The Gettysburg battlefield, a veritable sculpture garden of monuments and markers, receives more visitors each year than any other Civil War battlefield and most historical sites of this nation. With each passing year more new books and articles appear, supporting a growing trend toward examinations of one day of the three-day conflict, one particular action, and even of particular pieces of the ground itself. Never before has there been such interest in "micro- histories" of this watershed fight which spilled the blood of tens of thousands of the soldiers who fought there.

Having said that, however, it remains standard fare that the cavalry arm of either side has heretofore received little notice and scant attention in spite of the trend toward detailed treatments of the Gettysburg battle and campaign. The infantry's and artillery's participation over the three days of the battle proper far overshadows the involvement of Lee's or Meade's horsemen, in spite of the fact that cavalry both opened and closed the Battle of Gettysburg.

Quite a collection of works devoted to the actions of the first day can be assembled, but little detail about the delay-in-depth masterfully conducted by Brig. Gen. John Buford's cavaliers at the outset of the battle is to be found among them. Buford's military dispositions on the eve of battle, carved into the terrain west and north of Gettysburg on the night of June 30, 1863, both shaped the movements of the fight for the ensuing three days as well as materially contributed to the outcome. It is generally accepted today that Buford chose the Gettysburg battlefield; but an exhaustive examination of all the events of July 1 reveal that Buford's riders made most valuable contributions to the choice and security of the Army of the Potomac's final defensive position, from which the bluecoats blunted three days of Confederate attacks and dug their heels upon a line which would forever be known as the Confederacy's "High Water Mark."

Less than a dozen miles away, while on the march toward his military career's capstone, Buford scanned a horizon tipped by the prominent hills surrounding the little hamlet of Gettysburg. From a perch atop the airfield Gap of South Mountain, Buford, who had perhaps more information on the locations and movements of Gen. Lee's army than anyone in the Army of the Potomac, scanned the enemy campfires below and mumbled to no one in particular that, "within forty-eight hours the concentration of both armies will take place on some field within view, and a great battle will be fought."

Just shy of those 48 hours later, while sitting around a campfire of their own and mulling the defensive lines manned by Buford's cavalrymen west of Gettysburg, one of his officers was still not entirely convinced of impending bloodshed. "I will take care of all the Rebels that appear in my front... for the next twenty-four hours," assured Col. Tom Devin, commanding Buford's 2nd Brigade.

"No you won't," Buford shot back, through the pipe smoke crowning his rugged face, one that benefitted a man much older than his 37 years. "They'll come booming in the morning... you'll have to fight like the devil to hold your own until supports arrive."

Buford had been well-accustomed to fighting "like the devil" since his days on the plains of America's unforgiving western frontier, but the brawl of the morrow that his senses foretold promised to be like none before, in light of the numbers he would face as well as the consequences of holding the ground east and south of Gettysburg for the footmen of the Army of the Potomac.

Since arriving in Gettysburg during mid-day of June 30, Buford closely examined the terrain features surrounding the town. He chose to commit his troopers to holding the ridges and hills, which in turn committed the blue army to that field if subsequent commanders decided to continue the stand. By the time the summer sun had set over the hills to the west, from which Buford expected to be attacked, each of his 2550 troopers knew their duty.

Some suspected that a fistfight was coming soon, and others, like Devin, weren't so sure. Regardless, several hundred troopers were strung out in an arc, nearly six miles long and several miles from the center of the town, which begun to the southwest and continued to the north. These forward videttes, a "panic alarm" of sorts, were positioned to trade bullets and ground for time should they be attacked.

Buford's positioning for defense was no less than by the book. Quite familiar with military manuals of his day, Buford also knew that such a defense had never before been tested on so grand a scale. To be effective against numbers expected to be four times his own, each tenet of the defense must work without exception.

