In June, 1863, Confederate General Robert E. Lee launched his boldest gamble of the American Civil War when he ordered his army to move into Maryland and up through Pennsylvania. Lee’s reputation could not have been higher – he had defeated the larger Army of the Potomac in two major battles in December and May. However, both battles had been costly and some of his best officers, including the legendary Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, were among the dead.
Despite Lee's successes, he had failed to destroy the Union Army, which had escaped mauled but intact after each battle. News from the West was worse. The Confederate armies had been beaten all across the theater and only the Mississippi city of Vicksburg, which had been under siege by Ulysses S. Grant since May 18, prevented Union forces from taking full control of the Mississippi River and cutting Confederacy in half. Confederate General John Pemberton continued to call for reinforcements for his beleaguered army. By this time, many residents of Vicksburg had been forced to abandon the city or dig caves into the hillsides to avoid constant shelling, and food in the city was known to be at critically low.
Lee had launched his invasion to solve both of these problems. He hoped that by threatening major cities in the North, he would draw attention away from Vicksburg, force the Army of the Potomac into a decisive engagement and a Confederate victory which would lead to a negotiated settlement of the war. Lee was also using the invasion as a way to provide his men with food and other badly needed supplies. Lee wrote in one of his official correspondence that the issue of supplying his army had caused him more sleepless nights then anything else.
Though a spy, Lee learned on June 28 that the Army of the Potomac, up until now in Virginia, had followed him into Maryland and was near the Pennsylvania border; the exact location of the army was not known. On June 30, one of Lee’s division commanders Harry Heth requested that he and some of his men move into the town of Gettysburg where there was rumored to be a supply of shoes. As the confederate regiment approached the town, shooting began, and Heth, under strict orders not to draw a full engagement, withdrew after spotting several Union cavalry. Unbeknownst to Heth or Lee, Union officer John Buford had received word earlier that day that the Confederate army was massing at Cashtown, north of Gettysburg, and Buford had decided to move all 3,000 men in his command into town. With ten major roads going into and out of Gettysburg and several hills surrounding it, he knew it could serve as an important road hub and a great defensive position. After Heth’s men met Buford’s, there was still some confusion – was this a separate mounted force or was this the whole Union Army? That night it was decided to move over 13,000 Confederates into the town at first light.
As the Confederates moved toward Gettysburg on the morning of July 1 the 330 men of the First Minnesota Regiment were also marching toward the town. The First Minnesota had set out from Uniontown, Maryland on the border of Pennsylvania. Because of the threat of enemy forces, the regiment had been pushed hard, covering 30 miles in one afternoon just two days before. Company Sergeant James Wright would later remember the march of that day “In the afternoon, we were ordered to move at quick time and to keep well closed up, and we felt the rapid marching.” The regiment was still reeling from the shocking news that its colonel, William Colvill had arrested after defying a superior officer for allowing his men use a log to cross a stream rather than marching through it. In another upsetting move, the commanding general of the Army of the Potomac, Joe Hooker had been replaced by George Meade for failing to pursue Lee. Isaac Taylor, also a solider in the First Minnesota, wrote in his diary for that day, “The news that Gen. Meade has superceeded [sic] Hooker is confirmed I shall hope for the best but I do not like the idea of changing commanders on the eve of battle.”
Wright recalled, “We had been on the road for two hours or more when it became certain that there was cannonading.” When they moved to a small ridge overlooking Gettysburg, Wright explained, “we could see and hear enough to satisfy us that there was real fighting going on. A heavy and well-sustained artillery fire was generating great masses of smoke which were rising and expanding into white clouds as the wind carried it away. On this, the late afternoon sun was shining, making the hills appear as if covered with snow. But none of us imagined there was a snowstorm there.” Wright continued, “Within another mile or so we began to meet citizen and soldier refugees occasionally, and later we met many of them.” As Wright, Taylor and others asked how the battle was going, soldiers told stories of a dire defeat taking place. Finally the regiment arrived just outside Gettysburg later that night. Wright later wrote of men that evening “Pregnant as the situation was with possibilities for the morrow (and they were not forgotten or ignored), I do not think much time was spent in their consideration by those not obliged to keep awake.” Wright himself "had drunk not less than a pint of strong coffee” and still fell fast asleep. While Wright slept soundly, Isaac Taylor laid awake talking to another member of the regiment, his younger brother Henry, about what was about to take place.
When Heth’s men had moved into Gettysburg earlier that morning they had met Buford’s men on McPherson Ridge. The shooting had begun around 5:30 in the morning when Heth’s men, backed up by reinforcements, came down the Chambersburg Pike Road. The fighting, small in scale at first, had grown more intense as both sides called in more men. Just as it had looked in late morning hours as if Buford’s men would be overrun, Union General John Reynolds had arrived with his corps. Criticized in the past for his lack of aggressiveness in battle, he was riding at the front directing the attack and as he turned in his saddle to give an order, he suddenly fell, hit in the back of the neck. He was one of the highest ranking officers to die during the war.
Throughout the afternoon, Union forces had held off repeated assaults from the Confederates until the forces anchoring the Union line right flank collapsed. These were the men that walked past the men of the First Minnesota with tales of a defeat. By the time the First Minnesota arrived, the Union forces had fallen back through the town itself and taken positions along Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill, to the north. Cemetery Ridge in the center and the several other surrounding hills, south of the town. At this point in the battle, Lee’s forces could have taken Cemetery Hill, which anchored the extreme end of the Union right flank.However, Lee had issued a series of confusing orders and the end result of this was that Richard Ewell, one of Lee’s corps commanders, had decided not to push his men any further after the Union line broke. It was a decision that would haunt him and Lee for the rest of their lives.
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