--rides on horseback as well as anyone needs to. The more I see of him the more I am pleased to be with him. In some traits of character he is very much like General Jackson, especially in his total disregard of his own comfort and safety, and his inflexibility of purpose. He is so thoroughly honest, too, and has only one desire, to conquer the Yankees. I look for great things from him, and am glad to say that our troops have for him a good deal of the same feeling they had towards General Jackson."

    The loss of Jackson triggered a reorganization of the Army of Northern Virginia. For some time, it had two corps commanded by Gens. James Longstreet and Stonewall Jackson plus a cavalry division commanded by Maj. Gen. James E. B. (Jeb) Stuart. After Chancellorsville, General Lee had to find replacements for ranking officers lost in the battle or found wanting and sought to obtain greater efficiency by reducing the size of his corps. His solution for the latter was to reorganize Ids 75,000 troops into three corps of three divisions each and a cavalry division together with supporting artillery. With three exceptions, each infantry division would have four brigades. The artillery, formed into battalions, would be assigned to the three corps and to the cavalry.

    In this new organization, General Longstreet would continue to command the First Corps, Ewell would take the Second, and the Third would go to A. P. Hill, formerly commander of the famous Light Division. It is significant perhaps that General Lee had not recently worked closely with Hill and that Ewell had worked directly under Jackson and not Lee. In short, Lee would soon launch a major campaign with two new corps commanders, one of whom had not previously been his immediate subordinate. This would affect Ewell in particular, for he was accustomed to the tight-rein style of command employed by Stonewall Jackson and not the hands-off manner of General Lee.

    Ewell's corps had divisions commanded by three major generals: Jubal A. Early, Edward Johnson, and Robert E. Redes. Early's division had four brigades: a Louisiana brigade commanded by Harry T. Hays, a Georgia brigade commanded by John B. Gordon, Virginians under William ("Extra Billy") Smith, and Robert F. Hoke's North Carolinians. Hoke, however, had been wounded at Chancellorsville, and in his absence Col. Isaac E. Avery of the 6th North Carolina Regiment would lead his Tarheels.

    Rodes's division underwent some change. It had been Daniel H. Hill's division, but Redes had commanded it at Chancellorsville and had done well. Now it was his. For some reason, the division had five brigades instead of the usual four. Rodes's old Alabama brigade was commanded by Col. Edward A. O'Neal of its 26th Alabama Regiment. Brig. Gen. George Doles continued to command his Georgia brigade, and there were two North Carolina brigades under Brig. Gens. Stephen D. Ramseur and Alfred Iverson. It also had a large new North Carolina brigade under Brig. Gen. Junius Daniel.

    The greatest changes had taken place in the division once commanded by Stonewall himself. It was said that Jackson had been saving the command of this division for Isaac R. Trimble, who had been wounded at Second Manassas, but Trimble had not yet recovered. Therefore, General Lee assigned it to Maj. Gen. Edward Johnson, a newcomer to the Army of Northern Virginia.

    But that was not all. Each of the division's four brigades needed a new commander. Elisha F. Paxton of the Stonewall Brigade had been killed at Chancellorsville; his place would be taken by James A. Walker, who had commanded other brigades at Antietam and Fredericksburg. John R. Jones was dismissed from service after having left the field at Chancellorsville; his place would be taken by John M. Jones. There was a special problem involving North Carolina-Virginia pride in the brigade once led by Raleigh E. Colston; General Lee resolved it by assigning the 1st Maryland Battalion to the brigade and placing Brig. Gen. George H. Steuart, a Marylander, in command. The final brigade, that of Brig. Gen. Francis R. Nicholls, needed at least a temporary commander for Nicholls had lost a foot at Chancellorsville. General Lee designated Col. Jesse M. Williams of the 2d Louisiana Regiment as the brigade's acting commander.

    Therefore, though the Army of Northern Virginia had a new and seemingly more efficient organization, two of its corps had commanders new to their assignments. Furthermore, one, Richard S. Ewell, had lost a leg and was returning to duty with whatever handicap that condition might create. The other new commander, Lt. Gen. A. P. Hill, had worsening health. We know with the benefit of hindsight that Hill would not measure up to the reputation he had gained as a division commander. Both of these generals would bear some responsibility for Confederate operations against Cemetery Hill at Gettysburg.

