Gettysburg--The First Day

by Harry W. Pfanz

Overview

For good reason, the second and third days of the Battle of Gettysburg have received the lion's share of attention from historians. With this book, however, the critical first day's fighting finally receives its due. After sketching the background of the Gettysburg campaign and recounting the events immediately preceding the battle, Harry Pfanz offers a detailed tactical description of events of the first day. He describes the engagements in McPherson Woods, at the Railroad Cuts, on Oak Ridge, on Seminary Ridge, and at Blocher's Knoll, as well as the retreat of Union forces through Gettysburg and the Federal rally on Cemetery Hill. Throughout, he draws on deep research in published and archival sources to challenge many long-held assumptions about the battle.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807898406
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	07/01/2011
Series:	Civil War America
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	496
Sales rank:	409,151
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Harry W. Pfanz is author of Gettysburg--The Second Day and Gettysburg--Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill. He served for ten years as a historian at Gettysburg National Military Park and retired from the position of Chief Historian of the National Park Service in 1981.

Read an Excerpt

Introduction
Fredericksburg to the Potomac

Its drums were beating, its colors flying, as the 900 officers and enlisted men of the 26th North Carolina Regiment, "beaming in their splendid uniforms," filed from their camp at Fredericksburg, Virginia. It was a beautiful morning on 15 June 1863, and the 26th, with its three sister regiments of Brig. Gen. James Johnston Pettigrew's brigade, was heading off on its first campaign with the vaunted Army of Northern Virginia. "Everything seemed propitious of success," recalled a veteran in later years. It was heady stuff for the virtually unbloodied Tarheels who had been guarding the coastal areas of their native state from Federal invasion. But in a month their uniforms would be worn, and the North Carolinians would learn that war can be horror and hardship as well as beating drums and flaunted colors.[1]

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction. Fredericksburg to the Potomac
Chapter 1. Ewell's Raid
Chapter 2. Lee's Army Concentrates
Chapter 3. Meade's Pursuit
Chapter 4. Meade and Reynolds
Chapter 5. Reconnaissance in Force
Chapter 6. Reynolds's Final and Finest Hour
Chapter 7. Cutler's Cock Fight
Chapter 8. McPherson Woods
Chapter 9. The Railroad Cut
Chapter 10. Noon Lull
Chapter 11. Howard and the Eleventh Corps
Chapter 12. Ewell and Rodes Reach the Field
Chapter 13. Oak Ridge
Chapter 14. Daniel's and Ramseur's Brigades Attack
Chapter 15. Daniel Strikes Stone
Chapter 16. Schurz Prepares for Battle
Chapter 17. Early's Division Attacks
Chapter 18. Gordon and Doles Sweep the Field
Chapter 19. The Brickyard Fight
Chapter 20. Heth Attacks
Chapter 21. Retreat from McPherson Ridge
Chapter 22. Seminary Ridge
Chapter 23. Retreat through the Town
Chapter 24. Cemetery Hill
Chapter 25. Epilogue
Appendix A. John Burns
Appendix B. The Color Episode of the 149th P.V.I.
Appendix C. Children of the Battlefield
Appendix D. Order of Battle
Notes
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

With this installment, Harry Pfanz completes a three-volume work that every serious student of the battle of Gettysburg must consult. Here is military history at its best.—James I. Robertson Jr., author of Stonewall Jackson: The Man, The Soldier, The Legend



Gettysburg—The First Day continues Harry Pfanz's superbly researched, beautifully written, and exquisitely detailed study of the battle. The three volumes now in print comprise a great classic, and the best Gettysburg material ever published.—Robert K. Krick, author of Stonewall Jackson at Cedar Mountain and Lee's Colonels

Editorial Reviews

Highly readable, features many excellent maps, outstanding research, and a variety of unfamiliar photographs.

Blue & Gray Magazine

This eagerly anticipated study will undoubtedly become a classic and the standard work on the fighting of July 1.

America's Civil War

[This book] is a careful reconstruction of events, based on extensive research in official reports, contemporary accounts, and soldiers' memoirs.

