Chapter 14: Day One: 8:00–9:30 AM

The initial skirmishing continues with Heth sending General James Archer’s Alabama brigade, joined by Joseph Davis, up to Willoughby Run to assess the Union defenses.

Buford witnesses this mounting threat from his Lutheran Seminary post, where he is joined around 8:30 by 42 year old Major General John Fulton Reynolds, commander of the I Corp, who is also assigned by Meade to lead Sickle’s III Corps and Howard’s XI Corps should a battle break out at Gettysburg.

Reynolds is widely regarded as the smartest commander in the Union army, and, like Buford, envisions a major battle in the making. He also sees the strategic importance of protecting Cemetery Ridge and orders Buford to keep delaying the enemy’s attempt to seize it.

Reynolds sends a messenger off to Meade — 13 miles south at Taneytown –informing him of the developing action. He then rides back along the Emmetsburg Pike to round up reinforcements on his own.