    The Army of the Potomac had suffered 17,000 casualties at Chancellorsville and had lost a number of units whose period of service had expired. Yet it was not reorganized. In June 1863 it continued to consist of seven corps of infantry, each supported by a "brigade" of artillery, most having five batteries, a cavalry corps supported by two brigades of artillery, and its Artillery Reserve--a powerful collection of twenty-one batteries formed in five brigades. It had three new corps commanders: Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock of the Second Corps, George Sykes of the Fifth, and Brig. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton of the Cavalry Corps.

    Six of the seven infantry corps were proven fighting machines, but popular opinion within the army considered one corps, the Eleventh, to be a question mark at best. Formerly the First Corps of John Pope's Army of Virginia, the Eleventh Corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel, had come to the Army of the Potomac after the battle of Second Manassas. Through design or fortune, it had not taken part in the heavier fighting either at Antietam or Fredericksburg, and Sigel had left it in February 1863. Gens. Carl Schurz and Adolph von Steinwehr, two of its division commanders, were its acting commanders for a few weeks, and then Maj. Gen. Oliver Otis Howard took command.

    Howard's appointment was made neither in heaven nor by angels. In retrospect, the post would seem to have called for an experienced, no-nonsense disciplinarian like Hancock or Maj. Gen. John F. Reynolds. Instead it fell to an officer whose demonstrated ability was balanced by being young and rather inexperienced.

    Howard was born in Leeds, Maine, on 8 November 1830, the son of a farmer who died when he was nine. He attended public schools and in 1850 graduated from Bowdoin College. Although he had taught school, he was undecided about a career, and when an uncle who was a congressman offered him an appointment to West Point, he took it. Therefore, at age nineteen, with a college degree already in hand, he entered the academy's class of 1854. Howard had no problem with his studies at West Point, but he was placed in Coventry for a time during his plebe year for reasons unknown today. His classmates included W. Dorsey Pender, Stephen H. Weed, and Thomas H. Ruger, and by the time of his graduation he numbered G. W. Custis Lee and Jeb Stuart among his closer friends.

    After graduation, Howard married and served as a subaltern in the Ordnance Department. In 1857 he returned to West Point as an instructor in mathematics. In the years that followed, he fathered three children, conducted a Bible class for enlisted men and civilians, and studied theology with a local Episcopal priest with the idea of going into the ministry. Religion permeated his life, in much the same way that it had influenced Stonewall Jackson's.

    War came, and in June 1861 Howard exchanged his lieutenancy for the colonelcy of the 3d Maine Regiment. This appointment suggests that though he might not have dabbled in politics, he had support from Maine's important politicians. Howard was twenty-nine at this time. A member of the 3d Maine described him then as a "pale young man, ... slender with earnest eyes, a profusion of flowing moustache and beard." Actually, he was about five feet, nine inches tall and had blue eyes. A later description by Maj. Thomas W. Osborn, his chief of artillery, held him to be of slight build with heavy dark hair and "undistinguished" eyes, a strong but not an impressive man. Frank A. Haskell of the Second Corps wrote that Howard was a "very pleasant, affable, well dressed little gentleman"--something that no one would have said of Ewell.

    Major Osborn had other things to say of Howard as he saw him in 1865. He wrote that the general "never overcame mannerisms such as fidgety gestures and a shrill voice." On the other hand Osborn termed Howard "the highest toned gentleman" he had ever known. He believed him to be neither a profound thinker like Sherman nor a man with "large natural ability." He did not "call out from his troops the enthusiastic applause that Generals Logan and Hooker do," yet, wrote Osborn, "every officer and man has unbounded confidence in him." This might have been the real Howard of 1865, but it was not necessarily the Howard of 1861.

    Howard took the 3d Maine to Washington, D.C., to train it. However, he received an assignment to a brigade command and led his brigade to Manassas only about two months after he resigned his lieutenancy. Howard found the battle particularly offensive because it took place on a Sunday. He became unnerved momentarily by the sights and sounds of the fight, but he responded to his fright by praying to God that he might do his duty, and he claimed that the fear left him, never to return.

