BGuthrie Photos: PA -- Gettysburg Natl Battlefield -- Day 3 -- East Cavalry Field

PA -- Gettysburg Natl Battlefield -- Day 3 -- East Cavalry Field:

Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.

Recognize anyone? If you recognize specific folks (or other stuff) and I haven't labeled them, please identify them for the world. Click the little pencil icon

underneath the file name (just above the picture). Spammers need not apply.

Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

Accessing as Spider: The system has identified your IP as being a spider.
IP Address: 18.116.40.47 -- Domain: Amazon Technologies
I love well-behaved spiders! They are, in fact, how most people find my site. Unfortunately, my network has a limited bandwidth and pictures take up bandwidth. Spiders ask for lots and lots of pages and chew up lots and lots of bandwidth which slows things down considerably for regular folk. To counter this, you'll see all the text on the page but the images are being suppressed. Also, some system options like merges are being blocked for you.
Note: Permission is NOT granted for spiders, robots, etc to use the site for AI-generation purposes. I'm sure you're thrilled by your ability to make revenue from my work but there's nothing in that for my human users or for me.
If you are in fact human, please email me at guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can check if your designation was made in error. Given your number of hits, that's unlikely but what the hell.

Help? The Medium (Email) links are for screen viewing and emailing. You'll want bigger sizes for printing. [Click here for additional help]

[1] GETCAV_130929_002_STITCH.JPG

[2] GETCAV_130929_004.JPG	[3] GETCAV_130929_006.JPG	[4] GETCAV_130929_017.JPG
[5] GETCAV_130929_019.JPG	[6] GETCAV_130929_026.JPG	[7] GETCAV_130929_029.JPG
[8] GETCAV_130929_035.JPG	[9] GETCAV_130929_044.JPG	[10] GETCAV_130929_047.JPG
[11] GETCAV_130929_053.JPG	[12] GETCAV_130929_057.JPG	[13] GETCAV_130929_059.JPG
[14] GETCAV_130929_061.JPG	[15] GETCAV_130929_065.JPG	[16] GETCAV_130929_072.JPG
[17] GETCAV_130929_078.JPG	[18] GETCAV_130929_087.JPG	[19] GETCAV_130929_090.JPG
[20] GETCAV_130929_097.JPG	[21] GETCAV_130929_106.JPG	[22] GETCAV_130929_112.JPG
[23] GETCAV_130929_121.JPG	[24] GETCAV_130929_128.JPG	[25] GETCAV_130929_133.JPG
[26] GETCAV_130929_135.JPG	[27] GETCAV_130929_139.JPG	[28] GETCAV_130929_142.JPG
[29] GETCAV_130929_145.JPG	[30] GETCAV_130929_147.JPG	[31] GETCAV_130929_150.JPG
[32] GETCAV_130929_153.JPG	[33] GETCAV_130929_156.JPG	[34] GETCAV_130929_159.JPG
[35] GETCAV_130929_161.JPG	[36] GETCAV_130929_164.JPG	[37] GETCAV_130929_169.JPG
[38] GETCAV_130929_173.JPG	[39] GETCAV_130929_178.JPG	[40] GETCAV_130929_185.JPG
[41] GETCAV_130929_188.JPG	[42] GETCAV_130929_193.JPG	[43] GETCAV_130929_196.JPG
[44] GETCAV_130929_205.JPG	[45] GETCAV_130929_207.JPG	[46] GETCAV_130929_210.JPG
[47] GETCAV_130929_213.JPG	[48] GETCAV_130929_219.JPG	[49] GETCAV_130929_222.JPG
[50] GETCAV_130929_228.JPG	[51] GETCAV_130929_236.JPG	[52] GETCAV_130929_245.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. GETCAV_130929_112.JPG: A Violent Collision of Cavalry -- July 3, 1863 - Third Day -- "So sudden and violent was the collision that many of the horses were turned end over end, and crushed their riders beneath them." -- Capt. William E. Miller, U.S.A., 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry On the afternoon of July 3, Confederate Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart mounted several cavalry attacks against Brig. Gen. David M. Gregg's Union cavalry positioned along the Hanover Road 1/2 mile in front of you. A colonel of the 1st Virginia Cavalry reported the fighting was "hand to hand, blow for blow, cut for cut, and oath for oath...." At 4:00 p.m., Stuart assembled 12 regiments of troopers for the last great charge of the day. A Union officer wrote of the massed Confederates: "In close column of squadrons, advancing as if in review, with sabers drawn and glistening like silver in the bright sunlight-the spectacle called forth a murmur of admiration." The closest Union regiment available to halt the Southern horsemen was the 1st Michigan Cavalry. Brig. Gen. George A. Custer rode to the head of the regiment, stood up in the stirrups with his saber aloft and with a determined yell, led a countercharge. While Custer viciously attacked the head of the Confederate column, other Union cavalry under Col. John B. McIntosh closed in on the flanks. Assaulted on three sides, the Confederates retreated. The attack on the Union rear had failed. Shouting, "Come on you Wolverines!," Brig. Gen. George A. Custer leads a daring countercharge against the Confederate cavalry brigades of Brig. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee and Wade Hampton here on the afternoon of July 3. The Confederate charge came from your rear, the Union countercharge from your front. Painting by Don Troiani. Col. John B. McIntosh who helped Custer defeat the last Confederate charge here. His brother James, a Confederate general, had been killed at Pea Ridge in March 1862. Brig. Gen. Wade Hampton, a wealthy South Carolina landowner, commanded a Confederate cavalry brigade here. He received three saber blows to the head and a wound in the side, but later recovered. Confederate casualties in this action totaled 181; Union, 254.
2. GETCAV_130929_213.JPG: Stuart Strikes the Rear -- July 3, 1863 - Third Day -- "I...hoped to effect a surprise on the enemy's rear...." -- Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, C.S.A., Commander, Confederate Cavalry Division On this high ground three miles east of Gettysburg, 6,300 Confederate cavalrymen under Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart took position on the afternoon of July 3. Their objective was to exploit the anticipated success of the Confederate infantry assault on Cemetery Ridge. Most of his troopers were concealed in the woods in front of you along Cress Ridge. Some were posted on foot in and around the Rummel Farm buildings visible ahead on your left. About 2:00 p.m., Union cavalry under Brig. Gen. David M. Gregg approached from your left and were fired on by Confederate cavalry near the Rummel barn. Union troopers of the 1st New Jersey Cavalry dismounted with their carbines, and a hot engagement began. Confederate horsemen charged the Union position, but Federal reinforcements held them at bay. As the struggle for the Rummel farm evolved into a stalemate, Stuart determined to launch a major cavalry charge against Gregg's key position south and east of here near the Hanover Road (behind you to the right). Union and Confederate cavalry clash here on the afternoon of July 3. When the fight was over, farmer John Rummel discovered 30 dead cavalry horses in the lane bordering the right side of this field. Spencer rifle: Several Union regiments here were armed with Spencer repeating rifles. With these advanced weapons, troopers could fire seven times without reloading. Famed Confederate cavalryman Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart served as the "eyes" of Lee's army, but at Gettysburg he arrived on the field well after the battle had begun. Here on July 3, Stuart had an opportunity to cut Union communications and supplies, and to harass Union infantry. However Union cavalry stood in his way. Brig. Gen. David M. Gregg, commander of the Union Second Cavalry Division, thwarted Stuart's attack on the Union rear. Gregg was first cousin to Andrew Curtin, Governor of Pennsylvania at the time of the battle.
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Description of Subject Matter: From http://www.nps.gov/archive/gett/getttour/main-ms.htm

