Lee at Gettysburg: Absent Cavalry, Ewell's Hesitation and the Fishhook

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

In the summer of 1863 Robert E. Lee invaded Pennsylvania without his cavalry chief, J.E.B. Stuart, who was off riding around the Union army, leaving Lee unsure where the enemy was. On July 1, Henry Heth's division, by Heth's later account looking for shoes, ran into John Buford's dismounted cavalry west of Gettysburg. Buford's men, firing breech-loading carbines while lying flat, held the ridges until John Reynolds' First Corps arrived. Reynolds was killed, the Iron Brigade fought around the unfinished railroad cut, and the Union line fell back through town to Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill, which Richard Ewell, ordered to take the hill "if practicable," chose not to attack.

On July 2 the Union held a fishhook line that gave George Meade, in command for only three days, the advantage of interior lines. Daniel Sickles moved his Third Corps forward to the Peach Orchard and Wheatfield without orders and lost his leg, while Meade rushed roughly 20,000 reinforcements to plug the gaps and Joshua Chamberlain's 20th Maine held Little Round Top with a bayonet charge. On July 3 about 12,000 Confederates made Pickett's Charge after a bombardment whose slow-burning fuses sent shells over the Union line. The episode weighs Lee's confidence after Chancellorsville, the 46,000 to 51,000 casualties, and the debate over whether Gettysburg was truly decisive.

• The 26th North Carolina started the first day with about 800 men and lost over 700 of them against the Iron Brigade.
• Ewell had served under Stonewall Jackson, known for direct orders, while Lee preferred to give his commanders discretion.
• Gettysburg, a town of about 2,400 people, was left with roughly 22,000 wounded soldiers.
• Jennie Wade, 20, was the only documented civilian death, struck by a stray bullet while baking bread.
• Vicksburg surrendered to Grant on July 4, and in November Lincoln dedicated the National Cemetery in 271 words.