The History of the US Civil War
The Battle of
Gettysburg (Cavalry - Day Three)
Contents:
Background and cavalry forces
| East Cavalry Field | South Cavalry Field | References | Notes
On the Third Day of the Battle
of Gettysburg (July 3, 1863) in the Civil War, the attention of
history has focused on the disastrous infantry assault nicknamed
Pickett's Charge. During and after that charge, however, two significant
cavalry battles also occurred: one approximately three miles to
the east, in the area known today as East Cavalry Field, the other
southwest of the Big Round Top mountain (sometimes called South Cavalry
Field).
 The East Cavalry Field fighting
was an attempt by Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's Confederate cavalry to
get into the Federal rear and exploit any success that Pickett's
Charge may have generated. Union cavalry under Brig. Gens. David
McM. Gregg and George Armstrong Custer repulsed the Confederate
advances.
In South Cavalry Field, after
Pickett's Charge had been defeated, reckless cavalry charges
against the right flank of the Confederate Army, ordered by Brig.
Gen. Judson Kilpatrick, were easily repulsed, resulting in the
death of Brig. Gen. Elon J. Farnsworth.
Background
and Cavalry Forces
Cavalry forces played a
significant role at Gettysburg only on the first and third days of
the battle. On the first day (July 1, 1863), the Union cavalry
division of Brig. Gen. John Buford successfully delayed the
Confederate infantry forces under Maj. Gen. Henry Heth until Union
infantry could arrive on the battlefield. By the end of the day,
Buford's troopers had retired from the field. [1]
On the Confederate side, most of
Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry division was absent from the
battlefield until late on the second day. Possibly due to a
misunderstanding of orders from General Robert E. Lee, Stuart had
taken his three best brigades of cavalry on a pointless ride
around the right flank of the Union Army of the Potomac and was
out of touch with the main body of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia
since June 24, depriving Lee of critical intelligence information
and of screening services. Stuart himself arrived from Carlisle at
General Lee's headquarters shortly after noon on July 2 and his
exhausted brigades arrived that evening, too late to affect the
planning or execution of the second day's battle. Hampton's
Brigade camped to the north, following the relatively minor clash
with Union cavalry at Hunterstown that afternoon. [2]
Lee's orders for Stuart were to
prepare for operations on July 3 in support of the Confederate
infantry assault against the center of the Union line on Cemetery
Ridge. Stuart was to protect
the Confederate left flank and
attempt to move around the Union right flank and into the enemy's
rear. If Stuart's forces could proceed south from the York Pike
along the Low Dutch Road, they would soon reach the Baltimore
Pike, which was the main avenue of communications for the Army of
the Potomac, and they could launch devastating and demoralizing
attacks against the Union rear, capitalizing on the confusion from
the assault (Pickett's Charge) that Lee planned for the Union
center. [3]
Confederate cavalry forces under
Stuart for this operation consisted of the three brigades he had
taken on his ride around the Union Army (commanded by Brig. Gen.
Wade Hampton, Brig. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, and Colonel John Chambliss)
and the brigade of Col. Albert Jenkins (under the command of Col.
Milton J. Ferguson following Jenkins's wounding on July 2).
Although on paper these four brigades should have amounted to
approximately 5,000 troopers, it is likely that only 3,430 men and
13 guns saw action that day.[4]
And following their nine-day ride around Maryland and
Pennsylvania, they and their horses were weary and not in prime
condition for battle. [5]
Union cavalry forces were from
the corps of Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton, who did not participate
directly in the command of any cavalry actions during the Battle
of Gettysburg. Since most of Buford's division had retired to
Westminster, Maryland (with the exception of his reserve brigade
under Brig. Gen. Wesley Merritt, which was deployed directly south
of Gettysburg), only two divisions were ready for action.
Stationed near the intersection of the Hanover Road and the Low
Dutch Road—directly on Stuart's path—was the division of Brig.
Gen. David McM. Gregg. Gregg had two brigades present at
Gettysburg, under Col. John B. McIntosh and Col. J. Irvin Gregg
(David Gregg's cousin), but the latter was stationed on the
Baltimore Pike. Irvin Gregg's one-brigade command was supplemented
by the brigade of Brig. Gen. George Armstrong Custer. Custer was
assigned to the division of Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick, but
happened to be on loan to David Gregg and requested permission
from Gregg to join his fight. Altogether, 3,250 Union troopers
opposed Stuart. The other brigade from Kilpatrick's division,
commanded by Brig. Gen. Elon J. Farnsworth, was stationed to the
southwest of the Round Top mountain, the area now known informally
as South Cavalry Field. [6]
[Top]
East
Cavalry Field
 At about 11 a.m. On July 3,
Stuart reached Cress Ridge, just north of what is now called East
Cavalry Field, and signaled Lee that he was in position by
ordering the firing of four guns, one in each direction of the
compass. This was a foolish error because he also alerted Gregg to
his presence. The brigades of McIntosh and Custer were positioned
to block Stuart. As the Confederates approached, Gregg engaged
them with an artillery duel and the superior skills of the Union
horse artillerymen got the better of Stuart's guns.[7]
Stuart's plan had been to pin
down McIntosh's and Custer's skirmishers around the Rummel farm
and swing over Cress Ridge, around the left flank of the
defenders, but the Federal skirmish line pushed back tenaciously;
the troopers from the 5th Michigan Cavalry were armed with Spencer
repeating rifles, multiplying their firepower. Stuart decided on a
direct cavalry charge to break their resistance.
