The Annals of the Civil War Written by Leading Participants North and South
Alexander Kelly McClure, Ed.

[473] struggle for its possession. About ten o'clock in the evening, in accordance with orders from headquarters, General Gregg withdrew the skirmish line, substituting a picket line from the First New Jersey, and moved his command over to the Baltimore pike, where it took position on the south side of White Run, in the rear of the Reserve Artillery, and remained there during the night.¹

On the morning of July 3d, General Gregg was directed to resume his position on the right of the infantry line, and make a demonstration against the enemy. Finding General Custer's Brigade of the Third Cavalry Division occupying his position of the previous day on the Bonaughtown road, Gregg placed his two brigades to the left of Custer's line, covering the right of the Twelfth Corps. A regiment was dismounted and deployed for some distance into the woods without-finding anything in front. Scarcely had this been done, however, when, about noon, a dispatch from the commander of the Eleventh Corps, to General Meade, was placed in General Gregg's hands, notifying him that a large body of the enemy's cavalry had been. observed, from Cemetery Hill, moving towards the right of our line. At the same time an order from General Pleasonton, commanding the Cavalry Corps, was received, directing that Custer's Brigade should at once join its division (Kilpatrick's) on the left. Accordingly, McIntosh's Brigade was ordered to relieve Custer's, and to occupy his position on the right of the Bonaughtown road. west of the Salem Church road.

In order to appreciate the positions of the opposing forces, it becomes necessary to examine the official report of General J. E. B. Stuart, now in the possession of the War Department, but which has never been published in full. After mentioning that his advance (Hampton's Brigade) had arrived in the vicinity of Gettysburg, on July 2d, just in time to repulse an attempt by some of our cavalry (under Kilpatrick) to reach the rear of the Confederate line, by way of Hunterstown, Stuart proceeds to state that he took position on the York and Heidlersburg roads. On the morning of the 3d, he moved forward to a new position to the left of General Ewell's left, and in advance of it, where, from the elevated ground, there was a view of the country for many miles. He was thus enabled to render Ewell's left secure, and at the same time to command a view of the routes leading to the rear of our lines. His purpose, as he himself states, was to effect a surprise on the rear of our main line of battle, and it is