East Cavalry Field:

While Confederate artillery pounded Cemetery Ridge near Gettysburg, another drama was unfolding three miles to the east. Union and Confederate cavalry had skirmished east of Gettysburg on July 2, and Union scouts on the Hanover Road were alert to any troop movements in that direction. The situation appeared quiet enough to allow some Union troopers to be ordered back to the Gettysburg battlefield. Just as the troops were about to depart, scouts spotted a cloud of dust to the north that appeared to get closer every minute. The tramp of hundreds of horse hooves and the rumble of artillery made the Northerners realize that trouble was indeed headed their way. It was trouble! General J.E.B. Stuart's Cavalry Division was ordered by General Lee to ride east and then south in an attempt to get into the rear of the Army of the Potomac, to disrupt and possibly cut the Union lines of communication. Anxious to prove himself after an embarrassing confrontation with the army commander, General Stuart set out that morning to ride around the Union flank and make amends, taking it out on the Yankee army the only way he knew how: show up where the Union troops least expected him.

A true cavalier in every sense of the word, General Stuart was one of the more flamboyant horsemen in either army. Following closely behind his advance scouts, Stuart led his horsemen down unfamiliar county roads and farm lanes until they came upon a thick wood at the Rummel Farm. South of his position, General Stuart spotted Union artillery being unlimbered on a small knoll. Beyond the artillery rose clouds of dust and Stuart quickly realized that he had been spotted. Ordering his artillery forward, Stuart decided to use Rummel's Woods to protect his troopers until he could determine the size of the force in his front. Meanwhile he deployed dismounted troopers into the Rummel Farm to engage Union skirmishers already posted behind fences.

Union scouts watched as Stuart's columns rode into position and deployed in the fields around the Rummel buildings. Brig. General David McMurtie Gregg's troops had been posted on the Hanover Road until 1 P.M. when they were ordered to march to a location south of Gettysburg. Gregg was in the act of withdrawing his troops when Stuart's horsemen arrived. Gregg immediately countermanded the orders and deployed his artillery and dismounted troopers into the fields near the intersection of the Hanover Road and Low Dutch Road. Immediately a brisk fire opened between opponents. Hoping to press his advantage of surprise, General Stuart ordered his artillery to suppress the fire of the Union guns while he aligned his troops to push aside the apparently weak Union troops. But the Union response was extraordinarily accurate and the Northern artillery began to knock out the Confederate gun crews one by one.

