I took another sojourn to Gettysburg this May and focused
part of the trip on Buford’s Cavalry on June 30th and July 1st.
This was the day before the actual battle started along with day one fighting. For
this trip I read Eric Wittenberg’s book “The Devil’s to Pay”: John Buford at
Gettysburg and here a few things I took from it.
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| Buford's statue on top of the monument dedicated to him. |
Buford was on the receiving end of a few fortunate
events, but it was mostly his skills as a leader that helped the Union win this
particular fight. In staring with the good fortunes the most obvious and what
is brought up most often when talking about the Gettysburg campaign was the
Confederates missing cavalry. This let Buford scout out the Confederates’
position without a cavalry screen to deal with. He had solid information on the
enemy’s positions, and was able to position his defense accordingly.
The other fortuitous event was Henry Heth was first in
line and he had a track record of making poor decisions. With Heth’s mistaking
Buford for militia and starting the action with only two brigades gave Buford
an opportunity to hold positions longer during the delaying action. Because of
this the Union was able to secure the high ground. Lee had also given an order
not to bring on a major engagement and Heth did the exact opposite.
Let us now move on to Buford and the outstanding job of
soldiering he did during the campaign. One of the primary responsibilities of
the cavalry during the Civil War was to provide the army with reliable
intelligence of the enemy’s movements. Buford was able to do this during the whole
march by staying in constant contact with the enemy. Several engagements occurred on the march to
Gettysburg; Aldie, Upperville and Snickerville just to name a few. (1) It was
through these engagements that Buford was able to gain intelligence on the enemy.
Even the day before the battle Buford was still
scouting out the enemy and pretty much knew where both A.P. Hill and Ewell’s
two corps would be coming from. This leads us to our next aspect of soldiering
that Buford did really well and that was selecting ground and setting up Videttes
on all the different approaches. (2) With the Videttes in place to give warning
Buford would put together a masterful delaying action in the hopes General
Reynolds could make it up in time with the Army of the Potomac’s I Corp to secure the high ground behind the town.
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| Buford's monument with General Reynolds in the background. Those cannons were the original ones that was used in the action at Gettysburg. |
The soldiers did a wonderful job of putting up a fight
by falling back orderly behind the next line and in the end they were able to
hold until Reynolds came with reinforcements. Because of this the Union was
able to hold onto the high ground and eventually win the fight for Gettysburg.
When you go to the actual field one can see the different
ridges Buford was able to use in keeping the Confederates at bay. Being able to
go to the battlefield always helps me to put things in perspective. One can
read all they want but it doesn’t replace boots on the ground. I would also
highly recommend this book as it is an easy read with a wealth of information.
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| Position of Confederate guns during the fighting on Day One of the battle. |
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- (1) Wittenberg, Eric J. (2014-10-19). “The Devil’s to Pay”: John Buford at Gettysburg. A History and Walking Tour. (Kindle Locations 706-723). Savas Beatie. Kindle Edition.
- (2) Wittenberg, Eric J. (2014-10-19). “The Devil’s to Pay”: John Buford at Gettysburg. A History and Walking Tour. (Kindle Locations 1314). Savas Beatie. Kindle Edition