Civil War Book Review

An exhaustive and intimate description of the tactical events of day one.

Washington Post Book World

Pfanz (retired National Park Service chief historian and Gettysburg National Military Park historian) has new things to say about the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, the least studied of the pivotal three-day Civil War battle. Pfanz, also author of Gettysburg: The Second Day and other works, overturns several suppositions, including the belief that "a battle at Gettysburg was inevitable." He examines specific clashes at McPherson Woods, the Railroad Cuts, Oak Ridge, Brickyard, and other locales. His riveting narrative of battlefield emotions and dynamics is richly detailed on various levels, from individual enlisted men to the officers of brigades, regiments, and armies. Pfanz even looks at Gettysburg's residents, and he offers a human- interest story about a dead soldier, initially unidentified, whose widow and children were traced through a photograph in the soldier's pocket. This book complements Pfanz's other works on the battle. Recommended for academic and public libraries with in-depth collections on Civil War battles. Charles L. Lumpkins, Pennsylvania State Univ., State College Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

An exhaustive and intimate description of the tactical events of day one." —Washington Post Book World



A fast-moving narrative liberally sprinkled with anecdotes and fascinating details. . . . Extremely well researched. . . . Highly recommended."—Civil War News



Pfanz is superbly qualified to guide us through Gettysburg—The First Day. In this long-awaited book, Pfanz. . . has produced a fitting companion to his earlier work, Gettysburg-The Second Day. . . . [This book] is a careful reconstruction of events, based on extensive research in official reports, contemporary accounts, and soldiers' memoirs. . . . The result is certainly a success."—Civil War Book Review



Pfanz . . . has new things to say about the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, the least studied of the pivotal three-day Civil War battle. . . . His riveting narrative of battlefield emotions and dynamics is richly detailed on various levels, from individual enlisted men to the officers of brigades, regiments, and armies. Pfanz even looks at Gettysburg's residents. . . . Recommended for academic and public libraries with in-depth collections on Civil War battles."—Library Journal



An intricately detailed narrative of the opening act of the battle, revealed through the artful weaving of countless first-person accounts left by participants. Pfanz draws upon a wealth of original sources to allow the officers and soldiers on the field to tell the story of an extremely confused fight."—North Carolina Historical Review



Pfanz writes with a uniquely exuberant style, always selecting appropriate anecdotes that demonstrate a complete mastery of the battle's primary source materials. He has crafted a well-organized and thoroughly researched account. . . . A welcome addition to the library of any Civil War scholar or buff." —Georgia Historical Quarterly



Pfanz's The First Day rises above [other] studies in its completeness of information and source interpretation. . . . An impeccably researched and extremely well-written narrative. . . . With Gettysburg-The First Day, Harry Pfanz demonstrates again that there is no one who better understands the Gettysburg battlefield and movements of the opposing troops. This eagerly anticipated study will undoubtedly become a classic and the standard work on the fighting of July 1."—America's Civil War



Pfanz's long-awaited microstudy of the opening day of the battle of Gettysburg offers an outstanding narrative of the fighting west and north of that small Pennsylvania town on July 1, 1863. . . . Written crisply and occasionally with a wry wit, Pfanz's narrative draws upon a broad chorus of voices, from soldiers to civilians and from privates to generals. . . . Sets the standard for future examinations of July 1, along with offering astute warnings that some controversies always will remain unresolved." —Journal of Southern History



[Pfanz] needs no introduction to the student of Gettysburg. . . . [This is] a highly readable volume. . . . A good intermediate study of the battle. . . . The author's detailed knowledge of the ground is readily apparent, and he is refreshingly honest in pointing out some of the gaps which remain in our detailed knowledge of events and their sequence. . . . Another valuable addition to the literature of Gettysburg, essential for any collection." —Military History Online



With Gettysburg: The First Day, the first day's fighting finally receives its due. . . . Offers a detailed tactical description. . . . [Pfanz] draws on deep research in published and archival sources to challenge some of the assumptions about the battle." —McCormick Messenger

From the Publisher