    Howard became a brigadier general on 3 September 1861. He led a Second Corps brigade in the Peninsular campaign until he fell at Fair Oaks on 1 June 1862 with two wounds, one of which cost him his right arm. He returned to Maine to recuperate but did not dally and was back with the army and in command of another Second Corps brigade in time for Second Manassas. He led this brigade at Antietam, and when his division commander, John Sedgwick, was wounded, Howard was there to take command. He continued to command the division at Fredericksburg and became a major general on 29 November 1862.

    In February 1863, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, commander of the Army of the Potomac, assigned his friend Daniel E. Sickles to the command of its Third Corps. Howard and Sickles shared the same promotion date to the grade of brigadier general, but Howard had ranked Sickles as a colonel. Thus, Howard had grounds for protesting that he had seniority over the bumptious Sickles and more right to a corps command than he. Hooker had to give Howard heed and on 2 April 1863 appointed him to the command of the Eleventh Corps.

    Howard's appointment was an unwelcome surprise to the Eleventh Corps, particularly to its Germans, for they had hoped for the return of their beloved Franz Sigel. In later years, Howard wrote that his reception by the members of the corps was outwardly cordial, but that they did not know him, and there was much dissatisfaction at the removal of Sigel. Howard and his brother and aide, Maj. Charles H. Howard, soon felt that Maj. Gen. Carl Schurz, who ranked just beneath Howard in the corps, was working against him. Truly, the corps' German element could not have felt that it had much in common with such a straitlaced fellow. For one thing, Howard did not drink; he believed alcohol to be a poison "injurious to the mental and moral life of a soldier," and such a view would have gained little support, even among the relatively few native New Englanders in the corps. Apart from that, Howard did not have the easy sense of humor and toleration that would have been helpful in developing empathy with a body of troops.

    But Howard gained toleration even if he did not replace Sigel in the Germans' affections. First of all, he retained much of the old corps staff for the time being, particularly Lt. Col. Charles W. Assmussen, the chief of staff, and Lt. Col. Theodore A. Meysenburg, the adjutant general, both of whom were German. Howard came to admire both, even though he wrote of Assmussen, "He drinks some but never lets me see him do so." Maj. Gen. Abner Doubleday, who developed a dislike for Howard at Gettysburg, wrote with jaundiced exaggeration that Howard's staff was made up of ministers and religious people who were looking out for their own interests. This would not have been true of Meysenburg and Assmussen.

    Howard did other positive things. Capt. Frederick C. Winkler wrote that the general was an active man who took note of everything. He recalled Howard's visiting a corps bakery where he heard a wagon master swearing. Howard called the man aside--he did not speak to him in front of other soldiers--and told him that it was the first such language that he had heard since coming to the corps and that he did not wish to hear any more. Later in the day another soldier, who was serving as an orderly, told Winkler that when he had held the general's horse to help him mount, Howard had said, "Thank you." The orderly commented, "Nobody said that to me before since I have been in the service."

    In later years at least, some of the ranking officers did not care for Howard. Hooker, who had an axe to grind, called him a fraud and deemed Maj. Gen. George Sykes, commander of the Fifth Corps, as much superior to him "as a soldier as night is to day." Brig. Gen. Henry J. Hunt wrote in a private letter, "As to the `Christian soldier,' I have no great opinion of him, either as a soldier or as head of the Freedmen's Bureau, or as a man."

    People called Howard the "Christian Soldier" but not always as a compliment. This was particularly so after the war when Howard gained a high profile and became controversial. The Howard of 1863 was probably closer to the man seen by Col. Charles S. Wainwright, chief of artillery of the First Corps, an elitist from New York and something of a snob. Before Chancellorsville, he wrote, "Howard ... is brave enough and a most perfect gentleman. He is a Christian as well as a man of ability, but there is some doubt as to his having snap enough to manage the Germans who require to be ruled with a rod of iron." After Chancellorsville, Wainwright termed the attacks on Howard as outrageous. Wrote Wainwright, "He is the only religious man of high rank that I know of in the army and, in the little intercourse I have had with him, shewed himself the most polished gentleman I have met."

