Hooker’s Corps Crossed the Potomac Near Leesburg, on the 25th and 26th, the Last Corps on the 27th. Hooker Moved Between Frederick and the South Mountain, Expecting Lee’s Army to
Advance East Through the Gaps.
Hooker Remained In This Position Until Relieved of Command, the Morning of the 28th.
By That Time Reports Had Arrived, of Enemy Infantry Appearing At York and Carlisle.
Taking Command From Hooker the Morning of the 28th,
Meade, Late in the Day, Orders the Army to Move North-Northeast,
To Cover Washington and Baltimore.
Twenty-Four Hours Later the Union Army Corps Are dispersed Over a Range of
Twenty-Five Miles, Stretching From the Monacacy to Manchester, Behind Pipe Creek
Meade Has Weighted His Army to the Right, puttng Five Corps to the Right
Of the Monacacy and Two to the Left. He Thinks Lee Is Moving to
Attack His Right.
During the Day of the June 30th, Meade Still Fears For His Right. But, as the Day Progresses,
Enemy Force Develops At Fairfield Against His Left, and He Moves Reynolds’s
First Division, Supported by Howard’s and, Later, Sickles’s, corps, Behind Marsh Creek,
At the Mason-Dixon Line, With its Front Facing Northwest Toward Fairfield.
Meade Still Has Three Corps Behind Pipe Creek, Between Union and Manchester,
Guarding His Right
The Three Corps to the Right Are Twenty-Five Miles Away From the
Three Corps on the Left, with One Corps, the Fifth, in the Middle.
Ewell, with Rodes and Early’s Divisions is at Heidlersburg.
Hill is at Cashtown, Longstreet Behind Him.
Johnson’s Division of Ewell’s corps is Between Shippensburg and Scotland.
Late In the Night of the 30th, Meade Is Informed By Halleck That
The enemy Has Withdrawn From Their Positions Near Harrisburg and at York.
He Knows Too, by Now, That Hill and Longstreet Are in the Cashtown Gap,
And Showing Force At the Mouth.
Still Expecting the Enemy to Advance Against His Front, He Orders Reynolds
To advance Toward Gettysburg to Feel For the Enemy, and If They Are Coming
To Fall Back to Pipe Creek.
Reynolds Advances, Finds No Enemy Advancing, and Continues to Gettysburg
Where He Forms a Battleline as He Encounters the Front of Hill’s corps.
Three Large Rebel Divisions Wrestle With Two Small Union corps;
Given the Absence of Immediate Support, the Union Retreat Would
Have Been Forced Away From Cemetery Hill, Had Ewell Had
Present Edward Johnson’s Division.
Had Stonewall Jackson Been Alive, He Probably Would Have Been
In Command of Lee’s Fighting Wing.
