Gettysburg. He describes the action on east cavalry field and argues against the theory that confederate general jb stewart had orders to get around the union flank. Instead, he suggests he was supposed to protect the confederate flank. This is an hourlong event. Have six lectures today, or six talks. Eric wittenbergs outofthebox with the 8 30 slot. He is such know him, a good friend of the heritage area. He is an attorney working in the Business Development and litigation arenas. Born in the philadelphia suburbs, he was raised in southeastern pennsylvania. As many of us did, he made his first trip to gettysburg in the third grade and has been hooked on the history of the American Civil War ever since. He went to college in carlisle pennsylvania and has two degrees from the university of pittsburgh. And a a masters degree doctorate from the university of Pittsburgh School of law. He is also an awardwinning civil war historian. His specialty is calvary operations with an emphasis on the army of potomacs calvary court. He is the author of 19 published books. I cant imagine what he does as a lawyer. Of a book about john buford at gettysburg, which won the round tables 2014 book world award. Is also the author of a book about protecting the flank at gettysburg. His first book, gettysburg for gun calvary actions, was named the third winner of the robert e. Lee roundtable literary award as the best new work interpreting the battle of gettysburg, 1998. The 2011 edition one the u. S. Army histories foundation distinguished writing award. A number of his titles have been chosen as the main selections of the history and military book clubs. In addition to his books, he is the author of more than two dozen public articles on civil war calvary operations. These articles have appeared in and north magazine and south. He also has battlefield preservation work. He is part of the Battlefield Foundation and readily works with the Civil War Trust in helping to save hallowed ground. He maintains a popular and wellregarded blog entitled open rantings entitled of a civil war historian. We are honored to have him back with us. About East Cemetery field. Please welcome eric. [applause] always a pleasure for me to attend this event. I have lost count, but this is the 11th or 12th time ive been invited to speak here. One of the things i enjoy so much about this event is i get to see the same faces every year and it is like having a reunion sergeantfriends, like wheeler here in the front row. That is one of the reasons im always so glad to come to this event. Thank you for having me back and hopefully you of not grown too weary of hearing me. I want to think cspan for coming out this morning. It takes something pretty extraordinary for me to put on a suit and tie on a saturday morning. [laughter] eric on the afternoon of july 2, 1863, the commander of the army of the potomacs Second Calvary Division was order to make an advance on gettysburg from the east, specifically from hanover, pennsylvania along hanover road. With two of his three brigades, one had been left in maryland with the east pennsylvania calvary with two brigades, he will make his advance along the hanover road. He is a career calvary officer, a tall and quiet, modest fellow, very capable. Not the sort of guy who was flashy by any stretch. That is one of the most spectacular beards you will ever see. The only one ive seen significantly better is that of john c robinson. But that is pretty darned close. He will have two of his three bygades, commanded macintosh, and another commanded gregg. Nel irvin he was a mexican war vet who had no formal training as a soldier but was very capable as a calvary officer. He was six foot four inches and they called him long john. Commissioned after the war, that is how wellregarded he was. Hehas two full brigades and will attack in the direction of splace called brinckerhoff ridge. T is on the far flank those of you who heard me do my talk on stewarts ride in the past, that is one area where i have said stewarts absence made a significant difference because we have two great of infantry performing the role calvary is supposed to cover, which is guarding the flanks of the army. Because jenkins is wounded in the morning of july 2 and there is a breakdown in the chain of communications and no one advises colonel ferguson that jenkinss down, guys, we dont know what they did that afternoon. There are no accounts, there are no reports. Nobody knows. It is one of the great mysteries of the battle of gettysburg. But we know they were not picketing the rose, and because of that two brigades of infantry had to do that. One was smiths brigade, picketing the road from carlisle to harrisburg, and then the stonewall brigade, the legendary brigade commanded by james walker, is getting to the west. It is elements of the stonewall for gate that were going to engage on breakoff brinckerhoffs ridge. The second of virginia industry infantry will engage in protected protracted skirmishing, ending when it got dark. Minimal casualties but an important fight for the simple reason that kept the stonewall brigade out of the attacks on colts hill. They were not able to participate, and having that extra 1200 soldiers might have tipped the balance. The stonewall dividing the two sides, it will end up being the bone of contention, greggs men will win the fight. After having a meeting with robert e. Lee, the commander of the Calvary Division assigned to the army of Northern Virginia will make a ride over to and alongffs ridge, with one of his brigade commanders, stewart will sit and watch some of the heaviest fighting that takes place in that sector. Sitting on that high ground and looking in the distance, he can see in front of him and open plain on the next ridge line over, called crest ridge. He sees it is good for calvary operations. What is important to note is with two ofe gregg his brigade operating on the far confederate left rank on brinckerhoffs ridge. Late in the afternoon about 2. 