    Stonewall Jackson smashed Howard's Eleventh Corps in a surprise evening attack at Chancellorsville, and much of it fled before the Confederate assault. This battle is often considered to be General Lee's greatest victory and was a fitting climax to Jackson's short but illustrious career. Many people, including much of the press, blamed the Army of the Potomac's defeat on the Eleventh Corps and were particularly critical of its German element, although the Germans constituted less than half of the corps' strength. Those who were more fair conceded that any corps placed in the Eleventh's position would have behaved about the same. Yet, although there was much anger within the corps for the unfair criticism its soldiers believed they had received, some of its members had doubts about the corps' capabilities. Captain Winkler of the staff of Schurz's division wrote on 11 June that he was apprehensive about the way the corps would behave in the campaign ahead. He had little confidence in it, not because of its German units as such, for he belonged to one, but because in his opinion the old regiments of the corps were rent by jealousy and intrigues among the officers and discipline was lacking.

    General Lee launched his Pennsylvania campaign on 3 June, eight days before Winkler penned his comment about the Eleventh Corps. Lee believed that a foray across the Potomac was the best way of defending Virginia. He could not attack the Federal army in its position near Fredericksburg with any great hope of success, and another battle in Virginia would probably be no more decisive than his victory at Chancellorsville had been. He resolved, therefore, to move the "scene of hostilities" north of the Potomac and in doing so draw the Federals from Virginia, break up their campaign plans for the summer, and possibly win a decisive victory. He wrote also of "other valuable results" that might be obtained, not the least of which were the supplies that might be garnered from the Pennsylvania countryside.

    Lee and most of Longstreet's and Ewell's corps and Stuart's division were in the Culpeper area on 9 June when Federal cavalry with some infantry support crossed the Rappahannock River "to disperse and destroy the rebel force assembled in the vicinity of Culpeper." The result was the cavalry battle of Brandy Station, which was a drawn fight and an embarrassment for Jeb Stuart, although his troopers finally prevailed.

    On the following day, 10 June, Ewell's corps set out in the van of the army for Pennsylvania. Early's and Johnson's divisions struck Maj. Gen. Robert H. Milroy's force of about 8,000 at Winchester, Virginia, on 14 June and destroyed it, capturing 23 pieces of artillery, 300 loaded wagons, and 200,000 rounds of small-arms ammunition. Stonewall Jackson could not have done better. In the meantime, Rodes's division captured Martinsburg along with five more cannons and an abundance of supplies.

    Ewell's corps moved on in the wake of Brig. Gen. Albert G. Jenkins's cavalry brigade. The corps crossed the Potomac on 15 June. Ewell delayed his march briefly in the Hagerstown area and then continued north up the Cumberland Valley toward Harrisburg. His troops swept the country of needed supplies as they went along. One column under Brig. Gen. George H. Steuart crossed Tuscarora Mountain to McConnellsburg and rejoined the main column near Carlisle.

    Jubal Early's division turned east at Chambersburg and swept through Gettysburg on its way to York and to the Susquehanna River at Wrightsville. General Lee gave a specific reason for Early's diversion; he hoped that Early's division's presence in the Gettysburg-York area would hold the Army of the Potomac east of the mountains after it crossed into Maryland and lessen its threat to the Confederates' line of communications in the Cumberland Valley. During this stage of its march, Early's division had the help of Lt. Col. Elijah V. White's 35th Cavalry Battalion (the Comanches) and the 17th Virginia Cavalry Regiment, commanded by Col. William H. French. On its way Gordon's brigade met and routed the 26th Pennsylvania Emergency Regiment. At York, Early's division picked up more booty, but the Federals burned the bridge over the Susquehanna at Wrightsville before the Confederates could seize it.

    Longstreet's and Hill's corps followed Ewell at midmonth. In the meantime, General Hooker swung the Army of the Potomac north, keeping it between the Confederate positions as he knew them and Washington. There were fights at Aldie, Middleburg, and Upperville on 17-21 June as Federal cavalry probed the Confederate screen. When General Lee was satisfied that Hooker's reaction was of a defensive character, he ordered Longstreet and Hill to follow Ewell across the Potomac. They crossed on 24 and 25 June.