He ordered an assault by the 1st
Virginia Cavalry, his own old regiment, now in Fitz Lee's brigade.
The battle started in earnest at approximately 1 p.m., at the same
time that Col. Edward Porter Alexander's Confederate artillery
barrage opened up on Cemetery Ridge. Fitz Lee's troopers came
pouring through the farm of John Rummel, scattering the Union
skirmish line.[8]
Gregg ordered Custer to
counterattack with the 7th Michigan. Custer personally led the
regiment, shouting "Come on, you Wolverines!" Waves of
horsemen collided in furious fighting along the fence line on
Rummel's farm. Seven hundred men fought at point-blank range
across the fence with carbines, pistols, and sabers. Custer's
horse was shot out from under him and he commandeered a bugler's
horse. Eventually enough of Custer's men were amassed to break
down the fence and they caused the Virginians to retreat. Stuart
sent in reinforcements from all three of his brigades: the 9th and
13th Virginia (Chambliss's Brigade), the 1st North Carolina and
Jeff Davis Legion (Hampton's), and squadrons from the 2nd Virginia
(Lee's). Custer's pursuit was broken and the 7th Michigan fell
back in a disorderly retreat.[9]
 Stuart tried again for a
breakthrough by sending in the bulk of Wade Hampton's brigade,
accelerating in formation from a walk to a gallop, sabers
flashing, calling forth "murmurs of admiration" from
their Union targets. Union horse artillery batteries attempted to
block the advance with shell and canister, but the Confederates
moved too quickly and were able to fill in for lost men,
maintaining their momentum. Once again the cry "Come on, you
Wolverines!" was heard as Custer and Col. Charles H. Town led
the 1st Michigan Cavalry into the fray, also at a gallop.[10]
A trooper from one of Gregg's Pennsylvania regiments observed,
As the two columns approached
each other the pace of each increased, when suddenly a crash,
like the falling of timber, betokened the crisis. So sudden and
violent was the collision that many of the horses were turned
end over end and crushed their riders beneath them.[11]
As the horsemen fought
desperately in the center, McIntosh personally led his brigade
against Hampton's right flank and the 3rd Pennsylvania and 1st New
Jersey hit Hampton's left from north of the Lott house. Hampton
received a serious saber wound to the head; Custer lost his second
horse of the day. Assaulted from three sides, the Confederates
withdrew. The Union troopers were in no condition to pursue beyond
the Rummel farmhouse. [12]
The losses from 40 intense
minutes of fighting on East Cavalry Field were relatively minor:
254 Union casualties, 219 of them from Custer's brigade; 181
Confederate. Although tactically inconclusive, the battle was a
strategic loss for Stuart and Robert E. Lee, whose plans to drive
into the Union rear were foiled. George Armstrong Custer must be
considered an unsung hero of the Battle of Gettysburg, marking the
high point of his Army career. [13]
[Top]
 On the morning of July 3, Union
Cavalry Corps commander Maj. Gen. Alfred Pleasonton ordered two of
his brigades to the left flank of the Union army. He ordered Brig.
Gen. Wesley Merritt's Reserve Brigade of Buford's division to move
north from Emmitsburg to join Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick's
division, moving from Two Taverns on the Baltimore Pike to the
area southwest of the Round Top mountain. By this time, the only
brigade in Kilpatrick's division was that of Brig. Gen. Elon J.
Farnsworth, George Custer's brigade having been detached for
service with David Gregg at East Cavalry Field. It is unclear what
Pleasonton hoped to accomplish. There is no record that he
performed any reconnaissance in this area. It has been speculated
that Army of the Potomac commander George G. Meade was preparing
for a possible counterattack to follow the repulse of Pickett's
Charge, which he had anticipated since the night before.[14]
Farnsworth reached the area at
approximately 1 p.m., about the time the massive Confederate
artillery barrage started in preparation for Pickett's Charge, and
his 1,925 troops took up a position in a line south of the George
Bushman farm. From left to right, the regiments were the 18th
Pennsylvania Cavalry, the 1st West Virginia, and 1st Vermont.