5 miles away, the two brigades of kilpatricks division and of having a nasty skirmish with Wade Hamptons brigade, escorting the infamous wagon train on the back to gettysburg. There were eight brigades of calvary assigned to the army of the atomic of the potomac. Maryland, but the ps, withthe calvary cor in exception of one mechanics town, fully half is either operating on robert e , or is beyondnk the flank and partly around the fight. Fully half. Thesent understand calvary fields unless you understand that point, it is that simple. Surprise that robert ely was worried about having half of the potomacs calvary sitting on or around his flank late in the day on july 2 . And heurprise at all him was so worried about it that on the morning of july 3, he summoned a Brigadier General to come to the battlefield for the first time. He places it right behind the center of his line so that they are there in case the Union Calvary sweeps around his point and gets into his rear, he has a force of calvary imposition to defend against it in position to defend against it. When you hear about stewart and what he is going to be doing on july 2 excuse me, july 3, you have to understand, his job was to contact protect the Confederate Flag. There was a book published a number of years ago and i will borrow a line from one of my favorite military philosophers, shermantine parter sherman t. H. Ter from mas key. S bull hoc he was supposed to sweep down the road, he was to send his horse artillery is up colts hill , and stewart was then to make chaos in the union rear. Never mind that there isnt a single shred of evidence to support this nonsense anywhere on the face of this planet. I am a lawyer, my job is to analyze evidence. There is not any, it is nonsense. Theory thatr this stewart was supposed to be operating in concert with picketts charge in all of these grand, coordinated attacks, and stewart will have his artillery fire shot and could be heard by robert e lee that would tell him he was in position and ready to go. Its talk about this. This calvary was seven miles as the crow flies from where we was. The ability of robert e lee to hear for artillery shots at a distance of seven miles with fighting in between is a physical impossibility. It simply is not possible. When you hear about this nonsensical theory, if you take nothing else away from this talk today, i hope you take away with you the fact that it is nonsense and nothing more than nonsense. Lets talk about what actually did happen. 2, thenight of july division of kilpatrick will move from hundreds town and go down in the direction of two taverns and along with farnsworths spend they will kilpatricks and farnsworth gates will camp together. Farnsworths brigades will camp together. Fellowwas an interesting and knew he wasnt going to finish first so i figured he might as well finish last. In yourinished last closet west point, they considered you and you mortal. It really was by his own choice. He would get so many demerits he was in jeopardy of being kicked out of school, he would pull extra guard duty and work them off. He succeeded and finished dead last in his class in 1861. Tall, extremely athletic, brave has lion, George Custer caught the attention of pleasanton, who had an eye for talent. You heard in the discussion yesterday, the promotion of the boy generals, and i believe his analysis of the reasons for that and why those three officers were selected was right on the money. Custer was promoted from lieutenant in the regular army, general and he takes control of the calvary brigade on the night of june 29, 1863. He reports to their camp in little town, pennsylvania, he is wearing a garish outfits made of black velvet. One of the troopers described him as looking like a circus rider gone wild. His reasoning was he wanted them in to see him and know where he was on the battlefield, that he is a stranger and they do not know this man. He will lead him them in battle on hanover, and then on the morning of july 2, George Custer and his brigade were given the task of holding the critical intersection of hanover and dutch roads about a mile to the west of brinckerhoffs ridge. They get up in the morning to saddle up and move out. Them to move out and he writes over to find over find out what is going on. Gregg says, i need you here, i dont have sufficient troops. , if youays, very well will take responsibility, i will be happy to stay. Gregg accepts that responsibility and sends a note to pleasanton saying we cannot afford to let them go, and and pleasanton will ultimately change his mind and give custer the discretion to serve under gregg. This means that gregg will have to brigades there. In cousin johns brigade is a position where it is not very near the battlefield. It will extend basically from to where its ridge connects with the six corporate gate, extending the union far right flank. They will not be available to fight on east calvary fields. This means gregg has john thentoshs brigade, and ichigan calvaryssio brigade. , and alsoce artillery the battery of captains allinson and randall. These guys are career west point trained regular artillery is. ,hey are as good as they come the Unsung Heroes of the civil war. These west point soldiers did the Union Artillery its significant Qualitative Advantage over the confederates and in many ways played a Critical Role in ultimately winning the war for the union. Randalls guys in particular perform an Extraordinary Service on july 3. Stuart receives orders from leave to come around and guard this point position. He moves out on the morning of july 3. He has three brigades of calvary. He has the brigade of john , andlph chambliss junior he was severely wounded at the battle of Brandy Station and was taken to virginia and when the union high command found out , they sent people with the express purpose to capture roomie lee. Chambliss, who was ultimately promoted to Brigadier General and would be killed in combat in the petersburg campaign. As an interesting footnote, wasbliss best friend gregg. ,e has the chambliss brigade and the brigade of lee and hampton. Then we have which are witcher. You