Cannon on McPherson Ridge at Gettysburg National Military Park

GETTYSBURG BATTLEFIELD TOUR STOP 1
McPherson Ridge

The first stop on the Gettysburg Battlefield Tour is on the west side of Gettysburg at McPherson Ridge. This is where the battle began. But how did the Union and Confederate armies come to be here?

General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia had been winning most of its major battles up through the summer of 1862. After successfully defending Richmond and driving off the invading Union Army in the Seven Days Battles one year before the fighting at Gettysburg, Lee decided to invade the north. With the Union Army certain to pursue him, Virginia farms would have a chance to recuperate and hopefully produce a harvest that would bolster Confederate food supplies. A major victory on Union soil might also send Northerners into a panic and pressure Abraham Lincoln to negotiate.

Lee defeated Union General John Pope’s Army of Virginia at the Second Battle of Manassas in late August 1862 but was halted a few weeks later in mid-September at Antietam in Maryland, the first major battle on Union soil. However, Antietam was just on the other side of the Potomac River from Virginia, so it wasn’t the northern invasion Lee had imagined.

Lee then won two major battles in a row:  Fredericksburg in mid-December 1862 and Chancellorsville in early May 1863. These victories prompted him to attempt a second invasion of Union territory, and on June 3rd the Confederates began their march north. To their west, the Union army moved parallel to them. There were a number of small battles along the way, but by the end of June, the Confederates had reached as far north as the Pennsylvania capital of Harrisburg and the town of Wrightsville, both approximately 40 miles north to northeast of Gettysburg. The Union army, in the meantime, had been marching in the direction of Gettysburg from the south.

Map by Hal Jespersen, www.cwmaps.com

On June 28th, Lee learned that the Union Army was just south of the Pennsylvania border (Gettysburg is eight miles from the border). To prepare for a battle, he ordered all of his men to convene ten miles to the west of Gettysburg at the base of the Appalachian Mountains near Cashtown. Gettysburg was a strategic location because ten roads—like spokes on a wheel—led into town, so bringing his army back together would be convenient no matter where the men were located.

On the morning of June 30, 1863, Union Brigadier General John Buford’s cavalry division of 2,700 men arrived at Gettysburg with the intention of defending the town and its strategic roads. They were spotted by Confederate soldiers under the command of Brigadier General Johnston Pettigrew who were riding towards Gettysburg on the Chambersburg Pike (today’s Lincoln Highway) in search of supplies. Being under orders not to engage in battle until all of Lee’s men had arrived, the Confederates returned to Cashtown. Pettigrew reported the incident to his commanding officers, Lieutenant General A. P. Hill and Major General Henry Heth.

Believing that Pettigrew’s men had spotted nothing more than local militia, around 5 AM on the morning of July 1st, Hill sent two brigades under the command of brigadier generals James Archer and Joseph Davis (part of the the Confederate III Corps) towards Gettysburg on a scouting mission. At 7:30 AM, Union soldiers near today’s Knoxville Road (two miles west of Gettysburg) spotted the Confederates coming down the Chambersburg Pike. A rider was sent back to town to inform Buford of the situation, and then, just after the Confederates crossed Marsh Creek, Union Lieutenant Marcellus Jones fired at them. Legend has it that his shot was the first of the Battle of Gettysburg.

Map by Hal Jespersen, www.cwmaps.com

Despite orders not to engage in battle, the Confederate troops pressed forward, and from there the fighting escalated. If you were standing at the McPherson Ridge tour stop on the morning of July 1, 1863, and looking west towards the lone barn on the landscape—the McPherson Barn—you would witness the Confederates pushing the Union cavalry towards you. Buford’s men were outnumbered three to one (7,500 to 2,700), but they did have carbine rifles that could fire three shots for every one fired from a Confederate musket. Their only hope was to delay the Confederate advance long enough for reinforcements to arrive.

View west from McPherson Ridge at Gettysburg National Military Park

Help did come around 10:30 AM with the arrival of the Union I Corps under the command of Major General John Fulton Reynolds. By this time Buford’s cavalry had been pushed back to McPherson Ridge. First Corps troops formed a battle line that extended along today’s Reynolds Avenue south to near Fairfield Road (Hagerstown Road in 1863) and north to roughly a half mile past the Chambersburg Pike (near Tour Stop 3 on the Gettysburg Battlefield Tour, Oak Ridge). Reynolds sent a messenger south to inform Major General Oliver Howard to move his XI Corps to Gettysburg as quickly as possible. Reynolds hoped to hold off the Confederates long enough for the rest of the Army of the Potomac to arrive and take up key defensive positions on Cemetery Hill and Cemetery Ridge on the south and southeast sides of Gettysburg.

