Read Online Gettysburg: The Last Invasion by Allen C. Guelzo - Free Book Online
Authors: Allen C. Guelzo
Tags: History, Non-Fiction
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was shot down, and Corbit himself captured, “standing astride of his dead horse” and trying to fight the rebels off with his revolver. Lee’s enraged troopers chased Corbit’s men back into the town, hunting them down one by one, and by the end of the day, sixty-seven of the Delaware contingent were killed, wounded, or prisoners. 10
Stuart’s cavalry had already been showing serious signs of fatigue before arriving at Westminster, and this little escapade did not help. “After a series of exciting combats and night marches,” Stuart lamented, “whole regiments slept in the saddle, their faithful animals keeping the road unguided.” Theinterruption posed by Corbit’s charge was all the persuasion Stuart needed to call a halt, authorize some local foraging, and assemble a hasty meeting of his three brigade commanders. “Straddling a chair on the sidewalk,” Stuart then nodded off into an exhausted sleep for a few hours. He was up and going again with his men by five o’clock on the morning of the 30th, but in the process he had lost “from ten to twelve hours” because of the Westminster skirmish, and he was going to pay dearly for them. 11
Stuart’s column crossedPipe Creek at Union Mills, then turned northward into Pennsylvania. Stuart learned from scouts that a considerable body of Federal cavalry was just to the west, at Littlestown, so he pushed on toward Hanover, hoping to find Ewell’s infantry. He almost did, asJubal Early’s division was at that moment on the road from his point of farthest advance at York and at noon on June 30th was probably less than twenty miles northeast of Stuart’s position. Stuart did not know that, and what was worse, he did not know that the Yankee cavalry the scouts had reported was actually a full Federal cavalry division of 3,500 men, under the newly promotedJudson Kilpatrick.
A raffish, red-haired, and highly overrated womanizer with a damningly selfish willingness to throw away his troopers’ lives in battle (which earned him the unflattering nickname “Kill-cavalry”), Kilpatrick was nevertheless a favorite ofAlfred Pleasonton’s. And even though Kilpatrick had spent three months under military arrest for a host of infractions that included pocketing money from the sale of government property, Pleasonton was so eager to purge foreign-born officers from the cavalry corps of theArmy of the Potomac that he handed command ofJulius Stahel’s division to Kilpatrick and sent him off to screen the center of Meade’s pursuit of Lee into Pennsylvania. Kilpatrick had for brigadiers two officers who had just as dramatically jumped the seniority queue from captain to brigadier general,Elon Farnsworth and the “incorrigible”George Armstrong Custer, a former McClellan aide-de-camp. Both were cut from nearly the same cloth as Kilpatrick in their passion for action and display, for their mischievousness and recklessness. 12
Kilpatrick set off for Hanover early on the morning of the 30th, slouching easily through the town square before noon. He had already sent Custer’s brigade through the town, to the accompaniment of bell ringing and schoolchildren singing patriotic songs, when skirmish fire broke out to the southwest. At the moment, Kilpatrick had indulgently permitted the troopers of Farnsworth’s brigade a time-out to enjoy the hospitality of Hanover. As the staccato ricketing ofcarbine fire was joined by the deeper thud of artillery, he sent off a galloper to bring back Custer, and then, standing up in his stirrups, said for all to hear: “Boys, look at me. I am General Kilpatrick. I want you to know me, and where I go I want you to follow. Stuart is making a call on us,and we are going to whip him.” And together they went pelting back through the town in search of trouble. 13
While Kilpatrick had been leisurely walking his division through Hanover, moving east, the head of Stuart’s cavalry had appeared, coming north on the Westminster road, and barged into
Stuart’s cavalry had already been showing serious signs of fatigue before arriving at Westminster, and this little escapade did not help. “After a series of exciting combats and night marches,” Stuart lamented, “whole regiments slept in the saddle, their faithful animals keeping the road unguided.” Theinterruption posed by Corbit’s charge was all the persuasion Stuart needed to call a halt, authorize some local foraging, and assemble a hasty meeting of his three brigade commanders. “Straddling a chair on the sidewalk,” Stuart then nodded off into an exhausted sleep for a few hours. He was up and going again with his men by five o’clock on the morning of the 30th, but in the process he had lost “from ten to twelve hours” because of the Westminster skirmish, and he was going to pay dearly for them. 11
Stuart’s column crossedPipe Creek at Union Mills, then turned northward into Pennsylvania. Stuart learned from scouts that a considerable body of Federal cavalry was just to the west, at Littlestown, so he pushed on toward Hanover, hoping to find Ewell’s infantry. He almost did, asJubal Early’s division was at that moment on the road from his point of farthest advance at York and at noon on June 30th was probably less than twenty miles northeast of Stuart’s position. Stuart did not know that, and what was worse, he did not know that the Yankee cavalry the scouts had reported was actually a full Federal cavalry division of 3,500 men, under the newly promotedJudson Kilpatrick.
A raffish, red-haired, and highly overrated womanizer with a damningly selfish willingness to throw away his troopers’ lives in battle (which earned him the unflattering nickname “Kill-cavalry”), Kilpatrick was nevertheless a favorite ofAlfred Pleasonton’s. And even though Kilpatrick had spent three months under military arrest for a host of infractions that included pocketing money from the sale of government property, Pleasonton was so eager to purge foreign-born officers from the cavalry corps of theArmy of the Potomac that he handed command ofJulius Stahel’s division to Kilpatrick and sent him off to screen the center of Meade’s pursuit of Lee into Pennsylvania. Kilpatrick had for brigadiers two officers who had just as dramatically jumped the seniority queue from captain to brigadier general,Elon Farnsworth and the “incorrigible”George Armstrong Custer, a former McClellan aide-de-camp. Both were cut from nearly the same cloth as Kilpatrick in their passion for action and display, for their mischievousness and recklessness. 12
Kilpatrick set off for Hanover early on the morning of the 30th, slouching easily through the town square before noon. He had already sent Custer’s brigade through the town, to the accompaniment of bell ringing and schoolchildren singing patriotic songs, when skirmish fire broke out to the southwest. At the moment, Kilpatrick had indulgently permitted the troopers of Farnsworth’s brigade a time-out to enjoy the hospitality of Hanover. As the staccato ricketing ofcarbine fire was joined by the deeper thud of artillery, he sent off a galloper to bring back Custer, and then, standing up in his stirrups, said for all to hear: “Boys, look at me. I am General Kilpatrick. I want you to know me, and where I go I want you to follow. Stuart is making a call on us,and we are going to whip him.” And together they went pelting back through the town in search of trouble. 13
While Kilpatrick had been leisurely walking his division through Hanover, moving east, the head of Stuart’s cavalry had appeared, coming north on the Westminster road, and barged into
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