Fighting on foot, the cavalrymen of both sides dueled in the fields of the Rummel Farm with neither side gaining any advantage. Growing frustrated at his attempts to brush aside the Union troopers, General Stuart ordered his soldiers to go forward in a mounted attack. Yet every appearance of his Confederates in the open fields was met with cannon fire and by a Union counter charge. Among Gregg's troops east of Gettysburg that afternoon was the Michigan Brigade commanded by a brash young officer named George Armstrong Custer. Custer was a newly appointed brigadier general of volunteers and Gettysburg was his first experience in command of troops in battle. Dressed in a new uniform of his own design, the fiery young officer led his troopers through the fighting and was notable for being in the forefront of the repeated Union charges over the Rummel Farm.

With time running out and ammunition running low among some his troopers, General Stuart wagered that one last charge using most of his force would overwhelm the Union line and hopefully scatter what appeared to be a thinly held crossroad. All of his brigades rode into the field in front of Rummel Woods, their sabers and carbines glistening in the hazy sunlight. With the command, "Battalions, forward!" the southern horsemen moved off toward the smoking Union position. Almost immediately, Union artillery turned their guns on the massed columns, explosions striking down man and animal alike. Seeing the gray column coming toward them, General Custer excitedly rode to the head of the 1st Michigan Cavalry. With the cry, "Come on, you Wolverines!", he spurred his horse directly toward the the Confederate charge and the Union horsemen followed with sabers flashing in the afternoon sun. The Michigan soldiers drove headlong into Stuart's determined troopers. In the melee that followed, the soldiers shot, slashed, and stabbed each other at close range.

Suddenly, a Federal force appeared on the flank of the Confederates. A battalion of Union troopers from the 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry commanded by Captain William E. Miller, broke from the cover of a tree line and charged headlong into the southern rear. Attacked from three sides and nearly surrounded, there was nothing left for the southerners to do but retreat. Watching the dismal results of the charge from Rummel Woods, General Stuart ordered his cavalry to leave the field to the battered but victorious Union cavalry. The South's greatest cavalry leader had finally met his match.

George Armstrong Custer was hailed as a national hero for his exploits and courage under fire during the Civil War. He was conspicuous during the Battle of Gettysburg and during the pursuit of Lee to the Potomac River. By the following year, the young officer had risen to the rank of major general and was in command of a cavalry division that he led through the 1864 campaign in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. Custer loved the attention heaped on him by his superiors and his exploits made for good press in northern newspapers and War Department reports. His quest for glory and personality may have been a bit brash to some, but his performance as a cavalry officer was superb. Custer commanded his division through the final campaign of 1865 in the pursuit of Lee's army to Appomattox Court House, and it was where his apparent arrogance led to an unceremonious encounter with General Longstreet just prior to the surrender. General Custer had the honor of riding at the head of his troops in the Grand Review in Washington in May 1865, where he received the accolades of countless admirers.

Custer returned to the regular army after the war and reverted to a lower rank than he had held as a leader of volunteers. He was ordered to frontier posts in the west where he was assigned to command a portion of the 7th United States Cavalry. In the often brutal campaigns against the plains Indians, Lt. Colonel Custer found a cunning and deceptive enemy that he had difficulty understanding and fighting. Controversy surrounding claims over the Black Hills of South Dakota and Montana caused an uprising of the nations in 1876 and a US Army force, including the 7th Cavalry, was sent in pursuit of the combined tribes, resulting in a number of pitched battles. On June 25, 1876, Custer and most of the men who followed him were killed at the Battle of the Little Big Horn in Montana. General Custer's remains were recovered from the battlefield for burial at West Point.

General Custer's foe at Gettysburg, General James Ewell Brown ("J.E.B.") Stuart, did not fare well after the close of the Gettysburg Campaign. Highly criticized for his absence from the army when General Lee needed his scouting abilities, Stuart made a concerted effort to recover his fame and remove this stain from his honor. He led and was successful in several small raids on Union supply lines in Virginia that fall. The following year, Stuart's horsemen were ordered to pursue a Union cavalry force headed toward Richmond. Blocking the Union advance at Yellow Tavern on May 11, 1864, Stuart was mortally wounded while attempting to capture a small group of stray Union troopers. He died the following day. General Stuart is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, where his famous hat and saber are preserved at the Museum of the Confederacy. Of all cavalry officers who served during the American Civil War, JEB Stuart will always be identified and remembered as "the last great cavalier".
Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.) I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
Connection Not Secure messages? Those warnings you get from your browser about this site not having secure connections worry some people. This means this site does not have SSL installed (the link is http:, not https:). That's bad if you're entering credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal information. But this site doesn't collect any personal information so SSL is not necessary. Life's good!
Photo Contact: [Email Bruce Guthrie].