For example, Mahan's military strategy manual of 1847 taught "to keep an enemy in ignorance of the state of our forces and the character of our position is one of the most indispensable duties in war." To that end, Buford decreed that the men's horses were to be kept out of sight. Mahan further stated, "It is in this way that we oblige him to take every possible precaution in advancing; forcing him to feel his way, step by step, and to avoid risking his own safety in hazarding those bold and rapid movements... Our purpose, in all cases, should be to keep the enemy in a state of uncertainty as to our actual force..."

Buford well knew the old military maxim: "a sword opportunely drawn frequently keeps another back in its scabbard."

Key to Defense

Thus was the key to Buford's defense. Fighting dismounted like infantry, those forward videttes kept up a fire with their single-shot breechloaders as Confederate General Henry Heth's brigades began attacking along the Chambersburg Pike at 7:30 am on July 1. Stubbornly resisting before falling back to predetermined lines along the ridges behind them, Buford's troopers caused Heth to shake his column into battle lines and slowly feel their way to the east.

By the time Buford's men were pushed back to McPherson Ridge and finally relieved by upcoming infantry, they had held off their foe for more than two hours and secured the high ground for the Army of the Potomac. Upon reaching Herr Ridge just to the west, Heth still had not identified his enemy, leading him years later to claim that he had never so much as even faced one cavalryman during the morning of July 1.

The perceived anonymity made little difference to one of Buford's Indiana horsemen, who later declared that he and his comrades "fought like wildcats" that swirling morning.

The troopers' day was far from over, however- more relentless clashes came on the flanks of the Union I ~nd XI Corps as the Federal line collapsed in the afternoon, and Buford's cavaliers made a heroic stand below the summit of Cemetery Ridge to aid in securing that height for the northern defensive line.

It was the line that Buford had pointed out to the ill- fated Federal Maj. Gen. John Reynolds upon the latter's arrival on the field that morning, while declaring, "that's where the army belongs!" By deciding to take up Buford's line along McPherson Ridge to save that hill to their rear, Reynolds chose to continue Buford's delayin-depth with his own veteran footmen, ultimately sacrificing his own life to do so.

Among the veterans who rode saddle with Buford that day, the mission accomplished on the morning of July 1 was long held dear. Veteran associations lovingly placed their regimental monuments along McPherson Ridge to mark their stubborn stand, wrote of their experiences, and even had terse arguments amongst themselves regarding who fired the "first shot" of the battle. But all came together on the 25th Anniversary of the battle to dedicate the sentinel statue of the First Day field - that of their beloved commander John Buford - which today still holds its ground on McPherson Ridge and shows the cavalryman peering resolutely to the west and to the fight he had predicted.

As the former horsemen, all now older versions of the young and strong soldiers once perched proudly upon their steeds, looked upon the image of the quiet man they once followed, doubtless many of them recalled Buford's words of their deeds upon the fields of Gettysburg:

"A heavy task was before us; we were equal to it, and shall all remember with pride that at Gettysburg we did our country much service. "

J. David Petruzzi

J. David Petruzzi lives in Brockway PA with his wife Karen and daughter Ashley. He is a reenactor and Living Historian, portraying Col. Thomas Devin in several Civil War movies. He maintains the website "Buford's Boys," dedicated to the cavalry division of Gen. John Buford and to Civil War cavalry in general.

This article is based on his forthcoming book, "They'll Come Booming in the Morning, General John Buford's Cavalry at Gettysburg," to be published by Ironclad Publishing, and which will be a history and tour guide of relevant portions of the Gettysburg battlefield.

His first book, "One Continuous Fight," a history and tour guide of the cavalry's participation during the retreat from Gettysburg with two other authors, will be released by Ironclad in the spring of 2004. He is also working on several other book projects and articles pertaining to Civil War cavalry, one of them the cavalry portion of a soon-to-be-released Gettysburg Encyclopedia.

While not writing, researching, or reenacting, J.D. enjoys the outdoors and traveling with his family.