    The Union army approached the Potomac in a series of halts and marches. Its Twelfth Corps took position near Leesburg on 18 June in order to support the Federal garrison at Harpers Ferry and to cover the nearby Potomac crossing. When it became apparent that the Army of Northern Virginia had crossed the river, the Army of the Potomac crossed into Maryland at Edwards's Ferry on 25, 26, and 27 June, and by 28 June was concentrated in the Frederick area.

    While Early marched to Gettysburg, York, and Wrightsville, Rodes's division marched up the Cumberland Valley, reaching Carlisle on 27 June. There, in the rich Carlisle area that Ewell likened unto "a hole full of blubber to a Greenlander," the Confederates found horses, cattle, flour, and grain. While some troops collected these supplies, Capt. Henry B. Richardson, Ewell's engineer, escorted by Jenkins's brigade, scouted the defenses of Harrisburg. Rodes's men "contemplated with eagerness" Harrisburg's capture on the following day.

    Ewell had been stationed at Carlisle Barracks just after graduating from West Point, yet he did not view the area with nostalgia. Instead, he observed that its residents "look as sour as vinegar, and, I have no doubt, would gladly send us all to Kingdom come if they could." He did send Majs. Campbell Brown and Benjamin H. Green of his staff to a family he had known to see if they were alright. The majors enjoyed both the visit and some brandy that the family served. Ewell assured some local ministers that they could hold services on the following day, a Sunday, and when asked by the Episcopal rector if they could pray for the president, he made his classic reply, "Certainly ... he did not know anyone who needed such prayer more." Ewell's report said nothing of such things, of course. It did state that "agreeably to the views of the general commanding, I did not burn Carlisle Barracks." Jeb Stuart, three of whose brigades were stumbling along east of the Army of the Potomac and out of touch with General Lee, would reach Carlisle on 1 July. He would burn the barracks then.

    While at Carlisle, Ewell received a summons from General Lee to march south and join the main army in the Gettysburg-Cashtown area. Ewell had conducted a bold march, a grand raid, essentially devoid of errors even in hindsight. It seems likely that he would have captured Harrisburg had he been allowed to press ahead for another day or so. Yet more urgent matters were at hand. The Army of the Potomac had appeared north of the Potomac, and it demanded the Army of Northern Virginia's undivided attention.

    Howard and the other Federal corps commanders had no opportunity to distinguish themselves on the march north. Unlike Ewell, who had operated under instructions of a general nature, they worked as components of a great machine. Army headquarters prescribed their daily marches; they had the arduous task of seeing that the headquarters' orders were obeyed. On the morning of 28 June near Frederick, Maryland, they received surprising news that must have made most of them rejoice. General Hooker was gone, and Maj. Gen. George G. Meade now commanded the Army of the Potomac.

    Meade continued the movement north on 29 June on a broad front screened by his cavalry. He sent Maj. Gen. John F. Reynolds and the First Corps and Howard's Eleventh Corps to Emmitsburg, Maryland, where the two corps and Brig. Gen. John Buford's division of cavalry constituted the army's left. Meade knew generally of the location of Lee's army and prepared to meet it. He informed Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck at 11:00 A.M. on 29 June that he was trying to hold his force together in the hope that he might fall upon a portion of the Confederate army.

    When General Howard reached Emmitsburg on 29 June he met a party of "Jesuit fathers" associated with St. Joseph's College. The fathers, whose patriotism was equaled by their good sense, invited the corps commander to make his headquarters at the college. The day, said Howard, "had been cold and rainy, the roads heavy, and the march very tiresome." He yielded to their offer and accepted their comfortable room and bed in preference to his tent and cot.

    The situation became more tense. On 30 June General Meade ordered General Renolds to take command of the three corps forming the left wing of the Army of the Potomac. These were his own First Corps and the Eleventh Corps, both of which were near Emmitsburg, and the Third Corps, which would be marching toward Emmitsburg from Taneytown. That morning Renolds advanced the First Corps along the road to Gettysburg and halted it near Marsh Creek. He made his headquarters at Moritz Tavern. Reynolds would see Howard at the tavern that evening. The marching was almost over.

Copyright © 1993 The University of North Carolina Press. All rights reserved.