Map by Hal Jespersen, www.cwmaps.com

Unfortunately, Reynolds, who is considered to be one of the best generals in the Union army, was killed within a half hour of arriving on the battlefield. He was replaced by Major General Abner Doubleday, the man associated with inventing baseball (this has long since been proven untrue). A monument at the McPherson Ridge tour stop marks the spot where Reynolds was killed.

A monument marks the spot on McPherson Ridge where Major General John Reynolds was killed during the Battle of Gettysburg

A larger memorial for Reynolds is located on Lincoln Highway. If you would like to see it, when departing the McPherson Ridge tour stop, turn left on Lincoln Highway. The Reynolds Memorial, a memorial to John Buford, and two regimental monuments are all a quarter mile down the road. A National Park Service visitor information office is located across the street.

John Buford (foreground) and John Reynolds memorials at Gettysburg National Military Park

General John Reynolds Memorial (1898), Gettysburg National Military Park

General John Buford Memorial (1895), Gettysburg National Military Park

Despite the addition of I Corps, the Confederate advance could only be slowed, not stopped. The battle continued for two hours until both sides paused to regroup at noon. Fighting resumed around 2:30 PM, only this time Henry Heth’s entire division joined the fight. The Confederates drove the Union soldiers off McPherson Ridge to Seminary Ridge a third of a mile to the east, and by late afternoon they were fighting in the streets of Gettysburg. Union soldiers, both from the McPherson Ridge area to the west of Gettysburg and the Oak Ridge area to the north, made a hasty retreat south through town towards the high ground of Cemetery Hill and Culps Hill where Union commanders had wisely stationed men and artillery earlier in the day. Thus ended the fighting on July 1, 1863.

To the north of the McPherson Ridge tour stop on the other side of Lincoln Highway is a set of railroad tracks in a deep ravine. At the time of the battle the ravine was cut, but no tracks had been laid. Confederate soldiers climbed down into the ravine for cover. Despite coming under heavy fire, Union infantry under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Rufus Dawes and Colonel Edward Fowler was able to mount the hill above the ravine and capture 200 Confederate soldiers. However, it was no great cause for celebration, for 180 of the 420 Union soldiers who made the charge were killed or wounded. The railroad tracks are a little too far away from the McPherson Ridge parking lot for most people to consider walking, but there are small, roadside pullouts next to the tracks if you want to take a look.

Railroad Cut near McPherson Ridge at Gettysburg National Military Park

There are a number of monuments lining Reynolds Avenue, both before and after the actual tour stop. One thing to remember about Gettysburg National Military Park is that there are 1,328 monuments on the battlefield, so don’t get carried away trying to see all of them. Some are eye-catching, and I have included photos of the most interesting ones, design-wise, within a short walk of the parking areas at McPherson Ridge, the Railroad Cut, and the Lincoln Highway information office. (Dedication dates are in parenthesis.)

MONUMENTS NEAR MCPHERSON RIDGE

8th New York Cavalry Monument (1889), Gettysburg National Military Park

121st Pennsylvania Infantry Monument (1888), Gettysburg National Military Park

80th New York Infantry / 20th New York State Militia Monument (1888), Gettysburg National Military Park

142nd Pennsylvania Infantry Monument (1889), Gettysburg National Military Park

Battery L, 1st New York Light Artillery Monument (1889), Gettysburg National Military Park

MONUMENTS NEAR THE RAILROAD CUT

147th New York Infantry Monument (1888), Gettysburg National Military Park

Union General James Samuel Wadsworth Memorial (1914), Gettysburg National Military Park

95th New York Infantry Monument (1893), Gettysburg National Military Park

MONUMENTS ON LINCOLN HIGHWAY

Hall’s Battery, 2nd Maine Artillery Monument (1889), Gettysburg National Military Park

149th Pennsylvania Infantry Monument (1889), Gettysburg National Military Park

Tour Stop 2 | Battlefield Tour Home Page

Back to the Top