The Battle of Gettysburg Part 2

The Battle of Gettysburg began early on the morning of July 1, 1863, when General Buford's pickets three miles west of Gettysburg spotted the Confederate column sent by General Hill. A Union cavalry officer fired the first shot of the battle and the Confederates answered back with gun shots of their own. The cavalrymen knew they could not stop the southern infantry, so they slowly fell back toward Gettysburg until they reached the McPherson Farm.

The cavalry was making one last, determined stand when Union infantry arrived just in time to throw back the Confederates. One of the first Union soldiers to fall was Major General John Fulton Reynolds, instantly killed while leading his troops into the fray.
Most of the fighting on July 1 was west and north of Gettysburg. The Union troops fought valiantly against overwhelming numbers of Confederates, directed toward Gettysburg by General Lee who arrived on the battlefield at the height of the fighting. The general was slightly frustrated that his officers started a battle without his permission, for he planned to concentrate his army west of Gettysburg and fight a battle in the mountains. The heavy fighting near Gettysburg upset his plan, so Lee and watched his victorious soldiers drive the Union troops through Gettysburg to the hills south of town. It was a great victory for Lee, but not a decisive one as the Union Army did not retreat from the hills but concentrated there. General Meade arrived that night and decided to fight the battle by defending the hills and letting Lee make the next move.
By the morning of July 2, the Union army had established strong positions in a giant U-shaped line from Culp's Hill to Cemetery Ridge. Satisfied with the line, General Meade decided to wait for Lee to make the next move while the remainder of the Army of the Potomac hurried to the battlefield. Early that morning, General Lee surveyed the strong Union line from his position on Seminary Ridge and realized that a weakness might be with the Union flanks. A simultaneous strike on both the right and left of Meade's position could roll up the Union line toward Cemetery Hill. Lee directed General James Longstreet to attack the Union left and General Richard S. Ewell to attack the Union right.

The fighting began that afternoon at 4 o'clock and quickly spread up and down the ridges. Union cannon posted on the ridge above Devil's Den roared to life. Fighting erupted on the slopes of Little Round Top, in the Wheatfield, and at the Peach Orchard as General Longstreet's Confederates attacked these positions. At Little Round Top, Union troops threw back repeated Confederate attacks and finally saved the hill from capture after several hours of combat. Fighting swept into Devil's Den and up the line to the Peach Orchard. The situation was desperate for the Union forces who fought valiantly but were slowly forced back. The line of General Daniel Sickles, a Union corps commander, collapsed under the relentless southern attacks, Sickles himself so severely wounded that his leg required amputation. A brisk counterattack of Union reserves drove the Confederates back.

Darkness put a grateful end to the slaughter on the Union left, but the battle was just beginning at Culp's Hill. Night had fallen by the time Confederate infantrymen under General Edward Johnson splashed across Rock Creek and began the climb up the wooded slopes of Culp's Hill. Union troops quietly waited behind earthen defenses stretched southward from the summit of the hill to a small knoll above Spangler's Spring. Union musketry and confusion in the darkness made the Confederate commander believe that he was heavily outnumbered and he stopped the attack to wait for reinforcements.