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Little has been written of the stubborn fight which took place on the 3d of July, 1863, on the right of the
Union line at
Gettysburg, between the cavalry command of
General David McM. Gregg, and that of the
Confederate Chief of Cavalry,
General J. E. B. Stuart.
In an article published in the weekly times of March 31st, 1877, entitled, “The Union cavalry in the
Gettysburg campaign,” by
General Gregg, it is stated:
On the 3d, during that terrific fire of artillery which preceded the gallant but unsuccessful assault of Pickett's Division on our line, it was discovered that Stuart's cavalry was moving to our right with the evident intention of passing to the rear to make a simultaneous attack there.
What the consequence of the success of this movement would have been, the merest tyro in the art of war will understand.
When opposite our right, Stuart was met by General Gregg with two of his brigades (Colonels McIntosh and Irvin Gregg) and Custer's Brigade of the Third Division; and, on a fair field, there was another trial between two cavalry forces, in which most of the fighting was done in the saddle, and with the trooper's favorite weapon-. the sabre.
Without entering into the details of the fight, it need only be added that Stuart advanced not a pace beyond where he was met; but, after a severe struggle, which was only terminated by the darkness of the night, he withdrew, and on the morrow, with the defeated army of Lee, was in retreat to the Potomac.
In reply to this,
Major I. B. McClellan, who was
Assistant Adjutant General on the staff of
General Stuart, writes in the same paper, October 20th, 1877:
I would remind General Gregg that the last charge in the cavalry battle at Gettysburg was made by the Southern cavalry; that by this charge his division was swept behind the protection of his artillery, and that the field remained in the