heard me mention early on the brigade of jenkins, half his brigade was assigned to do provost duty at the army of virginia headquarters on seminary ridge. Ferguson is assigned to do that task. The other half of the brigade was out under jenkins, jenkins is wounded on july 2, this means brigader half of the is committed by this fellow, vincent witcher. He is a colorful fellow. Coatre a swallow tailed and was called claw hammer. There is no other way to describe them as backwoods, ruffian types. They were given a calvary duty after doing partisan duty. In thed done well advance on harrisburg, but they are untrained, largely, they. Ont carry traditional weapons there are approximately 400 of them that will go on this expedition with jeb stewart. Stewart will arrive on crest ridge. Ofyou stand at the crest crest ridge, because of undulations and the terrain and the fact it is lower, you cannot see the intersection of hamilton and low dutch road. You cannot see it. There is no way for you to stand out there and see who is at the intersection of hanover and low dutch road. When stewart arrives, he orders a battery of artillery to fire for shots, one in each direction of the compass. This is not a signal to robert e lee, it is attacked it it is a tactic called reconnaissance by fire. Hope they shot and will draw a response. That is what the purposes. These for shots will be fired, and the guns of randall will answer. And now stewart knows where greggs command is. That is the purpose of the socalled signal guns, as many have labeled them. So stewart is going to order his command to take position and he will online them in an interesting alignment. It will look like this, almost in an l shape. They will help the rumble farm buildings am a particularly the barn. Next of them is the brigade of hampton, and in this part of the lee. The brigade of that is an odd configuration. Lets think about what stewart had in mind. His plan, and it is obvious from the way he deploys his troops, into draw the Yankee Calvary but opening fire with the artillery, hes going to draw them in with dismounted fire around the buildings, and once he has them fully engage, hes going to mount an attack around their flank and encircle them. In other words, hes going to use the mounted portion as the hammer to drive them against the anvil of the mounted portions of the command. That is what stewarts plan is. It seems very obvious if you know anything about the way these troops are deployed. The barn here will become a critical landmark in the course menhe day because witchers will use it as a snipers nest. Re will be a protected protracted firefight. Daughters will be sent away. Tell thet want them to confederates position. Ultimately, troops will be pushed forward by gregg. He will send forward the entire fifth calvary, and roughly half of the six calvary of the michigan for gate. Brigade. Why is he sending forward the fifth and sixth michigan . Those men are armed with spencer repeating rifles, seven shot repeating rifles. They are all armed with spencers. They fire seven shots before they have to be reloaded. The confederates called them seven shooting devils. It is such a good story, we have to share the story, they used to say they could load on sunday and fire all week before having to reload. Of the michigan calvary brigade are going to engage in a heavy firefight with witchers men. Mensome reason, witchers were not supplied with enough ammunition and he will have to go get it himself. Theyre taking heavy fire, he had 292 officers and men of his own virginia cavalry with him. To the official historian of the battle of gettysburg after the war that muster the next morning, only 90 men showed up. That tells you how severe this firefight was, significant losses. It will go on for a while. There is the disposition of the confederates. You see here, i dont have a laser pointer. You see the farm buildings, you can see where it says witchers headquarters, and you see that almost l shaped deployment we talked about. The fifth michigan will attack in the direction of the run newe, elements of the jersey, elements of the third pennsylvania, there will be an extended firefight. To the court during the course of that firefight, major ferry stands up on a tree stump and waves his sword to rally the troops, and he is hit literally right between the eyes and drops dead. As he dies, his men are demoralized and pull back, and this enables witcher to resupply his command. We fitz lee, youve heard me say he is the greatest example of nepotism and the American Civil War with the exception of joe this davis joseph davis. Had he not been the favorite nephew of the commanding general of the army of Northern Virginia, he mightve been a good surgeon general. Over 40 years studying cavalry operations in the civil war, and i have identified for good days he is had in the entire war. Of thed up in command virginia calvary corps because he was the favorite nephew of robert e. Lee. Him the laughing cavalier, he loved to have fun and laugh. He was five foot four inches, was chunky and overweight. He weighed over 300 pounds by the time of the spanishamerican war. He was one of those old confederate generals who were asked to rejoin the army to help rally the south to the cause in the spanishamerican war and was unable to take the field because he was too fat. But he has with him a veteran brigade of virginians. Alongside him is the veteran general wade hampton the third, reputedly the wealthiest man in the south. He paid out of his own pocket to raise the hampton legion. Those four companies become the nucleus of a second South Carolina calvary, which is part of his command. That was commanded by butler, who was wounded at brady station. He was very proud of the fact as killed a bear he with his bare hands. This is a man who personally killed 13 yankee troopers and hand to hand camombat. Extremely capable, even though he had no formal military training. Andould be the successor the commander of the Northern Army of virginia and one of two officers the confederacy will promote