This text is part of:
[199]
on the Rappahannock, and at the same time expel the Federal general, Milroy, from the valley of Virginia.
In execution of this purpose, Hill's division was left in front of Hooker and the other two corps commenced the movement resulting in the victory at Winchester on the 13th of June, which was followed by the march into Pennsylvania.
Hooker, seeming to become bewildered by these movements, and uncertain as to the whereabouts of Lee's army, abandoned his position on the Rappahannock.
As late as the 17th of June he telegraphed the generalin-chief at Washington: ‘In your opinion is there any foundation for the report that the Confederates are at Chambersburg, Pa.?’
On the 27th he was relieved and Maj.-Gen. George C. Meade was assigned to the command of the army of the Potomac.
The army was already in motion.
When General Hill advanced on Gettysburg on the morning of the 1st of July, he found it in possession of Buford's Federal cavalry and the First, Third and Eleventh army corps under Major-General Reynolds. Major-General Heth, in advance, stated that his division was disposed as follows: Archer's Tennessee brigade on the right, with Davis' brigade on the left, both in line of battle, Pettigrew's and Brockenbrough's in reserve.
On the right of the turnpike Archer encountered heavy masses in his front, and his gallant little brigade, after being almost surrounded by superior forces in front and on both flanks, was forced back.
The service at this time, said the division general, ‘lost that most gallant and meritorious officer, Brig.-Gen. James L. Archer,’ who, with 60 or 70 of his men, was captured.
A second advance was made by Heth's and Pender's divisions, and Lieutenant-General Ewell, coming up with two of his divisions, joined in the engagement, and the enemy were driven through Gettysburg with heavy loss, including about 5,000 prisoners and several pieces of artillery.
Of the action of Archer's brigade,
Atlanta, Ga. 1899.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.