Battery E., 4th U.S. Artillery, occupied a small, rocky knoll in
the rear and the 5th New York cavalry was placed in a nearby
ravine to guard the artillery. Joined by Kilpatrick, they awaited
Merritt's brigade, which arrived at about 3 p.m. and took up a
position straddling the Emmitsburg Road, to Farnsworth's left. By
this time the infantry portion of Pickett's Charge had begun and
Kilpatrick was eager to get his men into the fight.[15]
On the Confederate line to the
east of the Emmitsburg Road, only infantry troops were involved.
The four brigades of Hood's division, under the command of Evander
M. Law, had occupied the area from Round Top, through Devil's Den,
and back to the road since the battle on July 2. Initially Law had
just the 1st Texas Infantry (from Brig. Gen. Jerome B. Robertson's
Texas Brigade) facing Farnsworth to the south, but he soon
reinforced them with 47th Alabama Infantry, the 1st South
Carolina, and artillery. To the west of the road, facing Merritt,
was the Georgia brigade of Brig. Gen. George "Tige"
Anderson.[16]
Young Kilpatrick had little
experience in commanding cavalry and he demonstrated that by
attacking fortified infantry positions in a piecemeal fashion.
West of the road, Merritt went in first, with his 6th Pennsylvania
cavalrymen fighting dismounted. Anderson's Georgians repulsed
their attack easily. Farnsworth was to follow, but he was
astonished to hear Kilpatrick's order for a mounted cavalry
charge. The Confederate defenders were positioned behind a stone
fence with wooden fence rails piled high above it, too high for
horses to jump, which would require the attackers to dismount
under fire and dismantle the fence. The terrain leading to it was
broken, undulating ground, with large boulders, fences, and
woodlots, making it wholly unsuitable for a cavalry charge.
Accounts differ as to the details of the argument between
Farnsworth and Kilpatrick, but it is generally believed that
Kilpatrick dared or shamed Farnsworth into making the charge the
latter knew would be suicidal. Farnsworth allegedly said
"General, if you order the charge I will lead it, but you
must take the awful responsibility."[17]
First in the assault was the 1st
West Virginia Cavalry, led by Colonel Nathaniel P. Richmond. They
rode in great confusion after coming under heavy fire from the 1st
Texas, but they were able to breach the wall. Hand-to-hand
fighting with sabers, rifles, and even rocks ensued, but the
attack was forced back. Of the 400 Federal cavalrymen in the
attack, there were 98 casualties. The second wave came from the
18th Pennsylvania, supported by companies of the 5th New York, but
they were also turned back under heavy rifle fire, with 20
casualties.[18]
It was finally the turn of the
1st Vermont Cavalry, about 400 officers and men, which Farnsworth
divided into three battalions of four companies each under
Lieutenant Colonel Addison W. Preston, Major William Wells, and
Captain Henry C. Parsons. Parsons's battalion led the charge,
passing the Texans and riding north into the blinding sun toward
the John Slyder farm. Evander Law sent three Georgia regiments
(the 9th, 11th, and 59th) to move to the support of the Texans and
the artillery batteries. A staff officer carrying the order
encountered the 4th Alabama, who also joined in support. An
Alabama lieutenant yelled "Cavalry, boys, cavalry! This is no
fight, only a frolic, give it to them!" And the infantrymen
eagerly found many easy targets.[19]
All three battalion advances were
turned back with great losses. The final group, led by Wells and
by Farnsworth himself, circled back toward Big Round Top, where
they met a line of the 15th Alabama across their front.
Farnsworth's party had dwindled to only 10 troopers as they weaved back and forth, trying to
avoid the murderous fire. Farnsworth fell from his horse, struck
in the chest, abdomen, and leg by five bullets. Postwar accounts
by a Confederate soldier that claimed Farnsworth committed suicide
with his pistol to avoid capture have been discounted. Major Wells
received the Medal of Honor for his heroism in leading the rest of
his men back to safety. The Vermont regiment suffered 65
casualties during the futile assault.[20]
[Top]
Kilpatrick's ill-considered and
poorly executed cavalry charges are remembered as a low point in
the history of the U.S. Cavalry and marked the final significant
hostilities at the Battle of Gettysburg. Six miles west of
Gettysburg, one of Merritt's regiments, the 6th U.S. Cavalry, was
defeated that afternoon at Fairfield by Brig. Gen. William E.
"Grumble" Jones's "Laurel Brigade," an action
not considered to be a formal part of the Battle of Gettysburg.[21]
All of Pleasonton's cavalry
brigades would be exercised for the remainder of the Gettysburg
Campaign in the lackluster pursuit of Lee's army back across the
Potomac. [22]
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